Ammonia measurements from space with the Cross-track Infrared Sounder: characteristics and applications
<p>Despite its clear importance, the monitoring of atmospheric ammonia, including its sources, sinks, and links to the greater nitrogen cycle, remains limited. Satellite data are helping to fill the gap in monitoring from sporadic conventional ground- and aircraft-based observations to better...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2020-02-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/20/2277/2020/acp-20-2277-2020.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Despite its clear importance, the monitoring of atmospheric ammonia,
including its sources, sinks, and links to the greater nitrogen cycle,
remains limited. Satellite data are helping to fill the gap in monitoring
from sporadic conventional ground- and aircraft-based observations to better
inform policymakers and assess the impact of any ammonia-related policies.
Presented is a description and survey that demonstrate the capabilities of
the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) ammonia product for monitoring, air quality forecast model
evaluation, dry deposition estimates, and emission estimates from an
agricultural hotspot. For model evaluation, while there is a general
agreement in the spatial allocation of known major agricultural ammonia
hotspots across North America, the satellite observations show some high-latitude regions during peak forest
fire activity often have ammonia concentrations approaching those in
agricultural hotspots. The CrIS annual ammonia dry depositions in Canada
(excluding the territories) and the US have average and annual variability
values of <span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>∼</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.8</mn><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.08</mn></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="60pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="b41f2b9e60728f0efe500de0e698b809"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-20-2277-2020-ie00001.svg" width="60pt" height="10pt" src="acp-20-2277-2020-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> and
<span class="inline-formula"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M2" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow><mo>∼</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">1.23</mn><mo>±</mo><mn mathvariant="normal">0.09</mn></mrow></math><span><svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="66pt" height="10pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="80356d531d0fac02abc0cad0b9339e0e"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-20-2277-2020-ie00002.svg" width="66pt" height="10pt" src="acp-20-2277-2020-ie00002.png"/></svg:svg></span></span> Tg N yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>, respectively. These
satellite-derived dry depositions of reactive nitrogen from <span class="inline-formula">NH<sub>3</sub></span> with <span class="inline-formula">NO<sub>2</sub></span> show an annual ratio of <span class="inline-formula">NH<sub>3</sub></span> compared to their sum (<span class="inline-formula">NH<sub>3</sub>+NO<sub>2</sub></span>) of <span class="inline-formula">∼82</span> % and <span class="inline-formula">∼55</span> % in Canada and the US, respectively. Furthermore, we show the use of CrIS satellite
observations to estimate annual and seasonal emissions near Lethbridge, Alberta,
Canada, a region dominated by high-emission
concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs); the satellite annual
emission estimate of <span class="inline-formula">37.1±6.3</span> kt yr<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span> is at least double the value
reported in current bottom-up emission inventories for this region.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |