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Space-based detection of missing sulfur dioxide sources of global air pollution

Nature Geoscience volume 9, pages 496–500 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Sulfur dioxide is designated a criteria air contaminant (or equivalent) by virtually all developed nations. When released into the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide forms sulfuric acid and fine particulate matter, secondary pollutants1 that have significant adverse effects on human health2,3,4,5, the environment1 and the economy5. The conventional, bottom-up emissions inventories used to assess impacts, however, are often incomplete or outdated, particularly for developing nations that lack comprehensive emission reporting requirements and infrastructure. Here we present a satellite-based, global emission inventory for SO2 that is derived through a simultaneous detection, mapping and emission-quantifying procedure, and thereby independent of conventional information sources. We find that of the 500 or so large sources in our inventory, nearly 40 are not captured in leading conventional inventories. These missing sources are scattered throughout the developing world—over a third are clustered around the Persian Gulf—and add up to 7 to 14 Tg of SO2 yr−1, or roughly 6–12% of the global anthropogenic source. Our estimates of national total emissions are generally in line with conventional numbers, but for some regions, and for SO2 emissions from volcanoes, discrepancies can be as large as a factor of three or more. We anticipate that our inventory will help eliminate gaps in bottom-up inventories, independent of geopolitical borders and source types.

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Figure 1: Demonstration of source-detection method over selected regions.
Figure 2: Satellite detection of emission sources in the Persian Gulf.
Figure 3: Summary of satellite-derived missing sources and inventory totals.

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Acknowledgements

R.V.M. was supported by Environment and Climate Change Canada. N.K., C.L. and J.J. acknowledge NASA funding through the Aura science team programme for OMI SO2 product development and analysis. The Dutch–Finnish-built OMI instrument is part of the NASA’s EOS Aura satellite payload. The OMI project is managed by KNMI and the Netherlands Space Office (NSO). The authors acknowledge ECMWF for the provision of their ERA-interim reanalysis data. C.A.M. thanks H. Morrison for commenting on earlier versions of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto M3H 5T4, Canada

    Chris A. McLinden, Vitali Fioletov, Mark W. Shephard & Michael D. Moran

  2. Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA

    Nick Krotkov, Can Li & Joanna Joiner

  3. Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA

    Can Li

  4. Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada

    Randall V. Martin

  5. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

    Randall V. Martin

Authors
  1. Chris A. McLinden
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Contributions

C.A.M., V.F. and M.W.S. planned the research and developed the algorithm, C.A.M. and V.F. performed the computations and analysis, N.K., C.L. and J.J. provided the satellite data, C.A.M. wrote the paper, and all authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chris A. McLinden.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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McLinden, C., Fioletov, V., Shephard, M. et al. Space-based detection of missing sulfur dioxide sources of global air pollution. Nature Geosci 9, 496–500 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2724

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