Building a bridge: characterizing major anthropogenic point sources in the South African Highveld region using OCO-3 carbon dioxide snapshot area maps and Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI nitrogen dioxide columns

Abstract

In this paper, we characterize major anthropogenic point sources in the South African Highveld region using Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) Snapshot Area Map (SAM) carbon dioxide (CO ₂) and Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) nitrogen dioxide (NO ₂) observations. Altogether we analyze six OCO-3 SAMs. We estimate the emissions of six power stations (Kendal, Kriel, Matla, Majuba, Tutuka and Grootvlei) and the largest single emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) in the world, Secunda CTL synthetic fuel plant. We apply the cross-sectional flux method for the emission estimation and we extend the method to fit several plumes at the same time. Overall, the satellite-based emission estimates are in good agreement (within the uncertainties) as compared to emission inventories, even for the cases where several plumes are mixed. We also discuss the advantages and challenges of the current measurement systems for GHG emission monitoring and reporting, and the applicability of different emission estimation approaches to future satellite missions such as the Copernicus CO ₂ Monitoring Mission (CO2M) and the Global Observing SATellite for GHGs and Water cycle (GOSAT-GW), including the joint analysis of CO ₂ and NO ₂ observations.