Anthropogenic emissions of highly reactive volatile organic compounds inferred from oversampling of OMI HCHO columns

Lei Zhu1, Daniel J Jacob2, Loretta J Mickley3, Eloise Ann Marais4, Daniel S Cohan5, Yasuko Yoshida6, Bryan N Duncan7, Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad8 and Kelly Chance8, (1)Harvard University, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, United States, (2)Harvard University, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, United States, (3)Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States, (4)University of Leicester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Leicester, United Kingdom, (5)Rice University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Houston, United States, (6)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (7)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, United States, (8)Atomic and Molecular Physics Division, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, United States
Abstract:
Satellite observations of formaldehyde (HCHO) columns provide top-down constraints on emissions of highly reactive volatile organic compounds (HRVOCs). This approach has been used previously to constrain emissions of isoprene from vegetation, but application to US anthropogenic emissions has been stymied by lack of a discernable HCHO signal. Here we show that oversampling of HCHO data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) for 2005–2008 enables quantitative detection of urban and industrial plumes in eastern Texas including Houston, Port Arthur, and Dallas/Fort Worth. By spatially integrating the individual urban/industrial HCHO plumes observed by OMI we can constrain the corresponding HCHO-weighted HRVOC emissions. Application to the Houston plume indicates a HCHO source of 260±110 kmol h-1 and implies a factor of 5.5±2.4 underestimate of anthropogenic HRVOC emissions in the US Environmental Protection Agency inventory. This approach allows us to monitor trends in HRVOC emissions over the US, in particular from the urban areas and oil/gas industry.
Back to: Advances in Remote Sensing of Fires, Aerosols, and Trace Gases for Air Quality Applications I Posters