Ethylene industrial emitters seen from space

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Authors
Franco, B.
Clarisse, L.
Van Damme, M.
Hadji-Lazaro, J.
Clerbaux, C.
Coheur, P.-F.
Discipline
Earth and related Environmental sciences
Subject
Atmospheric chemistry
Audience
Scientific
Date
2022Metadata
Show full item recordDescription
Volatile organic compounds are emitted abundantly from a variety of natural and anthropogenic sources. However, in excess, they can severely degrade air quality. Their fluxes are currently poorly represented in inventories due to a lack of constraints from global measurements. Here, we track from space over 300 worldwide hotspots of ethylene, the most abundant industrially produced organic compound. We identify specific emitters associated with petrochemical clusters, steel plants, coal-related industries, and megacities. Satellite-derived fluxes reveal that the ethylene emissions of the industrial sources are underestimated or missing in the state-of-the-art Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) inventory. This work exposes global emission point-sources of a short-lived carbonated gas, complementing the ongoing large-scale efforts on the monitoring of inorganic pollutants.
Citation
Franco, B.; Clarisse, L.; Van Damme, M.; Hadji-Lazaro, J.; Clerbaux, C.; Coheur, P.-F. (2022). Ethylene industrial emitters seen from space. , Nature Communications, Vol. 13, A6452, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34098-8.Identifiers
scopus:
Type
Article
Peer-Review
Yes
Language
eng