CH4-emission estimation from different sources using the present GOSAT
and the next-generation imaging-spectrometer suites
Abstract
The Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observation
Fourier-Transform Spectrometer (TANSO-FTS) onboard the Greenhouse gases
Observing SATellite (GOSAT) was launched in Jan. 2009 to monitor global
CO2 and CH4 distribution from space. The wide-spectral-range data by FTS
can measure the partial-column density of the lower troposphere using
sun-light reflected from the surface and thermal emission from the
atmosphere. In addition to nominal global grid-observation, TANSO-FTS
has an agile pointing system to target various CH4 point-sources as well
as reference points every three days over years, and can capture the
entire flux emitted vertically and horizontally from the source. We
demonstrated the monitoring capability by using the natural-gas blowout
event at Aliso Canyon, CA and tried to estimate the CH4 flux from a
dairy farm in Chino, CA with the Weather Research and Forecasting model.
The GOSAT footprint, which is much larger than the point-source area,
reduces the enhancement of the retrieved column density close to the
detection level. As the single-pixel data and acquisition time of 4 s by
FTS limits the number of sampling points near the emission source,
careful screening with wind speed and direction is required to acquire
reference and source dataset for analysis. The largely fluctuated single
data requires to be averaged to improve the precision, but the GOSAT
data is spatially too sparse. We calculated the local CH4 flux from
Chino using the correlation between wind speed and density, but the lack
of a proper reference result in large errors. To solve the
above-mentioned issues, we manufactured airborne imaging-spectrometer
suites comprising two bands to measure CH4 and CO2 at 1.6 μm and O2 at
0.76 μm. They have 4,000 times more data than GOSAT, increase
enhancement with higher spatial resolution, and select proper upwind
reference with imaging capability. In Feb. 2018, we flew over greater
Nagoya with the mixture of possible emission sources such as energy
production, waste water, dairy farm, and agriculture. The spectral image
of spatial resolution <100 m has clearly detected enhancement
from individual local sources of CH4 and CO2. We add one more
spectrometer to measure short-lived NO2 to detect plume orientation. Our
goal is to individually estimate city-level CH4 flux from different
source sectors.