Ethylene industrial emitters seen from space

Bruno Franco (), Lieven Clarisse, Martin Van Damme, Juliette Hadji-Lazaro, Cathy Clerbaux and Pierre-François Coheur
Additional contact information
Bruno Franco: Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES)
Lieven Clarisse: Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES)
Martin Van Damme: Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES)
Juliette Hadji-Lazaro: LATMOS/ IPSL, Sorbonne Université, UVSQ, CNRS
Cathy Clerbaux: Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES)
Pierre-François Coheur: Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES)

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract 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.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34098-8 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-34098-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34098-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().