COMPARISON OF ESTIMATION METHODS TO QUANTIFY METHANE PLUME CONCENTRATION AT HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION FROM HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGES

We propose to analyze the aerosol composition of plumes emitted by different industrial stacks using PRISMA satellite hyperspectral observations. Three industrial sites have been observed: a coal-fired power plant in South Africa, a steel plant in China, and gas flaring at an oil extraction site in Algeria. Aerosol optical thickness and particle radius are retrieved within the plumes. The mass flow rate of particulate matter is estimated in the plume by the integrated mass enhancement method.

With its near-real-time observations and good horizontal coverage, the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument can contribute to the monitoring systems for a systematic and continuous detection of exceptional atmospheric events such as fires, anthropogenic pollution episodes, volcanic eruptions, or industrial releases. In this paper, a new approach is described for the detection and characterization of unexpected events in terms of trace gases using IASI radiance spectra.

We present some results about ammonia pollution because NH₃, mainly emitted by agricultural activities, is a precursor of fine particles. This study is based on the first multiyear time series (2009–2017) of atmospheric NH₃ ground-based measurements over the Paris megacity. This pollutant varies seasonally by 2 orders of magnitude, especially in spring. We highlight that this kind of instrument could be easily installed and is very useful for analyzing NH₃ in other megacities or source regions.