Volume 41: Energy Transitions toward Carbon Neutrality: Part IV

Direct quantification of anthropogenic CO2 emissions: Insights from Satellite Observations Bo Huang, Jia He

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) contributes to over 50% of the enhanced radiative forcing, which in turn leads to climate change. Regular monitoring of CO2 emissions is commonly required by various governments for strategic management purposes. However, the conventional self-reporting mechanism heavily relies on reporting parties, making it less efficient and subjective. This study proposes a direct method to estimate the CO2 emissions using satellite-based column-averaged mole fractions of CO2 (XCO2) retrievals. To account for spatial and temporal variability, the study adopts the geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model. The results show high consistency, indicating the potential of using satellite-based data to track anthropogenic emissions with more frequent and extensive coverage.

Keywords CO2 emissions, XCO2, OCO-2, GTWR