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Application of the Multi-Scale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols version 0 (MUSICAv0) for air quality research in Africa

Tang, Wenfu (author), Emmons, Louisa K. (author), Worden, Helen M. (author), Kumar, Rajesh (author), He, Cenlin (author), Gaubert, Benjamin (author), Zheng, Zhonghua (author), Tilmes, Simone (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

The Multi-Scale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols Version 0 (MUSICAv0) is a new community modeling infrastructure that enables the study of atmospheric composition and chemistry across all relevant scales. We develop a MUSICAv0 grid with Africa refinement (∼ 28 km × 28 km over Africa). We evaluate the MUSICAv0 simulation for 2017 with in...

journal article 2023

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COVID-19 Impact on the Oil and Gas Industry NO₂ Emissions: A Case Study of the Permian Basin

Serrano Calvo, R. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Dix, Barbara (author), de Gouw, Joost (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

COVID-19 caused a historic collapse in fossil fuel demand, a general decline in economic activity, and hydrocarbon price volatility. This resulted in an unprecedented scenario to evaluate the contribution of the O&G (Oil and Gas) industry NO₂ (nitrogen dioxide) emissions in the Permian basin (United States), currently the...

journal article 2023

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S-5P/TROPOMI-Derived NO_x Emissions From Copper/Cobalt Mining and Other Industrial Activities in the Copperbelt (Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia)

Martínez-Alonso, S. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Dix, B. (author), Gaubert, B. (author), Theys, N. (author), Granier, C. (author), Soulié, A. (author), Darras, S. (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

We have analyzed Sentinel-5 Precursor TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) data over the Copperbelt mining region (Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia). Despite high background values, annual 2019–2022 means of TROPOMI NO₂ (nitrogen dioxide) show local enhancements consistent with six point sources (four copper/cobalt...

journal article 2023

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Sources of Formaldehyde in U.S. Oil and Gas Production Regions

Dix, Barbara (author), Li, Meng (author), Roosenbrand, E.J. (author), Francoeur, Colby (author), Brown, Steven S. (author), Gilman, Jessica B. (author), Hanisco, Thomas F. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

We analyzed observational and model data to study the sources of formaldehyde over oil and gas production regions and to investigate how these observations may be used to constrain oil and gas volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. The analysis of aircraft and satellite data consistently found that formaldehyde over oil and gas production...

journal article 2023

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Widespread Frequent Methane Emissions From the Oil and Gas Industry in the Permian Basin

Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Serrano Calvo, R. (author), de Gouw, J. (author), Dix, B. (author), Schneising, O. (author), Buchwitz, M. (author), Barré, J. (author), van der A, R. J. (author), Liu, M. (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

Emissions of methane (CH₄) in the Permian basin (USA) have been derived for 2019 and 2020 from satellite observations of the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) using the divergence method, in combination with a data driven method to estimate the background column densities. The resulting CH₄ emission data,...

journal article 2023

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Quantifying NO_xEmissions from U.S. Oil and Gas Production Regions Using TROPOMI NO₂

Dix, Barbara (author), Francoeur, Colby (author), Li, Meng (author), Serrano Calvo, R. (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), McDonald, Brian C. (author), De Gouw, Joost (author)

The production of crude oil and natural gas is associated with emissions of air pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) and volatile organic compounds, which are precursors for the formation of ground-level ozone. Knowledge of these emissions is critical to the understanding and mitigation of local air quality. NOx emissions from...

journal article 2022

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Global fine-scale changes in ambient NO₂ during COVID-19 lockdowns

Cooper, Matthew J. (author), Martin, Randall V. (author), Hammer, Melanie S. (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Lamsal, Lok N. (author), Krotkov, Nickolay A. (author), Brook, Jeffrey R. (author), McLinden, Chris A. (author)

Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) is an important contributor to air pollution and can adversely affect human health^1–9. A decrease in NO₂ concentrations has been reported as a result of lockdown measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19^10–20. Questions remain, however, regarding the relationship of satellite...

journal article 2022

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Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) collection 4: Establishing a 17-year-long series of detrended level-1b data

Kleipool, Quintus (author), Rozemeijer, Nico (author), Leloux, Jonatan (author), Loots, Erwin (author), Ludewig, Antje (author), Adrichem, Daley (author), Ter Linden, Mark (author), Jaross, Glen (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) was launched on 15 July 2004, with an expected mission lifetime of 5 years. After more than 17 years in orbit the instrument is still functioning satisfactorily and in principle can continue doing so until the expected decommissioning of its platform Aura in 2025. In order to continue the datasets...

journal article 2022

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Air quality impacts of COVID-19 lockdown measures detected from space using high spatial resolution observations of multiple trace gases from Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI

Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author), Stein Zweers, Deborah C. (author), Aben, Ilse (author), Bauwens, Maite (author), Borsdorff, Tobias (author), De Smedt, Isabelle (author), Eskes, Henk J. (author), Lerot, Christophe (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author)

The aim of this paper is to highlight how TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) trace gas data can best be used and interpreted to understand event-based impacts on air quality from regional to city scales around the globe. For this study, we present the observed changes in the atmospheric column amounts of five trace gases (NO2, SO2,...

journal article 2022

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Aerosol Absorption over Land Derived from the Ultra-Violet Aerosol Index by Deep Learning

Sun, J. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Van Velthoven, Peter (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

Quantitative measurements of aerosol absorptive properties, e.g., the absorbing aerosol optical depth (AAOD) and the single scattering albedo (SSA), are important to reduce uncertainties of aerosol climate radiative forcing assessments. Currently, global retrievals of AAOD and SSA are mainly provided by the ground-based aerosol robotic...

journal article 2021

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Assessment of Updated Fuel-Based Emissions Inventories Over the Contiguous United States Using TROPOMI NO₂ Retrievals

Li, M. (author), McDonald, B. C. (author), McKeen, S. A. (author), Eskes, H. (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author), Francoeur, C. (author), Harkins, C. (author), He, J. (author), Barth, M. (author)

Nitrogen oxides (NO_x) are air pollutants critical to ozone and fine particle production in the troposphere. Here, we present fuel-based emission inventories updated to 2018, including for mobile source engines using the Fuel-based Inventory of Vehicle Emissions (FIVEs) and oil and gas production using the Fuel-based Oil and Gas ...

journal article 2021

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On the use of satellite observations to fill gaps in the Halley station total ozone record

Zhang, Lily N. (author), Solomon, Susan (author), Stone, Kane A. (author), Shanklin, Jonathan D. (author), Eveson, Joshua D. (author), Colwell, Steve (author), Burrows, John P. (author), Weber, Mark (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author), Kramarova, Natalya A. (author), Haffner, David P. (author)

Measurements by the Dobson ozone spectrophotometer at the British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Halley research station form a record of Antarctic total column ozone that dates back to 1956. Due to its location, length, and completeness, the record has been, and continues to be, uniquely important for studies of long-term changes in Antarctic...

journal article 2021

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Ground-based validation of the Copernicus Sentinel-5P TROPOMI NO2 measurements with the NDACC ZSL-DOAS, MAX-DOAS and Pandonia global networks

Verhoelst, Tijl (author), Compernolle, Steven (author), Pinardi, Gaia (author), Lambert, Jean Christopher (author), Eskes, Henk J. (author), Eichmann, Kai Uwe (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author), Liu, Cheng (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author)

This paper reports on consolidated ground-based validation results of the atmospheric NO2 data produced operationally since April 2018 by the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board of the ESA/EU Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) satellite. Tropospheric, stratospheric, and total NO2 column data from S5P are compared to...

journal article 2021

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Impact of Coronavirus Outbreak on NO₂ Pollution Assessed Using TROPOMI and OMI Observations

Bauwens, M. (author), Compernolle, S. (author), Stavrakou, T. (author), Müller, J. F. (author), van Gent, J. (author), Eskes, H. (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author), van der A, R. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author)

Spaceborne NO₂ column observations from two high-resolution instruments, Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board Sentinel-5 Precursor and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on Aura, reveal unprecedented NO₂ decreases over China, South Korea, western Europe, and the United States as a result of public health...

journal article 2020

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Nitrogen Oxide Emissions from U.S. Oil and Gas Production: Recent Trends and Source Attribution

Dix, Barbara (author), de Bruin, Joep (author), Roosenbrand, E.J. (author), Vlemmix, T. (author), Francoeur, Colby (author), Gorchov-Negron, Alan (author), McDonald, Brian (author), Zhizhin, Mikhail (author), Elvidge, Christopher (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author), de Gouw, Joost (author)

U.S. oil and natural gas production volumes have grown by up to 100% in key production areas between January 2017 and August 2019. Here we show that recent trends are visible from space and can be attributed to drilling, production, and gas flaring activities. By using oil and gas activity data as predictors in a multivariate regression to...

journal article 2020

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A first comparison of TROPOMI aerosol layer height (ALH) to CALIOP data

Nanda, S. (author), de Graaf, M. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Sneep, Maarten (author), Sun, J. (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) level-2 aerosol layer height (ALH) product has now been released to the general public. This product is retrieved using TROPOMI's measurements of the oxygen A-band, radiative transfer model (RTM) calculations augmented by neural networks and an iterative optimal estimation technique. The...

journal article 2020

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Abrupt decline in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide over China after the outbreak of COVID-19

Liu, Fei (author), Page, Aaron (author), Strode, Sarah A. (author), Yoshida, Yasuko (author), Choi, Sungyeon (author), Zheng, Bo (author), Lamsal, Lok N. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

China's policy interventions to reduce the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 have environmental and economic impacts. Tropospheric nitrogen dioxide indicates economic activities, as nitrogen dioxide is primarily emitted from fossil fuel consumption. Satellite measurements show a 48% drop in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide vertical column...

journal article 2020

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Daily Satellite Observations of Methane from Oil and Gas Production Regions in the United States

de Gouw, Joost A. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Roosenbrand, E.J. (author), Dix, Barbara (author), Lin, John C. (author), Landgraf, Jochen (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

Production of oil and natural gas in North America is at an all-time high due to the development and use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Methane emissions associated with this industrial activity are a concern because of the contribution to climate radiative forcing. We present new measurements from the space-based...

journal article 2020

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Minimizing aerosol effects on the OMI tropospheric NO₂ retrieval - An improved use of the 477nm O₂-O₂ band and an estimation of the aerosol correction uncertainty

Chimot, J.J. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), De Haan, Johan F. (author), Stammes, Piet (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

Global mapping of satellite tropospheric NO₂ vertical column density (VCD), a key gas in air quality monitoring, requires accurate retrievals over complex urban and industrialized areas and under any atmospheric conditions. The high abundance of aerosol particles in regions dominated by anthropogenic fossil fuel combustion, e.g....

journal article 2019

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The role of aerosol layer height in quantifying aerosol absorption from ultraviolet satellite observations

Sun, J. (author), Veefkind, j. Pepijn (author), Nanda, S. (author), Van Velthoven, Peter (author), Levelt, Pieternel Felicitas (author)

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the role of aerosol layer height (ALH) in quantifying the single scattering albedo (SSA) from ultraviolet satellite observations for biomass burning aerosols. In the first experiment, we retrieve SSA by minimizing the near-ultraviolet (near-UV) absorbing aerosol index (UVAI) difference between...

journal article 2019