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 second largest hydrocarbon-bearing area on Earth. TROPOMI (Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument), on board the Sentinel-5P satellite, has captured the impact of the oil and gas industry emissions during the COVID-19 lockdown. A generalized drop (∼30%) of NO₂ emissions derived using the divergence method in comparison with 2019 was observed following the decline in production and drilling (13% and 68% respectively) during the lockdown. NO₂ tropospheric columns were less impacted with a smaller decrease (∼4%) across the basins. This study demonstrates that the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on NO₂ emissions was not only present in urban areas but also in vast O&G production regions, which shows the potential of TROPOMI to assess future pollution mitigation strategies for this industry.

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, which have been verified using model data with known emissions, have a spatial resolution of approximately 10 km. The CH₄ emissions show moderate spatial correlation with the locations of oil and gas production and drilling activities in the Permian basin, as well as with emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO_x). Analysis of the emission maps and time series indicates that a significant fraction of methane emissions in the Permian basin is from frequent widespread emissions sources, rather than from a few infrequent very large unplanned releases, which is important considering possible CH₄ emission mitigation strategies. In addition to providing spatially resolved emissions, the divergence method also provides the total emissions of the Permian basin and its main sub-basins. The total CH₄ emission of the Permian is estimated as 3.0 ± 0.7 Tg yr⁻¹ for 2019, which agrees with other independent estimates based on TROPOMI data. For the Delaware sub-basin, it is estimated as 1.4 ± 0.3 Tg yr⁻¹ for 2019, and for the Midland sub-basin 1.2 ± 0.3 Tg yr⁻¹. In 2020 the emissions are 9% lower compared to 2019 in the entire Permian basin, and respectively 19% and 27% for the Delaware and Midland sub-basins.

Wildfires have become larger and more frequent because of climate change, increasing their impact on air pollution. Air quality forecasts and climate models do not currently account for changes in the composition of wildfire emissions during the commonly observed progression from more flaming to smoldering combustion. Laboratory measurements have consistently shown decreased nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) relative to carbon monoxide (CO) over time, as they transitioned from more flaming to smoldering combustion, while formaldehyde (HCHO) relative to CO remained constant. Here, we show how daily ratios between column densities of NO₂ versus those of CO and HCHO versus CO from the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) changed for large wildfires in the Western United States. TROPOMI-derived emission ratios were lower than those from the laboratory. We discuss reasons for the discrepancies, including how representative laboratory burns are of wildfires, the effect of aerosols on trace gas retrievals, and atmospheric chemistry in smoke plumes.

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 oil and gas production activities are not well described in commonly used emission inventories, and discrepancies of several factors have been found in the past. Here we present an easy and computationally efficient method to quantify NOx emissions from satellite NO2 observations that can be applied to evaluate common emission inventories and provide timely input for chemistry transport models. Using NO2 columns from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), we calculated annually averaged NOx emissions from the divergence of NO2 column fluxes for six oil and gas production regions in the United States. Derived NOx emissions for the years 2018 to 2020 range between 4.8 and 81.1 t/day, and observed trends over time are consistent with changes in industrial activity. To evaluate the method, we compared our results with the fuel-based oil and gas NOx inventory (FOG) and performed sensitivity studies using model output from the Weather Research Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem). We found that annually averaged NOx emissions from oil and gas production activities can in most cases be calculated within an uncertainty of 50%, while simultaneously derived emission maps show the spatial distribution of NOx emissions with a high level of detail. For future use, this method can easily be applied globally.

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 satellite measurements of tropospheric NO₂ columns, observed changes in NO₂ over time could be attributed to NO_x emissions associated with drilling, production and gas flaring for three select regions: the Permian, Bakken, and Eagle Ford basins. We find that drilling had been the dominant NO_x source contributing around 80% before the downturn in drilling activity in 2015. Thereafter, NO_x contributions from drilling activities and combined production and flaring activities are similar. Comparison of our top-down source attribution with a bottom-up fuel-based oil and gas NO_x emission inventory shows agreement within error margins.

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 TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) launched in 2017 that show methane enhancements over production regions in the United States. In the Uintah Basin in Utah, TROPOMI methane columns correlated with in-situ measurements, and the highest columns were observed over the deepest parts of the basin, consistent with the accumulation of emissions underneath inversions. In the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, methane columns showed maxima over regions with the highest natural gas production and were correlated with nitrogen-dioxide columns at a ratio that is consistent with results from in-situ airborne measurements. The improved detail provided by TROPOMI will likely enable the timely monitoring from space of methane emissions associated with oil and natural gas production.