Performance of airborne imaging spectrometers for carbon dioxide
detection and emission quantification
Abstract
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from strong point sources account for a
significant proportion of the global greenhouse gas emissions, and their
associated uncertainties in bottom-up estimates remain substantial.
Imaging spectrometers provide a capability to monitor large point source
CO2 emissions and help reduce the uncertainties. In this study, we
assess the capability of an airborne monitoring system with temporally
sparse observations to constrain annual emissions at both facility and
regional scales. We use observations of power plant emissions from 2022
and 2023 and compare the derived emission rates at facility scale to
in-stack emission observations across the United States. We show that
CO2 concentration enhancements retrieved using a log-normal matched
filter are suitable for CO2 quantification, achieving low bias and
uncertainty in estimated emission rates. We find that annual emissions
at the regional scale can be effectively constrained by offsetting
errors identified at the facility scale, with a 30% uncertainty.