Quantifying Power Plant CO2 Emissions with OCO-3

Abstract:

The capability to monitor anthropogenic CO₂ emissions from space is of interest to support efforts to reduce emissions and mitigate climate change. The ability to quantify CO₂ emissions from individual fossil fuel burning power plants has already been demonstrated using Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) XCO₂ data in select cases. NASA’s follow-on instrument, OCO-3, was launched to the International Space Station in May 2019 and has many similarities to OCO-2, but also enhanced scanning capability through the addition of a Pointing Mechanism Assembly (PMA). The PMA enables multiple sweeps of a region in Snapshot Area Map (SAM) mode to deliver XCO₂ imagery over an approximately 80x80 km² area for a target of interest. Here we show new estimates for power plant CO₂ emissions using OCO-3 SAM observations along with adaptations and improvements to our modelling and emission estimation method. These results demonstrate the advantage of the wide-view imaging from OCO-3 SAM mode and serve as a glimpse of future CO₂ monitoring capabilities from France’s MicroCarb, NASA’s GeoCarb, Europe’s Anthropogenic CO₂ Monitoring (CO₂M) mission and other planned or proposed imaging missions in the expanding constellation.