Comment on acp-2022-508
Abstract
We apply atmospheric methane column retrievals from two different satellite instruments (GOSAT and TROPOMI) to a regional inversion framework to quantify East Asian methane emissions for 2019 at 0.5° × 0.625° horizontal resolution. The goal is to assess if GOSAT (relatively mature but sparse) and TROPOMI (new and dense) observations inform consistent methane emissions from East Asia. Comparison of the results from the two inversions show similar correction patterns to the prior inventory in Central North China, Central South China, Northeast China, and Bangladesh, with less than 2.7 Tg a−1 differences in regional posterior emissions. The two inversions, however, disagree over some important regions particularly in northern India and East China. The inferred methane emissions by GOSAT observations are 7.7 Tg a−1 higher than those by TROPOMI observations over northern India but 7.0 Tg a−1 lower over East China. We find that the lower methane emissions from East China inferred by the GOSAT inversion are more consistent with independent ground-based in situ and total column (TCCON) observations, indicating that the TROPOMI retrievals may have high XCH4 biases in this region. We also evaluate inversion results against tropospheric aircraft observations over India during 2012–2014 by using a consistent GOSAT inversion of earlier years as an inter-comparison platform. This indirect evaluation favors lower methane emissions from northern India inferred by the TROPOMI inversion. We find that in this case the discrepancy in emission inference is contributed by differences in data coverage (highly uneven observations by GOSAT vs. good spatial coverage by TROPOMI) over northern India.
Authors 17
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Ruosi Liang corresponding
Westlake University · Zhejiang University
Affiliation as printed
Institute of Advanced Technology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Key Laboratory of Coastal Environment and Resources of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
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Yuzhong Zhang corresponding
Affiliation as printed
Institute of Advanced Technology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Key Laboratory of Coastal Environment and Resources of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
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Westlake University · Zhejiang University
Affiliation as printed
Institute of Advanced Technology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Key Laboratory of Coastal Environment and Resources of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
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Westlake University · Zhejiang University
Affiliation as printed
Institute of Advanced Technology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Key Laboratory of Coastal Environment and Resources of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
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Fudan University · Westlake University
Affiliation as printed
Fudan University, Shanghai, China
Institute of Advanced Technology, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Key Laboratory of Coastal Environment and Resources of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
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Ministry of Ecology and Environment · Satellite Application Center for Ecology and Environment
Affiliation as printed
Center for Satellite Application on Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, Beijing, China
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Ministry of Ecology and Environment · Satellite Application Center for Ecology and Environment
Affiliation as printed
Center for Satellite Application on Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, Beijing, China
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Guofeng Shen corresponding
Affiliation as printed
Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
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Zhen Qu corresponding
Affiliation as printed
School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Affiliation as printed
School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Minqiang Zhou corresponding
Chinese Academy of Sciences · Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Affiliation as printed
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Chinese Academy of Sciences · Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Affiliation as printed
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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University of Leicester · National Centre for Earth Observation · Space Research Organisation Netherlands
Affiliation as printed
National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, Netherlands
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University of Leicester · National Centre for Earth Observation · Space Research Organisation Netherlands
Affiliation as printed
National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, Netherlands
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Alba Lorente corresponding
Affiliation as printed
Earth Observation Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
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Joannes D. Maasakkers corresponding
Affiliation as printed
Earth Observation Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Earth Observation Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
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