Brewer Jared F, Millet Dylan B, Wells Kelley C, Payne Vivienne H, Kulawik Susan, Vigouroux Corinne, Cady-Pereira Karen E, Pernak Rick, Zhou Minqiang
University of Minnesota, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, Saint Paul, MN, USA.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 7;15(1):7829. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52247-z.
Ethane is the most abundant non-methane hydrocarbon in the troposphere, where it impacts ozone and reactive nitrogen and is a key tracer used for partitioning emitted methane between anthropogenic and natural sources. However, quantification has been challenged by sparse observations. Here, we present a satellite-based measurement of tropospheric ethane and demonstrate its utility for fossil-fuel source quantification. An ethane spectral signal is detectable from space in Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) radiances, revealing ethane signatures associated with fires and fossil fuel production. We use machine-learning to convert these signals to ethane abundances and validate the results against surface observations (R = 0.66, mean CrIS/surface ratio: 0.65). The CrIS data show that the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico exhibits the largest persistent ethane enhancements on the planet, with regional emissions underestimated by seven-fold. Correcting this underestimate reveals Permian ethane emissions that represent at least 4-7% of the global fossil-fuel ethane source.
乙烷是对流层中含量最丰富的非甲烷碳氢化合物，它会影响臭氧和活性氮，并且是用于区分人为源和自然源排放甲烷的关键示踪剂。然而，由于观测数据稀少，其定量分析面临挑战。在此，我们展示了一种基于卫星的对流层乙烷测量方法，并证明了其在化石燃料源定量分析中的实用性。在交叉轨道红外探测仪（CrIS）的辐射中可从太空探测到乙烷光谱信号，揭示了与火灾和化石燃料生产相关的乙烷特征。我们使用机器学习将这些信号转换为乙烷丰度，并根据地面观测结果验证了结果（R = 0.66，CrIS/地面平均比值：0.65）。CrIS数据显示，得克萨斯州和新墨西哥州的二叠纪盆地在全球范围内呈现出最大的持续乙烷增强，该地区的排放量被低估了七倍。纠正这一低估后发现，二叠纪的乙烷排放量至少占全球化石燃料乙烷源的4-7%。
