Investigating expanding air pollution and climate change on the African continent using TROPOMI data

In the coming decades, a large increase in population is expected to occur on the African continent, leading to a doubling of the current population, which will reach 2.5 billion by 2050. At the same time, the African continent is experiencing substantial economic growth. As a result, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions will increase considerably with expected health impacts on the African population. The impact of wildfires also needs to be carefully assessed. Will the frequency of fire episodes increase? And how will this perturbation compare with anthropogenic emissions in urban areas? In the decades ahead, Africa’s contribution to climate change and air pollution will become increasingly important.  

Time has come to address the changing role of Africa in understanding and quantifying global environmental change.  What can we learn from the new TROPOMI satellite data for Africa, in combination with emerging modelling efforts including the MUSICA development at NCAR and the development of inverse modelling techniques? How can we deal with the lack of surface observations in many areas of Africa?

We will show several recent achievements related to Africa, using space observations and modeling approaches as a contribution towards the development of an integrated community effort to better characterize air quality and climate-related processes in this continent.  This presentation will mainly focus on the potential of the use of TROPOMI data for Africa Research.