EGU23-16064
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16064
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Quantifying localized carbon dioxide emissions from space: the CO2Image mission

Dietrich G. Feist1, Anke Roiger1, Julia Marshall1, Klaus-Dirk Gottschaldt1, Friedemann Reum1, Günter Lichtenberg2, Andreas Baumgartner2, Philipp Hochstaffl2, Claas Köhler2, Franz Schreier2, David Krutz3, Carsten Paproth3, Andreas Pohl3, Ilse Sebastian3, Ingo Walter3, and André Butz4
Dietrich G. Feist et al.
  • 1Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Weßling, Germany
  • 2Institut für Methodik der Fernerkundung, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Weßling, Germany
  • 3Institut für Optische Sensorsysteme, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Berlin, Germany
  • 4Institute of Environmental Physics, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany

Space-based observations of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the backbone of the global and national-scale carbon monitoring systems that are currently being developed to support and verify greenhouse gas emission reduction measures. Current and planned public satellite missions, such as GOSAT 1+2, OCO 1-3 and the European Union's Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Monitoring mission CO2M, aim at constraining national and regional-scale emissions down to scales of urban agglomerations and large point sources with emissions in excess of ~10 MtCO2/year.

We report on the DLR demonstrator mission CO2Image, which is planned for launch in 2026. The mission will complement the suite of planned CO2 sensors by zooming in on facility-scale emissions, detecting and quantifying emissions from point sources as small as 1 MtCO2/year. A fleet of CO2Image sensors would be able to monitor roughly 90% of the CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants worldwide. The key feature of the mission is a target region approach, measuring approximately 75 tiles of size ~50 x 50 km2 per day at a resolution of 50 x 50 m2. Thus, CO2Image will be able to resolve plumes from individual localized sources, essentially providing super-resolution nests for survey missions such as CO2M. In addition, the choice of the spectral window will allow the detection of point sources of methane as small as 100 kg CH4/hr will also be possible.

We present the instrument concept, a spaceborne push-broom imaging grating spectrometer developed and built by DLR. It will measure spectra of reflected solar radiation in the short wave infrared spectral band around 2000 nm. It relies on a comparatively compact design with a single spectral window and a spectral resolution of approximately ~1 nm. This spectral resolution has been optimized for greenhouse gas retrieval and should provide improved precision and accuracy compared to hyperspectral sensors with comparable spatial resolution. We will further discuss the overall mission concept in terms of the sampling strategy, outlining how target scenes will be selected. As a publicly-funded mission, CO2Image will provide public, transparent information about anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from space.

How to cite: Feist, D. G., Roiger, A., Marshall, J., Gottschaldt, K.-D., Reum, F., Lichtenberg, G., Baumgartner, A., Hochstaffl, P., Köhler, C., Schreier, F., Krutz, D., Paproth, C., Pohl, A., Sebastian, I., Walter, I., and Butz, A.: Quantifying localized carbon dioxide emissions from space: the CO2Image mission, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-16064, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16064, 2023.