Sectoral differentiation of CH4 footprints by using the ICON-ART model – A feasibility study

In this study, we present an ICON-ART (ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic Aerosols and Reactive Trace gases) model based sectoral differentiation of CH₄ concentration in terms of a feasibility study. ICON-ART is an extension of the numerical weather prediction model ICON used by DWD. The physical parameterizations and numerical methods of ICON used in ICON-ART, which simulated the interactions between trace subtances and the state of the atmosphere.

The motivation for the sectoral differentiation based on the model is directed towards the comparison of the field measurements, with the assumption that the modeled simulations could represent a response signal of how each sector contributes to the measured concentration on the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) stations of interest.

The CH₄ concentrations for various economic sectors of Europe and of Germany are simulated using ICON-ART model. In order to compare the model results and against measurements  from the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) stations, the model equivalents have been extracted at the locations of the ICOS monitoring stations. We test our experimenal setup in a feasibility study, which shows benefits of using the ICON-ART model to comprehend emissions from various sectors.