Pin-pointing and quantifying anthropogenic CH4 emissions from two landfill sites in Madrid, Spain, observed by a combination of passive, active, and in situ airborne measurements during the HALO CoMet 2.0 mission

To reduce and mitigate anthropogenic greenhouse gas surface fluxes from industrial sites, their sources must be, firstly, identified or localized and, secondly, accurately quantified. For methane (CH₄), the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas, the quantification of its diverse emitters is still a challenge. Due to their nature, these emitters can reach dimensions from point sources to hundreds of square kilometres for fossil fuel (gas, oil, coal) exploitation sites or up to several square kilometres in case of waste disposal sites. Although, CH₄ emissions from, e.g., waste disposal sites can be computed from activity data combined with landfill models, a high potential for unintended and poorly quantified leakages remain due to, e.g., potential ruptures in the landfill cover. Consequently, the exact localization and quantification of those leakages is a necessary step towards reducing CH₄ emissions from waste disposal sites.

To have better knowledge and insights into anthropogenic and natural greenhouse gas emissions, a team of scientists has assembled a comprehensive suite of instruments aboard the German Research aircraft HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft) during the CoMet 2.0 Arctic mission conducted in Canada in August and September 2022. Although the campaign was primarily intended to observe and quantify CH₄ and CO₂ emissions and disentangle anthropogenic from natural sources at the high northern latitudes of Canada, a test flight over Spain revealed unexpectedly high and still persistent emissions from two landfills in Madrid - Valdemingomez and Pinto, previously also pointed out in an ESA story based on satellite observations. Both were investigated by means of passive and active remote sensing, as well as in situ airborne techniques.

The measurements of the passive airborne remote sensing instrument MAMAP2D-Light, developed at the University of Bremen, delivers atmospheric concentration anomaly maps of CH₄ and CO₂. Here, its imaging capabilities are used to pin-point the origin of the CH₄ emissions across the targeted landfills and to quantify their emissions. MAMAP2D-Light’s concentration maps are combined with highly accurate CH₄ column concentration measurements from the integrated-path differential-absorption lidar CHARM-F (CO₂ and CH₄ Remote Monitoring-Flugzeug), developed by German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen. Additionally, airborne CH₄ in situ mole fractions were measured by the Jena Instrument for Greenhouse Gases (JIG) and supplemented with wind data within the emission plume in order to complement the remote sensing observations.

This contribution will present top-down emission estimates from measurements of all aforementioned instruments, operated quasi-simultaneously, i.e. within a time span of approximate 2 hours, over the targeted area in Madrid in August 2022.