Improving SO2 emissions from the point sources over the Middle East using satellite observations and inverse modeling.

The Middle East faces important challenges from severe air pollution, marked by natural factors from frequent dust storms and human-induced emissions, notably SO₂ from power and desalination plants. These emissions significantly degrade air quality and contribute to sulfate aerosol formation, impacting climate and cloud formation. Accurate SO₂ emissions representation in this challenging environment is crucial. We aim to enhance the current SO₂ emission inventory by integrating satellite SO₂ observations and the FLEXPART-WRF model, driven by meteorological data from the WRF 10km resolution model run in 2016. In particular, we adapted the WRF-Chem’s code for simulating the major SO₂ sinks (in cloud scavenging, dry and wet deposition, SO₂ oxidation by OH and H₂O₂) into the FLEXPART-WRF model. It allowed us to exclude the “background” SO₂ column loadings caused by the spatially distributed emissions and to invert the SO₂ emissions from the strong point sources on a daily basis. The improved SO₂ emission inventory is open to the community.