EGU25-17035, updated on 15 Mar 2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17035
EGU General Assembly 2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Oral | Monday, 28 Apr, 15:15–15:25 (CEST)
 
Room 0.11/12
Contribution of Geostationary Satellites to the Observation of Atmospheric NH3
Nadir Guendouz1, Camille Viatte1, Zhao-Cheng Zeng2, Anne Boynard3,1, Sarah Safieddine1, Carsten Standfuss3, Solène Turquety1, Martin Van Damme4,5, Lieven Clarisse4, Pierre Coheur4, Raymond Armante6, Pascal Prunet3, and Cathy Clerbaux1,4
Nadir Guendouz et al.
  • 1Sorbonne Université, LATMOS/CNRS, France (nadir.guendouz@latmos.ipsl.fr)
  • 2School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
  • 3Spascia, Ramonville‐Saint‐Agne, France
  • 4Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES), Brussels, Belgium
  • 5Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium
  • 6LMD/IPSL, Sorbonne Université, ENS, PSL Université, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, CNRS, Paris, France

Ammonia (NH3) is an atmospheric pollutant mainly emitted by the agricultural sector, which has an effect on public health since it is a precursor of fine particles (PM2.5). The diurnal variability of NH3 in the atmosphere and its transformation into particles are poorly constrained and strongly depend on meteorological parameters, in particular temperature. Polar orbit satellite observations, such as the Infrared Atmospheric Sounder Instrument (IASI), are keys to assess spatio-temporal variabilities of NH3 with observations twice a day. Geostationary instruments offer a comprehensive assessment of NH3 diurnal variability and its dependence on atmospheric temperature.

 

This study analyses the contribution of geostationary instruments to observe ammonia variabilities and their link to atmospheric temperature. We use IASI observations, as well as the Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder (GIIRS) on board China’s FengYun-4B satellite launched in June 2021 that measure atmospheric ammonia over East Asia and parts of South Asia and Southeast Asia every 2 hours at 12 km at nadir. We also evaluate the InfraRed Sounder (IRS) instrument that will be launched onboard the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellite into geostationary orbit over Europe and Africa in late 2025. IRS will offer the ability to assess NH3 diurnal variabilities with frequent measurements (every 30-45 minutes) and better spatially resolved observations than IASI (4 km x 4 km at the Equator and Greenwich meridian).

 

In this work, GIIRS NH3 total columns are validated with IASI observations between July 2022 and June 2024. Then, the link between NH3 variabilities and atmospheric temperature are analyzed over Asia using GIIRS observations. Finally, a NH3 sensitivity analysis considering measurement noises is made for the future IRS-MTG mission and is discussed with respect to IASI. 

How to cite: Guendouz, N., Viatte, C., Zeng, Z.-C., Boynard, A., Safieddine, S., Standfuss, C., Turquety, S., Van Damme, M., Clarisse, L., Coheur, P., Armante, R., Prunet, P., and Clerbaux, C.: Contribution of Geostationary Satellites to the Observation of Atmospheric NH3, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-17035, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17035, 2025.