Refining the CAMS Global Anthropogenic Emissions Inventory with Regional Datasets: Advances in the Mosaic Approach and Remaining Uncertainties

The CAMS-GLOB-ANT global emissions inventory, developed within the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) framework, provides monthly emissions for 36 chemical species, including CO, NOx, SO₂, NMVOC, NH₃, black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, and several individual VOCs, at a spatial resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° for the period 2000–2026. Alongside the officially released v6.2 dataset, which is used in the CAMS global air pollution forecasting system, a so-called mosaic emissions inventory is constructed. This mosaic product integrates official regional emission datasets based on nationally reported data for Europe, the United States, and China with the CAMS-GLOB-ANT global inventory. The resulting M1.0 mosaic inventory is being further enhanced through the incorporation of the PAPILA dataset, which provides a regional inventory of reactive gases for selected countries in South America.

In this study, we first intercompare the CAMS-GLOB-ANT v6.2 and M1.0 inventories and highlight the importance of refining global datasets with locally derived information to improve the accuracy of emission estimates, their temporal trends, and ultimately the performance of air quality models. We then evaluate both inventories against other available global and regional emission datasets. Finally, we conduct an in-depth assessment by examining discrepancies among existing inventories in terms of emission magnitude, spatial distribution, and temporal evolution. This assessment aims to identify species, sectors, and regions where emissions are robustly characterized, as well as those where substantial uncertainties remain.