add global sulfur emissions discovery

NASA-IMPACT · Dec 19, 2022 · fe56761 · fe56761
1 parent 6dd3f76
commit fe56761
Show file tree

Hide file tree

Showing 2 changed files with 124 additions and 0 deletions.
diff --git a/discoveries/global-sulfur-cover.jpg b/discoveries/global-sulfur-cover.jpg
diff --git a/discoveries/global-sulfur-emissions.discoveries.mdx b/discoveries/global-sulfur-emissions.discoveries.mdx
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+---
+id: 'global-so2-emissions'
+name: Global Sulfur Dioxide Monitoring
+description: "How NASA monitors global sulfur emissions"
+media:
+  src: ::file ./global-sulfur-cover.jpg
+  alt: Sulfur plumes from rocks
+  author:
+    name: tom
+    url: https://unsplash.com/photos/NehgTfCRJqg
+pubDate: 2016-06-06
+thematics:
+  - air-quality
+---
+<Block>
+  <Prose>
+    If you have ever lit a match and taken a sniff, you’ve inhaled sulfur dioxide (SO2). The amount generated by a single match is not a major concern, but in high concentrations and for long exposures SO2 is a dangerous gas especially to the human body; it is a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) criteria pollutant. Short-term exposure to high SO2 concentration can damage the respiratory system and lead to troubled breathing. Symptoms can include sneezing, sore throat, wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and a feeling of suffocation, according to the [Center for Disease Control](https://wwwn.cdc.gov/TSP/MMG/MMGDetails.aspx?mmgid=249&toxid=46). Exposure to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide can also lead to reactive airway dysfunction syndrome (RADS), a chemically- or irritant-induced type of asthma.
+
+    Long-term release of SO2 into the atmosphere is harmful to the environment. SO2 forms sulfuric acid airborne particles (sulfate aerosols) in the air, which reduce visibility and contribute to the phenomena of acid rain and smog. Acid rain is a form of precipitation with acidic components, such as sulfuric or nitric acid that can fall from the atmosphere in the form of snow, fog, or rain. Acid rain can also damage the body’s respiratory system as well as forests and aquatic ecosystems.
+
+    NASA’s instruments and satellites are tracking volcanic activity which has been the leading natural source for emitting SO2 for much of the Earth’s history. The data visualization below shows persistently degassing volcanic and human-made sources of SO2 emissions. The volcanic sources are connected to underlying geological features, specifically the convergent plate boundaries that surround the Pacific tectonic plate. This region of the world is informally referred to as the Ring of Fire. Until the emergence of industry in modern times, volcanic activity was the main source of SO2 in the atmosphere.
+  </Prose>
+</Block>
+
+<Block>
+  <Prose>
+    Two hundred years of industrial and technological advances have significantly altered the sources of SO2 in the world. Now coal burning power plants (denoted as red circles) are the most prevalent source of SO2 emissions. In contrast with the naturally occurring volcanic sources of SO2, the locations of the power plant emission sources cluster within densely populated areas. This means increased SO2 emissions for those areas can have significant impacts on the public health. Other human-created sources of SO2 include oil and gas operations and smelters. While not as widespread as power plant emission sources, the data visualizations below show several clusters of oil and gas sources in the Middle East, Central America, and South America.
+  </Prose>
+  <Figure>
+    <iframe
+      width="100%"
+      height="100%"
+      style={{ aspectRatio: "70/50" }}
+      src="https://maps.disasters.nasa.gov/arcgis/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=514e11b43f9b493c832c6520f653e523"
+      title="Volcanoes Around the World"
+      frameborder="0"
+    />
+    <Caption>
+      Caption SO2 emissions sources listed in the version 2 catalogue available from https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/measures.html
+      Red dots show coal burning power plants, blue circles – metal smelters, grey circles – oil and gas operations and yellow triangles show degassing volcanos.
+
+    </Caption>
+  </Figure>
+</Block>
+
+
+<Block>
+  <Prose>
+   The data underlying these visualizations, and the visualizations themselves, provides the ability to evaluate emissions inventories and verify abatements in emissions, and also helps find missing or underestimated sources. Ongoing monitoring allows us to quantify and track these abatements as in the case of the Bowen power plant located in Georgia. The visualization shows annual emissions averaging around 185 kilotons per year (kt/y) until 2007 when they rapidly plunged to less than 20 kt/y where they have remained since.
+  </Prose>
+  <Figure>
+    <Chart
+      dataPath={new URL('chart tbd', import.meta.url).href}
+      dateFormat="%Y" 
+      idKey='Type' 
+      xKey='Year' 
+      yKey='Emissions' 
+      highlightStart = '2005'
+      highlightEnd = '2022'
+      highlightLabel = 'SO₂ Emissions'
+    />
+    <Caption 
+      attrAuthor='NASA' 
+      attrUrl='https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/measures.html'
+    /> 
+  </Figure>
+</Block>
+
+<Block>
+  <Prose>
+   The data underlying these visualizations, and the visualizations themselves, provides the ability to evaluate emissions inventories and verify abatements in emissions, and also helps find missing or underestimated sources. Ongoing monitoring allows us to quantify and track these abatements as in the case of the Bowen power plant located in Georgia. The visualization shows annual emissions averaging around 185 kilotons per year (kt/y) until 2007 when they rapidly plunged to less than 20 kt/y where they have remained since.
+
+   Emissions monitoring allows us to track variations in natural sources of SO2 such as the Kilauea volcano on the Hawaiian Islands, which (as is evident in this visualization) reveals irregular variations in emissions over time.
+
+   More importantly, this monitoring can reveal new and/or problematic sources of emissions such as the Zagroz oil and gas refinery located in the Bushehr Province in Iran where emission had regularly been less than 200 kt/y, but since 2014 have grown to over 700 kt/y in 2021. 
+  </Prose>
+  <Figure>
+    <Chart
+      dataPath={new URL('chart tbd', import.meta.url).href}
+      dateFormat="%Y" 
+      idKey='Type' 
+      xKey='Year' 
+      yKey='Emissions' 
+      highlightStart = '2005'
+      highlightEnd = '2022'
+      highlightLabel = 'SO₂ Emissions'
+    />
+    <Caption 
+      attrAuthor='NASA' 
+      attrUrl='https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/measures.html'
+    /> 
+  </Figure>
+</Block>
+
+<Block>
+  <Prose>
+    Air quality management is increasingly a global concern. Effective emission reduction strategies depend on being able to evaluate past trends and monitor those trends moving forward. More accurate and up-to-date knowledge about the location and strength of SO2 emissions can help policy makers and environmental regulators design more efficient mitigating strategies to reduce the adverse effects of smog and haze. Some countries or regions lack necessary means to monitor SO2 emissions. Satellite data visualized here offer an independent data source to monitor and verify the efficacy of emission abatement technologies.
+  </Prose>
+</Block>
+
+<Block>
+  <Prose>
+    The full version 2 SO2 point source catalogue is available from the NASA Global Sulfur Dioxide Monitoring Home Page (https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/measures.html.
+    The direct link to the data set is https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/kml/Catalogue_SO2_2022.xls.
+
+    Sources:
+    Fioletov, V., McLinden, C. A., Griffin, D., Abboud, I., Krotkov, N., Leonard, P. J. T., Li, C., Joiner, J., Theys, N., and Carn, S.: Version 2 of the global cata-logue of large anthropogenic and volcanic SO2 sources and emissions de-rived from satellite measurements, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-281, in review, 2022.
+
+
+    The catalogue combines SO2 Earth Science Data records from 3 currently operating satellite spectrometers: 
+    (1) NASA EOS Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) since 2004:
+    Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Peter Leonard, and Joanna Joiner (2019), OMI/Aura Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) Total Column 1-orbit L2 Swath 13x24 km V003, Greenbelt, MD, USA, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) (2019), DOI: 10.5067/Aura/OMI/DATA2022, https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/OMSO2_003/summary
+
+    (2) NASA/NOAA SNPP Ozone Mapping and Profiling Suite Nadir Mapper (OMPS-NM) since 2012:
+    Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Peter Leonard, Joanna Joiner (2020b), OMPS/NPP PCA SO2 Total Column 1-Orbit L2 Swath 50x50km V2, Greenbelt, MD, USA, Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC), 10.5067/MEASURES/SO2/DATA205
+    (NMSO2-PCA-L2 V2, https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/OMPS_NPP_NMSO2_PCA_L2_2/summary ).
+
+    (3) Sentinel 5 precursor (S5P) TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) since 2018:
+
+    Theys, N., Fioletov, V., Li, C., De Smedt, I., Lerot, C., McLinden, C., Krotkov, N., Griffin, D., Clarisse, L., Hedelt, P., Loyola, D., Wagner, T., Kumar, V., Innes, A., Ribas, R., Hendrick, F., Vlietinck, J., Brenot, H., and Van Roozendael, M.: A Sulfur Dioxide Covariance-Based Retrieval Algorithm (COBRA): application to TROPOMI reveals new emission sources, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16727–16744, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16727-2021
+
+    TROPOMI COBRA SO2 data publicly available from:  https://data-portal.s5p-pal.com
+  </Prose>
+</Block>