Observationally Constrained Emissions Variability Contributes Significantly to Global NOx, CO, and CO2 Emissions

Abstract Due to relatively short lifetime and wide variability, global-scale high-resolution emission inventories of trace gasses need further improvement to match ground-based observations, especially with respect to extreme events and changing sources. This work uses two satellites in tandem to globally constrain daily to weekly emissions of NOx and CO grid-by-grid over the most changing regions. The emissions of NOx and CO are respectively computed as 5.76×10⁵-6.25×10⁶ MT/yr and 1.06×10⁷-2.78×10⁷ MT/yr, representing a mean 200% and 130% increase over existing inventories. A considerable amount of emissions comes from: regions not previously identified, short-to-medium term temporal variation, and three source types (biomass burning, long-range transport, and mixed). The extra CO₂ emissions due to chemical decay of extra CO leads to an annual average increase of 3.5% from Central Africa and 6.1% from the Amazon, reflecting the importance of addressing CO from biomass burning.