Direct space‐based observations of anthropogenic CO₂ emission areas from OCO‐2

Anthropogenic CO 2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion have large impacts on climate. In order to monitor the increasing CO 2 concentrations in the atmosphere, accurate spaceborne observations—as available from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory‐2 (OCO‐2)—are needed. This work provides the first direct observation of anthropogenic CO 2 from OCO‐2 over the main pollution regions: eastern USA, central Europe, and East Asia. This is achieved by deseasonalizing and detrending OCO‐2 CO 2 observations to derive CO 2 anomalies. Several small isolated emission areas (such as large cities) are detectable from the anomaly maps. The spatial distribution of the CO 2 anomaly matches the features observed in the maps of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument NO 2 tropospheric columns, used as an indicator of atmospheric pollution. The results of a cluster analysis confirm the spatial correlation between CO 2 and NO 2 data over areas with different amounts of pollution. We found positive correlation between CO 2 anomalies and emission inventories. The results demonstrate the power of spaceborne data for monitoring anthropogenic CO 2 emissions.