The CATRINE project was represented at the 22nd International Workshop on Greenhouse Gas Measurements from Space (IWGGMS-22), held in Bonn, Germany, from 29 June to 2 July 2026. https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/22nd-international-workshop-greenhouse-gas-measurements-space.
Maarten Krol from Wageningen University presented CATRINE-related work in-person, during Session 6, which focused on urban, local and facility-scale emissions. His talk, entitled “High-resolution simulations of pollution plumes”, explored how advanced modelling can help improve the interpretation of satellite observations of atmospheric pollution.
IWGGMS-22 brought together the international greenhouse gas monitoring community to discuss current and future satellite missions, retrieval methods, calibration and validation, atmospheric inversions, and stakeholder needs. The workshop also included a dedicated session on local, urban and hotspot emissions, providing an important platform for presenting CATRINE research relevant to high-resolution emission monitoring.
The presentation drew on Maarten Krol’s work and insights from Jeroen Gregoire’s MSc thesis at Utrecht University. Together, the results highlighted the value of high-resolution modelling, including atmospheric chemistry, for understanding pollution plumes and supporting more accurate emission estimates.
Key messages from the presentation:
- High-resolution simulations show that pollution plumes can vary significantly due to turbulent atmospheric fluctuations, which is particularly important for satellites that capture conditions at a single moment in time. The work also underlined the need to account for chemical transformations between species such as NO, NO2, CO2 and HNO3, as well as the influence of non-stationary winds.
- The presentation used a case study of NOx emissions from Tata Steel Netherlands to explore whether TROPOMI observations can be used to estimate industrial NOx emissions, and how MicroHH simulations may help correct for interference from nearby emission sources.
- Maarten’s presentation demonstrated the challenges of separating industrial emissions from nearby sources. However, stacked TROPOMI plume observations were found to be remarkably consistent, and MicroHH simulations showed potential for correcting Exponential Modified Gaussian (EMG)-based emission estimates. The findings also suggest that emission changes of around 30% should be detectable.
We thank Maarten for attending and presenting on behalf of the CATRINE consortium.
Article prepared by R.Phipps (ECMWF), with some content rearranged by Copilot. Content checked by Maarten Krol.
Image from IWGGMS (ECMWF and DLR)
