The SIJAQ campaign in South Korea.

The Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) was launched into space by the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) and the Ministry of Environment of Korea, on board the GEO-KOMPSAT 2B satellite in 2019. GEMS is one of three air quality monitoring missions over the Asian continent. To validate the measurements from this instrument, two ground based campaigns have been organized so far: SIJAQ/GMAP in 2021 and SIJAQ 2022 this year.

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB

 Detecting new SO₂ sources with COBRA

In order to monitor and estimate global atmospheric sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions, accurate and sensitive detetion of this trace gas from space is highly important. Traditionally the detection of SO₂ is done with the DOAS technique [1]. Although this method has faitfully been applied in the retrieval of SO₂ from satellite for years, it is accopanied by substantial biases (requiring a post-retrieval offset-correction) and noise levels. Inspired by detection methods applied in the thermal infrared spectral domain, a new algorithm for the retrieval of SO₂ columns from satellite observations in the ultraviolet spectral range was recently proposed in a highlight paper in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP, [2]). The retrieval scheme is based on a measurement error covariance matrix to fully represent the radiance variability over SO₂-free areas, so that the SO₂ slant column density is the only retrieved parameter of the algorithm. The validity of this approach, named COBRA, was demonstrated on measurements from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) aboard the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S-5P) satellite. The method significantly reduces both the noise and biases present in the current TROPOMI operational DOAS SO₂ retrievals.

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB

 The NITROCAM campaign.

This past spring, we have conducted and coordinated an airborne measurement campaign called NITROCAM, in cooperation with the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB)...

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB

 Detecting ship emissons: the SEMPAS project.

Recently BIRA launched a project to develop an instrument, called SEMPAS (Ship Emission Monitoring by Passive Remote Sensing), to remotely measure NO₂, SO₂ and CO₂ emissions from individual ships, from which the fuel sulfur content (FSC) can be quantified.

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB

 Global nitrous acid emissions by wildfires revealed from space.

On Monday September 21, 2020, the prestigious Nature Geosciences journal published an article presenting the first satellite detection of nitrous acid (HONO) using the TROPOMI satellite instrument.
This publication (Theys et al., 2020) presents the first unambiguous detection of HONO from TROPOMI and reveals the existence of enhanced HONO over wildfires consistently for major ecosystems.

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB

 Chemical species in California wildfires observed from space.

During the summer season, forest fires are a natural part of the climate and landscape of the western USA. Recent years have seen a prolonged fire season with increased intensity and extent of the fire events in comparison to a 'normal' season. The 2020 fire season so far has shown intense and widespread fire events and may be registered as one of the worst seasons ever recorded. BIRA-IASB has been following the chemical gas species released from the wildfires by means of the TROPOMI satellite sensor.

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB

 Installation of a new MAXDOAS instrument in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Space-based measurements indicate that Central Africa is a global hotspot of formaldehyde (H₂CO). This is due to biomass burning and to the emissions of the vegetation itself. African megacities also suffer from poor air quality associated with the widespread use of domestic combustion for cooking and old car fleets, which lead to large amounts of PMs and NO_x. Due to the rapid demographic growth, the air pollution is expected to further deteriorate in African megacities. There are thus clear interests for local measurements in megacities of Central Africa, from scientific but also public health perspectives.

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB

 S5PVAL-BE campaign

For validation of the recently launched Sentinel-5 Precursor (S-5P) / TROPOMI mission, the S5PVAL-BE campaign took place from 26 to 29 June, 2019 over Antwerp and Brussels, Belgium, with a focus on mapping of the horizontal distribution of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). In total four mapping flights, coinciding with the S-5P overpass time, took place on four consecutive, cloud-free days with the APEX imaging spectrometer. The analysis of the gathered data will focus on the assessment of the TROPOMI tropospheric NO₂ product over polluted regions as well as on the TROPOMI sub-pixel NO₂ variability and the impact of spatial smoothing of the signal.

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB

 FRM₄DOAS: A centralized MAX-DOAS processing system in support of satellite validation

To harmonise the MAXDOAS data sets measured all over the world, the Fiducial Reference Measurements for ground-based DOAS Air-Quality Observations (FRM₄DOAS) project was set up as a demonstration project providing a centralized rapid-delivery (24 hour latency) processing service for a selection of MAX-DOAS instruments.

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB

 Sentinel-5p: first TROPOMI air quality measurements

On 19 June 2018, a press conference was held at BIRA-IASB to present the first results from the TROPOMI instrument on-board the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. TROPOMI, (the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument has been monitoring the whole of Earth's atmosphere on a daily basis ever since its launch in October last year. Belgian scientists are strongly involved in the analysis of the data and can now present the first formidable results of the instrument's air quality measurements.

Ⓒ BIRA-IASB/DLR/ESA/EU

 Sentinel-5p first light: first TROPOMI results.

Today, the first scientific results were presented from measurements of the TROPOMI satellite instrument, launched last October on-board the Sentinel-5P platform. During an ESA press event, organised at the German Aerospace Center DLR, a range of images and animations were shown, demonstrating the unprecedented spatial resolution delivered by the TROPOMI sensor.

source: ESA

 Sentinel-5p/TROPOMI: Mapping air quality in unprecedented detail

Last week, on October 13, 2017, the European satellite Sentinel-5 Precursor (Sentinel-5p) was launched from the Russian Cosmodrome of Plesetsk on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). Its payload contains a single instrument, the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), that is designed to analyse the chemical composition of the Earth's atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The UV-VIS/DOAS group and other scientists from the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) are strongly involved in the analysis of TROPOMI's data.

source: ESA

 Expedition in Congo

In June 2017, the BIRA-IASB UV-Vis DOAS group participated in a 12 day scientific measurement campaign in and around the main crater of the Nyiragongo volcano (in the Virunga Volcanic Province, Democratic Republic of Congo) as part of a BBC documentary expedition. The aim of the campaign was to collect scientific data with different types of instruments (seismic, infrasound detectors, temperature data loggers, weather stations, and several types of cameras) in order to better understand the physical mechanisms that drive volcanic processes in the region. This multidisciplinary campaign included 15 scientists from ECGS, EPIC, BSU, GVO, KMMA-MRAC, ULg/UH and BIRA-IASB.

 The CINDI-2 Campaign

In September 2016 our team will participate in the CINDI-2 campaign, to be held in Cabauw, the Netherlands. CINDI stands for Cabauw Intercomparison of Nitrogen Dioxide Measuring Instruments and involves the comparison of a host of ground-based DOAS instruments for measuring atmospheric Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) amounts...

 The AROMAPEX campaign

The AROMAPEX campaign was held in Berlin in April 2016. AROMAPEX was supported by the European Commission through Eufar and by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the framework of its Copernicus Earth observation programme. The campaign was coordinated by BIRA and included 12 research groups from Belgium (BIRA, VITO), Germany (Universities of Berlin, Bremen, and Heidelberg, MPIC, DLR), Romania (INCAS, University of Galati), and the Netherlands (University of Delft, KNMI, TNO).

 Installation of a MAXDOAS instrument in Antarctica

Belgium has a long history of Antarctic exploration and scientific activities, dating back to the first expeditions to Antarctica under the lead of Adrien de Gerlache in 1897. BIRA-IASB already operates a CIMEL instrument since February 2009 at the Princess Elisabeth station. In the frame of the AEROCLOUD project, Christian Hermans will install a MAXDOAS instrument this winter (December 2015). The BIRA MAX-DOAS and the sunphotometer are highly complementary, since their synergistic use provides information on integrated and vertically resolved aerosol properties.

 The AROMAT-2 campaign.

The second Airborne ROmanian Measurements of Aerosols and Trace gases (AROMAT-2) campaign was held in Romania during the second half of August 2015... Read more