GLOBAL FORUM London, October 24 & 25, 2012

Transcription

1 GLOBAL FORUM London, October 24 & 25,

2 Global Observations of Gas Flares Improving Global Observations of Gas Flares With Data From the Suomi NPP Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Christopher D. Elvidge, Ph.D. Earth Observation Group NOAA National Geophysical Data Center Boulder, Colorado USA Kimberly Baugh, Feng-Chi Hsu, Mikhail Zhizhin, Tilottama Ghosh Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences University of Colorado October 25,

3 Heritage from DMSP Cloud-free annual composites F = Red F = Green F = Blue Vectors drawn on gas flares. In 2005, NGDC developed a method for estimating flared gas volumes using nighttime lights data collected by the U.S. Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS)

4 DMSP Observations of Gas Flares Pros Nightly global coverage Strong signal from flares Global monitoring built on existing algorithms and processing system Archive extends from mid-1990 s to present Cons Usable observations reduced by solar and lunar contamination Inability to detect flares in urban areas Ambiguous features is it a flare or a light With detection in a single spectral band it is not possible to estimate temperature Spectral band misses peak radiant emissions of flares - 4 -

5 MODIS Observations of Gas Flares Pros Daily global coverage Two satellites provide up to four observations per day No solar or lunar constraints Open access to archive Archive extends from 2000 to present Cons Operational fire product skips over ocean / water areas Weak signal from flares Operational cloudproduct identifies flares as clouds Archive would need to be reprocessed for flares - 5 -

6 Suomi NPP VIIRS NASA / NOAA launched the Suomi NPP satellite October 28, 2011 The VIIRS instrument offers substantial improvements over both DMSP and MODIS NGDC is funded by NOAA to develop a system for estimating flared gas volumes and CO 2 emissions from VIIRS The VIIRS operational fire and cloud products have same issues as MODIS - 6 -

7 VIIRS Data Flow Svalbard Ground Station Archive National Geophysical Data Center Processing for Combustion Sources Web Access to KMZ and CSV NSOF (NOAA Satellite Operations Facility) Interface Data Processing Segment (IDPS), Suitland, Maryland - 7 -

8 What makes VIIRS data so great? DNB M7,8,10 M12 M13 fire band M14 M15 M16 The M7,8,10 spectral bands are well placed to record the peak radiant emissions from flares. During daylight hours the signal is overwhelmed by sunlight. At night combustion sources stand out clearly against the noise background

9 What makes VIIRS data so great? At night the VIIRS collects data in three daytime imaging bands: M7, M8, and M10. The nighttime M10 data have an remarkable ability to detect combustion sources! M13 The Fire Band M10 Detection of Combustion Sources Basra, Iraq Region at Night - 9 -

10 Why we do our own product generation? The VIIRS operational fire product: Is based on M13, which detects fewer gas flares than M10 at night. Part of the reason for this is that gas flares generally burn hotter than biomass. The peak radiant emission is shifted to shorter wavelengths. Only produced for land areas. Misses offshore flaring. The VIIRS operational cloud product: Detects gas flares as clouds. Spectral confusion! Overdetects clouds for our purpose of making global cloud-free composites

11 NGDC s Nightfire Service p://

12 NGDC s Nightfire Service p://

13 Nightfire KMZ Placemarks The placemarks are color coded by temperature: white T<400 or T>3000 purple 400<T<1000 blue 1000<T<1200 green 1200<T<1400 yellow 1400<T<1600 red 1600<T<3000 The placemark size depends on logarithm of total radiance LOG10(totalradiance)>1 large LOG10(totalradiance) 0 to 1 medium otherwise small

14 NGDC s Nightfire Service p://

15 NGDC s Nightfire Service p://

16 NGDC s Nightfire Service Provides Data on Combustion Sources Detected at Night p://

17 Plan Forward Nightly combustion source detections will be pair with cloud detection to generate monthly and cumulative annual cloud free composites of combustion sources. Combustion sources will be labeled by type: biomass burning, gas flares, industrial sources. Calibrations will be developed for estimating flared gas and CO 2 emission volumes. Visualization tool will be developed to see temporal trends at individual flaring sites. Ranking of flares based on total radiant output

18 GLOBAL FORUM London, October 24 & 25,