Top-down estimation of carbon monoxide emissions from the Mexico Megacity based on FTIR measurements from ground and space

The agreement between the measured columns of the satellite and ground-based measurements is excellent, particularly when a comparison strategy based on time-displaced air masses is used. The annual emission of the Mexico Megacity is estimated to be (2.15 ± 0.5) Tg yr−1 for the year 2008, while the official inventory for that year reported 1.6 Tg yr−1. The difference is slightly higher than the conservative uncertainty estimated in this work suggesting that the emission might be underestimated by the conventional bottom-up method.

A larger discrepancy is found in the spatial distribution of the emissions, when comparing the emission flux over UNAM (derived from the ground-based measurement) with that of the inventory integrated over a representative area. The methodology presented here represents a new and useful strategy to evaluate the contribution of megacities to the global anthropogenic gas emissions. Additionally, three different strategies to compare ground and space-based measurements above an inhomogeneous and strongly contaminated area like Mexico City are presented and discussed.