The first national scale spatial and temporal analysis of surface CO2 over South Africa utilising satellite retrievals

Abstract

South Africa is the dominant continental source region of CO2 fossil fuel emissions. This is a result of the strong dependence of its economy on fossil fuels. However, the observations of atmospheric CO2 in South Africa are inadequate. The country has the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) Cape Point station as the only site with long-term ambient CO2 monitoring record. In this study, satellite data retrieved from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument on board the Aura satellite from Dec 2004 to Dec 2009 is used for the first time to quantify the spatial distribution of CO2 over South Africa, as well as to determine its annual variability at selected sites. The study found that the surface CO2 foot print in South Africa resembles the industrial CO2 emission sources spatial distribution, particularly during the summer and autumn. In winter and spring seasons the surface CO2 foot prints are spatially expanded as a result of contributions of emissions from biomass and domestic fossil fuel combustion. The surface levels of CO2 at the study areas have been increasing during the period of the analysis.