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Satellite quantification of methane emissions from South American countries: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI and GOSAT observations

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dc.contributor.authorHancock, Sarah E.
dc.contributor.authorJacob, Daniel J.
dc.contributor.authorChen, Zichong
dc.contributor.authorNesser,Hannah
dc.contributor.authorDavitt, Aaron
dc.contributor.authorVaron, Daniel J.
dc.contributor.authorSulprizio, Melissa P.
dc.contributor.authorBalasus, Nicholas
dc.contributor.authorEstrada, Lucas A.
dc.contributor.authorCazorla, María
dc.contributor.authorDawidowski, Laura
dc.contributor.authorDiez, Sebastián
dc.contributor.authorEast, James D.
dc.contributor.authorPenn, Elise
dc.contributor.authorRandles, Cynthia A.
dc.contributor.authorWorden, John
dc.contributor.authorAben, Ilse
dc.contributor.authorParker, Robert J.
dc.contributor.authorMaasakkers, Joannes D.
dc.date.accessioned2026-10-01T18:49:33Z
dc.date.available2026-10-01T18:49:33Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractWe use 2021 TROPOMI and GOSAT satellite observations of atmospheric methane in an analytical inversion to quantify national methane emissions from South America at up to 25km×25km resolution. From the inversion, we derive optimal posterior estimates of methane emissions, adjusting a combination of national anthropogenic emission inventories reported by individual countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UNFCCC-based Global Fuel Exploitation Inventory (GFEIv2), and the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGARv7) as prior estimates. We also evaluate two alternative wetland emission inventories (WetCHARTs and LPJ-wsl) as prior estimates. Our best posterior estimates for wetland emissions are consistent with previous inventories for the Amazon but lower for the Pantanal and higher for the Paraná. Our best posterior estimate of South American anthropogenic emissions is 48 (41–56)Tga−1, where numbers in parentheses are the range from our inversion ensemble. This is 55% higher than our prior estimate and is dominated by livestock (65% of anthropogenic total). We find that TROPOMI and GOSAT observations can effectively optimize and separate national emissions by sector for 10 of the 13 countries and territories in the region, 7 of which account for 93% of continental anthropogenic emissions: Brazil (19 (16–23)Tga−1), Argentina (9.2 (7.9–11)Tga−1), Venezuela (7.0 (5.5–9.9)Tga−1), Colombia (5.0 (4.4–6.7)Tga−1), Peru (2.4 (1.6–3.9)Tga−1), Bolivia (0.96 (0.66–1.2)Tga−1), and Paraguay (0.93 (0.88 1.0) Tga−1). Our estimates align with the prior estimates for Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay but are significantly higher for other countries. Emissions in all countries are dominated by livestock (mainly enteric fermentation) except for oil–gas in Venezuela and landfills in Peru. Methane intensities from the oil–gas industry are high in Venezuela (33%), Colombia (6.5%), and Argentina (5.9%). The livestock sector shows the largest difference
dc.description.versionVersión publicada
dc.format.extent21 p.
dc.identifier.citationHancock, S. E., Jacob, D. J., Chen, Z., Nesser, H., Davitt, A., Varon, D. J., Sulprizio, M. P., Balasus, N., Estrada, L. A., Cazorla, M., Dawidowski, L., Diez, S., East, J. D., Penn, E., Randles, C. A., Worden, J., Aben, I., Parker, R. J., and Maasakkers, J. D.: Satellite quantification of methane emissions from South American countries: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI and GOSAT observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 797–817, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025, 2025.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11447/11217
dc.language.isoen
dc.titleSatellite quantification of methane emissions from South American countries: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI and GOSAT observations
dc.typeArticle
dcterms.accessRightsAcceso abierto
dcterms.sourceAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics
dspace.entity.typePublication

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