Inverse modelling of BLACK Carbon emissions using real time data from NETworked sensors – BLACKNET_Ukraine

Black carbon (BC) contributes to global warming by absorbing sunlight. Current global climate models systematically underpredict the atmospheric aerosol absorption by a factor of three when compared to observations, which is often attributed to the underestimation of BC emissions [Bond et al. 2004, 2013; Textor et al. 2006]. Emission inventories of BC are traditionally constructed using a bottom-up approach based on activity data and emissions factors (EF). EF determination requires highly expensive (both in time and means) meticulous methodologies, which leads in practice to emission data with very heterogeneous quality in space and time [Lamarque et al. 2010; Granier et al. 2011]. Southeast Asia (SEA) hosts a multiplicity of combustion sources emitting large amounts of BC in the atmosphere: biomass burning including peatland and forest fires and domestic usage of biofuels, oil products for transportation, but it will be particularly affected by coal burning to meet the explosive energy demand over the next decades. This part of Asia also stands downstream the intense BC emissions from China in winter. As a result, all the trends quantitatively go upwards and point SEA as the top priority region of the world to be investigated. International programs have attempted to simulate the effects of BC on climate in SEA, all pointed out that better time and space resolved emissions inventories are the crucial point to improve forecast and climate models [Koch et al. 2009; Bond et al. 2013]. BLACKNET will lead to a new cost-effective operational system to monitor BC along with other combustion tracers, and subsequently identify, localise and characterise their sources.
(1) The first objective is technical: the development and operational demonstration of a network of BC sensors deployed over the Indochinese Peninsula, providing continuously collected & computed data. (2) The second objective is scientific: the consecutive development of innovative atmospheric data products relying on inverse modelling based on communicating BC sensors, in order to improve and validate top-down BC emissions inventories. The consortium includes internationally recognized researchers and research groups in the fields of aerosol characterization, inverse modelling, emission inventories and regional/global modelling. The field work achievements are ensured by the strong involvement in the project of the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok and the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, in the frame of an International Research Group (GDRI-Sud) dedicated to BC impacts in Southeast Asia, and funded over the period 2018-2021 by IRD and the leading laboratories, including LA – the coordinator of the present BLACKNET proposal. Impacts are expected on potential market development as new opportunities will emerge for the French Earth observation commercial sector, mainly technology/sensor and data treatment software providers and for downstream users - service providers - with the definition and demonstration of new services and the enablement of new science applications. The project outputs will fit into international frameworks like the Global Emissions InitiAtive (GEIA), the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, particularly CAMS-43 about aerosols, from which data will be used for comparison, and the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution which binds the ten ASEAN Member Countries to tackle transboundary haze pollution.