The Greenhouse gas Observations of Biospheric and Local Emissions from the Upper sky (GOBLEU): Multi-species (CO2, NO2 and SIF) observations from Japanese passenger aircrafts in support of the monitoring of Japans climate mitigation progress

Monitoring nations climate mitigation progress and assessing the impact on the Climate are important capabilities that the science community can potentially offer in order to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goals. In 2020, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the ANA HOLDINGS INC, launched a new project called the Greenhouse gas Observations of Biospheric and Local Emissions from the Upper sky (GOBLEU) in order to contribute to the climate monitoring by collecting air-borne remote sensing GHG data from ANA passenger aircrafts. The GOBLEU project aims to monitor and visualize emission changes in response to Japans climate mitigation efforts at subnational levels, especially at large point sources, cities, and industrialized areas, by collecting high-resolution (~a few hundreds of meters) observations. The high-resolution GHG data we collect should further enhance our ability to quantify GHG emissions in combination with data collected from existing platforms, such as ground-based stations and satellites. Here we present the very first results of our high-resolution multi-species (CO2, NO2 and Solar Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF)) observations. Our newly designed carry-on luggage sized imaging spectrometer is placed in a window seat, and the data are collected through the window during the passenger flights. We conducted our first observation (only NO2) on the flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka in October 2020. The two-hour flight allowed us to collect 5M soundings over the regions that house approximately 30% of the country total CO2 emissions. Our high-resolution data depicted local spatial patterns of NO2 concentrations over cities and industrial areas, with some notable differences from ones seen from the TROPOMI observations. We compared our data to other datasets, such as ground observation data and emission inventories, in order to characterize the observed spatial concentration gradients and patterns and attribute them to particular emission sources. In our presentation, we will also show the results from other flights that include CO2 and SIF. We also discuss the utility of our new unique air-borne remote sensing observation capability for the GHG emission and climate mitigation monitoring, and its potential contribution to the upcoming Global Stocktakes.