H2020 SEEDS Project: EO Sentinel-based Issuance and Deposition Service
- Type Project
- Status Firmado
- Execution 2021 -2023
- Assigned Budget 1.498.875,00 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website Proyecto SEEDS
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) is a service managed and coordinated by the European Commission, the European Space Agency, EU Member States, and selected EU agencies. It provides continuous data and information on atmospheric composition. The EU-funded SEEDS project will develop a complementary service to CAMS on pollutant emissions and deposition that will enhance satellite observations and generate new products. The project aims to boost European competitiveness in air quality management, precision agriculture, and industrial applications. SEEDS will integrate CAMS data with Copernicus Sentinel satellite observations using data assimilation, inverse and land surface modeling, and machine learning methods. The project will establish an informatics platform that will deliver its data products.
Satellite-Based Anthropogenic Emissions SEEDS has produced top-down anthropogenic emissions of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ammonia (NH3), and biomass burning emissions based on satellite data from the TROPOMI and CrIS instruments, delivering hourly, daily, and monthly anthropogenic emissions estimates. The results show that comparing top-down and bottom-up emissions estimates can improve estimates from current emissions data.
Most interestingly, it shows how satellite data allow for variations over time, verifying annual variations and estimating monthly and weekly variations. This allows for a more detailed analysis of biases linked to seasonal variations. SEEDS has demonstrated the added value of top-down emissions in providing independent emissions estimates with valuable temporal information that allows for the identification of inconsistencies and gaps in current inventories.
Biogenic Emissions Estimates SEEDS has produced new updated emissions of biogenic organic compounds (BVOCs) both bottom-up (using land surface and chemical transport models) and top-down (using HCHO data from TROPOMI with the MAGRITTEv1.1 inversion system).
Furthermore, the DECSO inversion system has been applied in SEEDS to identify nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from soil for the first time, where comparison with bottom-up inventories revealed gaps in current bottom-up inventories. SEEDS shows that comparing bottom-up and top-down emissions helps improve the quality of current emissions estimates. Two concepts used in SEEDS are retained for integration into CAMS: the potential to use a simplified chemical scheme for isoprene oxidation (CAMEO project) and the coupling of land surface and vegetation data for biogenic emission estimates (MEGAN model). SEEDS Land Surface Data and Deposition Estimates SEEDS proposed to add an offline land surface data assimilation modeling system to the CAMS production chain, linking a land surface-vegetation model to atmospheric composition models that enable vegetation-meteorology feedbacks that impact atmospheric composition. The land surface model at the core of this approach (SURFEX) has been shown to have a high level of skill in simulating vegetation and soil dynamics.
Comparison with the TROPOMI SIF shows that assimilating the CGLS IAF improves the consistency of model simulations with the SIF. This comparison establishes SURFEX as an excellent basis for simulating dry deposition on vegetation. Furthermore, the Earth system approach allows for representing complex interactions and dynamics due to droughts and heatwaves. SEEDS data assimilation algorithm. SEEDS has developed an advanced data assimilation algorithm (4DEnVar) to improve air quality forecasts in the operational CAMS system. This is open-source code that helps pave the way for better exploitation of Sentinel 4 hourly data. It is available for download from the SEEDS data portal. Paths to operationalization in CAMS The following SEEDS methods are already on the path to operationalization with CAMS:
- DECSO and top-down emissions products are now incorporated into CAMEO, a new HE project to support the evolution of CAMS
- CAMS has indicated interest in adopting the SEEDS land surface vegetation approach by incorporating it into the production chain. The added value of SEEDS products when used as input into the CAMS forecast chain has been difficult to prove.
This is because CAMS analysis scores are driven by assimilated data so that changes in input data do not significantly change the scores.
In retrospect, the design of experiments to demonstrate improved CAMS operational performance scores using SEEDS products should have focused on forecast data and assessed SEEDS's temporal variability. Stakeholder Engagement: SEEDS has held three conferences and three co-creation workshops to foster knowledge among stakeholders from the industrial, agricultural, and urban environmental management sectors, in addition to disseminating and presenting results to the scientific community in multiple forums.
There is clear interest in the top-down results of SEEDS emissions from any stakeholder involved in developing bottom-up inventories. However, it was difficult to engage with agricultural stakeholders on both emissions and deposition issues. Most private agricultural stakeholder interests center on fertilization and yield maximization; the use of SEEDS products requires additional value-creating activities to ensure adoption. Private industrial emitters were equally difficult to engage with at the conference level, but they are more interested in bilateral exchanges.
A central objective of the H2020 SEEDS project has been to inform and support the evolution of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) by creating a proof of concept for a new service that uses satellite data to obtain improved emissions and deposition estimates. The project has generated an impressive amount of new satellite-based information, demonstrating, among other things, TROPOMI's capabilities for emissions validation services.
The project has provided new top-down estimates of anthropogenic (NOx, NH3, and biomass burning) and biogenic (VOCB) emissions; new approaches to land surface modeling combined with chemical transport models to describe the impacts of drought, heatwaves, and vegetation on surface pollution deposition; and new data assimilation methods to prepare new air quality observations using geostationary satellites, such as Sentinel-4.
The main objective of SEEDS is to develop a complementary service to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) on pollutant emissions and deposition that will enhance the use of satellite observations and provide new products to boost European competitiveness in air quality (AQ) management, precision agriculture, and industrial sector applications. SEEDS will integrate CAMS data with Copernicus Sentinel satellite observations using data assimilation, inverse modeling, land surface modeling, and machine learning approaches to deliver updated, state-of-the-art estimates of surface pollutant fluxes (NOx, NH3, ozone, biogenic VOCs), both emission and deposition. SEEDS will demonstrate that an enhanced use of satellite data on emissions and deposition will not only improve the quality of existing CAMS products but also enable new products and uses in new market areas. The SEEDS output will aim for operationalization beyond SEEDS.
Emissions will be improved through the use of satellite information using inverse modeling. Depositions will be improved through the assimilation of satellite information on the land surface into the production chain. The capabilities of new emissions products to inform industrial activities will be demonstrated, and activities will be initiated to support the adoption of emissions information by European industrial stakeholders. SEEDS focuses on depositions of nitrogen and ozone components in anticipation of demand for these products from the agricultural sector, which will benefit from improved deposition and air concentration products for its impact assessment. SEEDS data products will be available on a dedicated informatics platform and promoted through co-creation workshops and scientific and user networks. This platform will facilitate the exploitation of SEEDS data products and enhance the creation of downstream activities, including innovation pathways linked to industrial, agricultural, and AQ stakeholders. AQ engagement will incorporate citizen science.
The SEEDS project datasets constitute its legacy, serving as the first proof of concept for the capabilities of TROPOMI data for improving satellite emissions. The SEEDS portal has adopted a FAIR approach and proposes the use of visualization tools that can be implemented in WEKEO and CAMS ADS. The SEEDS portal features eight unique emissions datasets and ten unique land surface and deposition datasets. The project has already produced four publications and has five more in development.
SEEDS has demonstrated that valuable emissions insights from TROPOMI and CrIS can be obtained through the use of inverse models. It has shown how these products can be used by urban, regional, and national groups interested in validating bottom-up emissions, particularly with regard to trends, monthly variations, and gap identification. SEEDS anthropogenic emissions products can be used by industry (metals, cement, power, oil and gas) as independent, science-based data to validate monthly emissions from space, but this work requires two-way approaches.
SEEDS ammonia emissions information and SEEDS soil moisture and leaf area index products are expected to support environmental management practices in precision agriculture, while SEEDS ozone and nitrogen deposition products can guide eutrophication and crop yield damage control options. Leveraging these data by agricultural stakeholders requires a value-generating approach, such as linking the data to socioeconomic assessments of the food chain or nature restoration indicators.
- STIFTELSEN NILU (NILU)
Related projects
