Project description
A revolutionary approach to monitoring emissions
Climate change threatens with unpredictable environmental consequences unless we tackle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions head-on. The challenge? Measuring global GHG emissions accurately and uncovering unknown sources. This remains exceedingly difficult, and current inventories rely on imprecise bottom-up calculations. Funded by the European Research Council, the CoSense4Climate project will leverage the mathematical theory of compressed sensing (CS). The aim is to revolutionise atmospheric inversion. By harnessing the power of CS, typically used in signal and image processing, the project promises unmatched accuracy in quantifying and locating GHG emitters while requiring less data. Overall, it seeks to establish a new standard in GHG emission monitoring, offering new hope in the fight against climate change.
Objective
Climate change is a defining issue of our time. Without significant, rapid greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, we will face unpredictable consequences for climate and life. To effectively reduce GHGs, the emissions must be accurately quantified and unknown emitters found. However, measuring global GHG emissions is very challenging, and hence current emission inventories rely mostly on bottom-up calculations, which lack accuracy and the ability to detect unknown sources.
In CoSense4Climate, I will use the powerful mathematical theory of compressed sensing (CS) to revolutionize atmospheric inversion. My goal is to develop a method to locate, quantify, and attribute GHG emitters with unmatched spatial resolution and accuracy. CS has been used with great success in signal and image processing by taking advantage of the fact that most signals contain redundancies. Using CS in combination with domain transformations, I will generate accurate high resolution emission fields and reveal unknown sources, yet require less data than conventional methods. I will develop a CS inversion framework not only for local sensor data, but also for satellite data, which, upon success, will lead to a breakthrough in monitoring urban GHG emissions globally.
I am best suited to reach this goal. I have gathered a unique dataset with my fully automated differential column GHG network MUCCnet, the first of its kind. With my rich experience in applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD), solar-induced fluorescence (SIF), and machine learning (ML) for estimating GHG emissions, I will additionally create a high-resolution CFD-based atmospheric transport model, a satellite SIF-based urban CO2 biogenic flux model, and a ML method for source attribution based on ratios of GHG and air pollutant concentrations.
CoSense4Climate will establish a new standard for GHG emission monitoring, and provide ground-breaking scientific methods to help solve one of today’s most urgent problem: climate change.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringsatellite technology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringair pollution engineering
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsfluid dynamicscomputational fluid dynamics
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
Keywords
- atmospheric science
- urban greenhouse gas emissions
- compressed sensing
- computational fluid dynamics
- solar-induced fluorescence
- machine learning
- sensor network
- atmospheric measurements
- atmospheric inverse modeling
- atmospheric transport modeling
- biogenic fluxes
- particle dispersion modeling
- ground based remote sensing
- satellite remote sensing
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
80333 Muenchen
Germany