Аннотация:Abstract In order to better manage anthropogenic CO 2 emissions, improved methods of quantifying emissions are needed at all spatial scales from the national level down to the facility level. Although the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO‐2) satellite was not designed for monitoring power plant emissions, we show that in some cases, CO 2 observations from OCO‐2 can be used to quantify daily CO 2 emissions from individual middle‐ to large‐sized coal power plants by fitting the data to plume model simulations. Emission estimates for U.S. power plants are within 1–17% of reported daily emission values, enabling application of the approach to international sites that lack detailed emission information. This affirms that a constellation of future CO 2 imaging satellites, optimized for point sources, could monitor emissions from individual power plants to support the implementation of climate policies.
