John Chun-Han Lin

Urban-focused satellite CO2 observations from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3: A first look at the Los Angeles megacity

Remote Sensing of Environment · 2021 · 201 citations

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) was designed to support the quantification and monitoring of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Its Snapshot Area Map (SAM) and target mode measurements provide an innovative dataset for carbon studies on sub-city scales. Unlike any other current space-based instrument, OCO-3 has the ability to scan large contiguous areas of emission hot spots like cities, power plants, and volcanoes. These measurements result in dense, fine-scale spatial maps of column ave…

Daily Satellite Observations of Methane from Oil and Gas Production Regions in the United States

Scientific Reports · 2020 · 150 citations

Production of oil and natural gas in North America is at an all-time high due to the development and use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Methane emissions associated with this industrial activity are a concern because of the contribution to climate radiative forcing. We present new measurements from the space-based TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) launched in 2017 that show methane enhancements over production regions in the United States. In the Uintah Basin in Utah…

Space-based quantification of per capita CO₂ emissions from cities

Environmental Research Letters · 2020 · 115 citations

Abstract Urban areas are currently responsible for ∼70% of the global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, and rapid ongoing global urbanization is increasing the number and size of cities. Thus, understanding city-scale CO 2 emissions and how they vary between cities with different urban densities is a critical task. While the relationship between CO 2 emissions and population density has been explored widely in prior studies, their conclusions were sensitive to inconsistent definit…

Coupled Air Quality and Boundary-Layer Meteorology in Western U.S. Basins during Winter: Design and Rationale for a Comprehensive Study

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · 2021 · 31 citations

Wintertime episodes of high aerosol concentrations occur frequently in urban and agricultural basins and valleys worldwide. These episodes often arise following development of persistent cold-air pools (PCAPs) that limit mixing and modify chemistry. While field campaigns targeting either basin meteorology or wintertime pollution chemistry have been conducted, coupling between interconnected chemical and meteorological processes remains an insufficiently studied research area. Gaps in understandi…

Harmful dust from drying lakes: Preserving Great Salt Lake (USA) water levels decreases ambient dust and racial disparities in population exposure

One Earth · 2024 · 25 citations