Highlights of three years of ground-based remote sensing in the Ruisdael observatory

Abstract

Monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions and measuring of both background concentrations and pollution signatures is a crucial part of verifying emission reduction targets. The Ruisdael project aims to map and understand the atmosphere over the Netherlands in a changing climate. A flexible setup for remote sensing of trace gases was developed in the Ruisdael project consisting of a Bruker EM27/SUN for the monitoring of the trace gases CO₂, CO and CH₄, in colocation with aerosol total column measurements with a Cimel. The setup was tested and deployed at Cabauw for several weeks in the summers of 2021 and 2023. Cabauw provides a unique opportunity to use the total column remote sensing with the Bruker EM27/SUN and the in-situ measurements at the tower to link the concentrations in the background and the planetary boundary layer. A network of three Bruker EM27/SUNs was deployed around Rotterdam for a dedicated campaign in summer 2022 to derive city emissions. With different  setups, this network was used to study city-wide emissions and large point sources.