Ethylene industrial emitters seen from space.

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds are emitted abundantly from a variety of natural and anthropogenic sources. However, in excess, they can severely degrade air quality. Their fluxes are currently poorly represented in inventories due to a lack of constraints from global measurements. Here, we track from space over 300 worldwide hotspots of ethylene, the most abundant industrially produced organic compound. We identify specific emitters associated with petrochemical clusters, steel plants, coal-related industries, and megacities. Satellite-derived fluxes reveal that the ethylene emissions of the industrial sources are underestimated or missing in the state-of-the-art Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) inventory. This work exposes global emission point-sources of a short-lived carbonated gas, complementing the ongoing large-scale efforts on the monitoring of inorganic pollutants.