Estimating the lifetime and emission of ammonia based on IASI satellite data

Ammonia, a major alkaline gas in the atmosphere, reacts with acidic gases, speeding up PM2.5 formation and negatively affecting the ecological environment. Wind speed is one of the key factors influencing the distribution of atmospheric ammonia. This study utilizes the observational data from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) and the M2I1NXASM dataset from MERRA-2 meteorological reanalysis data. The emission and lifetime of point source ammonia were estimated using the rotational wind direction method and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Golmud, an inland city in China, was selected as the study area to analyze NH₃ emissions from May to September from 2007 to 2023. The results indicate that the NH₃ emission intensity in the Golmud area is approximately 5.88×10^-12kgꞏm^-2s^-1, with ammonia persisting in this region for 14.61 hours. By comparing the estimation results of this study with existing emission inventories, the reliability of the adopted method was validated, demonstrating the potential of using satellite data to constrain emission inventories.