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Satellite pinpoints ammonia sources globally

Ammonia emissions harm humans and the environment. An analysis shows that satellites can locate sources precisely, and could thus help to monitor compliance with international agreements to limit such emissions.
  1. Mark A. Sutton

    1. Mark A. Sutton is at the International Nitrogen Management System, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh Research Station, Edinburgh EH26 0QB, UK.

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  2. Clare M. Howard

    1. Clare M. Howard is at the International Nitrogen Management System, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh Research Station, Edinburgh EH26 0QB, UK.

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According to the tenth-century Arabic geographer Al-Masudi, travellers through the mountains between Samarkand and China had to pass through a valley where the smoke was so dense that the Sun’s rays could not penetrate. Al-Masudi recorded1 how paid porters would “use sticks to drive the passengers on their journey; for any stoppage or rest would be fatal to the traveller, in consequence of the irritation which the ammoniacal vapours of this valley produce on the brain, and on account of the heat”. His graphic account describes the earliest known industrial source of ammonia emissions, and has fresh significance in light of a study reported on page 99 by Van Damme and colleagues2. The authors have mapped atmospheric ammonia levels with unprecedented precision around the globe, and have quantified emissions from this ancient source for the first time — along with those from a host of previously uncharacterized industrial and agricultural hotspots.

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Nature 564, 49-50 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07584-7

References

  1. El-Mas’údú’s Historical Encyclopaedia Entitled “Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems” Vol. I (transl. Sprenger, A.) 360 (Oriental Translation Fund, 1841).

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