{"id":183,"date":"2026-03-04T07:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/?p=183"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T07:48:22","slug":"atmospheric-observations-from-space-can-support-security-and-safety-applications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/?p=183","title":{"rendered":"Atmospheric observations from space can support security and safety applications"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Since April 2023, the civil war in Sudan has caused widespread disruption in the capital region and across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Satellite-based emission estimates reveal a clear signal of these disruptions:&nbsp;<strong>NOx emissions over Khartoum and the nearby Al-Jaili industrial complex sharply decreased after the outbreak of the conflict.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before 2023, two emission hotspots were visible in the Khartoum region: urban emissions from the city and the&nbsp;<strong>Al-Jaili industrial complex<\/strong>, located about 60\u201370&nbsp;km north of Khartoum and hosting Sudan\u2019s main oil refinery, petrochemical facilities, and the El Jaili thermal power plant. From 2023 onward, a strong decline in NOx emissions can be observed, likely reflecting disruptions to refinery operations, power generation, transportation, and overall urban activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using&nbsp;<strong>TROPOMI NO<sub>2<\/sub> observations from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite<\/strong>, we derive&nbsp;<strong>NOx emission maps<\/strong>&nbsp;using a data-driven emission estimation approach. These satellite-derived maps highlight major combustion sources such as cities, power plants, and industrial facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tracking atmospheric pollution from space allows monitoring of critical infrastructure activity and socio-economic disruptions in conflict-affected regions, complementing high-resolution satellite imagery and other Earth observation data for\u00a0<strong>security, safety, and humanitarian applications<\/strong>.<br>These results are featured on the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.emissionobservatory.org\">Emission Observatory platform<\/a><\/strong>, which demonstrates through case studies how satellite-based information can be used to monitor emission hotspots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEhL9qi5EhueK_EJpuWyzzDOhyphenhyphen6crW5oXpouQQQSqjYIGlfx66HhZj1cbR4GnLTwOSnsEqUJzgrKQzQpyCor8A5DjTYdL_9J82eSx82aBsI7dPPVDjpvPSoORvXz_RGcTKbJRIdDxip2YdA3mGHhnZbpmqMJ1ElLyERXiv_uYZDR0F6eeKFXwXsjEe2YNHc\/s1920\/ezgif.com-optimize.gif\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Data: TROPOMI \/ Copernicus Sentinel-5P (@European Space Agency \u2013 ESA)<br>Research: @Finnish Meteorological Institute<br>Funding: @Suomen Akatemia (Academy of Finland) @strateginentutkimus<br>#EarthObservation #TROPOMI #Sentinel5P #RemoteSensing #AirPollution #SatelliteData #AtmosphericScience #SecurityApplications #ConflictMonitoring #SpaceEconomy #Copernicus #SpaceData<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since April 2023, the civil war in Sudan has caused widespread disruption in the capital region and across the country. Satellite-based emission estimates reveal a clear signal of these disruptions:&nbsp;NOx emissions over Khartoum and the nearby Al-Jaili industrial complex sharply decreased after the outbreak of the conflict. Before 2023, two emission hotspots were visible in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/?p=183\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Atmospheric observations from space can support security and safety applications&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,13,15,17,6,10,8,12,14,9,18,16,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.fmi.fi\/coe-inverse\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}