CO₂ is one of the most important greenhouse gases. Its concentration and distribution in the atmosphere have always been important in studying the carbon cycle and the greenhouse effect. This study is the first to validate the XCO₂ of satellite observations with total carbon column observing network (TCCON) data and to compare the global XCO₂ distribution for the passive satellites Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) and Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT), which are on-orbit greenhouse gas satellites. Results show that since GOSAT was launched in 2009, its mean measurement accuracy was −0.4107 ppm with an error standard deviation of 2.216 ppm since 2009, and has since decreased to −0.62 ppm with an error standard deviation of 2.3 ppm during the past two more years (2014–2016), while the mean measurement accuracy of the OCO-2 was 0.2671 ppm with an error standard deviation of 1.56 ppm from September 2014 to December 2016. GOSAT observations have recently decreased and lagged behind OCO-2 on the ability to monitor the global distribution and monthly detection of XCO₂. Furthermore, the XCO₂ values gathered by OCO-2 are higher by an average of 1.765 ppm than those by GOSAT. Comparison of the latitude gradient characteristics, seasonal fluctuation amplitude, and annual growth trend of the monthly mean XCO₂ distribution also showed differences in values but similar line shapes between OCO-2 and GOSAT. When compared with the NOAA statistics, both satellites’ measurements reflect the growth trend of the global XCO₂ at a low and smooth level, and reflect the seasonal fluctuation with an absolutely different line shape.

Monitoring fine particulate matter with diameters of less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) is a critical endeavor in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region, which is one of the most polluted areas in China. Polar orbit satellites are limited by observation frequency, which is insufficient for understanding PM2.5 evolution. As a geostationary satellite, Himawari-8 can obtain hourly optical depths (AODs) and overcome the estimated PM2.5 concentrations with low time resolution. In this study, the evaluation of Himawari-8 AODs by comparing with Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) measurements showed Himawari-8 retrievals (Level 3) with a mild underestimate of about −0.06 and approximately 57% of AODs falling within the expected error established by the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (±(0.05 + 0.15AOD)). Furthermore, the improved linear mixed-effect model was proposed to derive the surface hourly PM2.5 from Himawari-8 AODs from July 2015 to March 2017. The estimated hourly PM2.5 concentrations agreed well with the surface PM2.5 measurements with high R² (0.86) and low RMSE (24.5 μg/m³). The average estimated PM2.5 in the BTH region during the study time range was about 55 μg/m³. The estimated hourly PM2.5 concentrations ranged extensively from 35.2 ± 26.9 μg/m³ (1600 local time) to 65.5 ± 54.6 μg/m³ (1100 local time) at different hours.

The vertical structure of wind is a key factor in modulating air quality, from which the determination of boundary layer height (BLH) remains a major challenge. In this paper, we developed an improved threshold method to determine the BLH from radar wind profiler (RWP) measurements. The normalized signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) profiles were used instead of the original SNR profiles to avoid instrumental inconsistencies. Additionally, a peak filter was designed to indicate the BLH based on the maximum SNR by taking into account the multiple peaks in the SNR profile. This algorithm was then applied to the RWP measurements taken in the summer (June-July-August) of 2018 in Beijing to obtain the BLHs. Validation analyses suggested that the BLH retrievals from RWP exhibited high consistency with those from radiosondes, with an average correlation coefficient of 0.69 (0.66) and a root mean squared error of 0.39 (0.41) in the daytime (nighttime). Additionally, the major features of summertime BLHs in Beijing were examined. In particular, a distinct diurnal variation in BLH was observed with a peak (1630 ± 510 m) occurring at 0600 universal time coordinated (UTC) and a minimum (587 ± 343 m) at 2300 UTC. Therefore, the algorithm presented here has great potential to be applied to other regions to obtain reliable BLHs. The findings obtained here highlight the importance of vertical wind structure in air quality studies.

With the rapid modernization, many remote-sensing sensors were developed for classifying urban land and environmental monitoring. Multispectral LiDAR, which serves as a new technology, has exhibited potential in remote-sensing monitoring due to the synchronous acquisition of three-dimension point cloud and spectral information. This study confirmed the potential of multispectral LiDAR for complex urban land cover classification through three comparative methods. Firstly, the Optech Titan LiDAR point cloud was pre-processed and ground filtered. Then, three methods were analyzed: (1) Channel 1, based on Titan data to simulate the classification of a single-band LiDAR; (2) three-channel information and the digital surface model (DSM); and (3) three-channel information and DSM combined with the calculated three normalized difference vegetation indices (NDVIs) for urban land classification. A decision tree was subsequently used in classification based on the combination of intensity information, elevation information, and spectral information. The overall classification accuracies of the point cloud using the single-channel classification and the multispectral LiDAR were 64.66% and 93.82%, respectively. The results show that multispectral LiDAR has excellent potential for classifying land use in complex urban areas due to the availability of spectral information and that the addition of elevation information to the classification process could boost classification accuracy.

Target classification techniques using spectral imagery and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) are widely used in many disciplines. However, none of the existing methods can directly capture spectral and 3D spatial information simultaneously. Multispectral LiDAR was proposed to solve this problem as its data combines spectral and 3D spatial information. Point-based classification experiments have been conducted with the use of multispectral LiDAR; however, the low signal to noise ratio creates salt and pepper noise in the spectral-only classification, thus lowering overall classification accuracy. In our study, a two-step classification approach is proposed to eliminate this noise during target classification: routine classification based on spectral information using spectral reflectance or a vegetation index, followed by neighborhood spatial reclassification. In an experiment, a point cloud was first classified with a routine classifier using spectral information and then reclassified with the k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) algorithm using neighborhood spatial information. Next, a vegetation index (VI) was introduced for the classification of healthy and withered leaves. Experimental results show that our proposed two-step classification method is feasible if the first spectral classification accuracy is reasonable. After the reclassification based on the k-NN algorithm was combined with neighborhood spatial information, accuracies increased by 1.50–11.06%. Regarding identification of withered leaves, VI performed much better than raw spectral reflectance, with producer accuracy increasing from 23.272% to 70.507%.

Hourly average monitoring data for mass concentrations of PM₁, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and black carbon (BC) were measured in Wuhan from December 2013 to December 2014, which has a flourishing steel industry, to analyze the characteristics of PM and their relation to BC, using statistical methods. The results indicate that variations in the monthly average mass concentrations of PM have similar concave parabolic shapes, with the highest values occurring in January and the lowest values appearing in August or September. The correlation coefficient of the linear regression model between PM₁ and PM_2.5 is quite high, reaching 0.99. Furthermore, the proportion of PM₁ contained within PM_2.5 is roughly 90%, directly proving that ultrafine particles whose diameter less than 1 μm may be a primary component of PM_2.5 in Wuhan. Additionally, better seasonal correlation between PM and BC occurs only in summer and autumn, due to multiple factors such as topography, temperature, and the atmosphere in winter and spring. Finally, analysis of the diurnal variation of PM and BC demonstrates that the traffic emissions during rush hour, exogenous pollutants, and the shallow PBLH with stagnant atmosphere, all contribute to the severe pollution of Wuhan in winter.