About Alba Lorente

Alba Lorente

Methane Monitoring Scientist

Contact

Europe Office

Work

Areas of expertise:

Satellite remote sensing of methane and air pollutants, methane emissions measurements, reporting and verification

Alba Lorente is an atmospheric scientist working in the Office of the Chief Scientist as part of the EDFE team. Her current research focuses on measuring and quantifying methane from the oil and gas sector and how that translates into a robust measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) framework. With her expertise in remote sensing, she works with the MethaneSAT team at EDF translating satellite measurements into actionable data to improve the understanding of emissions and identify key mitigation opportunities.

Background

Prior to joining EDF, she was a scientist at SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, where she was part of the TROPOMI satellite team since its launch in 2017.

Education:

B.Sc. in applied physics from the University of Granada (Spain), M.Sc. in meteorology from the University of Barcelona (Spain) and a Ph.D in environmental physics from Wageningen University (the Netherlands), where she did research estimating nitrogen oxides emissions from cities using satellites.

Publications

  • List of peer-review publications as first author

Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Martinez-Velarte, M. C., and Landgraf, J.: Accounting for surface reflectance spectral features in TROPOMI methane retrievals, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1597–1608, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1597-2023, 2023.

Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Martinez-Velarte, M. C., Butz, A., Hasekamp, O. P., Wu, L., and Landgraf, J.: Evaluation of the methane full-physics retrieval applied to TROPOMI ocean sun glint measurements, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6585–6603, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6585-2022, 2022.

Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Butz, A., Hasekamp, O., aan de Brugh, J., Schneider, A., Wu, L., Hase, F., Kivi, R., Wunch, D., Pollard, D. F., Shiomi, K., Deutscher, N. M., Velazco, V. A., Roehl, C. M., Wennberg, P. O., Warneke, T., and Landgraf, J.: Methane retrieved from TROPOMI: improvement of the data product and validation of the first 2 years of measurements, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 665–684, doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-665-2021, 2021.

Lorente, A., Boersma, K.F., Eskes, H.J. et al. Quantification of nitrogen oxides emissions from build-up of pollution over Paris with TROPOMI. Sci Rep 9, 20033, doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56428-5, 2019.

Lorente, A., Boersma, K. F., Stammes, P., Tilstra, L. G., Richter, A., Yu, H., Kharbouche, S., Muller, J. P.: The importance of surface reflectance anisotropy for cloud and NO2 retrievals from GOME-2 and OMI, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4509–4529, doi.org/10.5194/amt-114509-2018, 2018.

Lorente, A., Boersma, K. F., Yu, H., Dörner, S., Hilboll, A., Richter, A., Liu, M., Lamsal, L. N., Barkley, M., De Smedt, I., Van   Roozendael, M., Wang, Y., Wagner, T., Beirle, S., Lin, J.-T., Krotkov, N., Stammes, P., Wang, P., Eskes, H. J., and Krol, M.: Structural uncertainty in air mass factor calculation for NO2 and HCHO satellite retrievals, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 759-782, doi:10.5194/amt-10-759-2017, 2017. Highlighted publication in AMT.

  • List of publications with contributions

Varon, D. J., Jacob, D. J., Hmiel, B., Gautam, R., Lyon, D. R., Omara, M., Sulprizio, M., Shen, L., Pendergrass, D., Nesser, H., Qu, Z., Barkley, Z. R., Miles, N. L., Richardson, S. J., Davis, K. J., Pandey, S., Lu, X., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Maasakkers, J. D., and Aben, I.: Continuous weekly monitoring of methane emissions from the Permian Basin by inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7503–7520, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7503-2023, 2023.

Liang, R., Zhang, Y., Chen, W., Zhang, P., Liu, J., Chen, C., Mao, H., Shen, G., Qu, Z., Chen, Z., Zhou, M., Wang, P., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H., Lorente, A., Maasakkers, J. D., and Aben, I.: East Asian methane emissions inferred from high-resolution inversions of GOSAT and TROPOMI observations: a comparative and evaluative analysis, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8039–8057, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8039-2023, 2023.

Balasus, N., Jacob, D. J., Lorente, A., Maasakkers, J. D., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H., Chen, Z., Kelp, M. M., Nesser, H., and Varon, D. J.: A blended TROPOMI+GOSAT satellite data product for atmospheric methane using machine learning to correct retrieval biases, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3787–3807, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3787-2023, 2023.

S. Naus, J. D. Maasakkers, R. Gautam, M. Omara, R. Stikker, A. K. Veenstra, B. Nathan, I. Irakulis-Loitxate, L. Guanter, S. Pandey, M. Girard, A. Lorente, T. Borsdorff, and I. Aben, Environmental Science & Technology 2023 57 (48), 19545-19556, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c04746.

Shen, L., Jacob, D.J., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Scarpelli, T.R., Lorente, A., Zavala-Araiza, D., Lu, X., Chen, Z. and Lin, J., 2023. National quantifications of methane emissions from fuel exploitation using high resolution inversions of satellite observations. Nature Communications, 14(1), p.4948.

Varon, D. J., Jacob, D. J., Hmiel, B., Gautam, R., Lyon, D. R., Omara, M., Sulprizio, M., Shen, L., Pendergrass, D., Nesser, H., Qu, Z., Barkley, Z. R., Miles, N. L., Richardson, S. J., Davis, K. J., Pandey, S., Lu, X., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Maasakkers, J. D., and Aben, I.: Continuous weekly monitoring of methane emissions from the Permian Basin by inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7503–7520, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7503-2023, 2023.

Chen, Z., Jacob, D. J., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Stavins, R. N., Stowe, R. C., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Lorente, A., Varon, D. J., Lu, X., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Pendergrass, D. C., and Hancock, S.: Satellite quantification of methane emissions and oil–gas methane intensities from individual countries in the Middle East and North Africa: implications for climate action, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5945–5967, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023, 2023.

de Foy, B., Schauer, J. J., Lorente, A., & Borsdorff, T.: Investigating high methane emissions from urban areas detected by TROPOMI and their association with untreated wastewater. Environmental Research Letters, 18(4), 044004, 2023.

Schuit, B. J., Maasakkers, J. D., Bijl, P., Mahapatra, G., van den Berg, A.-W., Pandey, S., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Houweling, S., Varon, D. J., McKeever, J., Jervis, D., Girard, M., Irakulis-Loitxate, I., Gorroño, J., Guanter, L., Cusworth, D. H., and Aben, I.: Automated detection and monitoring of methane super-emitters using satellite data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9071–9098, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9071-2023, 2023.

Shen, L., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Zavala-Araiza, D., Maasakkers, J. D., Scarpelli, T. R., Lorente, A., Lyon, D., Sheng, J., Varon, D. J., Nesser, H., Qu, Z., Lu, X., Sulprizio, M. P., Hamburg, S. P., and Jacob, D. J.: Satellite quantification of oil and natural gas methane emissions in the US and Canada including contributions from individual basins, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11203–11215, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11203-2022, 2022.

Chen, Z., Jacob, D. J., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Lorente, A., Varon, D. J., Lu, X., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Penn, E., and Yu, X.: Methane emissions from China: a high-resolution inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10809–10826, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10809-2022, 2022.

Varon, D. J., Jacob, D. J., Sulprizio, M., Estrada, L. A., Downs, W. B., Shen, L., Hancock, S. E., Nesser, H., Qu, Z., Penn, E., Chen, Z., Lu, X., Lorente, A., Tewari, A., and Randles, C. A.: Integrated Methane Inversion (IMI 1.0): a user-friendly, cloud-based facility for inferring high-resolution methane emissions from TROPOMI satellite observations, Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 5787–5805, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5787-2022, 2022.

Shaw, J. T., Allen, G., Barker, P., Pitt, J. R., Pasternak, D., Bauguitte, S. J.-B., Lorente A., et al. Large methane emission fluxes observed from tropical wetlands in Zambia. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 36, e2021GB007261. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GB007261, 2022.

J. D. Maasakkers, Omara, M., Gautam, R., Lorente, A., Pandey, S., Tol, P., Borsdorff, T., Houweling, S., Aben, I.: Reconstructing and quantifying methane emissions from the full duration of a 38-day natural gas well blowout using space-based observations, Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 270, 112755, ISSN 0034-4257, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112755, 2022.

Tu, Q., Hase, F., Schneider, M., García, O., Blumenstock, T., Borsdorff, T., Frey, M., Khosrawi, F., Lorente, A., et al.: Quantification of CH4 emissions from waste disposal sites near the city of Madrid using ground- and space-based observations of COCCON, TROPOMI and IASI, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 295–317, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-295-2022, 2022

Maasakkers, J.D., Varon, D.J., Elfarsdóttir, A., McKeever, J., Jervis, D., Mahapatra, G., Pandey, S., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Foorthuis, L.R. and Schuit, B.J., 2022. Using satellites to uncover large methane emissions from landfills, Sci. Adv., 8, 2022.

Qu, Z., Jacob, D. J., Shen, L., Lu, X., Zhang, Y., Scarpelli, T. R., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Maasakkers, J. D., Bloom, A. A., Worden, J. R., Parker, R. J., and Delgado, A. L.: Global distribution of methane emissions: a comparative inverse analysis of observations from the TROPOMI and GOSAT satellite instruments, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14159–14175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14159-2021, 2021.

Palmer, P. I., L. Feng, M. F. Lunt, R. J. Parker, H. Boesch, X. Lan, A. Lorente, T. Borsdorff, "The added value of satellite observations of methane for understanding the contemporary methane budget," accepted as a contribution to "Rising methane: is warming feeding warming?" issue of Roy. Soc. Phil. Trans. A., 2021

Sadavarte, P, Pandey, S, Maasakkers, JD, Lorente, A, Borsdorff, T, Denier van der Gon, H, Houweling, S, Aben, I. Methane Emissions from Super-emitting Coal Mines in Australia quantified using TROPOMI Satellite Observations. Environmental Science & Technology, 55 (24), 16573-16580, 2021.

Schneider, M., Ertl, B., Diekmann, C. J., Khosrawi, F., Röhling, A. N., Hase, F., Dubravica, D., García, O. E., Sepúlveda, E., Borsdorff, T., Landgraf, J., Lorente, A., Chen, H., Kivi, R., Laemmel, T., Ramonet, M., Crevoisier, C., Pernin, J., Steinbacher, M., Meinhardt, F., Deutscher, N. M., Griffith, D. W. T., Velazco, V. A., and Pollard, D. F.: Synergetic use of IASI and TROPOMI space borne sensors for generating a tropospheric methane profile product, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-31, in review, 2021.

Tu, Q., Hase, F., Schneider, M., García, O., Blumenstock, T., Borsdorff, T., Frey, M., Khosrawi, F., Lorente, A., et al.: Quantification of CH4 emissions from waste disposal sites near the city of Madrid using ground- and space-based observations of COCCON, TROPOMI and IASI, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-437, in review, 2021.

Lunt, M. F., Palmer, P. I., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Landgraf, J., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H.: Rain-fed pulses of methane from East Africa during 2018-2019 contributed to atmospheric growth rate, Environ. Res. Lett., 16 02402, doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd8fa, 2021.

Pandey, S., Houweling, S., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Tsivlidou, M., Bloom, A. A., Poulter, B., Zhang, Z., and Aben, I.: Using satellite data to identify the methane emission controls of South Sudan's wetlands, Biogeosciences, 18, 557–572, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-557-2021, 2021.

Barré, J., Aben, I., Agustí-Panareda, A., Balsamo, G., Bousserez, N., Dueben, P., Engelen, R., Inness, A., Lorente, A., McNorton, J., Peuch, V.-H., Radnoti, G., and Ribas, R.: Systematic detection of local CH4 anomalies by combining satellite measurements with high-resolution forecasts, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 5117–5136, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5117-2021, 2021.

Tu, Q., Hase, F., Blumenstock, T., Kivi, R., Heikkinen, P., Sha, M. K., Raffalski, U., Landgraf, J., Lorente, A., Borsdorff, T., Chen, H., Dietrich, F., and Chen, J.: Intercomparison of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 abundances on regional scales in boreal areas using Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) analysis, COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) spectrometers, and Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite observations, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4751–4771, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4751-2020, 2020.

Zhang, Y., Gautam, R., Pandey, S., Omara, M., Maasakkers, J.D., Sadavarte, P., Lyon, D., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M.P., Varon, D.J., Zhang, R., Houlewing, S., Zavala-Araiza, D., Alvarez, R.A., Lorente, A., Hamburg, S. P., Aben, I., Jacob, D. J.: Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States from space. Sci. Adv. 6 (17) https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz5120 eaaz5120, 2020.

Lama, S., Houweling, S., Boersma, K. F., Eskes, H., Aben, I., Denier van der Gon, H. A. C., Krol, M. C., Dolman, H., Borsdorff, T., and Lorente, A.: Quantifying burning efficiency in megacities using the NO2∕CO ratio from the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10295–10310, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10295-2020, 2020.

Borsdorff, T., aan de Brugh, J., Schneider, A., Lorente, A., Birk, M., Wagner, G., Kivi, R., Hase, F., Feist, D. G., Sussmann, R., Rettinger, M., Wunch, D., Warneke, T., and Landgraf, J.: Improving the TROPOMI CO data product: update of the spectroscopic database and destriping of single orbits, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5443–5455, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5443-2019, 2019.

Boersma, K. F., Eskes, H. J., Richter, A., De Smedt, I., Lorente, A., Beirle, S., van Geffen, J. H. G. M., Zara, M., Peters, E., Van Roozendael, M., Wagner, T., Maasakkers, J. D., van der A, R. J., Nightingale, J., De Rudder, A., Irie, H., Pinardi, G., Lambert, J.-C., and Compernolle, S. C.: Improving algorithms and uncertainty estimates for satellite NO2 retrievals: results from the quality assurance for the essential climate variables (QA4ECV) project, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 6651–6678, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6651-2018, 2018.

Sola, Y., Lorente, A., Lorente, J.: Analysis of the aerosol optical properties at a continental background site in the southern   Pyrenees (El Montsec, 1574 m a.s.l.). 2nd Iberian Meeting on Aerosol Science and Technology – RICTA 2014.