RESPIRE-CLIMATE: A free and interactive web platform providing daily and annual high-resolution greenhouse gas emissions data across Spain, enabling users to explore, compare and download carbon dioxide and methane emissions by sector, region and year.
RESPIRE-AIR: An advanced emissions processing system that transforms official inventories into high-resolution, model-ready emissions datasets, supporting more accurate air quality modelling across Spain.
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) and the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) have successfully completed the project “high-Resolution air Emissions Systems to support modellIng and monitoRing Efforts” (RESPIRE), a strategic initiative aimed at producing robust emissions information to support air quality modelling and greenhouse gas (GHG) monitoring in Spain.
RESPIRE was established to address a key challenge: the need for high-resolution emissions data to support scientific modelling and climate policies. Since July 2023, researchers from BSC and AEMET have developed innovative tools that transform complex emissions information into operational products that can be used by scientists, public administrations and other stakeholders.
Launch of RESPIRE-CLIMATE
One of the achievements of the project is the RESPIRE-CLIMATE web app that makes GHG emissions data accessible. The platform allows users to explore carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) emissions across Spain through interactive maps and dynamic visualisations. RESPIRE-CLIMATE provides data emissions by different sectors such as transport or industry and by multiple spatial scales such as autonomous communities, metropolitan areas, mainland Spain, the Balearic Islands, and the Canary Islands.
The platform offers two types of emissions data:
- Daily emissions estimates, available from 2024 onwards and updated regularly with a delay of no more than three months.
- Annual high-resolution emissions datasets, derived from Spain’s official greenhouse gas inventories compiled by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) and reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
RESPIRE-CLIMATE is recognized by the World Meteorological Organisation IG3IS initiative for its development and application of advanced tools for modelling and measuring greenhouse gas emissions. “This recognition reinforces the credibility of the system and highlights its international relevance for high-resolution GHG emissions monitoring”, says Paula Castesana, coordinator of RESPIRE-CLIMATE and researcher at BSC.
RESPIRE-AIR: advancing air quality modelling with HERMES Delta
Another main achievement is the development of HERMES Delta in RESPIRE-AIR, a national emission processing system designed to bridge the gap between official emissions inventories compiled by MITECO and the requirements of atmospheric models.
Official emissions inventories reported under the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) provide essential information on pollutant emissions, but they are not directly suitable for use in air quality models, which require emissions data at high spatial and temporal resolution. HERMES Delta addresses this challenge by transforming annual official inventories into model-ready emission datasets through the application of state-of-the-art spatial disaggregation, temporal allocation, vertical distribution and chemical speciation processes.
The system generates emissions data at 1 km × 1 km spatial resolution and hourly temporal resolution, enabling more accurate simulations of air pollution across Spain to support the requirements of the European Ambient Air Quality Directive 2024/2881. HERMES Delta has been designed as a flexible and scalable tool that can support multiple atmospheric modelling systems and future policy assessment applications. The system is currently integrated in pre-operational model as the emission core of the national air quality forecasting system maintained by AEMET, and it is expected to move to operational mode during the next months.
RESPIRE-AIR map showing the spatial distribution of NOₓ (nitrogen oxides) emissions in Spain (including the Canary Islands) in 2023, with a resolution of 1 km x 1 km.
Supporting future environmental policies
The completion of RESPIRE comes at a crucial moment for Europe’s environmental agenda. The increasing role of air quality modelling and GHG monitoring in environmental policy requires robust and transparent emissions information. The emission tools developed within RESPIRE strengthen Spain’s capacity to support these efforts through state-of-the-art emissions datasets and user-oriented information services. “The results of this project enhance Spain’s strategic capabilities for forecasting and monitoring atmospheric pollutants and greenhouse gases, thereby supporting decision-makers whilst contributing to other international efforts”, explains Marc Guevara, scientific coordinator of the project and researcher at BSC.
“Funding from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTyR) has enabled us to establish a collaboration whose results are a model of success between an operational public body such as AEMET and a public supercomputing centre such as the BSC”, states Yolanda Luna Rico, Head of the Development and Applications Department at AEMET.
The project partners are now preparing the next phase of RESPIRE, which will focus on further improving emissions estimates, expanding monitoring capabilities and strengthening support for air quality and greenhouse gas emissions policies at national, regional and local levels.
This article was first published on 2 July by BSC.
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