Black carbon emissions from flaring in Russia in the period 2012–2017

Gas flaring in the oil and gas industry has been identified as an important source of anthropogenic black carbon (BC) affecting climate, particularly Arctic. Our study provides spatially-explicit estimates BC emissions from Russia utilising state-of-the-art methodology for determining emission factors. We utilised satellite time series flared volume Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) period 2012 to 2017, supplemented with information on field type. at locations were calculated based type-specific factors, taking into account different compositions each estimate that average annual 68.3 Gg/year, largest proportion stemming fields (82%). observed a decrease yearly during 2017 regional differences trend. results highlight importance detailed composition stage separation reduce uncertainties estimates.