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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-5235</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Evaluating metre-scale methane plume simulations with MicroHH against AVIRIS-4 remote sensing observations</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Meier</surname>
<given-names>Sandro</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7374-5927</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Brunner</surname>
<given-names>Dominik</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4007-6902</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kuhlmann</surname>
<given-names>Gerrit</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7021-4712</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Empa, Laboratory for Air Pollution / Environmental Technology, Ueberlandstrasse 129, 8600 Duebendorf, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>12</day>
<month>10</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>32</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Sandro Meier et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5235/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5235/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5235/egusphere-2026-5235.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5235/egusphere-2026-5235.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>High-resolution imaging spectrometers resolve anthropogenic plumes at metre to sub-metre scales, creating opportunities for emission quantification but requiring models that reproduce turbulent plume morphology at comparable resolution. We evaluate the large-eddy simulation model MicroHH against Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-4) observations from 2024 controlled releases in France. Using site-specific wind, surface, and source parameters, we simulated the four releases with the longest plumes at 1 m horizontal resolution. Synthetic CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; column enhancements were evaluated using plume structure, turbulence spectra, Gaussian cross-section statistics, along-plume flux variability, and plume power spectral density. For one release with a pronounced double plume, we integrated the three-dimensional model field along the slant illumination and viewing paths to investigate parallax effects. MicroHH reproduced the expected inertial-subrange behaviour of turbulent kinetic energy spectra and observed plume width, intermittency, and spatial power spectra for most releases. However, modelled vertical columns were more Gaussian than the observations and did not reproduce the double plumes. The exploratory slant-path calculation generated a comparable double structure, indicating that observational geometry can explain part of this discrepancy. Other differences likely reflect rapid near-source dilution at finite grid resolution, the absence of online plume-rise and buoyancy treatments, and omitted obstacle effects on near-surface flow. Overall, MicroHH can generate realistic high-resolution synthetic plume imagery for retrieval evaluation and machine-learning applications when inputs are well constrained and observational geometry is considered. This first systematic multi-metric comparison of LES plume morphology with metre-scale imaging-spectrometer observations provides a validation framework for other high-resolution dispersion models.</p>
</abstract>
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