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

石油和天然气工业中的天然气燃烧被认为是影响气候，特别是在北极的人为黑碳（BC）的重要来源。我们的研究使用最先进的方法来确定排放因子，从而提供了俄罗斯火炬气燃烧产生的BC排放的空间明晰估计。我们利用了可见红外成像辐射计套件（VIIRS）在2012年至2017年期间产生的火炬气量的卫星时间序列，并补充了有关油气田类型的信息。考虑到每种田间类型的不同气体成分，基于特定于田间类型的排放因子计算了扩口位置的BC排放量。我们估计，俄罗斯火炬燃烧产生的年平均BC排放量为68.3 Gg /年，其中最大的比例来自油田（82％）。我们观察到2012年至2017年期间的年排放量有所减少，趋势上存在地区差异。我们的结果强调了有关气体成分和火炬气油气分离阶段的详细信息对于减少BC排放估算中不确定性的重要性。