scholarly journals PM10 EXCEEDANCE IN BULGARIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1129-1138
Author(s):  
Iliyana Naydenova ◽  
Tsvetelina Petrova ◽  
Rositsa Velichkova ◽  
Iskra Simova
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Winter Period ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Residential Heating ◽  
Current State ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Legislative Framework

Despite the effort done by member states during the last decade, failure in the implementation of the Ambient Air Quality Directive is being continuously registered in many European cities for different air pollutants. One of the biggest concerns in Bulgaria is the exceeded PM10 concentration in the ambient air, measured in all six air quality zones during the winter period. This has induced numerous activities (at the national and European level) focused on the following issues: identification of the level of exceedance of the air quality norms for PM10; the general emission sources; the most prominent omissions and discrepancies in the legislative framework; the level of implementation of the prescribed measures and many others. However, the PM10 exceedance is still of a significant concern in at least 28 municipalities in Bulgaria. Thus, the present work introduces a brief report on the current state of the problem in the country. For that purpose, benchmarking analyses was applied for obtaining the range of discrepancies and the tendencies of the PM10 concentrations, monitored in the ambient air at the affected municipalities. The investigation was carried out using merely officially reported and freely accessible data and covered a relatively short period of time of six years. The latest national and European environmental reports present data confirming the primary role of residential heating and transport during the winter period as well as at the occurrence of particular atmospheric conditions.

Day-to-day variations in paddy-residue burning and residential heating emissions control aerosol pollution peaks in rural north-west India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harshita Pawar ◽  
Baerbel Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Winter Season ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Rural Site ◽  
North West ◽  
Daily Average ◽  
Residential Heating

<p>November onwards, the poor air quality over north-west India is blamed on the large-scale paddy residue burning in Punjab and Haryana. However, the emission strength of this source remains poorly constrained due to the lack of ground-based measurements within the rural source regions. In this study, we report the particulate matter (PM) levels at Nadampur, a rural site in the Sangrur district of Punjab that witnesses rampant paddy residue burning, using the Airveda low-cost PM sensors from October to December 2019. The raw PM measurements from the sensor were corrected using the Random Forest machine learning algorithm. The daily average PM<sub>10</sub> and PM<sub>2.5</sub> mass concentration at Nadampur correlated well  (r > 0.7) with the daily sum of VIIRS fire counts. Agricultural activities, including paddy residue burning and harvesting operations, contributed less than 40% to the overall PM loading, even in the peak burning period at Nadampur. We show that the increased residential heating emissions in the winter season have a profound and currently neglected impact on ambient air quality. A dip in the daily average temperature by 1 ºC increased the daily emission of PM<sub>10</sub> by 6.3 tonnes and that of PM<sub>2.5</sub> by 5.8 tonnes. Overall, paddy harvest, local and regional paddy residue burning, residential heating emissions, ventilation, and wet scavenging could explain 79% of the variations in PM<sub>10</sub> and 85% of the variations in PM<sub>2.5</sub>. Day to day variations in PM emissions from residential heating in response to the ambient temperature must be incorporated into emission inventories and models for accurate air quality forecasts.</p>

Role of Chinese cooking emissions on ambient air quality and human health

2017 ◽  
Vol 589 ◽  
pp. 173-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Wang ◽  
Zhiyuan Xiang ◽  
Svetlana Stevanovic ◽  
Zoran Ristovski ◽  
Farhad Salimi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Quality ◽  
Chinese Cooking

scholarly journals Ambient Air Quality and Human Health: Current Concepts—Part 1

1995 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 211-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tee L Guidotti
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Human Health ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Respiratory Health ◽  
Quality Standards ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Quality ◽  
Air Quality Standards ◽  
Current State ◽  
Recent Developments

There is a fundamental reevaluation of the association between air quality and human health taking place. This reevaluation is motivated by several recent developments: increasing interest in air quality as an environmental issue; interest in the unanswered questions regarding the epidemiology of asthma; and the reduced prevalence of the principal hazard to respiratory health, cigarette smoking, the control of which invites interest in second-order determinants of health. This article attempts to provide a framework for understanding air quality issues that pertain to human health. The objective is to provide the specialist in respiratory medicine with an overview that will assist in educating patients and in responding to their inquiries, and to equip the physician to respond to requests for assistance or interpretation when called upon to comment on public policy issues involving air pollution. The implications of setting air quality standards or objectives to meet arbitrary levels of risk of health effects are examined. The current state of the art does not support risk-based air quality standards. A policy of continuous improvement is most protective of both human health and the environment.

scholarly journals Assessment of Air Pollution in Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pornpan Uttamang ◽  
Viney P. Aneja ◽  
Adel Hanna
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Ratio Analysis ◽  
Mobile Sources ◽  
Criteria Pollutants ◽  
Photostationary State ◽  
Dry Seasons

Abstract. Analysis of gaseous criteria pollutants in Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand, during 2010–2014 reveals that the hourly concentrations of CO, SO2 and NO2 were mostly below the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQs) of Thailand. However, the hourly concentrations of O3 exceeded the Thailand NAAQs. The maximum concentrations of O3 ranged from 120–190 ppb. On average, the number of hourly O3 exceedances ranged from 1–60 hours a year depending on monitoring station locations. The exceedances occurred during the summer and winter, dry seasons. Interconversion between O3, NO and NO2 indicates crossover points between species occur when the concentration of NOx ([NOx] = [NO]+[NO2]) is ~ 60 ppb. However, when [NOx]  60 ppb. The calculated photochemical reaction rate (the reaction between NO2 with sunlight), during photostationary state ranges from 0.12 to 1.22 min−1. Linear regression analysis between the concentrations of Ox ([Ox ] = [O3]+[NO2]) and NOx provides the role of local and regional contributions to Ox . Both the local and regional Ox contributions enhance the concentration of Ox . Values of the local and regional Ox contributions during non-episode were ~ 44–54 ppb and ~ 0.13[NOx ] to 0.33[NOx ], respectively. Those values were about double during O3 episodes ([O3] > 100 ppb). Ratio analysis suggests that the major contributors of primary pollutants over BMR are mobile sources (CO/NOx = 19.8). The Air Quality Index (AQI) for BMR was predominantly between good to moderate. Unhealthy O3 categories were observed during episode conditions in the region.

scholarly journals Source Apportionment of PM2.5, PAH and Arsenic Air Pollution in Central Bohemia

Environments ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Radim Seibert ◽  
Irina Nikolova ◽  
Vladimíra Volná ◽  
Blanka Krejčí ◽  
Daniel Hladký
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Source Apportionment ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Residential Heating ◽  
Aerosol Mass ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Coal Fuel ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic

The results of air quality monitoring show significantly increased concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and arsenic in the area located near the town of Kladno in Central Bohemia, Czech Republic. The region of interest is historically associated with coal mines and steelworks. Source apportionment using the method of Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) at three sites has been used to try to explain the reasons of the increased PM2.5, benzo[a]pyrene, and arsenic concentrations in the ambient air. Based on the PMF analysis, nine factors explaining the atmospheric aerosol mass have been identified. The PMF results showed that most of the aerosol mass originated from residential heating (about one third of PM2.5), both primary particles and secondary organic aerosols induced by road traffic (up to approximately 25%), soil and other mineral dust (about 15%), secondary inorganic aerosol ammonium sulfate (up to 16%), ammonium nitrate (up to 14%) and other sulfates (up to 9%). The main source of arsenic and benzo[a]pyrene was residential heating, which accounted for two-thirds and 80% of their total mass, respectively. The results have pointed to the most important measures for effective air quality protection in the area of interest: replacing coal fuel and old boilers used for residential heating in order to reduce arsenic and PAH emissions and mitigate sources of secondary particles precursors to decrease PM concentrations.

scholarly journals Temporal evolution of main ambient PM<sub>2. 5</sub> sources in Santiago, Chile, from 1998 to 2012

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 10093-10107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Barraza ◽  
Fabrice Lambert ◽  
Héctor Jorquera ◽  
Ana María Villalobos ◽  
Laura Gallardo
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Fine Particulate Matter ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
World Health ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Motor Vehicles ◽  
Urban Dust ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Wood Burning ◽  
Industrial Sources

Abstract. The inhabitants of Santiago, Chile have been exposed to harmful levels of air pollutants for decades. The city's poor air quality is a result of steady economic growth, and stable atmospheric conditions adverse to mixing and ventilation that favor the formation of oxidants and secondary aerosols. Identifying and quantifying the sources that contribute to the ambient levels of pollutants is key for designing adequate mitigation measures. Estimating the evolution of source contributions to ambient pollution levels is also paramount to evaluating the effectiveness of pollution reduction measures that have been implemented in recent decades. Here, we quantify the main sources that have contributed to fine particulate matter (PM2. 5) between April 1998 and August 2012 in downtown Santiago by using two different source-receptor models (PMF 5.0 and UNMIX 6.0) that were applied to elemental measurements of 1243 24 h filter samples of ambient PM2.5. PMF resolved six sources that contributed to ambient PM2. 5, with UNMIX producing similar results: motor vehicles (37.3 ± 1.1 %), industrial sources (18.5 ± 1.3 %), copper smelters (14.4 ± 0.8 %), wood burning (12.3 ± 1.0 %), coastal sources (9.5 ± 0.7 %) and urban dust (3.0 ± 1.2 %). Our results show that over the 15 years analyzed here, four of the resolved sources significantly decreased [95 % confidence interval]: motor vehicles 21.3 % [2.6, 36.5], industrial sources 39.3 % [28.6, 48.4], copper smelters 81.5 % [75.5, 85.9], and coastal sources 58.9 % [38.5, 72.5], while wood burning did not significantly change and urban dust increased by 72 % [48.9, 99.9]. These changes are consistent with emission reduction measures, such as improved vehicle emission standards, cleaner smelting technology, introduction of low-sulfur diesel for vehicles and natural gas for industrial processes, public transport improvements, etc. However, it is also apparent that the mitigation expected from the above regulations has been partially offset by the increasing amount of private vehicle use in the city, with motor vehicles becoming the dominant source of ambient PM2. 5 in recent years. Consequently, Santiago still experiences ambient PM2. 5 levels above the annual and 24 h Chilean and World Health Organization standards, and further regulations are required to reach ambient air quality standards.

Tracking Smoke from a Prescribed Fire and its Impacts on Local Air Quality using Temporally Resolved GOES-16 ABI Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy K. Huff ◽  
Shobha Kondragunta ◽  
Hai Zhang ◽  
Istvan Laszlo ◽  
Mi Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Aerosol Optical Depth ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Prescribed Fire ◽  
Fine Particulate Matter ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Absolute Error ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Polar Orbiting Satellite ◽  
Relative Change

AbstractAerosol optical depth (AOD) retrieved from the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) was used to track a smoke plume from a prescribed fire in northeastern Virginia on March 8, 2020. Weather and atmospheric conditions created a favorable environment to transport the plume through the Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland metro areas in the afternoon and concentrate smoke near the surface, degrading air quality for several hours. ABI AOD with 5-min temporal resolution and 2-km spatial resolution definitively identified the timing and geographic extent of the plume during daylight hours. Comparison to AERONET AOD indicates that ABI AOD captured the relative change in AOD due to passage of the smoke, with a mean absolute error of 0.047. Ground-based measurements of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) confirm deteriorations in air quality coincident with the progression of the smoke. Ceilometer aerosol backscatter profiles verify plume transport timing and indicate that smoke aerosols were well mixed in a shallow boundary layer. This event illustrates the advantages of using multiple datasets to analyze the impacts of aerosols on ambient air quality. Given the quickly evolving nature of the event over several hours, ABI AOD provided information for the public and decision-makers that was not available from any other source, including polar-orbiting satellite sensors. This study suggests that PM2.5 concentrations estimated from ABI AOD can be used to fill in the gaps in nationwide regulatory PM2.5 monitor networks and may be a valuable addition to EPA’s PM2.5 Nowcast of current air quality conditions.

scholarly journals Using TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) measurements and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) CO modelling to understand the contribution of meteorology and emissions to an extreme air pollution event in India

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (7) ◽  
pp. 5393-5414
Author(s):  
Ashique Vellalassery ◽  
Dhanyalekshmi Pillai ◽  
Julia Marshall ◽  
Christoph Gerbig ◽  
Michael Buchwitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Correlation Coefficient ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Atmospheric Dynamics ◽  
Weather Research And Forecasting ◽  
Gangetic Plain ◽  
Monitoring Instrument ◽  
Northern India ◽  
Weather Research

Abstract. Several ambient air quality records corroborate the severe and persistent degradation of air quality over northern India during the winter months, with evidence of a continued, increasing trend of pollution across the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) over the past decade. A combination of atmospheric dynamics and uncertain emissions, including the post-monsoon agricultural stubble burning, make it challenging to resolve the role of each individual factor. Here we demonstrate the potential use of an atmospheric transport model, the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry (WRF–Chem) to identify and quantify the role of transport mechanisms and emissions on the occurrence of the pollution events. The investigation is based on the use of carbon monoxide (CO) observations from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite and the surface measurement network, as well as the WRF–Chem simulations, to investigate the factors contributing to CO enhancement over India during November 2018. We show that the simulated column-averaged dry air mole fraction (XCO) is largely consistent with TROPOMI observations, with a spatial correlation coefficient of 0.87. The surface-level CO concentrations show larger sensitivities to boundary layer dynamics, wind speed, and diverging source regions, leading to a complex concentration pattern and reducing the observation-model agreement with a correlation coefficient ranging from 0.41 to 0.60 for measurement locations across the IGP. We find that daily satellite observations can provide a first-order inference of the CO transport pathways during the enhanced burning period, and this transport pattern is reproduced well in the model. By using the observations and employing the model at a comparable resolution, we confirm the significant role of atmospheric dynamics and residential, industrial, and commercial emissions in the production of the exorbitant level of air pollutants in northern India. We find that biomass burning plays only a minimal role in both column and surface enhancements of CO, except for the state of Punjab during the high pollution episodes. While the model reproduces observations reasonably well, a better understanding of the factors controlling the model uncertainties is essential for relating the observed concentrations to the underlying emissions. Overall, our study emphasizes the importance of undertaking rigorous policy measures, mainly focusing on reducing residential, commercial, and industrial emissions in addition to actions already underway in the agricultural sectors.

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