Air pollution in Asia and Europe
- A strong increase in nitrogen dioxide is observed by SCIAMACHY in countries and areas with a booming economy, in particular in China. This increase in air pollution is a severe problem for public health and receives increased attention from the Chinese government in particular with respect to the upcoming Olympic Games. Over Western Europe SCIAMACHY has observed a stabilisation of nitrogen dioxide levels attributed partly to increased traffic, after a period of reducing nitrogen dioxide levels in the nineties resulting from EU regulations. In the Eastern USA SCIAMACHY has observed decreases in nitrogen oxide emissions related to the recent implementation of pollution controls for power plants. In spite of the reduction of pollution over Europe, SCIAMACHY observed a combination of pollution enhanced natural emissions and fires during the extremely warm summer of 2003 resulting in a hazardous cocktail of air pollution, which contributed significantly to the high death toll. Climate studies predict that these warm summers will be commonplace by the middle of the century.
- SCIAMACHY closely monitors key components of air pollution in particular nitrogen dioxide, which procured from traffic, power generation, and both heavy and agricultural industry and thereby an important indicator of air pollution and a cause of summer smog.
Air pollution in Asia and Europe (click for larger image)
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Institute for Environmental Physics (IUP) Institut of Remote Sensing (IFE) University of Bremen, Otto-Hahn-Allee 1 28359 Bremen, Germany Contact to the IUP |
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