Pope, RJ orcid.org/0000-0002-3587-837X, Arnold, SR orcid.org/0000-0002-4881-5685, Chipperfield, MP orcid.org/0000-0002-6803-4149 et al. (3 more authors) (2018) Widespread changes in UK air quality observed from space. Atmospheric Science Letters, 19 (5). e817. ISSN 1530-261X
Abstract
Previous studies have used surface observations of pollutants (e.g., nitrogen dioxide [NO₂] and aerosols) to evaluate improvements in United Kingdom (UK) air quality over recent decades. However, surface monitoring networks provide limited spatial coverage and are not always representative of air quality over a wider region. Satellite observations, such as tropospheric column NO₂ (TCNO₂), aerosol optical depth (AOD) and sub‐column (0–6 km) ozone (SCO₃), provide widespread monitoring of air quality on a national scale. In this study, we use such observations to analyse trends in UK air quality, between 2005 and 2015, finding significant decreases in TCNO₂ and AOD over UK pollution hotspots. The largest changes in short‐lived NO₂ are located over populated (i.e., source) regions, associated with large emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOₓ). AOD changes are more spread out, and less strongly associated with source regions, due to a longer aerosol lifetime, secondary aerosol formation and non‐urban aerosol sources. SCO₃ shows no significant trends over England/Wales, but significant positive trends over Scotland, which is consistent with previous studies of changes in background tropospheric ozone in other remote regions of north‐western Europe.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2018, The Authors. Atmospheric Science Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the Royal Meteorological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/], which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | air quality; earth observation; tropospheric column NO₂ |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC NCEO READING NERC No External Ref NERC No External Reference NERC NE/P016421/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 28 Jun 2018 16:25 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:24 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/asl.817 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:132525 |
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