OMI satellite observations of decadal changes in ground-level sulfur dioxide over North America

  • Shailesh K. Kharol
  • , Chris A. McLinden
  • , Christopher E. Sioris
  • , Mark M. Shephard
  • , Vitali Fioletov
  • , Aaron Van Donkelaar
  • , Sajeev Philip
  • , Randall V. Martin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) has a significant impact on the environment and human health. We estimated ground-level sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentrations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) using SO2 profiles from the Global Environmental Multi-scale-Modelling Air quality and CHemistry (GEM-MACH) model over North America for the period of 2005-2015. OMI-derived ground-level SO2 concentrations (r=0. 61) and trends (r=0. 74) correlated well with coincident in situ measurements from air quality networks over North America. We found a strong decreasing trend in coincidently sampled ground-level SO2 from OMI (-81±19%) and in situ measurements (-86±13g%) over the eastern US for the period of 2005-2015, which reflects the implementation of stricter pollution control laws, including flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) devices in power plants. The spatially and temporally contiguous OMI-derived ground-level SO2 concentrations can be used to assess the impact of long-Term exposure to SO2 on the health of humans and the environment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5921-5929
Number of pages9
JournalAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Volume17
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - May 15 2017

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