A51B-0037
Trend analysis of satellite-observed tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities over East Asia for 2005-2014
Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Takuya Muto, Center for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan, Hitoshi Irie, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan and Syuichi Itahashi, Central Research Institute of Electic Power Industry, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract:
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) plays a central role in the troposphere as a toxic substance for the respiratory system and a precursor for ozone and aerosols. Furthermore, the OH concentration is dependent on the NO2 concentration. While trend analysis for tropospheric NO2 concentrations in several specific regions all over the world was made in literature for period until 2011, the latest trends after 2011 have not been reported yet. The time period after 2011 is of interest, because it corresponds to the 12th 5-year-plan regulating NOx emissions in China and the period with the power substitution of thermal power generation for the nuclear power generation in Japan. In this study, we first compared satellite-observed tropospheric NO2 VCDs (Vertical Column Densities) with those observed by ground-based Multi-Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) instruments installed at Chiba University in order to clarify whether or not there is degradation in OMI and GOME-2 NO2 VCDs data after 2011. We concluded that there is no significant degradation in OMI and GOME-2 data, since the comparison results are similar to those reported by previous validation studies. Based on the results, tropospheric NO2 VCD trends over Central Eastern China (CEC; 30-40°N, 110.0-123.0°E) and Japan (JPN; 33.5-37.0°N, 133.0-141.0°E) regions were estimated using the regression analysis for annual mean values. Although an increase in NO2 VCDs occurred at a rate of 6%(8%) per year in OMI (GOME-2) data from 2005(2007) to 2011 over CEC, we found a decrease at a rate of 10%(11%) per year from 2011 to 2014. This reduction may be a result from the regulation of NOx emissions from coal fired power generation, iron foundry, cement plant, etc., and installation of the denitrification units during the period of 12th 5-year-plan. For JPN, both OMI and GOME-2 data sets showed that the NO2 VCDs decreased at a rate of 4% per year before 2011. The decreasing trends continued until 2014, with a rate of 1-7% per year for 2011-2014. Thus, we concluded that there is no significant impact of the power substitution of thermal power generation for the nuclear power generation in the JPN region covering urban areas in Japan.
