Trends and trend reversal detection in 2 decades of tropospheric NO2 satellite observations

Abstract. In this work, a ∼21-year global dataset from four different satellite sensors with a mid-morning overpass (GOME/ERS-2, SCIAMACHY/ENVISAT, GOME-2/Metop-A, and GOME-2/Metop-B) is compiled to study the long-term tropospheric NO2 patterns and trends. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) and GOME-2 data are “corrected” relative to the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) data to produce a self-consistent dataset that covers the period April 1996–September 2017. The highest tropospheric NO2 concentrations are seen over urban, industrialized, and highly populated areas and over ship tracks in the oceans. Tropospheric NO2 has generally decreased during the last 2 decades over the industrialized and highly populated regions of the western world (a total decrease of the order of ∼49 % over the US, the Netherlands, and the UK; ∼36 % over Italy and Japan; and ∼32 % over Germany and France) and increased over developing regions (a total increase of ∼160 % over China and ∼33 % over India). It is suggested here that linear trends cannot be used efficiently worldwide for such long periods. Tropospheric NO2 is very sensitive to socioeconomic changes (e.g., environmental protection policies, economic recession, warfare, etc.) which may cause either short-term changes or even a reversal of the trends. The application of a method capable of detecting the year when a reversal of trends happened shows that tropospheric NO2 concentrations switched from positive to negative trends and vice versa over several regions around the globe. A country-level analysis revealed clusters of countries that exhibit similar positive-to-negative or negative-to-positive trend reversals, while 29 out of a total of 64 examined megacities and large urban agglomerations experienced a trend reversal at some point within the last 2 decades.

[1]  Leonidas Ntziachristos,et al.  Evolution of NO x emissions in Europe with focus on road transport control measures , 2008 .

[2]  Louisa Emmons,et al.  Satellite constraints of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from India based on OMI observations and WRF‐Chem simulations , 2012 .

[3]  J. Hovenier,et al.  A fast method for retrieval of cloud parameters using oxygen A band measurements from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment , 2001 .

[4]  Martin Wild,et al.  Consistency of global satellite‐derived aerosol and cloud data sets with recent brightening observations , 2010 .

[5]  William Lahoz,et al.  Recent satellite-based trends of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide over large urban agglomerations worldwide , 2014 .

[6]  John P. Burrows,et al.  Satellite measurement based estimates of decadal changes in European nitrogen oxides emissions , 2008 .

[7]  Henk Eskes,et al.  TROPOMI on the ESA Sentinel-5 Precursor: A GMES mission for global observations of the atmospheric composition for climate, air quality and ozone layer applications , 2012 .

[8]  Andreas Hilboll,et al.  Evolution of NO2 levels in Spain from 1996 to 2012 , 2014, Scientific Reports.

[9]  Steffen Beirle,et al.  Highly Resolved Global Distribution of Tropospheric NO2 using GOME , 2003 .

[10]  I. D. Smedt,et al.  Validation of OMI, GOME-2A and GOME-2B tropospheric NO2, SO2 and HCHO products using MAX-DOAS observations from 2011 to 2014 in Wuxi, China , 2016 .

[11]  Michael Eisinger,et al.  The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME): Mission Concept and First Scientific Results , 1999 .

[12]  Steffen Beirle,et al.  Improving algorithms and uncertainty estimates for satellite NO2 retrievals: results from the quality assurance for the essential climate variables (QA4ECV) project , 2018, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

[13]  John P. Burrows,et al.  SCIAMACHY—scanning imaging absorption spectrometer for atmospheric chartography , 1992 .

[14]  Andreas Hilboll,et al.  Multi-annual changes of NO x emissions in megacity regions: nonlinear trend analysis of satellite measurement based estimates , 2010 .

[15]  Trissevgeni Stavrakou,et al.  Trend detection in satellite observations of formaldehyde tropospheric columns , 2010 .

[16]  Sean C. Solomon,et al.  On the role of nitrogen dioxide in the absorption of solar radiation , 1999 .

[17]  K. Boersma,et al.  Reductions of NO2 detected from space during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games , 2009 .

[18]  William L. Smith,et al.  IRS 2000: CURRENT PROBLEMS IN ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION , 2000 .

[19]  G. Stenchikov,et al.  Abrupt recent trend changes in atmospheric nitrogen dioxide over the Middle East , 2015, Science Advances.

[20]  K. F. Boersma,et al.  Reductions in nitrogen oxides over Europe driven by environmental policy and economic recession , 2012, Scientific Reports.

[21]  Michael Eisinger,et al.  The GOME-2 instrument on the Metop series of satellites: instrument design, calibration, and level 1 data processing – an overview , 2015 .

[22]  Nicolas Theys,et al.  Cleaning up the air: effectiveness of air quality policy for SO 2 and NO x emissions in China , 2016 .

[23]  J. Seinfeld,et al.  Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: From Air Pollution to Climate Change , 1997 .

[24]  Andreas Hilboll,et al.  Long-term changes of tropospheric NO 2 over megacities derived from multiple satellite instruments , 2012 .

[25]  M. Buchwitz,et al.  SCIAMACHY: Mission Objectives and Measurement Modes , 1999 .

[26]  Klaus Pfeilsticker,et al.  An intercomparison campaign of ground-based UV-visible measurements of NO2, BrO, and OClO slant columns: Methods of analysis and results for NO2 , 2005 .

[27]  Pieter Valks,et al.  Operational total and tropospheric NO 2 column retrieval for GOME-2 , 2011 .

[28]  Kostas Kourtidis,et al.  Differences between the MODIS Collection 6 and 5.1 aerosol datasets over the greater Mediterranean region , 2016 .

[29]  Jiming Hao,et al.  On-road vehicle emissions and their control in China: A review and outlook. , 2017, The Science of the total environment.

[30]  F. A. Gifford,et al.  Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics of Air Pollution , 1987 .

[31]  Gerrit de Leeuw,et al.  Spatial and seasonal variations of aerosols over China from two decades of multi-satellite observations – Part 2: AOD time series for 1995–2017 combined from ATSR ADV and MODIS C6.1 and AOD tendency estimations , 2018, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

[32]  Philipp Schneider,et al.  A global single‐sensor analysis of 2002–2011 tropospheric nitrogen dioxide trends observed from space , 2012 .

[33]  Henk Eskes,et al.  Evaluation of stratospheric NO2 retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument : intercomparison, diurnal cycle and trending , 2011 .

[34]  Kebin He,et al.  Recent reduction in NOx emissions over China: synthesis of satellite observations and emission inventories , 2016 .

[35]  Henk Eskes,et al.  An improved tropospheric NO 2 column retrieval algorithm for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument , 2011 .

[36]  L. G. Tilstra,et al.  The Ozone Monitoring Instrument: overview of 14 years in space , 2017 .

[37]  Kostas Kourtidis,et al.  A high resolution satellite view of surface solar radiation over the climatically sensitive region of Eastern Mediterranean , 2017 .

[38]  A. Hahne,et al.  GOME-2 – Metop ’ s Second-Generation Sensor for Operational Ozone Monitoring , 2000 .

[39]  K. Boersma,et al.  Trends, seasonal variability and dominant NOx source derived from a ten year record of NO2 measured from space , 2008 .

[40]  J. Lelieveld,et al.  Trend analysis in aerosol optical depths and pollutant emission estimates between 2000 and 2009 , 2012 .

[41]  A. Pozzer,et al.  AOD trends during 2001–2010 from observations and model simulations , 2014 .

[42]  P. Braesicke,et al.  Interannual variability of tropospheric composition: the influence of changes in emissions, meteorology and clouds , 2009 .

[43]  Christos Zerefos,et al.  Economic crisis detected from space: Air quality observations over Athens/Greece , 2013 .

[44]  D. Streets,et al.  Satellite NO2 retrievals suggest China has exceeded its NOx reduction goals from the twelfth Five-Year Plan , 2016, Scientific Reports.

[45]  Ronald C. Cohen,et al.  Trends in OMI NO 2 observations over the United States: effects of emission control technology and the economic recession , 2012 .

[46]  J. Seinfeld,et al.  Atmospheric equilibrium model of sulfate and nitrate aerosols , 1983 .

[47]  Randall V. Martin,et al.  Long-Term Trends Worldwide in Ambient NO2 Concentrations Inferred from Satellite Observations , 2015, Environmental health perspectives.

[48]  John P. Burrows,et al.  Inverse modelling of the spatial distribution of NO x emissions on a continental scale using satellite data , 2005 .

[49]  Aristeidis K. Georgoulias,et al.  A study of the impact of synoptic weather conditions and water vapor on aerosol–cloud relationships over major urban clusters of China , 2015 .

[50]  K. F. Boersma,et al.  Improved slant column density retrieval of nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde for OMI and GOME-2A from QA4ECV: intercomparison, uncertainty characterisation, and trends , 2018, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

[51]  Henk Eskes,et al.  Error analysis for tropospheric NO2 retrieval from space , 2004 .

[52]  Henk Eskes,et al.  Detection of the trend and seasonal variation in tropospheric NO2 over China , 2006 .

[53]  Frank Gilliland,et al.  Emissions reduction policies and recent trends in Southern California’s ambient air quality , 2015, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association.

[54]  J. Burrows,et al.  NO 2 pollution over India observed from space – the impact of rapid economic growth, and a recent decline , 2017 .

[55]  K. Boersma,et al.  Reductions of NO 2 detected from space during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games , 2009 .

[56]  A. J. Miller,et al.  Factors affecting the detection of trends: Statistical considerations and applications to environmental data , 1998 .

[57]  Henk Eskes,et al.  Intercomparison of SCIAMACHY and OMI Tropospheric NO2 Columns: Observing the Diurnal Evolution of Chemistry and Emissions from Space , 2008 .

[58]  Steffen Beirle,et al.  Highly resolved global distribution of tropospheric NO 2 using GOME narrow swath mode data , 2004 .

[59]  Bin Zhao,et al.  NO x emissions in China: historical trends and future perspectives , 2013 .

[60]  T. Berntsen,et al.  Atmospheric Ozone and Methane in a Changing Climate , 2014, ATMOS 2014.

[61]  David G. Streets,et al.  Aura OMI observations of regional SO2 and NO2 pollution changes from 2005 to 2015 , 2015 .