Space-based measurements of air quality during the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai

During the World Exposition 2010 (Expo, from May to October), emission control measures were implemented in Shanghai and surrounding areas to improve the air quality. To evaluate the effect of these measures, we use the tropospheric NO2 column, aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and CO concentration observations from the satellite instruments GOME-2, MODIS and MOPITT, respectively. The analysis shows about 8% and 14% reductions of tropospheric NO2 columns and AOT respectively over Shanghai during the Expo period, compared to the past three years. A 12% reduction of CO concentration at 700 hPa over Shanghai and surrounding areas is found during the Expo period. On the other hand, the satellite measurements show increases of NO2 by 20% and AOT by 23% over Shanghai urban areas after the Expo (November 2010–April 2011), when the short-term emission control measures were lifted. Our study indicates that the air quality measures were effective in Shanghai and surrounding provinces during the Expo period.

[1]  Ralph Ferraro,et al.  Special sensor microwave imager derived global rainfall estimates for climatological applications , 1997 .

[2]  John C. Gille,et al.  Algorithm Theoretical Basis Document , 1999 .

[3]  Jianping Li,et al.  Impacts of Asian summer monsoon on seasonal and interannual variations of aerosols over eastern China , 2010 .

[4]  David G. Streets,et al.  Reductions in emissions of local air pollutants and co-benefits of Chinese energy policy: a Shanghai case study , 2006 .

[5]  Chunsheng Zhao,et al.  Ozone photochemical production in urban Shanghai, China: Analysis based on ground level observations , 2009 .

[6]  Yoon-Seok Chang,et al.  Carbon monoxide monitoring in Northeast Asia using MOPITT : Effects of biomass burning and regional pollution in April 2000 , 2006 .

[7]  J. Janowiak,et al.  CMORPH: A Method that Produces Global Precipitation Estimates from Passive Microwave and Infrared Data at High Spatial and Temporal Resolution , 2004 .

[8]  John C. Gille,et al.  Satellite observations of changes in air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Paralympics , 2009 .

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

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

[11]  Xingying Zhang,et al.  The trend, seasonal cycle, and sources of tropospheric NO2 over China during 1997–2006 based on satellite measurement , 2007 .

[12]  Xingying Zhang,et al.  The trend, seasonal cycle, and sources of tropospheric NO 2 over China during 1997―2006 based on satellite measurement , 2007 .

[13]  J. Mao,et al.  Traffic restrictions in Beijing during the Sino-African Summit 2006: aerosol size distribution and visibility compared to long-term in situ observations , 2008 .

[14]  Tao Wang,et al.  Tropospheric ozone climatology over Beijing: analysis of aircraft data from the MOZAIC program , 2007 .

[15]  John C. Gille,et al.  Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) validation exercises during summer 2004 field campaigns over North America , 2007 .

[16]  J. Lamarque,et al.  Validation of Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) CO retrievals with aircraft in situ profiles , 2004 .

[17]  Z. Qingcun,et al.  A new monsoon index and the geographical distribution of the global monsoons , 2003 .

[18]  C. Chan,et al.  Air pollution in mega cities in China , 2008 .

[19]  Renjian Zhang,et al.  Agricultural Fire Impacts on the Air Quality of Shanghai during Summer Harvesttime , 2010 .

[20]  Qing Yang,et al.  Impact of East Asian summer monsoon on the air quality over China: View from space , 2010 .

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

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

[23]  David G. Streets,et al.  Emission inventory of anthropogenic air pollutants and VOC species in the Yangtze River Delta region, China , 2011 .

[24]  E. Vermote,et al.  Second‐generation operational algorithm: Retrieval of aerosol properties over land from inversion of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer spectral reflectance , 2007 .

[25]  E. Vermote,et al.  The MODIS Aerosol Algorithm, Products, and Validation , 2005 .

[26]  Zhanqing Li,et al.  Assessment and comparison of three years of Terra and Aqua MODIS Aerosol Optical Depth Retrieval (C005) in Chinese terrestrial regions , 2010 .

[27]  J. W. Munger,et al.  Ozone Air Quality During the 2008 Beijing Olympics: Effectiveness of Emission Restrictions , 2009 .

[28]  Yang Liu,et al.  Recent changes in particulate air pollution over China observed from space and the ground: effectiveness of emission control. , 2010, Environmental science & technology.

[29]  J. Burrows,et al.  Increase in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide over China observed from space , 2005, Nature.

[30]  K. F. Boersma,et al.  Traffic restrictions associated with the Sino‐African summit: Reductions of NOx detected from space , 2007 .

[31]  J. Lamarque,et al.  Operational carbon monoxide retrieval algorithm and selected results for the MOPITT instrument , 2003 .

[32]  Fuzhong Weng,et al.  Precipitation characteristics over land from the NOAA‐15 AMSU sensor , 2000 .