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Editor's Highlight
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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 33,
L22812,
doi:10.1029/2006GL027749,
2006
Satellite-observed U.S. power plant NOx emission reductions and their impact on air quality
S.-W. Kim
Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA
A. Heckel
Institute of Environmental Physics and Institute of Remote Sensing, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
S. A. McKeen
Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA
G. J. Frost
Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA
E.-Y. Hsie
Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA
M. K. Trainer
Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA
A. Richter
Institute of Environmental Physics and Institute of Remote Sensing, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
J. P. Burrows
Institute of Environmental Physics and Institute of Remote Sensing, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
S. E. Peckham
Global Systems Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA
G. A. Grell
Global Systems Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Abstract
Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions resulting from fossil fuel combustion lead to unhealthy levels of near-surface ozone (O3). One of the largest U.S. sources, electric power generation, represented about 25% of the U.S. anthropogenic NOx emissions in 1999. Here we show that space-based instruments observed declining regional NOx levels between 1999 and 2005 in response to the recent implementation of pollution controls by utility companies in the eastern
U.S. Satellite-retrieved summertime nitrogen dioxide (NO2) columns and bottom-up emission estimates show larger decreases in the Ohio River Valley, where power plants dominate NOx emissions, than in the northeast U.S. urban corridor. Model simulations predict lower O3 across much of the eastern U.S. in response to these emission reductions.
Received 1
August
2006;
accepted 24
October
2006;
published 29
November
2006.
Keywords: SCIAMACHY;
satellite;
power plant;
NOx emission.
Index Terms: 0345 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Pollution: urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251); 0368 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry; 0365 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Troposphere: composition and chemistry.
Read Full Article (file size: 911201 bytes) Cited by
Citation: Kim, S.-W., A. Heckel, S. A. McKeen, G. J. Frost, E.-Y. Hsie, M. K. Trainer, A. Richter, J. P. Burrows, S. E. Peckham, and G. A. Grell
(2006),
Satellite-observed U.S. power plant NOx emission reductions and their impact on air quality,
Geophys. Res. Lett.,
33,
L22812,
doi:10.1029/2006GL027749.
Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.
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