On the Overlap between Nitrogen Dioxide Inequalities, Urban Air Quality, and Climate in U.S. Cities

Neighborhood-level nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) inequalities can be observed from space using the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Past research relied on time-averaging through oversampling to improve measurement spatial detail, resulting in a loss of temporal information useful for situating NO₂ inequalities in broader air quality and climate contexts and for informing relevant policies. We recently demonstrated that coarser-resolution daily measurements from TROPOMI capture a major portion of census tract-scale NO₂ inequalities in Houston, Texas, New York City, New York, and Newark, New Jersey. Here, we build on this research, reporting daily NO₂ inequalities in 21 major U.S. cities over almost six years, May 2018–November 2023. We use these daily inequality observations to analyze the often-overlapping spatiotemporal variability in NO₂ inequalities, ozone air pollution, urban heat, and other climate-relevant variables, discussing unequal cumulative environmental burdens and ozone regulatory co-benefits.