TROPOMI Observations of the Atmospheric Composition over the Middle East

TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on-board the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite launched in October 2017 has pushed the frontier for satellite observation of air composition. It has been delivering publicly available daily global coverage of total column density of atmospheric compositions with fine spatial resolution since 2018. Such a dataset enables us to monitor atmospheric constituents and identify major contributors of air pollution all over the world. The current condition of air pollution at different regions and changing pattern of each pollutant over time can be evaluated using TROPOMI’s high quality retrieval dataset. The Middle East, comprised of many developing countries, is one of the critical regions where the issue of air pollution is highlighted. We report here nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), formaldehyde (HCHO) and carbon monoxide (CO) products from TROPOMI for different regions in the Middle East subjected to air pollution. Changing pattern of these constituents over seasons of the year accompanied with different weather parameters such as wind speed, temperature, and atmospheric mixing, are investigated by sampling global meteorological datasets at satellite sounding time and locations. Emissions and lifetime are estimated using observation data-driven approaches, leveraging the collocation of emission sources. This study will broaden our vision in air quality condition of the region and help to increase the capability of implementing effective pollution reduction policies in the Middle East.