P3.10
Air Quality, Population and Energy Usage over Global Mega cities
Pawan Gupta, Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, AL; and S. A. Christopher
Urban air quality has raised critical public health concern in many parts of the globe as urbanization and industrialization have amplified many folds during the last few decades. Almost, half of the world's population now lives in urban areas and their number will increase to four billion by the end of this decade. Particulate matter (PM or aerosols) is one of the major pollutant affecting the air quality in urban areas of the world. It is very important to monitor aerosols, because they affect human health and play an important role in atmospheric processes that are linked with climate change. Recent research studies have successfully demonstrated the capabilities of satellite remote sensing in monitoring air quality even in remote areas of the world with sufficient accuracy. In this study aerosol optical thickness observations from MODIS on board Earth Observing System Terra and Aqua satellites are used to obtain air quality information over several urban locations throughout the world. Human activities and energy usage have direct link to air quality conditions. Human population, fuel consumption and energy usage data along with vehicular population data sets obtained from different sources in several countries are used to analysis their impact on local as well as regional air quality conditions. In order to monitor inter-continental transport of pollutant by global wind circulation, back trajectory analysis and data from NCEP are used. Preliminary results from a study conducted over 100 mega cities show that there is positive correlation between human population and air quality conditions.
Poster Session 3, Environmental Applications
Wednesday, 1 February 2006, 2:30 PM-2:30 PM, Exhibit Hall A2
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