"Estimating surface sulfur dioxide concentrations over eastern China us" by Zachary Watson

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Atmospheric and Earth Science

Committee Chair

Shanhu Lee

Committee Member

Can Li

Committee Member

Leiqiu Hu

Research Advisor

Shanhu Lee

Subject(s)

Sulfur dioxide--China--Remote sensing, Sulfur dioxide mitigation

Abstract

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a key air pollutant as it contributes to negative health effects, acid rain, and aerosol formation. Using satellite data to monitor surface SO2 concentrations can fill in the gaps of ground-based air quality networks in less populated areas. In this study, SO2 retrievals from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) were employed to estimate annual and seasonal average surface SO2 concentrations over eastern China, a major anthropogenic source region, from 2015 to 2018. The OMI-derived surface SO2 concentrations had a similar spatial distribution and temporal trends as ground-based measurements from an air quality monitoring network, but they were underestimated by 75-80%. As the SO2 concentrations decreased over the study period, the consistency between the OMI-derived concentrations and in-situ measurements also worsened. As global SO2 emissions decrease, higher resolution satellites and models, or new methods such as machine learning, may be more useful for this application.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.