Recommendations on the measurement techniques of atmospheric pollutants from in situ and satellite observations: a review

Abstract

Measurement of atmospheric air pollutants (aerosols, NO2, O3, CO, HCHO, and SO2) is essential for characterizing the environmental and biogeochemical process to monitor the air quality. The concerned measurement methods and instrumentations are complex due to the weak spectral characteristics and very low concentration in volume mixtures of them in the atmosphere. This narrative review focuses on the fundamental and advanced concepts of almost all the in situ and satellite-based methods and instrumentations for measuring the gaseous and other air pollutants in the earth-atmosphere interaction. This paper discusses the literature of past and present developments in the measurement methods and instrumentations by highlighting their positive and negative feedbacks. The developing history (1970–2020) of space-borne instrumentations is indicated along with their techniques and capability to compute the concentration of the atmospheric pollutants for monitoring the air quality (air pollution) and climate in large (regional to global) scale. Several applications of the satellite instruments are described in terms of some important pollutant gases, most of which are known as ambient air pollutant. This study makes some recommendations to the readers so that they can utilize the measurement methods and instrumentations to estimate the important air pollutants such as NO2, SO3, O3, CO, and aerosols as well as for setting up future guidelines and air pollution control policies regarding the epidemiology and public health issues.