Abstract
ABSTRACTThe rapid development of atmospheric satellite instruments since 1990s provides unprecedented large amount of observational datasets concerning global atmospheric pollutants. The continuous and long-term large-scale satellite products such as aerosol optical depth, tropospheric NO2 and SO2 enable effective and objective evaluation of air quality. Satellite columnar aerosol optical parameters can be used to indicate particle pollution near surface after correction. By contrast, satellite results of trace gas pollutants such as NO2 and SO2 from fossil fuel combustion with short lifetime around half one day are used to estimate anthropogenic emissions. It is shown that the overall anthropogenic emissions in China have largely declined since strict emission reduction policy implemented since 2013. However, coarse pixel resolution of the trace gases, limited information and retrieval bias of aerosol properties tend to hinder further application of satellite in air quality research. Recently launched satellite missions with advanced detection abilities will greatly enhance global atmospheric observations with much more datasets available.
Highlights
IntroductionJia No. North, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, P.O. Box 9718, This article has been republished with minor changes
Since the very first attempt of Landsat (Kaufman & Joseph, 1982), more and more sophisticated satellite sensors have been consecutively developed to obtain a comprehensive view of the global air quality concerning anthropogenic emissions, pollutant transportation, and their influence on public health
The twin moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors flying on Terra since 2000 and Aqua since 2002, create a valuable long-term observations of global aerosols (Levy et al, 2013), which have been widely used to answer scientific questions related to particle pollution (Engel-Cox et al, 2004; Wang & Christopher, 2003)
Summary
Jia No. North, Datun Road, Chaoyang District, P.O. Box 9718, This article has been republished with minor changes. A-Train (pass at close time as train after noon) satellite constellation since 2002 provides unprecedented data information to investigate air quality and corresponding regional processes from space (Tao, Chen, Su, & Tao, 2012). The large increase in anthropogenic emissions during the past decades has led to serious air quality problems in China (Feng, Chen, & Zhang, 2018; Tao et al, 2012), which are further complicated by regional processes such as pollutants transport and meteorological variations (Tao et al, 2016b) and environmental polices (Wang et al, 2016). We present a brief overview of the large satellite data sets of atmospheric components and their application in evaluating air quality in China. We show some perspective of the potential application of advanced satellite missions in the near future
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
