Abstract
The atmospheric chemistry constituents of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) are associated with air pollution and climate change. In sub-Saharan Africa, a lack of sufficient ground-based and aircraft observations has, for a long time, limited the study of these species. This study thus utilized satellite observations as an alternative source of data to study the abundance of these species over the East African region. The instruments used included the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS), and the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). An investigation of trends in the data series from 2005 to 2020 was carried out using the sequential Mann-Kendall test while the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to compare the data records of the instruments. The analysis revealed no trend in NO2 (p > 0.05), a decreasing trend in SO2 (p < 0.05), a decreasing trend (p < 0.05) in CO closer to the surface (850 hPa to 500 hPa) and an increasing trend (p < 0.05) in CO higher up in the atmosphere (400 hPa to 1 hPa). There is likely a vertical ascent of CO. The correlation between the instrument records was 0.54 and 0.77 for NO2 and CO, respectively. Furthermore, seasonal fires in the savanna woodlands were identified as the major source of NO2 and CO over the region, while cities such as Kampala, Nairobi, and Bujumbura and towns such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa were identified as important NO2 hotspots. Similarly, the active volcano at Mt. Nyiragongo near Goma was identified as the most important SO2 hotspot.
Highlights
Air pollution is one of the outstanding environmental concerns in the world today, affecting both developed and developing regions [1,2]
4.2 million deaths globally, because of its association with stroke, lung cancer, ischemic heart disease, acute lower respiratory disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [3]. This pollution often takes the form of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10 ), nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ), sulphur dioxide (SO2 ), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3 )
This study focused on five countries in the East African region: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi (Figure 1)
Summary
Air pollution is one of the outstanding environmental concerns in the world today, affecting both developed and developing regions [1,2]. 4.2 million deaths globally, because of its association with stroke, lung cancer, ischemic heart disease, acute lower respiratory disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [3]. This pollution often takes the form of particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10 ), nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ), sulphur dioxide (SO2 ), carbon monoxide (CO), and ozone (O3 ). The other sources are volcanic eruptions ( for SO2 ) and incomplete fossil fuel combustion in activities tagged to the local economy. These include transportation, manufacturing, and electricity generation
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