Space-based observational constraints on NO2 air pollution inequality from diesel traffic in major U.S. cities

Details

• Journal Title:
  Geophysical Research Letters
• Personal Author:
  Demetillo, Mary Angelique G. ; Harkins, Colin ; McDonald, Brian C. ; Chodrow, Philip S. ; Sun, Kang ; Pusede, Sally E.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CSL (Chemical Sciences Laboratory) ; CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
• Description:
  Air pollution disproportionately burdens communities of color and lower-income communities in US cities. We have generally lacked city-wide concentration measurements that resolve the steep spatiotemporal gradients of primary pollutants required to describe intra-urban air pollution inequality. Here, we use observations from the recently launched TROPospheric Ozone Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) satellite sensor and physics-based oversampling to describe nitrogen dioxide (NO2) disparities with race, ethnicity, and income in 52 US cities (June 2018–February 2020). We report average US-urban census tract-level NO2 inequalities of 28 ± 2% (race-ethnicity and income combined), with many populous cities experiencing even greater inequalities. Using observations and inventories, we find diesel traffic is the dominant source of NO2 disparities, and that a 62% reduction in diesel emissions would decrease race-ethnicity and income inequalities by 37%. We add evidence that TROPOMI resolves tract-scale NO2 differences using relationships with urban segregation patterns and spatial variability in column-to-surface correlations.
• Keywords:
  Air Diesel Trucks Pollution Diesel Trucks
• Source:
  Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL094333
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094333
• NRDD Project Number:
  NRDD Project no. ; 19533
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  CC BY-NC-ND
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:fc8f218d4c887233fd07b9b42e82dc47da174056e2ea4fe710873d77d5a09616
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/40167/noaa_40167_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.98 MB ]