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Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application
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2022
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Source: Environmental Science & Technology, 56(22), 15298-15311
[PDF-5.49 MB]
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Journal Title:Environmental Science & Technology
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Description:Urban air pollution disproportionately harms communities of color and low-income communities in the U.S. Intraurban nitrogen dioxide (NO2) inequalities can be observed from space using the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Past research has relied on time-averaged measurements, limiting our understanding of how neighborhood-level NO2 inequalities co-vary with urban air quality and climate. Here, we use fine-scale (250 m × 250 m) airborne NO2 remote sensing to demonstrate that daily TROPOMI observations resolve a major portion of census tract-scale NO2 inequalities in the New York City–Newark urbanized area. Spatiotemporally coincident TROPOMI and airborne inequalities are well correlated (r = 0.82–0.97), with slopes of 0.82–1.05 for relative and 0.76–0.96 for absolute inequalities for different groups. We calculate daily TROPOMI NO2 inequalities over May 2018–September 2021, reporting disparities of 25–38% with race, ethnicity, and/or household income. Mean daily inequalities agree with results based on TROPOMI measurements oversampled to 0.01° × 0.01° to within associated uncertainties. Individual and mean daily TROPOMI NO2 inequalities are largely insensitive to pixel size, at least when pixels are smaller than ∼60 km2, but are sensitive to low observational coverage. We statistically analyze daily NO2 inequalities, presenting empirical evidence of the systematic overburdening of communities of color and low-income neighborhoods with polluting sources, regulatory ozone co-benefits, and worsened NO2 inequalities and cumulative NO2 and urban heat burdens with climate change.
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Source:Environmental Science & Technology, 56(22), 15298-15311
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ISSN:0013-936X;1520-5851;
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Rights Information:CC BY-NC-ND
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