Remote Sensing, GIS and Climatic Research Lab, National Center of GIS and Space Applications, Department of Space Science, University of the Punjab, New-Campus, Lahore, Pakistan.
Remote Sensing, GIS and Climatic Research Lab, National Center of GIS and Space Applications, Centre for Remote Sensing, University of the Punjab, New-Campus, Lahore, Pakistan.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Apr;30(16):47913-47934. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-25613-5. Epub 2023 Feb 7.
Particulate pollution has become a major issue in developing countries including Pakistan. Aerosols are causing severe impacts on climate and human health. To understand the effects of aerosols on the environment and human health, we must first understand their optical and physical properties. In this paper, we used ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) retrieved ultraviolet aerosol index (UVAI) to analyze spatial and temporal distribution, annual and seasonal trends of absorbing aerosols, and their relationship with meteorological parameters (e.g., temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed) over Pakistan from October 2004 to December 2021. Significant spatiotemporal changes in UVAI values were found with high values in southern and central regions and low values in northern regions of Pakistan. The mean UVAI over Pakistan showed an increasing trend of 2.89% year. Seasonally, UVAI increases at the rate of 3.97% winter, 3.24% autumn, 0.81% summer, and 0.71% spring. A strong positive correlation of UVAI with precipitation and temperature (~ 0.6) is observed in the central and southern regions of Pakistan. A negative and positive correlation of -0.3223 and 0.4284 of UVAI with CO emissions and primary industry is observed in Pakistan, respectively. We also found potential sources of aerosols over major cities of Pakistan using the Hybrid Single Particle Langrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. It determines that the dominant aerosols over Karachi are natural aerosols like sea salt and dust particles and anthropogenic aerosols are dominant over Lahore. Moreover, the natural and anthropogenic factors influencing absorbing aerosols are also discussed herein. Considering the outcomes of this study different methods would be used to reduce the concentration of particulate pollution like afforestation, efficient fuel energy consumption, promotion of public transport networks, etc.
颗粒物污染已成为包括巴基斯坦在内的发展中国家的一个主要问题。气溶胶对气候和人类健康造成了严重影响。为了了解气溶胶对环境和人类健康的影响，我们必须首先了解它们的光学和物理特性。在本文中，我们使用臭氧监测仪（OMI）检索的紫外气溶胶指数（UVAI）来分析 2004 年 10 月至 2021 年 12 月期间巴基斯坦的吸收性气溶胶的时空分布、年际和季节性趋势及其与气象参数（如温度、相对湿度和风速）的关系。发现 UVAI 值存在显著的时空变化，南部和中部地区的 UVAI 值较高，而巴基斯坦北部地区的 UVAI 值较低。巴基斯坦的平均 UVAI 呈逐年增长趋势，增长率为 2.89%。季节上，UVAI 冬季增加 3.97%，秋季增加 3.24%，夏季增加 0.81%，春季增加 0.71%。在巴基斯坦的中南部地区，UVAI 与降水和温度呈强正相关（~0.6）。在巴基斯坦，UVAI 与 CO 排放和第一产业呈负相关（-0.3223）和正相关（0.4284）。我们还使用混合单粒子拉格朗日综合轨迹（HYSPLIT）模型，发现了巴基斯坦主要城市上空的气溶胶潜在源。结果表明，卡拉奇上空的主要气溶胶是天然气溶胶，如海盐和尘埃颗粒，而拉合尔上空的主要气溶胶是人为气溶胶。此外，本文还讨论了影响吸收性气溶胶的自然和人为因素。考虑到这项研究的结果，将采用不同的方法来降低颗粒物污染的浓度，如植树造林、提高燃料能源效率、推广公共交通网络等。
