Emissions and Chemistry of air pollution in London and Beijing: a tale of two cities

Imparte: James Lee, University of York, UK

A

ir pollution is a major issue for human health and is responsible for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths per year worldwide. The problem is particularly acute in large cities, where emissions from traffic, domestic and commercial properties and industry can cause the air to be dangerously polluted. Over the past decade the UK atmospheric science community has carried out a large amount of research first in London (the largest city in Europe – population 10 millions) and latterly Beijing (one of the largest cities in the world – population 30 million). This talk will summarise some of the results. Firstly, measurement of the emissions of NOx from tall towers in the cities using eddy covariance will be discussed, along with how the measurements compared with bottom up emission estimates. In addition, the formation of ozone in each city is investigated, with chemical modelling used to identify the most important precursor species.