Validation of MODIS AOD retrievals in West Africa: a comparison with AERONET observations
In this study, the performance of two NASA MODIS products —AQUA and TERRA—were compared with observational AERONET data over eight study sites in West Africa for the period 2000–2022. Results obtained showed a regression slope between 0.09 and 0.83 for TERRA data and 0.11 and 0.86 for AQUA data. The normalized root mean square error between AERONET a nd AQUA data was in the range of 0.097–0.517, while a range of 0.123–0.540 was reported for TERRA data. Although both AQUA and TERRA AOD products had similar aerosol trends across the eight AERONET study sites, AQUA has an overall better performance with lower error ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 14, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Estimation of radon emanation power: a comparison of different methods
AbstractRadon emanation power was estimated by applying three different methods. The first was based on measuring radon exhalation rates by closed-loop accumulation method employing RAD7 device. Radon leakage rate was determined by applying two models of fitting the experimental data. Specific activities of226Ra in soil samples were measured by coaxial HPGe detector (GEM30-70, ORTEC). The second method was indirect gamma-ray spectrometry method which included two separate measurements of counts under the photopeaks of 351.9 keV (214Pb) and 609.3 keV (214Bi). The influence of sample moisture content on radon emanation w...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 14, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
An assessment of four decades atmospheric PM2.5 trends in urban locations over Southern Africa using MERRA-2 reanalysis
AbstractExcess concentration of aerosols with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in atmosphere has significant implications to both climate and human health. For the first time, this study estimated four decades (1980 –2021) trends of PM2.5 in urban locations across Southern Africa using the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 (MERRA-2) aerosol simulations. The findings show that the highest PM2.5 is recorded during the peak of biomass burning, September-October-November (SON season) in locations selected over Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Botswana, Na...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 12, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Air pollutant concentration prediction based on a new hybrid model, feature selection, and secondary decomposition
AbstractThe concentration of air pollutants is closely related to people ’s production and life. Air quality prediction is the premise for environmental management departments to make decisions and put forward pollution control measures. A novel air pollutant prediction model was proposed in this paper to predict air pollutant concentration more accurately. Firstly, th e data were decomposed into several subsequences by a complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise and calculated the sample entropy of the subsequence. Secondly, variational mode decomposition is used to decompose the sequence with t...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 11, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Validation of the environmental Kuznets curve and role of economic globalization: an aggregate and sectoral analysis of an Indian economy
AbstractThis research investigates the validation of the environment Kuznets curve (EKC) at aggregate and sectoral levels for the Indian economy both. The study covers the period 1970 –2020. The stationarity of the variables was also confirmed by some traditional unit root tests, and structural breaks were also determined by the Zivot-Andrews test. The autoregression distributive lag model (ARDL) bound test is deployed to observe the cointegration between variables with differe nt structural breaks. Additionally, we investigate short-run, long-run, and combined causal relations among the variables by employing the vector...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 8, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
$$PM_{2.5}$$ concentrations estimation using machine learning methods with combination of MAIAC - MODIS AOD product - a case study in western Iran
AbstractThe harmful effects of ambient air pollution on human health have been consistently documented by many epidemiological studies around the world, and it is estimated that at least seven million deaths worldwide each year are caused by the effects of air pollution. Harmful airborne particles are identified by the Particulate Matter (PM) parameter, which is a term that used for solid and liquid particles in varying size, shape, composition and with different sources, suspended in the air. The aim of this study is to build\(PM_{2.5}\) concentrations estimation model with meteorological data such as PBLH, and a combinat...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 7, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Emission inventory of air pollutants from residential coal combustion over the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region in 2020
This study provides a more high temporal and spatial resolution emission inventory of RCC for air quality model, which can accurately simulate regional pollutant emission scenarios. (Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health)
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - July 5, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Applying an air curtain to reduce surgical smoke concentration
In this study, we are the first to build a cost-effective air curtain device to remove surgical smoke. Experiments were conducted in an operating room by cutting porcine samples with electrosurgical units. An air curtain system was installed below the surgical light. We measured the particle number and mass concentrations in the breathing zone. The concentrations were recorded under four scenarios: no control, commercial smoke evacuation pencil, low-velocity air curtain, and high-velocity air curtain. Results indicate that the air curtain reduces the concentration of particulate matter and produces less noise than commerci...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - June 26, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Design and development of a PM10 multi-inlet cyclone and comparison with reference cyclones
AbstractSize-segregated sampling of particulate matter (PM) using impactor suffers from D50 cutoff shift due to particle loading and re-entrainment problems. Cyclonic separation is a viable option to overcome the above problem. However, conventional reverse flow cyclone design having a single inlet and upward-facing outlet also presents a common issue of sample (particle) loss during sampling and requires several arrangements to convert it into an efficient PM sampler. Therefore, here we present a high-volume (HV) PM10 multi-inlet cyclone (MIC) design with a downward-facing outlet, which overcomes existing problems and has...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - June 26, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Temporal distribution characteristics of odorous compounds in swine houses of South Korea
In this study, ammonia was observed at the highest levels (the annual mean, 13.9 × 103 ppb) among other offensive odorous compound regardless of the types of swine house and seasons, followed by fatty acids (139.9 ppb), sulfuric odorous compounds (52.3 ppb), volatile organic compounds (27.5 ppb), and trimethyl amine (24.5 ppb). Furthermore, hydrogen sulfide among sulfur compounds, methyl ethyl ketone among volatile organic compounds, and propionic acid and n-butylic acid among fatty acids were observed to the highest level of several hundreds of ppb. In particular, five aldehydes (acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, butyraldeh...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - June 24, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Modelling approaches to particle deposition and clearance in the human respiratory tract
AbstractDosimetry models for the estimation of particle deposition in the human respiratory tract (RT) in conjunction with clearance transport models are vital components to relate human exposure with internal dose in a quantitative manner. The current work highlights knowledge and modelling approaches on particle deposition and translocation in the human body in an effort to determine health risks in respect to different particle physicochemical properties and human physiology parameters. These include breathing conditions, variability of the geometry of the RT, chemical composition and size of deposits. Different dosimet...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - June 24, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Characterizing and interpreting the spatial variation of traffic pollution in urban non-motorized lanes using mobile measurements
AbstractThe ongoing improvement of urban air quality urgently needs refined understanding of air pollution variation. For urban roads, due to the changeable traffic flow and complex road environments, commuters usually confront with a direct but uncertain exposure to traffic-induced air pollutants. However, the current lack of fine-grained measurements and reliable analytical methods restricts our knowledge of road air pollution risk. Therefore, we designed a bicycling experiment to collect fine-scale concentration samples of PM2.5, PM10, and black carbon (BC) in non-motorized lanes beside an expressway. Mobile measurement...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - June 23, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Independent and combined effects of PM2.5 and its constituents on preterm birth: a retrospective study in a seaside city
AbstractMounting studies explored associations between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and preterm birth (PTB); however, individual and combined impacts of PM2.5 constituents on PTB were less known. PM2.5 and its seven constituents were assessed by V4.CH.02 product of the Dalhousie University Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group, a dataset containing combined geophysical-statistical estimates of PM2.5 across China. Effects of PM2.5 and its constituents on PTB and gestational age were firstly explored. Furthermore, weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression was conducted to reveal the impacts of total PM2.5 mass and identify ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - June 22, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
An ensemble NLSTM-based model for PM2.5 concentrations prediction considering feature extraction and data decomposition
AbstractFine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a hazardous air pollutant with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less, which can lead to severe health impacts such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses, and various types of cancer. Therefore, accurate forecasting of PM2.5 concentrations is crucial for public health and policy-making. However, due to the stochastic nature of PM2.5, achieving h igh prediction accuracy and efficiency remains a challenge. To address this challenge, this study proposes a hybrid deep learning model consisting of principal component analysis (PCA), discrete stationary wavelet transform ...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - June 21, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Indoor air quality and its health effects in offices and school buildings in the Yangtze River Delta
AbstractIndoor air quality is closely related to human health, and increasing studies have highlighted that poor indoor air quality presents a threat to occupants ’ health in office and school buildings. This paper aims to analyze the exposure levels and health effects of indoor air pollutants in office and school buildings in the Yangtze River Delta, China. The published studies from 1980 to 2020 concerning indoor pollutants (including formaldehyde, PM2.5, PM10, CO2, TVOC, benzene, toluene, xylene, ammonia, microbial pollutants, and radon) in this zone were systematically reviewed. The Composite Index Method was used to...
Source: Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health - June 7, 2023 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
