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Due to the rapid growth of electricity demand and the absence of regulations, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants in India have increased notably in the past decade. In this study, we present the first interannual comparison of SO2 emissions and the satellite SO2 observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) for Indian coal-fired power plants during the OMI era of 2005-2012. A detailed unit-based inventory is developed for the Indian coal-fired power sector, and results show that its SO2 emissions increased dramatically by 71% during 2005-2012. Using the oversampling technique, yearly high-resolution OMI maps for the whole domain of India are created, and they reveal a continuous increase in SO2 columns over India. Power plant regions with annual SO2 emissions greater than 50 Gg year(-1) produce statistically significant OMI signals, and a high correlation (R = 0.93) is found between SO2 emissions and OMI-observed SO2 burdens. Contrary to the decreasing trend of national mean SO2 concentrations reported by the Indian Government, both the total OMI-observed SO2 and annual average SO2 concentrations in coal-fired power plant regions increased by >60% during 2005-2012, implying the air quality monitoring network needs to be optimized to reflect the true SO2 situation in India.

In the early 1990s, it was projected that annual SO2 emissions in Asia might grow to 80-110 Tg yr(-1) by 2020. Based on new high-resolution estimates from 1975 to 2000, we calculate that SO2 emissions in Asia might grow only to 40-45 Tg yr(-1) by 2020. The main reason for this lower estimate is a decline of SO2 emissions from 1995 to 2000 in China, which emits about two-thirds of Asian SO2. The decline was due to a reduction in industrial coal use, a slowdown of the Chinese economy, and the closure of small and inefficient plants, among other reasons. One effect of the reduction in SO2 emissions in China has been a reduction in acid deposition not only in China but also in Japan. Reductions should also improve visibility and reduce health problems. SO2 emission reductions may increase global warming, but this warming effect could be partially offset by reductions in the emissions of black carbon. How SO2 emissions in the region change in the coming decades will depend on many competing factors (economic growth, pollution control laws, etc.). However a continuation of current trends would result in sulfur emissions lower than any IPCC forecasts.

China is the world's largest emitter of anthropogenic air pollutants, and measurable amounts of Chinese pollution are transported via the atmosphere to other countries, including the United States. However, a large fraction of Chinese emissions is due to manufacture of goods for foreign consumption. Here, we analyze the impacts of trade-related Chinese air pollutant emissions on the global atmospheric environment, linking an economic-emission analysis and atmospheric chemical transport modeling. We find that in 2006, 36% of anthropogenic sulfur dioxide, 27% of nitrogen oxides, 22% of carbon monoxide, and 17% of black carbon emitted in China were associated with production of goods for export. For each of these pollutants, about 21% of export-related Chinese emissions were attributed to China-to-US export. Atmospheric modeling shows that transport of the export-related Chinese pollution contributed 3-10% of annual mean surface sulfate concentrations and 0.5-1.5% of ozone over the western United States in 2006. This Chinese pollution also resulted in one extra day or more of noncompliance with the US ozone standard in 2006 over the Los Angeles area and many regions in the eastern United States. On a daily basis, the export-related Chinese pollution contributed, at a maximum, 12-24% of sulfate concentrations over the western United States. As the United States outsourced manufacturing to China, sulfate pollution in 2006 increased in the western United States but decreased in the eastern United States, reflecting the competing effect between enhanced transport of Chinese pollution and reduced US emissions. Our findings are relevant to international efforts to reduce transboundary air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the rapid growth of electricity demand and the absence of regulations, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants in India have increased notably in the past decade. In this study, we present the first interannual comparison of SO2 emissions and the satellite SO2 observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) for Indian coal-fired power plants during the OMI era of 2005-2012. A detailed unit-based inventory is developed for the Indian coal-fired power sector, and results show that its SO2 emissions increased dramatically by 71% during 2005-2012. Using the oversampling technique, yearly high-resolution OMI maps for the whole domain of India are created, and they reveal a continuous increase in SO2 columns over India. Power plant regions with annual SO2 emissions greater than 50 Gg year-1 produce statistically significant OMI signals, and a high correlation (R = 0.93) is round between SO2 emissions and OMl-observed SO2 burdens. Contrary to the decreasing trend ot national mean SO2 concentrations reported by the Indian Government, both the total OMI-observed SO2 and annual average SO2 concentrations in coal-fired power plant regions increased by >60% during 2005-2012, implying the air quality monitoring network needs to be optimized to reflect the true SO2 situation in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the model intercomparison study, MICS Asia phase II, standard air pollutants emission data are provided from published research results (the TRACE-P data set) and other recent work. To provide preliminary information concerning the reliability of the standard emissions data, this inventory was compared with a local emission inventory, EAGrid2000-Japan, which has been developed for detailed analyses with fine grid data resolution for the Japan region. Although these inventories are based upon different estimation methodologies, from the comparative analyses it was found that regional emissions of the standard data are consistent, with differences smaller than 10% for SO2, NO x , NMVOC and CO2, and smaller than 30% for CO and NH3. Differences for all species are smaller than the 95% confidence intervals that were estimated in the research that produced the standard emissions data. Additional information is provided regarding emissions of PM10 and PM2.5, although these did not originate in the TRACE-P data. Furthermore, it was found that the 0.5°×0.5° grid-based emissions from the two inventories match well for NO x , NMVOC, CO, and PM2.5, even though the spatial allocation techniques for the local inventory are much more detailed. For SO2 emissions, the differences in the grid-based inventories are greater. Although some problems still remain, such as diurnal variations that are not considered in the standard emissions data, the intercomparison analysis suggests that the standard emissions data have appropriate properties for atmospheric model simulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Pearl River Delta is a major manufacturing region on the south coast of China that produces more than $100 billion of goods annually for export to North America, Europe, and other parts of Asia. Considerable air pollution is caused by the manufacturing industries themselves and by the power plants, trucks, and ships that support them. We estimate that 10-40% of emissions of primary SO2, NOx, RSP, and VOC in the region are caused by export-related activities. Using the STEM-2K1 atmospheric transport model, we estimate that these emissions contribute 5-30% of the ambient concentrations of SO2, NOx, NOz, and VOC in the region. One reason that the exported goods are cheap and therefore attractive to consumers in developed countries is that emission controls are lacking or of low performance. We estimate that state-of-the-art controls could be installed at an annualized cost of $0.3-3 billion, representing 0.3-3% of the value of the goods produced. We conclude that mitigation measures could be adopted without seriously affecting the prices of exported goods and would achieve considerable human health and other benefits in the form of reduced air pollutant concentrations in densely populated urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An advanced modeling system with a “one-atmosphere” perspective, Models-3/Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system, driven by MM5/NCEP reanalysis data as the meteorology, and GEOS-Chem outputs as boundary values was applied to simulate the O3, and other gaseous pollutants (SO2 and NO2) evolution among other atmospheric chemicals for July 2001. Comparisons had been made with other models in the MICS-II exercise for the same period. Statistics of both monthly and daily means show that the model skill is very good in reproducing O3 and SO2 with small to moderate RMSE. The model species capture the day-to-day and spatial variability of the observations. The same O3 model concentrations that overpredict most of the EANET observations in the MICS-II study may have underpredicted ones from monitoring networks in Beijing area that is not included in this paper. Vertical O3 profiles at 4 ozonesonde sites are well predicted in July 2001. In fact, our model is among the best of those MICS-II models within the 2-km surface layer. The meteorology near surface and lower troposphere is well reproduced. Compared to SO2 and O3, the NO2 gas concentrations are simulated less well, but the correlation coefficient is still significant. The choice of reanalysis meteorological fields and different boundary conditions generated by different global models may result in diverse spatial patterns exhibited by MICS-II models and ours. Our spatial distributions of O3 shows a high concentration patch covering Beijing, a moderate to high pattern across Korea and Japan Sea, and a low but extensive pattern enclosing southern China, Taiwan, and East Sea. Extension of the pattern to southern China coincides with the existence of pollution problems in Guangdong and Taiwan, but overprediction of O3 over the region deserves further improvement by various factors. One of them can be the grid resolution to resolve the complex orography in or close to the ocean. Another factor can be the refinement of local land use data that changes the micro-meteorology in favor of more air pollution events. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We use GEOS-Chem chemical transport model simulations of sulfate–ammonium aerosol data from the NASA ARCTAS and NOAA ARCPAC aircraft campaigns in the North American Arctic in April 2008, together with longer-term data from surface sites, to better understand aerosol sources in the Arctic in winter–spring and the implications for aerosol acidity. Arctic pollution is dominated by transport from mid-latitudes, and we test the relevant ammonia and sulfur dioxide emission inventories in the model by comparison with wet deposition flux data over the source continents. We find that a complicated mix of natural and anthropogenic sources with different vertical signatures is responsible for sulfate concentrations in the Arctic. East Asian pollution influence is weak in winter but becomes important in spring through transport in the free troposphere. European influence is important at all altitudes but never dominant. West Asia (non-Arctic Russia and Kazakhstan) is the largest contributor to Arctic sulfate in surface air in winter, reflecting a southward extension of the Arctic front over that region. Ammonium in Arctic spring mostly originates from anthropogenic sources in East Asia and Europe, with added contribution from boreal fires, resulting in a more neutralized aerosol in the free troposphere than at the surface. The ARCTAS and ARCPAC data indicate a median aerosol neutralization fraction [NH4 +]/(2[SO4 2−] + [NO3 −]) of 0.5 mol mol−1 below 2 km and 0.7 mol mol−1 above. We find that East Asian and European aerosol transported to the Arctic is mostly neutralized, whereas West Asian and North American aerosol is highly acidic. Growth of sulfur emissions in West Asia may be responsible for the observed increase in aerosol acidity at Barrow over the past decade. As global sulfur emissions decline over the next decades, increasing aerosol neutralization in the Arctic is expected, potentially accelerating Arctic warming through indirect radiative forcing and feedbacks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Today, electric vehicles (EVs) are being proposed in China as one of the potential options to address the dramatically increasing energy demand from on-road transport. However, the mass use of EVs could involve multiple environmental issues, because EVs use electricity that is generated primarily from coal in China. We examined the fuel-cycle CO2, SO2, and NOx emissions of EVs in China in both current (2008) and future (2030) periods and compared them with those of conventional gasoline vehicles and gasoline hybrids. EVs do not promise much benefit in reducing CO2 emissions currently, but greater CO2 reduction could be expected in future if coal combustion technologies improve and the share of nonfossil electricity increases significantly. EVs could increase SO2 emissions by 3-10 times and also double NOx emissions compared to gasoline vehicles if charged using the current electricity grid. In the future, EVs would be able to reach the NOx emission level of gasoline vehicles with advanced emission control devices equipped in thermal power plants but still increase SO2. EVs do represent an effective solution to issues in China such as oil shortage, but critical policy support is urgently needed to address the environmental issues caused by the use of EVs to make EVs competitive with other vehicle alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The U.S. EPA Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system with the process analysis tool is applied to China to study the seasonal variations and formation mechanisms of major air pollutants. Simulations show distinct seasonal variations, with higher surface concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 μm (PM10), column mass of carbon monoxide (CO) and NO2, and aerosol optical depth (AOD) in winter and fall than other seasons, and higher 1-h O3 and troposphere ozone residual (TOR) in spring and summer than other seasons. Higher concentrations of most species occur over the eastern China, where the air pollutant emissions are the highest in China. Compared with surface observations, the simulated SO2, NO2, and PM10 concentrations are underpredicted throughout the year with NMBs of up to −51.8%, −32.0%, and −54.2%, respectively. Such large discrepancies can be attributed to the uncertainties in emissions, simulated meteorology, and deviation of observations based on air pollution index. Max. 1-h O3 concentrations in Jan. and Jul. at 36-km are overpredicted with NMBs of 12.0% and 19.3% and agree well in Apr. and Oct. Simulated column variables can capture the high concentrations over the eastern China and low values in the central and western China. Underpredictions occur over the northeastern China for column CO in Apr., TOR in Jul., and AODs in both Apr. and Jul.; and overpredictions occur over the eastern China for column CO in Oct., NO2 in Jan. and Oct., and AODs in Jan. and Oct. The simulations at 12-km show a finer structure in simulated concentrations than that at 36-km over higher polluted areas, but do not always give better performance than 36-km. Surface concentrations are more sensitive to grid resolution than column variables except for column NO2, with higher sensitivity over mountain and coastal areas than other regions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]