SESDA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Team Helps Confirm SO2 Reduction
December 5, 2011
SESDA II’s Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) team processes and archives critical ozone data from this spaceborne instrument aboard NASA’s Aura satellite. The group has helped confirm that the introduction of the Clean Air Interstate Rule in 2005 has led to a big reduction in pollution from eastern US coal power plants.
Scientists have previously used the satellite's OMI to observe sulfur dioxide levels within large plumes of volcanic ash and over heavily polluted parts of China. But this is the first time they have observed such subtle details over the much-less-polluted United States. The secret is a new mathematical approach centered on averaging measurements within a 30-mile radius of a sulfur dioxide source over several years. It makes it possible to detect emissions at levels four times lower before.
The team also plans to use a similar technique to monitor other important pollutants that coal power plants release, such as nitrogen dioxide, a precursor to ozone.
A representative image from southern Ohio.
The full article may be read at:
http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/59972-clean-air-law-brings-fall-in-sulfur-dioxide
Other OMI data and images may be found at this website:
http://ozoneaq.gsfc.nasa.gov/
