For a given emissions inventory, the general levels of air pollutants and the spatial distribution of their concentrations are determined by the physiochemical state of the atmosphere. Apart from the trivial seasonal and daily cycles, most of the variability is associated with the atmospheric synoptic scale. A simple methodology for assessing future levels of air pollutants' concentrations base...

ural environmental stress as a result of extreme seasonal variations in light and temperature, nutrient limitations, as well as other physical and chemical characteristics; consequently, these regions are quite vulnerable to the addition of pollutant stress. There is a poor understanding of spatial and temporal patterns of atmospheric pollution in the Arctic, because of the lack of monitoring s...

Lung cancer is consistently more common in urban areas than in rural. The excess cannot be accounted for by specific occupational hazards but some of it might be due to the presence of carcinogens in urban air. The excess cannot be wholly due to such agents, because the excess in nonsmokers is small and variable. Cigarette consumption has also been greater in urban areas, but it is difficult to...

This paper considers how actions to slow atmospheric accumulation of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel use could also reduce "criteria" air pollutants (as defined in the Clean Air Act) in the U.S. The benefits that result would be "ancillary" to greenhouse gas abatement. Moreover, these benefits would tend to accrue in the near term, while any benefits from reduced climate change mostly accrue ...

A Geographic Information System (GIS) is increasingly recognized as an effective tool for urban modeling. As a part of NASA's multidisciplinary project, this article develops GIS modeling methods of constructing measurements of urban components to monitor and model urban respiration. The first step is to create an Oracle database that stores spatially and temporally referenced measures of trace...

A retrospective analysis was conducted on air samples that were collected in 2005 under the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling (GAPS) Network around the time period when the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants came into force. Results are presented for several new flame retardants, including hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), which was recently listed under the Convention (2013)....

The combustion of crude oil produces a wide range of pollutants, including gases, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, acid compounds (e.g., sulfuric acid), and soot. Several of these pollutants have been linked with the deterioration and blackening of monuments. The paper reports the results of an investigation on the causes of the soiling of cultural remains at import...

Open top chambers (OTCs) are useful tools to assess the impact of atmospheric pollutants on plants in the natural environment. We have previously reported that, in tomato plants, the LTRGUS construct derived from the Tnt1A promoter of tobacco was activated by a realistic level of ozone pollution. In this study, we used OTCs to fumigate tomato plants with benzene or formaldehyde in order to asse...

This discussion paper is/has been under review for the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP). Please refer to the corresponding final paper in ACP if available. Abstract In urban areas, air quality is the outcome of multiple emission sources, each emitting a different combination of air pollutants. The result is a complex mixture of pollutants with a different spatiotemporal variabili...

BACKGROUND With the rapid development of China's economy, air pollution has attracted public concern because of its harmful effects on health. METHODS The source apportioning of air pollution, the spatial distribution characteristics, and the relationship between atmospheric contamination, and the risk of exposure were explored. The in situ daily concentrations of the principal air pollutants...