
Global air pollution maps by the European Space Agency - walterbell
http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/06/Global_air_pollution_maps_now_available
======
bsimpson
I'm amazed that their main call-to-action on that page is to download a
screenshot of [https://maps.s5p-pal.com/](https://maps.s5p-pal.com/),
including the baked-in zoom buttons that obviously don't work in a static
image.

~~~
8jy89hui
I’m on mobile and spent a good 45 seconds trying to click on the zoom in
button before I decided that they just have a really bad mobile site. Ouch

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kroeckx
The map at [https://maps.s5p-pal.com/](https://maps.s5p-pal.com/) allows you
to change the date. Comparing the 30-12-2019 - 13-01-2020 data to the latest
makes a huge difference in certain areas.

~~~
walterbell
Change years for the same month/day to exclude seasonal pollution differences.

~~~
square_usual
Especially given that the date range GP mentions is peak winter for the
Northern Hemisphere with higher heating requirements.

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jakub_g
At first sight I was thinking "Europe looks not bad in comparison with China
or Middle East". But scroll back to pre-covid time (aka "winter" \- jan/feb
2020) on [https://maps.s5p-pal.com/](https://maps.s5p-pal.com/):

[https://imgur.com/a/Qkx0FPe](https://imgur.com/a/Qkx0FPe)

All of northern Italy is a one huge brown dot. Does someone have an
explanation? I know this is very industrial region, but there are many
industrial regions in Europe. What is used for heating houses in there?

~~~
tomcooks
A lot of industry + a major European airport + Alps keeping clouds stuck
there.

For heating nost houses use gas (rom GAZPROM or North Africa as far as I
remember), wooden pellets or wood

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jka
Link extracted from this announcement to the interactive website that allows
viewing and navigating mapped air pollution history:
[https://maps.s5p-pal.com/](https://maps.s5p-pal.com/)

~~~
velcro
Yikes - just compared the latest map with the one in January - what a
difference!

~~~
jka
Worth noting that some of it relates to seasonality - compare October to July
in each year, for example.

It makes it a little tricky to draw direct conclusions without more analysis,
but it's still an impressive visualization to have available.

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dvasdekis
If anyone is wondering what happens in Australia in Winter (particularly
NSW)[1], it looks like Eraring and Liddell power station are to blame [2].

Thankfully, the emissions from Eraring disappear from mid-Feb to May, which
seems to indicate that renewable production (e.g. solar) really does shut down
coal production, if it's sufficient to meet demand.

[1] 18th May to 1st June 2020 [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraring_Power_Station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eraring_Power_Station)
and
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liddell_Power_Station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liddell_Power_Station)

~~~
pstuart
It's a pity that Australia doesn't get much sun and has to rely on coal ;-)

The sarcasm was good natured but tempered by the fact that the US (my country)
has waged a war on solar energy and continues to promote fossil fuels for the
benefit of the patron class.

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pkaye
I was confused for a bit since the zoom didn't work but the actual map is at
[https://maps.s5p-pal.com/](https://maps.s5p-pal.com/)

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runawaybottle
Why doesn’t India have the same kinds of deep red as China?

The only thing I can come up with is their infrastructure is lacking, less
roads and highways?

~~~
dharmab
The map only shows NO2, not all pollutants.

~~~
jfoster
How concerning should NO2 be?

I was surprised to see that on this map Tokyo seems worse off than Bangkok. On
AQI measures it's typically the other way around.

~~~
DoingIsLearning
The evidence so far is that on top of the expected lung disease in children
and adults (due to lung tissue irritation) it more critically seems to reduce
human lifespan. [0]

The challenge is to fully separate if this effect is due to NO2 exposure or a
combination of other pollutants found in diesel fuel exhaust.

The key takeaway is that Diesel engines release a very high amount of NO2 and
that NO2 is in all likelihood killing us slowly.

We need to decomission diesel engines from roads, and more urgently, remove
diesel engines from city centres ASAP (Due to traffic jams, iddling diesel
engines create very high concentrations of NO2 in the vicinity of pedestrians
and cyclists).

[0] Nitrogen dioxide: health effects of exposure, Guidance from the Committee
on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP), 2015

[https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nitrogen-
dioxide-...](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nitrogen-dioxide-
health-effects-of-exposure)

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dicomdan
This is great to have another authoritative and trustworthy source of this
data.

WHO used to have a really nice map I would often use, but it’s been down ever
since China complained that it shows them in bad light.
[https://maps.who.int/airpollution/](https://maps.who.int/airpollution/)

It would consistently show China pollution levels as high which didn’t match
the maps distributed by the Chinese government showing lower levels of
pollution in the mainland.

~~~
disabled
You can thank the European Union (EU) for that, as these are images from EU-
owned satellites.

While the European Space Agency is not officially part of the EU, the EU
provides the vast majority of funding (93.0%).

One may not live as luxurious of a life in Europe, either by pay or after-tax
amounts, but you do get a sense of solidarity and even stability (most of the
time--although we have our issues). In the US, the sense of the future is
gone, which is toxic.

The EU also has a recovery plan, which is very future-orientated:
[https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-
eu/health/coronav...](https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-
eu/health/coronavirus-response/recovery-plan-europe_en)

~~~
avar
The EU funds the Copernicus program, among others, which is managed by the
ESA. But it's not the case that the EU provides 93% of ESA's total funding, it
provides on the order of 20%[1].

You seem to be quoting the 93% number from the table on Wikpedia[2]. That's
not 93% from the EU, it's an aggregate 93% from countries that also happen to
be members of the EU.

1\.
[https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Corporate_news/ESA_and_the_EU](https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Corporate_news/ESA_and_the_EU)

2\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency)

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azinman2
Why is Johannesburg so bad?

~~~
appplemac
Was going to ask the same question. There also is a spot in Poland that’s not
in a large city - was curious about that one as well. Some sort of
NO2-generating production? Also between DRC and Angola.

~~~
_Microft
The emitter in Poland seems to be the brown coal (lignite) power plant
Bełchatów.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%C5%82chat%C3%B3w_Power_Stat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%C5%82chat%C3%B3w_Power_Station)

[https://www.bing.com/maps?v=2&cp=51.266111~19.330278&style=h...](https://www.bing.com/maps?v=2&cp=51.266111~19.330278&style=h&lvl=15&sp=Point.51.266111_19.330278_Kraftwerk%20Be%C5%82chat%C3%B3w___)

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darth_avocado
What the hell is happening in Congo? There's no major cities around there like
Johannesburg but seems to be a big ass blip on the map?

~~~
Wohlf
Possibly related to all the rare earth mines? Maybe they're burning diesel for
power due to lack of infrastructure?

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Moru
A nicer version of this map is embeded here [1] where you can compare two
similar periods on the same map. It's more interesting to see the difference
between the same period a year earlier than to compare winter to summer. Also
have to factor in how cold the winter was in the area since that is a big
impact where houses needs heating.

The comparison can be found in the right map window, click the button on the
left of the date to compare two images by sliding a line left/right on the
map.

[1] [https://race.esa.int/?poi=World-N1](https://race.esa.int/?poi=World-N1)

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secondcoming
I'm surprised by the amount of NO2 present in the Atlanic off the west coast
of Ireland. Given the prevailing winds, that must all be coming from the US.
Or maybe it's pollution from airplanes?

~~~
kaybe
I'd suspect ships (though I'm not sure what you mean when I look at the map).
Tropospheric NO2 is usually not transported that far, although we do measure
transported US pollution in Europe.

~~~
secondcoming
99.9% of the time the wind in Ireland comes from the south west. I'd have that
area would have been as 'clean' as the air around Iceland.

There is a flight path over that area though[0], or as you suggested, it's
possibly more likely to be shipping[1]. (That might explain the haze around
the English channel too)

[0]
[https://www.flightradar24.com/40.32,-36.32/4](https://www.flightradar24.com/40.32,-36.32/4)
[1]
[https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-12.0/cent...](https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-12.0/centery:25.0/zoom:4)

~~~
DoingIsLearning
You can see the same pattern as in the English Channel, in the Antwerp and
Rotterdam areas.

My guess is higher traffic of ships probably running at lower speeds (higher
concentration of gases in the same volume).

Ships are also meant to change from crude bunker fuel (which spews really high
concentrations of SO2) to finner diesel fuel (which spews high concentrations
of NO2) when they get closer to ports.

It's a case of choose your poison with shipping, SO2 kills you now, NO2 kills
you in the long run (it reduces human lifespan)

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alfor
I like this site to visualise that kind of data

[https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/particulates/surface/l...](https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/particulates/surface/level/overlay=pm2.5/orthographic=102.65,29.30,403)

~~~
kaybe
[https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/](https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/)
is also good for direct satellite data and derivatives.

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rahulnair23
Is there an accepted threshold for tropospheric NO2 concentrations above which
it is considered harmful?

~~~
LinuxBender
There are [1] but the bigger issue is that where NO2 is high, other toxins are
also often high. You just can't measure them from space. Benzine is just one
example of a carcinogen that _can_ be higher in these areas. The data would
need to be overlaid with ground sample data in the red zones.

[1] -
[https://www.airnow.gov/sites/default/files/2018-06/no2.pdf](https://www.airnow.gov/sites/default/files/2018-06/no2.pdf)

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jackcosgrove
I compared this to my mental map of population density and one region really
stood out, the Indo-Gangetic plain. It has higher than normal pollution but
nothing compared to what would be expected from the population density.

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ed312
Scrolling back to December of 2019 shows a stark contrast.

~~~
singlow
But what if you scroll back to June of 2019? Not as much difference. Pollution
is very seasonal.

~~~
jeffbee
Seems pretty different for Los Angeles.
[https://twitter.com/Jeffinatorator/status/127118987583268044...](https://twitter.com/Jeffinatorator/status/1271189875832680449)

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nanna
This kind of information should be in weather forecasts.

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I_am_tiberius
What's going on in Belgium?

~~~
nomercy400
Habours (=many ships) and heavy industry of Antwerp and Rotterdam. You can
also see the route the ships take on the west of Belguim, in the North Sea.

