Earth Science Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [air-pollution]

Air pollution is the introduction of particulates, biological molecules, or other harmful materials into Earth's atmosphere, causing diseases, allergies, death to humans, damage to other living organisms such as animals and food crops, or the natural or built environment.

While the load of chemical species in atmosphere has exceeded the limits of its capability, there will be environmental issue causing disease and environmental damage. The source of air pollutants(SO2, NOx, VOC, etc) conclude both nature(volcano, desert, wild fire, etc) and anthropogenic(industry, domestic, vehicle, etc). Emission, transport and chemical reaction are three fundamental process related to air pollution.

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What's causing this high SO2 concentrations in Kazakhstan?

I was using this website for weather conditions around the world called Ventusky (https://www.ventusky.com/) and one of its features allows you to view SO2 concentration. I stumbled upon this high concentration of SO2 near Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan…
gabyarg25
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Possible new air pollution in town, what to do

Over the last approximately six month an auto parts plant in town has started releasing quite a bit of what smells like paint fumes. When it first started it was pretty rare to get an overwhelming breeze, but now it seems quite often, especially at…
RodgerDodger
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Why does air pollution comes with cold weather in tropical areas?

I reside in Bangkok where the local press have reported several times these two last months November-December about high levels of smog. A similar phenomenon occurred last year in this period (end of the tropical cold season); both this year and…
anukmenchitlarmen
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Which chemicals in smog obscure visibility?

I know that smog is generally a mixture of various chemicals, such as peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and ozone. I also know that smog obscures visibility. My question is two-fold: What chemical in smog generally obscures visibility (discounting…
BarocliniCplusplus
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How does the WHO calculate the interaction of mortality effects from indoor and outdoor air pollution?

The WHO's landing page on air pollution includes three different estimates of deaths due to air pollution: 7 million total 4.2 million due to outdoor (ambient) air pollution 3.8 due to household (indoor) air pollution Obviously, 7 < 4.2 + 3.8, so…
LShaver
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How is water surrounding an area of pollution, able to 'trap' that pollution, or otherwise deteriorate air quality?

An article seems to assert that air pollution can be held in place (or 'trapped') by high mountains surrounding the area of air pollution. This seems very understandable. But the same article seems to assert that this is the case for water (read:…
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What creates so much pollution in Africa?

Using AirVisual app I notice there is a huge patch of pollution in Africa. I cannot imagine there is a big economic activity to support that huge pollution across almost the whole continent. What could be the cause of those pollution in Africa.
vasin1987
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Why is the environmental quality index high in USA, the second most polluting country?

I saw some indexes about environmental quality in many websites, like in: http://www.numbeo.com/pollution/rankings_by_country.jsp I wonder why the environmental quality index is higher in USA and in Europe than in other sub-Saharan or Latin American…
optimal control
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PM10 hourly limits

In Greece, the daily limit for PM10 is the 50 μg/m3 and the annual limit is 40 μg/m3. I think that WHO have proposed lower limits although these have not proposed adopted. But, there is no hourly limit for the concentration of PM10. PM10 is a very…
Dimitris Tsiaousidis
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Less pollution: moving hurricane debris to other regions for use, or burning?

When a big hurricane hits, it can create debris on the scale of $\mathrm{10^8 yd^3}$. Cities in Florida, Texas, and other affected areas are struggling to hire enough trucks and drivers to pick it up quickly. But aside from that, I noticed many of…
JeopardyTempest
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