Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application
Urban air pollution disproportionately harms communities of color and low-income communities in the U.S. Intraurban nitrogen dioxide (NO2) inequalities can be observed from space using the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Past research has relied on time-averaged measurements, limiting...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Chemical Society (ACS)
2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/148076 |
| _version_ | 1826191783075250176 |
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| author | Dressel, Isabella M Demetillo, Mary Angelique G Judd, Laura M Janz, Scott J Fields, Kimberly P Sun, Kang Fiore, Arlene M McDonald, Brian C Pusede, Sally E |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Dressel, Isabella M Demetillo, Mary Angelique G Judd, Laura M Janz, Scott J Fields, Kimberly P Sun, Kang Fiore, Arlene M McDonald, Brian C Pusede, Sally E |
| author_sort | Dressel, Isabella M |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Urban air pollution disproportionately harms communities of color and low-income communities in the U.S. Intraurban nitrogen dioxide (NO2) inequalities can be observed from space using the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Past research has relied on time-averaged measurements, limiting our understanding of how neighborhood-level NO2 inequalities co-vary with urban air quality and climate. Here, we use fine-scale (250 m × 250 m) airborne NO2 remote sensing to demonstrate that daily TROPOMI observations resolve a major portion of census tract-scale NO2 inequalities in the New York City-Newark urbanized area. Spatiotemporally coincident TROPOMI and airborne inequalities are well correlated (r = 0.82-0.97), with slopes of 0.82-1.05 for relative and 0.76-0.96 for absolute inequalities for different groups. We calculate daily TROPOMI NO2 inequalities over May 2018-September 2021, reporting disparities of 25-38% with race, ethnicity, and/or household income. Mean daily inequalities agree with results based on TROPOMI measurements oversampled to 0.01° × 0.01° to within associated uncertainties. Individual and mean daily TROPOMI NO2 inequalities are largely insensitive to pixel size, at least when pixels are smaller than ∼60 km2, but are sensitive to low observational coverage. We statistically analyze daily NO2 inequalities, presenting empirical evidence of the systematic overburdening of communities of color and low-income neighborhoods with polluting sources, regulatory ozone co-benefits, and worsened NO2 inequalities and cumulative NO2 and urban heat burdens with climate change. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:01:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/148076 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:01:12Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | American Chemical Society (ACS) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1480762023-02-16T03:44:45Z Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application Dressel, Isabella M Demetillo, Mary Angelique G Judd, Laura M Janz, Scott J Fields, Kimberly P Sun, Kang Fiore, Arlene M McDonald, Brian C Pusede, Sally E Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Urban air pollution disproportionately harms communities of color and low-income communities in the U.S. Intraurban nitrogen dioxide (NO2) inequalities can be observed from space using the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Past research has relied on time-averaged measurements, limiting our understanding of how neighborhood-level NO2 inequalities co-vary with urban air quality and climate. Here, we use fine-scale (250 m × 250 m) airborne NO2 remote sensing to demonstrate that daily TROPOMI observations resolve a major portion of census tract-scale NO2 inequalities in the New York City-Newark urbanized area. Spatiotemporally coincident TROPOMI and airborne inequalities are well correlated (r = 0.82-0.97), with slopes of 0.82-1.05 for relative and 0.76-0.96 for absolute inequalities for different groups. We calculate daily TROPOMI NO2 inequalities over May 2018-September 2021, reporting disparities of 25-38% with race, ethnicity, and/or household income. Mean daily inequalities agree with results based on TROPOMI measurements oversampled to 0.01° × 0.01° to within associated uncertainties. Individual and mean daily TROPOMI NO2 inequalities are largely insensitive to pixel size, at least when pixels are smaller than ∼60 km2, but are sensitive to low observational coverage. We statistically analyze daily NO2 inequalities, presenting empirical evidence of the systematic overburdening of communities of color and low-income neighborhoods with polluting sources, regulatory ozone co-benefits, and worsened NO2 inequalities and cumulative NO2 and urban heat burdens with climate change. 2023-02-15T15:41:19Z 2023-02-15T15:41:19Z 2022-11-15 2023-02-15T15:30:27Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/148076 Dressel, Isabella M, Demetillo, Mary Angelique G, Judd, Laura M, Janz, Scott J, Fields, Kimberly P et al. 2022. "Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application." Environmental Science & Technology, 56 (22). en 10.1021/acs.est.2c02828 Environmental Science & Technology Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf American Chemical Society (ACS) ACS |
| spellingShingle | Dressel, Isabella M Demetillo, Mary Angelique G Judd, Laura M Janz, Scott J Fields, Kimberly P Sun, Kang Fiore, Arlene M McDonald, Brian C Pusede, Sally E Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application |
| title | Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application |
| title_full | Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application |
| title_fullStr | Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application |
| title_full_unstemmed | Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application |
| title_short | Daily Satellite Observations of Nitrogen Dioxide Air Pollution Inequality in New York City, New York and Newark, New Jersey: Evaluation and Application |
| title_sort | daily satellite observations of nitrogen dioxide air pollution inequality in new york city new york and newark new jersey evaluation and application |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/148076 |
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