Analytical study of the effect of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and ambient temperature on ozone in Tehran

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Ph.D.student,, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir university of technology, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and ambient temperature on ozone (O3) concentration in the city of Tehran. In this regard, the hourly concentration for ozone and nitrogen oxides for the first half of 1396-98 were used. Moreover, the 2-weeks averaged data for BTEX monitored by passive sampling method and 30-minutes averaged temperature data monitored at Mehrabad airport were used. First, daily variations of ozone and nitrogen oxides with their corresponding indexes were analyzed. Then, the role of nitrogen oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) on ozone concentration were investigated by statistical analysis. The results show a meaningful relationship between ozone and both nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide with the coefficient of determinations of 0.83 and 0.8, respectively. Although an apparent increasing trend in ozone concentrations has been observed in recent years, however, no similar trends are detected for nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide. The limited available data for BTEX, shows a 17.3% increase from 1394 to 1398. The daytime temperature analysis for the 30 days with the highest ozone concentrations showed an increasing trend from 1396 to 1398. Therefore, it can be concluded that the increasing trends of BTEX concentrations and ambient temperature were probably responsible for the increasing trend of ozone concentration in the study period.

Keywords

Main Subjects


[1] Taheri, A., P. Aliasghari, and V. Hosseini, Black carbon and PM2.5 monitoring campaign on the roadside and residential urban background sites in the city of Tehran. Atmospheric Environment, 218 (2019) 116928.
[2] Ueno, H. and N. Tsunematsu, Sensitivity of ozone production to increasing temperature and reduction of precursors estimated from observation data. Atmospheric Environment, 214 (2019) 116818.
[3] Wei, D., et al., Influences of nitrogen oxides and isoprene on ozone-temperature relationships in the Amazon rain forest. Atmospheric Environment, 206 (2019) 280-292.
[4] Alfoldy, B., et al., BTEX, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and ozone concentrations at traffic influenced and background urban sites in an arid environment. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 10(2) (2019) 445-454.
[5] Wang, W., et al., In Search of the Compensation Point–Leaf-Level Exchange of Nitrogen Oxides and Ozone for Selected Tree Species at a North America Temperate Forest, (2018).
[6] Plocoste, T., et al., Assessment of nitrogen oxides and ground-level ozone behavior in a dense air quality station network: Case study in the Lesser Antilles Arc. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 68(12) (2018) 1278-1300.
[7] Kumar, A., et al., Spatial and temporal variability of surface ozone and nitrogen oxides in urban and rural ambient air of Delhi-NCR, India. Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, 8(4) (2015) 391-399.
[8] Jhun, I., et al., The impact of nitrogen oxides concentration decreases on ozone trends in the USA. Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, 8(3) (2015) 283-292.
[9] Wolf, K., et al., Land use regression modeling of ultrafine particles, ozone, nitrogen oxides and markers of particulate matter pollution in Augsburg, Germany. Science of the Total Environment, 579 (2017) 1531-1540.
[10] Tong, L., et al., Characteristics of surface ozone and nitrogen oxides at urban, suburban and rural sites in Ningbo, China. Atmospheric Research, 187 (2017) 57-68.
[11] Fernández-Guisuraga, J.M., et al., Nitrogen oxides and ozone in Portugal: trends and ozone estimation in an urban and a rural site. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 23(17) (2016) 17171-17182.
[12] Lu, Z., et al., Emissions of nitrogen oxides from US urban areas: estimation from Ozone Monitoring Instrument retrievals for 2005–2014. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 15(18) (2015) 10367-10383.
[13] An, H., et al., The long-term variations of ozone and nitrogen oxides in Suwon city during 1991~ 2012.Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment, 31(4) (2015) 378-384.
[14] Jeffries, H.E. and R. Crouse, Scientific and technical issues related to the application of incremental reactivity. 1990: University of North Carolina, Department of Environmental Sciences, (1990).
[15] Shen, H., et al., Novel method for ozone isopleth construction and diagnosis for the ozone control strategy of Chinese cities. Environmental science & technology, 55(23) (2021) 15625-15636.
[16] Luo, H., et al., Emission source-based ozone isopleth and isosurface diagrams and their significance in ozone pollution control strategies. journal of environmental sciences, 105 (2021) 138-149.
[17] Zhang, K., et al., Precursors and potential sources of ground-level ozone in suburban Shanghai. Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering, 14(6) (2020) 1-12.
[18] Qian, Y., et al., Empirical development of ozone isopleths: Applications to Los Angeles. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 6(5) (2019) 294-299.
[19] Yang, L., et al., Identification of long-term evolution of ozone sensitivity to precursors based on two-dimensional mutual verification. Science of The Total Environment, 760 (2021) 143401.
[20] Alvim, D.S., et al., Main ozone-forming VOCs in the city of Sao Paulo: observations, modelling and impacts. Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, 10(4) (2017) 421-435.
[21] Shin, H., et al., The effects of precursor emission and background concentration changes on the surface ozone concentration over Korea. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 12(1) (2012) 93-103.
[22] Seinfeld, J. and S. Pandis, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. New York, (2008).
[23] Shareipour Z., Evaluation of the temperature effect on Ozone and NOx concentration. 6th National Air and Noise Quality Management, (2017) (In persian).
[24] Motesadi S, M.A., Bagheri A, Sheykhmohammadi A, Production of tropospheric ozone and its precursors in Tehran city during 2001 to 2011. 16th National Conference on Environmental Health, (2017)(In persian).
[25] Rafipour M, A.A., Alimohammadi A, Sadeghi A, Investigation of Effective Meteorological Parameters on Ozone Concentration Using Principal Component Analysis. 2nd National Air and Noise Quality Management, (2013) (In persian).
[26] Tehran Annual Air and Noise Quality Report, 1396, Air Quality Control Company, Subsidiary of Tehran Municipality, adapted from air.tehran.ir, access date 1, November, (2019) (in Persian).
[27] Tehran Annual Air and Noise Quality Report, 1397, Air Quality Control Company, Subsidiary of Tehran Municipality, adapted from air.tehran.ir, access date 1, November, (2019) (in Persian).
[28] Environnement, S.A., "O342 Module UV Photometric Ozone Analyzer" Technical Manual (2010). adapted from environnement-sa.com, access date 1, November, (2019).
[29] Ecotech, “SERINUS 10 Ozone Analyzer.” Technical Manual (2016). adapted from ecotech.com, access date 1, November, (2019).
[30] Environnement, S.A., "AC32M Chemiluminescent Nitrogen Oxide Analyzer." Technical Manual (2010). adapted from environnement-sa.com, access date 1, November, (2019).
[31] Ecotech, “SERINUS 40 Oxides of Nitrogen Analyzer.” Technical Manual (2016). adapted from ecotech.com, access date 1, November, (2019).
[32] Amini, H., et al., Spatiotemporal description of BTEX volatile organic compounds in a Middle Eastern megacity: Tehran study of exposure prediction for environmental health research (Tehran SEPEHR). Environmental pollution, 226 (2017) 219-229.
[33] Leighton, P., Photochemistry of air pollution, Elsevier (2012).
[34] Jenkin, M.E. and K.C. Clemitshaw, Ozone and other secondary photochemical pollutants: chemical processes governing their formation in the planetary boundary layer. Atmospheric Environment, 34(16)(2000) 2499-2527.
[35] Wallington, T.J., J.H. Seinfeld, and J.R. Barker, 100 Years of progress in gas-phase atmospheric chemistry research. Meteorological Monographs, 59 (2019) 10.1-10.52.