The assessment of air quality using satellite observations in coal-fired power plants

Understanding the spatial and temporal variation of pollutant concentrations over power plant is important for optimizing emission control strategies. Remote sensing technology can help to expand the sparse ground monitoring networks into regions currently not covered. This paper use the monthly mean sulfur dioxide (SO
2
) and nitrogen dioxide (NO
2
) from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board NASA's Aura satellite to assess the air quality in several coal-fired power plants over the North China Plain. Our analysis indicates: 1) The inter-annual variation (2007∼2009) of SO
2
and NO
2
showed the implement of flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) devices in power plants was effectiveness; 2) Due to lack of NO
2
national standard and the increasing NO
2
emissions from automobiles, the NO
2
pollutions have a trend of increment in North China Plain in the past decade; 3) By comparing the monthly mean SO
2
and NO
2
of several big coal-fired power plants over the mountain and plain area, we found that the power output directly affects pollutant concentrations.