[HN Gopher] Global air pollution maps by the European Space Agency
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Global air pollution maps by the European Space Agency
Author : walterbell
Score : 122 points
Date : 2020-06-11 18:21 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.esa.int)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.esa.int)
| jackcosgrove wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| bsimpson wrote:
| I'm amazed that their main call-to-action on that page is to
| download a screenshot of https://maps.s5p-pal.com/, including the
| baked-in zoom buttons that obviously don't work in a static
| image.
| kroeckx wrote:
| The map at 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 wrote:
| Change years for the same month/day to exclude seasonal
| pollution differences.
| [deleted]
| secondcoming wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.
| reaperducer wrote:
| Is there any offshore oil or gas drilling in that region?
| pkaye wrote:
| I was confused for a bit since the zoom didn't work but the
| actual map is at https://maps.s5p-pal.com/
| azinman2 wrote:
| Why is Johannesburg so bad?
| appplemac wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| mistrial9 wrote:
| I enjoyed this documentary on the topic:
|
| SMOG WARS - Polish Air Pollution Documentary (Full
| International Version)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs70ewSdEjE
| _Microft wrote:
| The emitter in Poland seems to be the brown coal (lignite)
| power plant Belchatow.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be%C5%82chat%C3%B3w_Power_Stat.
| ..
|
| https://www.bing.com/maps?v=2&cp=51.266111~19.330278&style=h.
| ..
| Havoc wrote:
| That isn't Joburg. It's the power plants in the province east
| of Joburg - Mpumalanga. There are coal deposits there so they
| built a bunch of coal plants. Three mega plants in that
| vicinity - Majuba, Kusile and bit further north Medupi
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpumalanga
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majuba_Power_Station
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusile_Power_Station
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medupi_Power_Station
| igravious wrote:
| Fascinating. _thank you_!
|
| Btw, for those like me who didn't know what Jo'burg's
| province is called, it's Gauteng!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauteng
| azinman2 wrote:
| Are they just unusually dirty? It really stands out at a
| global-level, which is pretty "impressive".
| Havoc wrote:
| I think it's a combination. Even by global standards these
| ones are very big plants and concentrated in a fairly small
| area. There are handful of other plants there too that I
| don't recall.
|
| Dirty - yeah that too unfortunately. The plants tend to use
| worse grade coal (good stuff gets exported) and aside from
| Kusile they run without SO2 scrubbers, which is quite
| sketchy given the coal grade. Though this is a NO2 map so
| unsure how that translates. It's all a bit of a mess
| frankly
| runawaybottle wrote:
| 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?
| hungryhobo wrote:
| I'm guessing cause India is still in lockdown while china has
| resumed it's economy
| dharmab wrote:
| The map only shows NO2, not all pollutants.
| ed312 wrote:
| Scrolling back to December of 2019 shows a stark contrast.
| singlow wrote:
| But what if you scroll back to June of 2019? Not as much
| difference. Pollution is very seasonal.
| jeffbee wrote:
| Seems pretty different for Los Angeles. https://twitter.com/J
| effinatorator/status/127118987583268044...
| jakub_g wrote:
| 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://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?
| blawson wrote:
| The mountains create a sort of trap for pollution in the air I
| believe.
| rahulnair23 wrote:
| Is there an accepted threshold for tropospheric NO2
| concentrations above which it is considered harmful?
| LinuxBender wrote:
| 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
| jka wrote:
| Link extracted from this announcement to the interactive website
| that allows viewing and navigating mapped air pollution history:
| https://maps.s5p-pal.com/
| velcro wrote:
| Yikes - just compared the latest map with the one in January -
| what a difference!
| jka wrote:
| 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.
| jackcosgrove wrote:
| Coronavirus really hammered China's economic activity, and
| northern Italy as well.
| iagovar wrote:
| Thanks, I was unable to find the map, where was the link?
| nemetroid wrote:
| In the first sentence ("new online platform"), and another
| time near the bottom of the details ("The mapping portal is
| available here:").
| dicomdan wrote:
| 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/
|
| 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.
| agustif wrote:
| OMS WHO
|
| What's whit china and big 3 initial orgs
| AdamN wrote:
| China is the second most powerful country on the planet and
| the multilateral orgs are a political field to control just
| like any other. China (and the US, EU, Russia, etc..) will
| always work hard to move forward their agenda in these
| forums.
|
| In some ways that's one of the main purposes of the UN, WHO
| and all the other institutions; to create a space for
| dialogue and disagreement that reduces the number of hot
| conflicts.
| runawaybottle wrote:
| I'm almost more curious to see where this discussion goes.
|
| 30 seconds of googling, might be relevant?
| https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN0UV0XS
| disabled wrote:
| 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...
| cgb223 wrote:
| Can I get a source on China shutting down the WHO map?
|
| I have a friend who doesn't believe the WHO is affected by them
| and this would help my case...
| knolax wrote:
| "who air pollution map shut down", "who air pollution map
| china" and "who air pollution map" turns up no results. It's
| a green account and their first comment was accusing someone
| of being a shill, so my bullshit meter is going off.
| reaperducer wrote:
| While I don't disagree with your analysis of the situation,
| it's worth noting that China has been hiding its pollution
| levels for a very long time.
|
| I read a few years ago that the locals in Beijing use the
| pollution numbers posted on the American embassy's web site
| (recorded on the embassy grounds) because they can count on
| the Chinese government's numbers being false.
| justicezyx wrote:
| > the maps distributed by the Chinese government
|
| Do you have a link or copy to such maps published in recent
| times? I am curious how blatant is Chinese government.
| Macuyiko wrote:
| http://www.mee.gov.cn/ywdt/dfnews/202001/t20200103_756808.sh.
| ..
|
| For instance contains a few for Beijing. There are more
| reports and real time tracker on the site for AQI levels.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Possibly related to all the rare earth mines? Maybe they're
| burning diesel for power due to lack of infrastructure?
| [deleted]
| alfor wrote:
| I like this site to visualise that kind of data
|
| https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/particulates/surface/l...
| kaybe wrote:
| https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/ is also good for direct
| satellite data and derivatives.
| [deleted]
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(page generated 2020-06-11 23:00 UTC)