Remote spectrometric measurements of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide content near urban thermal power plants
D.V. Ionov, M.V. Makarova
Saint-Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
Keywords: nitrogen oxides, nitrogen dioxide, differential spectroscopy, DOAS, mobile measurements, anthropogenic emission, thermal power plant, NOx, NO2
Abstract
The operation of thermal power plants (TPP) is accompanied by the emission of various pollutants into the atmosphere, including nitrogen oxides. This paper presents the results of spectrometric measurements of the atmospheric NO2 content carried out on circular routes around large urban TPPs of St. Petersburg. The spatial variability of tropospheric NO2 content in the vicinity of a TPP, determined from experimental data using the DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) method, demonstrates increased values in the downwind side of smokestacks. The spatial distributions observed in the mobile DOAS measurements are confirmed by the results of numerical calculations of the NO2 content field using the HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectories) model, taking into account a priori information on the volume of NOx emissions from the main urban TPPs. Approximate estimates of NOx emissions from the two largest TPPs in St. Petersburg, obtained on the basis of calculations of the total flow of NO2 molecules through a closed loop of DOAS measurement routes, amounted to ~ 2 ÷ 3 thousand tons per year. These experimental data are important for determining the contribution of thermal power plants to anthropogenic atmospheric pollution.
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