Abstract
The use of remote sensing and GIS methodology has accelerated the processing of data on pollution, but has also raised a question about the accuracy of the same. The research focuses on four main air pollutants (CO, NO, SO2, O3), the data on which were obtained from satellite images of Landsat 8 and Landsat 9, for the period 2000–2020. The data on relative cloudiness were obtained from the database CHELSA (Climatologies at high resolution for the earth’s land surface areas) for the period 1980–2010. All the data were further processed and analyzed through the procedures of numerical GIS analysis, multi-criteria analysis, supervised and unsupervised satellite classification, and pixel analysis. The results of the analysis of cloud cover in the Balkan region showed that the month with the highest cloud cover in this period was February, with the maximum of (93.18%), whereas the lowest cloud cover was in July (0.19%). The analyzed period (2000–2010) was in the middle range for the pollutants NO and SO2 and in the lower range for CO; O3. In the period 2010–2020, there were high concentrations of NO, SO2, and CO and low concentrations of O3. The most polluted cities in the last twenty years are Ordu (Turkey), Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Bor (Serbia). Finally, two most extreme air pollutants in the territory of Balkan countries were SO2 and NO (2000–2020).
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Abbreviations
- PM 2.5 :
-
Particles 2.5 µm
- PM 10 :
-
Particles 10 µm
- O 3 :
-
Ozone
- UV :
-
Ultraviolet radiation
- GIS :
-
Geographic Information Systems
- MODIS :
-
Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite recordings
- CHELSA :
-
Climatologies at high resolution for the earth’s land surface areas
- MCDA :
-
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
- CMIP6 :
-
Coupled Model Intercomparison Project
- ISIMIP3b :
-
Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison
- LMM :
-
Late Maunder Minimum
- IQAIR :
- Real time Air quality :
- UN Environment :
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This research was funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (Contract number 451–03-68/2022–14/200091).
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Valjarević, A. Long-term remote sensing-based methods for monitoring air pollution and cloud cover in the Balkan countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 27155–27171 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32982-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32982-y