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Seasonal and long-term variability of O3 and NO2 in Tehran from 2010 to 2022

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Abstract

Ozone and nitrogen pollution of the urban outdoor air in Tehran, a megacity of 10 million inhabitants with heavy urban traffic, strongly affects the health of its citizens. Therefore, monitoring of ozone (O3) and nitrogen (NO2) pollutants is crucial. The aim of this study is to investigate the seasonality of ground-level and the total column O3, the ground-level NO2, and their interactions. For this purpose, in 14 air quality measurement stations of Tehran Air Quality Control Company (AQCC), the OMI/MODIS Aqua products were used for a period of 10 years (2010–2019) as well as the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) data (2019–2022). The results of the stations analysis show that the monthly mean surface O3 concentration presents a maximum level in June and a minimum in December. The maximum amount of shortwave radiation flux and UV index was also in June and July. The minimum and maximum of the total O3 concentration column are located north of Tehran and southwest of the province, respectively, with a difference of 9DU between the two. Comparison of the total column and surface ozone data shows high concentration during the spring months. It was not possible to determine the overall relationship between nitrogen and ozone at the station scale. However, the total vertical column of the atmosphere and the tropopause height are mainly negatively correlated based on IMO/MODIS Aqua products. Finally, the analysis of TROPOMI data (2019–2022) confirmed the seasonal variability of NO2 and O3 over Iran while identifying correlation areas of O3 and NO2 over Iran, suggesting potential areas of O3 generation such as urban areas, oil/gas refineries, and natural barrier for pollutant dispersion such as mountains.

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Data Availability

Data sets supporting reported results are: Air quality control company of Tehran (https://airnow.tehran.ir/).

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Acknowledgements

Except station O3 surface concentration in fourteen stations, there is another data derived from Giovanni website, so we are grateful to NASA and Tehran Air Quality Control for providing datasets. We thank the TROPOMI/ESA for providing NO2 and O3 data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology, Air and Climate Technology Company (ACTC), Tehran, Iran

    Nasim Hossein Hamzeh

  2. JAMSTEC Yokohama Earth Simulator, Yokohama-City, Kanagawa, Japan

    Jean-Francois Vuillaume

  3. Centre of Tropical Climate Change System, Institute of Climate Change, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia

    Maggie Chel Gee Ooi

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  1. Nasim Hossein Hamzeh
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  2. Jean-Francois Vuillaume
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  3. Maggie Chel Gee Ooi
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Contributions

NHH designed the research and provided and analyzed the station data and OIM satellite data; JFV provided and analyzed the TROPOMI data and reviewed the manuscript; and MCGO reviewed the manuscript and provided valuable comments.

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Correspondence to Nasim Hossein Hamzeh.

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Responsible Editor: Amjad Kallel

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Hamzeh, N.H., Vuillaume, JF. & Ooi, M.C.G. Seasonal and long-term variability of O3 and NO2 in Tehran from 2010 to 2022. Arab J Geosci 16, 456 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11551-6

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