Air quality over Baghdad city using ground and aircraft measurements

Abstract EN

In this paper, the air pollutants concentrations measurements such as Total Suspended Particles(TSP), Carbon Monoxides(CO),Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and meteorological parameters including temperature (T), relative humidity (RH) and wind speed & direction were conducted in Baghdad city by several stations measuring numbered (22) stations located in different regions, and were classified into (industrial, commercial and residential) stations.

The results show that the concentrations of pollutants (TSP, CO, and CO2) have exceeded the air quality standards set by World Health Organization (WHO) and Iraqi limitation in the stations of the Baghdad city.

The program (ArcGIS) used to prepare maps of air pollution in Baghdad city, as well as MS Excel used for drawing the concentrations of pollutants in ground and to show changed the concentrations with altitude.

Aircraft measurements of gaseous pollutants including ozone (O3), Carbone monoxide (CO) , Carbone dioxide (CO2) and the particulate matter concentrations ( PM10, PM2.

5 ) were conducted in the Baghdad city from ( 2 January 2014 to 4 Mars 2014 ),the data of total 10 flight (22 h flight time ),the vertical profile of (CO, CO2, O3, PM10and PM2.

5 ) have been obtained at different altitude over the Baghdad city covering the lowermost troposphere up to 2100 feet altitude above ground level (AGL) during all flights were obtained by A bell 407 aircraft and A king aircraft.

The objective was to characterize the spatial and vertical distributions of these air pollutants.The results indicate that the air pollution levels were severe over the Baghdad city.

The pollutants concentrations were generally decreasing with altitude in the boundary layer in the flight measurements .These results are valuable for studying vertical distribution characteristics of gaseous pollutants and particulate matters in the boundary layer over the Baghdad city and for providing important basic data to environmental assessment and decision-making.

The reasons for this increasing due to increase in anthropogenic emissions, mainly due to the increase in fossil fuel use for heating, the burning of the fuel used in various types of vehicles, as well as the low quality of fuel and the age of the vehicles, the use of generators, the dry climate, soil erosion, lack of roadside vegetation, paved areas, substantial rise in number of vehicles and poorly maintained vehicles have all been held Responsible.