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Polution (Ndotja e Ajrit)

Air quality is measured using the Air Quality Index (AQI), which runs from 0-500. Higher AQI values indicate greater levels of air pollution and health risks. The AQI tracks five major air pollutants that impact health: ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter. Ground-level ozone and airborne particles pose the greatest health risks. Air quality data comes from instruments on the ground and satellites that monitor these pollutants.

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65 views6 pages

Polution (Ndotja e Ajrit)

Air quality is measured using the Air Quality Index (AQI), which runs from 0-500. Higher AQI values indicate greater levels of air pollution and health risks. The AQI tracks five major air pollutants that impact health: ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter. Ground-level ozone and airborne particles pose the greatest health risks. Air quality data comes from instruments on the ground and satellites that monitor these pollutants.

Uploaded by

Tula Dhimitra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How Is Air Quality Measured?

The Short Answer:


Air quality is measured with the Air Quality Index, or AQI. The AQI works like a thermometer
that runs from 0 to 500 degrees. However, instead of showing changes in the temperature, the
AQI is a way of showing changes in the amount of pollution in the air.

A photograph showing smog over downtown Los Angeles. Credit: Public Domain

Air quality is a measure of how clean or polluted the air is. Monitoring air quality is
important because polluted air can be bad for our health—and the health of the
environment.
Air quality is measured with the Air Quality Index, or AQI. The AQI works sort of like a
thermometer that runs from 0 to 500 degrees. However, instead of showing changes in
the temperature, the AQI is a way of showing changes in the amount of pollution in the
air.

What is in the air?


The air in our atmosphere is mostly made up of two gases that are essential for life on
Earth: nitrogen and oxygen. However, the air also contains smaller amounts of many
other gases and particles. AQI tracks five major air pollutants:

 Ground level ozone


 Carbon monoxide
 Sulfur dioxide
 Nitrogen dioxide
 Airborne particles, or aerosols

Ground level ozone and airborne particles are the two air pollutants that pose the
greatest risk to human health in the United States. They are also the two of the main
ingredients in smog, a type of air pollution that reduces visibility.

What are some things that cause bad air quality?


Ozone is a gas you’ve probably heard of as a layer high up in Earth’s atmosphere. This
ozone layer is a good thing—it helps block us from the Sun’s harmful radiation.
However, ground level ozone is bad for human health. It is created when sunlight reacts
with certain chemical emissions (for example nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and
methane). These chemicals can come from industrial facilities, car exhaust, gasoline
vapors and other sources.
Airborne particles are solid and liquid droplets suspended in the air. These particles
become airborne at construction sites, smokestacks, car exhaust pipes, wildfires,
volcanoes and many other places, too. The particles can also be formed from chemical
reactions in the atmosphere.

When is air quality bad enough that you should stay inside?
An AQI under 50 means that the air quality is good. At this low AQI level, a person can
spend time outdoors and air pollution will pose very little risk to their health. As the AQI
number increases, so does the risk to human health. (See the chart below for a
summary of the AQI levels of health concern.)
Air quality is measured in Air Quality Index values. Source: Airnow.gov

Where does information about air quality come from?


Instruments on the ground and satellites orbiting Earth collect information about what is
in our air. For example, satellites in NOAA’s GOES-R (short for Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellites-R) Series monitor the particle pollution in our
atmosphere.

The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) also collects information about particles in our
air. These particles include smoke particles from wildfires; airborne dust during dust and
sand storms; urban and industrial pollution; and ash from erupting volcanoes. Ground
level ozone can also be measured by the JPSS series of satellites.

GOES-R Series satellites can provide particle pollution measurements approximately


every five minutes during the day. JPSS satellites can provide a higher resolution
measurement of aerosols over the entire planet once a day. JPSS can also observe the
movement of aerosols from one side of the planet to the other. JPSS can also measure
carbon monoxide which is associated with poor air quality resulting from wildfires.
The image mosaic on the left of the slider bar shows visible smoke from wildfires on the West Coast of the blowing
eastward across the United States. The image to the right of the slider bar shows the concentrations of airborne particles,
or aerosols, from the fires that were swept west to east. Data from Suomi-NPP satellite, which is part of the JPSS system.
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/SSAI/SuomiNPP

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