Ethnoracial Disparities in Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution in the United States: Comparing Data Sets from Satellites, Models, and Monitors

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

12-5-2023

Journal

Environmental science & technology

Volume

57

Issue

48

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.3c03999

Keywords

TROPOMI; air pollution; environmental justice; land-use regression models; nitrogen dioxide; photochemical models; satellites; urban air quality

Abstract

In the United States (U.S.), studies on nitrogen dioxide (NO) trends and pollution-attributable health effects have historically used measurements from in situ monitors, which have limited geographical coverage and leave 66% of urban areas unmonitored. Novel tools, including remotely sensed NO measurements and estimates of NO estimates from land-use regression and photochemical models, can aid in assessing NO exposure gradients, leveraging their complete spatial coverage. Using these data sets, we find that Black, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial populations experience NO levels 15-50% higher than the national average in 2019, whereas the non-Hispanic White population is consistently exposed to levels that are 5-15% lower than the national average. By contrast, the in situ monitoring network indicates more moderate ethnoracial NO disparities and different rankings of the least- to most-exposed ethnoracial population subgroup. Validating these spatially complete data sets against in situ observations reveals similar performance, indicating that all these data sets can be used to understand spatial variations in NO. Integrating in situ monitoring, satellite data, statistical models, and photochemical models can provide a semiobservational record, complete geospatial coverage, and increasingly high spatial resolution, enhancing future efforts to characterize, map, and track exposure and inequality for highly spatially heterogeneous pollutants like NO.

Department

Environmental and Occupational Health

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