Natural resources and Environment

Department of Water Resources and Environment

Effects of Climate Change on Air

Quality
By: Mohammed Jaber
Instructor: Dr. Khalil Khader

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 Introduction
 It is widely recognized that air quality and
climate change are strongly
interconnected.

 It is very complicated to study the

interrelationships between the two cases
due to uncertainty in determining the
effects of one on the another.

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 Introduction
 The forth assessment of the
intergovernmental panel on climate
change (IPCC) proposed that:
 There is an increase in global mean air and
ocean temperatures.

Widespread ice and snow melt.
 Rising global sea level.

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The effects of climate change on air
pollution meteorology
 Global precipitation increases slightly due
to enhanced evaporation from the
oceans.

1. Precipitation increases in northern parts of

America and Europe, but decreases in the
southern parts.
2. It increases in northern Asia but decreases
in the middle east.
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 Tropospheric Ozone
 Ozone forms in the troposphere by the
action of sunlight on certain chemicals.
(fig.1)

 Tropospheric Ozone precursors are:

 Nitrogen Oxide (NOx).
 Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
 Carbon monoxide (CO).
 Sulfur Dioxide (SO2).

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 Some chemistry
 Ozone can be produced in the troposphere by
photochemical oxidation of CO, CH4, and
NMVOCs:
1. OH + CO  H + CO2
2. H + O2  HO2
Then

3. HO2 + NO  OH + NO2
4. NO2 + hv  NO + O
5. O + O2 O3
The net effect of these reactions are:
CO + 2O2  CO2 + O3
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Fig. 1. pollutants behavior in the Troposphere
 Tropospheric Ozone
 Higher temperatures enhances the
production of ozone in the presence of
sunlight.

 This production would be increased with

decreasing cloud cover in many regions.

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 Expectations
 All recent studies predicts that there will
be a decrease in ozone concentrations in
the future climate as a result of increasing
water vapor.

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 Particulate Matter (PM)
 Can be divided into two types:
 PM 2.5 (those with 2.5 µm diameter):
 Sulfate.
 Nitrate.
 Organic Carbon.
 Elemental Carbon.
 PM 10 (those with 10 µm diameter):
 Soil Dust.
 Sea Salt.

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 Particulate Matter
 Sulfate, nitrate, and organic carbon are
produced within the atmosphere by oxidation of
SO2, NOx, NMVOCs.

 Its an air quality and health cause problem.

 The main scavenging factor is precipitation.
 Observed correlations of PM concentrations with
Meteorological variables are weaker than for
ozone.

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 Particulate Matter
 Model perturbation studies find that the effect of
temperature on PM depends on the component.
 Sulfate concentration increases with
temperature, due to faster SO2 oxidation.

 In contrast, nitrate and organic semi-volatile

components shift from the particle phase to the
gas phase with increasing temperature.

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 Particulate Matter
 PM concentration decrease with
increasing precipitation as wet deposition
provides the main PM sink.
 Change in ventilation have stronger
effects on PM than for ozone of the lower
PM background concentration.

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 Expectations

PM response is more complicated than
ozone, because of the diversity of PM
components.

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Dependence of surface air quality
on meteorological variables
variable Ozone PM
Temperature ++ -
Regional ++ ++
stagnation
Wind Speed - -
Mixing Depth = --
Humidity = +
Cloud Cover - -
Precipitation = --
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 Effect of Climate Change on
Mercury
 More warming of the planet would transfer
mercury between ecosystems via
atmospheric transport.

 This will re-deposit it in a more mobile and

presumably more toxic form.

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 Effect of climate changes on
Mercury
 Future warming at boreal latitudes could
release large amount of soil organic
matter as CO2.

 This would be through increased

respiration and increased fires.

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