A. Sjodin et al., VERIFICATION OF EXPECTED TRENDS IN URBAN TRAFFIC NOX EMISSIONS FROM LONG-TERM MEASUREMENTS OF AMBIENT NO2 CONCENTRATIONS IN URBAN AIR, Science of the total environment, 190, 1996, pp. 213-220
Data from long-term measurements of ambient NO2 concentrations at roof
level in 15 Swedish cities have been used to verify expected trends i
n urban traffic NOx emissions, resulting mainly from the growth in the
number of threeway catalyst (TWC) cars in Sweden since the mid 1980s.
The results show that, with few exceptions, all cities exhibit a high
ly significant downward trend in ambient NO2 concentration since the w
inter season 1986/1987, as regards both winter season averages and 98t
h percentiles of daily averages, with an average decrease in both case
s of approximately 30% through the winter season 1993/1994. The same t
rend is also observed when meteorological variations between years are
taken into account. Corrections for NO2 in background air yield an ev
en stronger downward trend, or an average 40% decrease for the study p
eriod. Simultaneously, rough calculations indicate a 30% decrease in u
rban traffic NOx emissions during the study period. The conclusions ar
e that, since emission calculations always involve a high degree of un
certainty, use of data from long-term measurements of NO2 concentratio
ns in urban air can be very helpful in establishing real-world trends
for urban traffic NOx emissions, as soon as NOx-levels are low enough
for the NO + ozone reaction to become 'NOx-limited'.