THE FEASIBILITY OF SATELLITE APPROACH IN DETECTING NO_2 EMISSION

摘要

The effect of urbanization in Malaysia has drastically change the industrial landscape and traffic congestion in this country. The air pollution from the urbanization activity emits variety of harmful gases including nitrogen dioxide (NO_2), which is the main cause to the major respiratory illness among residence nearby the area. Recently, satellite remote sensing techniques offer trace gases monitoring until large spatial coverage. This is the other alternative method instead of observe using ground measurement. So, this paper tends to use satellite approach to detect distribution of NO_2 emission over Peninsular Malaysia. Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite level lb products were used to estimate NO_2 emission from 2007 until 2010. Regression model from satellite and ground measurement validation was used to estimate NO_2 concentration. The model shows correlation coefficient, R~2 approximately 0.80. In fact, mapping result shows that high urbanized area with densely industrial and populated region such as Selangor released higher NO_2 emission compare to the lower urbanized area. For the conclusion, satellite assume as the best method to observe NO_2 emission once unavailability of in situ data. Furthermore, air pollutant information especially in urban areas is important to sustain public health policies and also significant for environmental protection.