NO2 pollution in Indian cities is a well-known problem requiring adequate analysis and implementation of appropriate control strategies. Advanced space-borne instrument ? SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY(SCI AMACHY )?- measurements are proved to be helpful in estimating the tropospheric concentration of NO2 which can meaningfully relate to the ground level pollution. Here, these satellite data are explored to analyse the status and trend in NO2 pollution at ten selected metro cities of India. The appropriate geospatial and statistical methods are employed for the processing and analysis of data. The observed results indicated the status of NO2 pollution in these cities as well as its trend throughout the period 2002 to 2012. This study reports, statistically significant increasing trends in NO2 level at all these cities except one. Also, the influence of climatic seasons on modulating the ambient NO2 level is reflected in all cities. For ensuring the validity of results based on satellite data, a comparison is made between the SCIAMACHY NO2 and ground stations measurements which yielded an agreeable correlation of 0.5.This study demonstrates the applicability of satellite remote sensing for urban air quality monitoring and suggest its usability for other parts of the world where ground station measurements are scarce or not available.
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