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Remote Sensing Techniques for Atmospheric Pollutants Applications

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Remote Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2023) | Viewed by 6877

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. LAGEO, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
2. College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3. Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Interests: remote sensing of atmospheric composition; its application in climate; environmental research
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 10017, China
Interests: remote sensing of surface and aerosol
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

As a result of the excessive emission of a huge number of precursors and primary pollutants into the atmosphere by anthropogenic activities, air pollution has become a regional and even global issue which profoundly impacts the weather, climate, environment, ecosystem, and human health. In order to further our understanding of important complex processes and mechanisms involved in the formation and maintenance of air pollution, it is urgently required to develop and adopt new observation methods, combine multiple monitoring technologies, establish regional and even global observation networks, and thereby obtain long-term high-quality observation data of key atmospheric compositions.

Remote sensing is an important observation method for monitoring the emission and transport of air pollutants on multiple temporal and spatial scales. Remote sensing depends on the development of new observation platforms, and it is also necessary to develop new detection sensors and instruments suitable for various observation platforms. In order to reflect the latest developments in this direction, we have organized this Special Issue of Sensors, which invites research articles in (but not limited to) the following topics:

  •  Innovative sensor development for monitoring air pollution;
  •  Evaluation of the latest data products and technologies of air pollution remote sensing;
  •  Air pollution field campaigns using multiple measurement techniques;
  •  Use of remote sensing data to improve our understanding of air pollutant emissions;
  • Detection of the trend of air pollution at the local, regional, and global scales.

Prof. Dr. Xiangao Xia
Dr. Xuehua Fan
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • air pollution
  • remote sensing
  • aerosol
  • biomass burning
  • trace gases

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 2323 KiB  
Communication
Quantitation of the Surface Shortwave and Longwave Radiative Effect of Dust with an Integrated System: A Case Study at Xianghe
by Mengqi Liu, Hongrong Shi, Jingjing Song and Disong Fu
Sensors 2024, 24(2), 397; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24020397 - 9 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 911
Abstract
Aerosols play a crucial role in the surface radiative budget by absorbing and scattering both shortwave and longwave radiation. While most aerosol types exhibit a relatively minor longwave radiative forcing when compared to their shortwave counterparts, dust aerosols stand out for their substantial [...] Read more.
Aerosols play a crucial role in the surface radiative budget by absorbing and scattering both shortwave and longwave radiation. While most aerosol types exhibit a relatively minor longwave radiative forcing when compared to their shortwave counterparts, dust aerosols stand out for their substantial longwave radiative forcing. In this study, radiometers, a sun photometer, a microwave radiometer and the parameterization scheme for clear-sky radiation estimation were integrated to investigate the radiative properties of aerosols. During an event in Xianghe, North China Plain, from 25 April to 27 April 2018, both the composition (anthropogenic aerosol and dust) and the aerosol optical depth (AOD, ranging from 0.3 to 1.5) changed considerably. A notable shortwave aerosol radiative effect (SARE) was revealed by the integrated system (reaching its peak at −131.27 W·m−2 on 26 April 2018), which was primarily attributed to a reduction in direct irradiance caused by anthropogenic aerosols. The SARE became relatively consistent over the three days as the AODs approached similar levels. Conversely, the longwave aerosol radiative effect (LARE) on the dust days ranged from 8.94 to 32.93 W·m−2, significantly surpassing the values measured during the days of anthropogenic aerosol pollution, which ranged from 0.35 to 28.67 W·m−2, despite lower AOD values. The LARE increased with a higher AOD and a lower Ångström exponent (AE), with a lower AE having a more pronounced impact on the LARE than a higher AOD. It was estimated that, on a daily basis, the LARE will offset approximately 25% of the SARE during dust events and during periods of heavy anthropogenic pollution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing Techniques for Atmospheric Pollutants Applications)
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18 pages, 3286 KiB  
Article
Investigating the Sensitivity of Low-Cost Sensors in Measuring Particle Number Concentrations across Diverse Atmospheric Conditions in Greece and Spain
by Georgios Kosmopoulos, Vasileios Salamalikis, Stefan Wilbert, Luis F. Zarzalejo, Natalie Hanrieder, Stylianos Karatzas and Andreas Kazantzidis
Sensors 2023, 23(14), 6541; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23146541 - 20 Jul 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1833
Abstract
Low-cost sensors (LCSs) for particulate matter (PM) concentrations have attracted the interest of researchers, supplementing their efforts to quantify PM in higher spatiotemporal resolution. The precision of PM mass concentration measurements from PMS 5003 sensors has been widely documented, though limited information is [...] Read more.
Low-cost sensors (LCSs) for particulate matter (PM) concentrations have attracted the interest of researchers, supplementing their efforts to quantify PM in higher spatiotemporal resolution. The precision of PM mass concentration measurements from PMS 5003 sensors has been widely documented, though limited information is available regarding their size selectivity and number concentration measurement accuracy. In this work, PMS 5003 sensors, along with a Federal Referral Methods (FRM) sampler (Grimm spectrometer), were deployed across three sites with different atmospheric profiles, an urban (Germanou) and a background (UPat) site in Patras (Greece), and a semi-arid site in Almería (Spain, PSA). The LCSs particle number concentration measurements were investigated for different size bins. Findings for particles with diameter between 0.3 and 10 μm suggest that particle size significantly affected the LCSs’ response. The LCSs could accurately detect number concentrations for particles smaller than 1 μm in the urban (R2 = 0.9) and background sites (R2 = 0.92), while a modest correlation was found with the reference instrument in the semi-arid area (R2 = 0.69). However, their performance was rather poor (R2 < 0.31) for coarser aerosol fractions at all sites. Moreover, during periods when coarse particles were dominant, i.e., dust events, PMS 5003 sensors were unable to report accurate number distributions (R2 values < 0.47) and systematically underestimated particle number concentrations. The results indicate that several questions arise concerning the sensors’ capabilities to estimate PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations, since their size distribution did not agree with the reference instruments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing Techniques for Atmospheric Pollutants Applications)
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12 pages, 4170 KiB  
Article
Consistency and Discrepancy between Visibility and PM2.5 Measurements: Potential Application of Visibility Observation to Air Quality Study
by Ye Fei, Jie Liao and Zhisen Zhang
Sensors 2023, 23(2), 898; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23020898 - 12 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1715
Abstract
High-quality measurements of air quality are the highest priority for understanding widespread air pollution. Visibility has been widely suggested to be a good alternative to PM2.5 concentration as a measure. In this study, the similarities and differences between visibility and PM2.5 [...] Read more.
High-quality measurements of air quality are the highest priority for understanding widespread air pollution. Visibility has been widely suggested to be a good alternative to PM2.5 concentration as a measure. In this study, the similarities and differences between visibility and PM2.5 measurements in China are checked and the results reveal the potential application of visibility observation to the study of air quality. Based on the quality-controlled PM2.5 and visibility data from 2016 to 2018, the nonparametric Spearman correlation coefficient (ρ) values between stations for PM2.5 and visibility-derived surface extinction coefficient (bext) decrease as the station distance (R) increases. Some relatively low ρ values (<0.4) occur in regions characterized by the lowest (background) levels of PM2.5 and bext values, for example, the Tibetan and Yungui Plateau. The relatively lower ρ for bext compared to PM2.5 is probably caused by the predefined maximum threshold of visibility measurements (generally 30 km). A significant correlation between PM2.5 and bext is derived in most stations and relatively larger ρ values are evident in eastern China (Northeast China excluded) and in winter (the national median ρ is 0.67). The abrupt changes in specific mass extinction efficiency (αext) imply a potentially large influence of alternation of visibility sensors or recalibrations on visibility measurements. The bext data are thereafter corrected by comparison to the reference measurements at the adjacent stations, which leads to a three-year quality assured of visibility and bext datasets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing Techniques for Atmospheric Pollutants Applications)
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13 pages, 4582 KiB  
Article
Influence of the Long-Range Transport of Siberian Biomass Burnings on Air Quality in Northeast China in June 2017
by Li Sun, Lei Yang, Dongdong Wang and Tiening Zhang
Sensors 2023, 23(2), 682; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23020682 - 6 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1794
Abstract
Biomass burning (BB) emits a large volume of trace gases and aerosols into the atmosphere, which can significantly affect the earth’s radiative balance and climate and has negative impacts on air quality and even human health. In late June 2017, an intense BB [...] Read more.
Biomass burning (BB) emits a large volume of trace gases and aerosols into the atmosphere, which can significantly affect the earth’s radiative balance and climate and has negative impacts on air quality and even human health. In late June 2017, an intense BB case, dominated by forest and savanna fires, occurred in Siberia, and it affected the air quality of Northeast China through long-range transport. Here, multisatellite remote-sensing products and ground-based PM2.5 measurements are used to evaluate the influence of the Siberian smoky plume on Northeast China. The results show that the BB was intense at the early stage when the daily fire count and average fire radiative power exceeded 300 and 200 MW, respectively. The maximum daily fire count reached 1350 in Siberia, and the peak value of instantaneous fire radiative power was as high as 3091.5 MW. High concentrations of CO and aerosols were emitted into the atmosphere by the BB in Siberia. The maximum daily mean values of the CO column concentration and aerosol optical depth (AOD) increased by 3 × 1017 molec·cm2 and 0.5 compared with that during the initial BB stage. In addition, the BB released a large number of absorptive aerosols into the atmosphere, and the UV aerosol index (UVAI) increased by five times at the peak of the event in Siberia. Under the appropriate synoptic conditions and, combined with pyroconvection, the smoky plume was lifted into the upper air and transported to Northeast China, affecting the air quality of Northeast China. The daily mean values of CO concentration, AOD, and UVAI in Northeast China increased by 6 × 1017 molec·cm2, 0.5, and 1.4, respectively, after being affected. Moreover, the concentration of the surface PM2.5 in Northeast China approximately doubled after being affected by the plume. The results of this study indicate that the air quality of Northeast China can be significantly affected by Siberian BBs under favorable conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing Techniques for Atmospheric Pollutants Applications)
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