Near-surface nitrogen dioxide over Europe, November 2018

Using data from satellite sensors such as Tropomi on Sentinel-5P and GOME-2 on MetOp along with forecast models, this animation shows concentrations of near-surface nitrogen dioxide every hour over Europe throughout November 2018. Urban and industrial areas are particularly polluted – concentrations over the Randstad area in the Netherlands often reaches 40 μg/m3, exceeding European air-quality standards. High values can also be seen in valleys near sources of pollution where there is little wind.

The Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, an ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light spectrometer carried on the Meteosat Third Generation Sounder satellite in geostationary, provides hourly observations to monitor air quality over Europe. These hourly observations are set to make a breakthrough for air quality monitoring from space.