Investigation and monitoring of atmospheric pollution over Iran using Sentinel 5 satellite

Objective: Air pollution can have serious negative effects on human health, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.Monitoring and controlling air pollutants is very important to protect public health and the environment.Like many developing countries, Iran is facing air pollution, especially in its big cities and industrial cities.One of the powerful tools in air pollution monitoring is remote sensing methods.The aim of this study is to use relatively high-resolution satellite data to monitor air quality and air pollution using Sentinel-5 (Sentinel-5P) sensor images. MethodsIn this study, a comprehensive monitoring based on the values of some of the most important air pollutants (including AI, O3, NO2, SO2, CH4 and CO) has been done using Sentinel-5 satellite images for Iran in 2019-2023. Results:The results of this research showed that the emission of carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide gases had a decreasing trend (in the months of June as an example of the examined month), but nitrogen dioxide gas, methane gas, ozone gas and aerosols had an increasing trend during the month.from June 2021 to 2023.In general, air pollution is more serious in the northern parts of the country, especially in big cities and several large urban gatherings.In this study, it was investigated how the levels of six air pollutants in Iran vary and differ from June 2019 to 2023.Another important result of this research is that the total amount of air pollution in 2020-2023 has faced an increasing trend compared to 2019.Also, the monitoring by Sentinel-5 satellite images shows that in recent years, Tehran has had the most polluted air in terms of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and suspended particles (dust).Also, changes in the concentration of pollutants do not follow a specific pattern.It was also found that the GEE system is able to process a large amount of data in a very short time with high accuracy.Conclusions: Air pollutants (AI, O3, NO2, SO2, CH4, and CO) in Iran have significant spatial differences that should be considered in future planning to combat pollution.