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Title: Observational study on the concentration distributions of SO{sub 2} and NO{sub 2} in Dhaka, Bangladesh under severe air pollution condition in winter

Conference ·
OSTI ID:466072
;  [1]
  1. Toyohashi Univ. of Technology (Japan)

Dhaka is the capital and the biggest city of Bangladesh, and is expanding very rapidly. Emissions from heavy traffic and many small industries and commercial complexes, newly developed in and around the city, are polluting the air of Dhaka city. The air pollution is severe especially in winter due to adverse meteorological conditions such as low wind speed and dry, stably-stratified air, which restricts the mixing height to low levels and prevent dispersion of pollutants. But so far no study of air pollution of Dhaka city has been done. We have first measured SO{sub 2} and NO{sub 2} concentrations in Dhaka city in a large scale and derived their spatial distributions over Dhaka. Molecular diffusion tubes, which do not require power sources and are produced at low cost, have been used to measure the concentration distributions of SO{sub 2} and NO{sub 2} at 64 sites in Dhaka city and its suburbs during the period of December-January of 1995-96. The diffusion tube samplers were calibrated using 6 automated air pollution monitoring stations in Aichi-prefecture, Japan. The calibration curve and the distribution of the concentration data acquired by automatic measurement instrument at each location showed that the error range of measurements with the molecular diffusion tube samplers was 2-27%. The samples were analyzed using ion-chromatography and spectrophotometer to determine the concentrations of SO{sub 2} and NO{sub 2} respectively. The contamination of unexposed tubes under field conditions was determined and the value of the blank test was subtracted from the measurements of the diffusion tube samplers. The effects of wind turbulence and temperature were reduced using polyflon filters.

OSTI ID:
466072
Report Number(s):
CONF-9606185-; TRN: 96:005931-0021
Resource Relation:
Conference: 5. international conference on atmospheric sciences and applications to air quality, Seattle, WA (United States), 18-20 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of The 5th international atmospheric sciences and applications to air quality conference; PB: 322 p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English