Emissions from in-use motor vehicles in Los Angeles: A pilot study of remote sensing and the inspection and maintenance program

Journal Article · Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/10473289.1990.10466754· OSTI ID:5274212

Lawson, D R ^[1]; Groblicki, P J ^[2]; Stedman, D H; Bishop, G A; Guenther, P L ^[3]

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1. California Air Resources Board, Sacramento (USA)
2. General Motors Research Labs., Warren, MI (USA)
3. Univ. of Denver, CO (USA)

As part of a major filed study to understand the causes of persistent, elevated carbon monoxide pollution episodes in Los Angeles, we performed a project to understand the emissions of vehicles in use. In this experiment, we assessed the accuracy of a remote sensing instrument designed to measure CO concentrations from vehicles as they were driven on the road. The remote sensor was shown to be accurate within ten percent of the directly measured tailpipe value. We performed a roadside inspection on 60 vehicles and demonstrated that the remote sensor could be used as an effective surveillance tool to identigy high CO-emitting vehicles. We also compared the raodside data set to the biennialSmog Check (I/M) tests for the same vehicles, and observed that carbon monoxide and exhoust hydrocarbons from high emitters were much higher then when the vehicles received their routine inspection. Furhtermore, for the high-emitting vehicles in this data set, the length of time since the biennial Smog Check had lettle influence on the cars' emissions in the roadside inspection.

• OSTI ID: 5274212
• Journal Information: Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association; (United States), Vol. 8; ISSN 1047-3289
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CARBON MONOXIDE
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
EXHAUST GASES
REMOTE SENSING
HYDROCARBONS
LOS ANGELES
AIR POLLUTION
VEHICLES
ACCURACY
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
AIR POLLUTION MONITORING
CALIFORNIA
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CONTROL
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
FEDERAL REGION IX
FLUIDS
GASEOUS WASTES
GASES
MONITORING
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
POLLUTION CONTROL
USA
WASTES
540120* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)