A Different Perspective on Air Pollution Measurements

Abstract

This study aims to determine the air pollution in Karabük province. For this purpose, a new equipment has been designed. The equipment can measure the SO2, CO2, CO, CH4, NOX, O3, PM2.5, and VOC pollution alongside with many atmospheric parameters. The measurement period has been decided to be one year starting from June 2021. The measurement period was one year, starting from June 2021. The measurements were taken at fifty points with 8 portable intermittent equipment. Then hourly and monthly averages were calculated. The calculation of the averages depends on many statistical analyses. The mean (geometric, harmonic, root, interquartile, Winsorized), median, midrange, Skewness, and Kurtosis analyses were done to obtain correct daily, and monthly averages. These analyses are necessary to comment on the intermittent measurement averages. The analyses of the collected data showed that the concentrations are changing considerably through the measurement period. The highest concentration was observed for the SO2, CO, NOX, and PM2.5 with respective values of 186.4, 170, 204.9, and 265 µg/m3. All these values are dangerous for human health. Elevation, temperatures, atmospheric pressure, and wind are sensitive parameters for atmospheric pollution. In Karabük province, most of the measurement points are affected by multi-pollution sources. The scatter diagrams also support this fact. During winter months, the pollution increases instantly. However, O3 and VOC parameters show different trends as compared to other pollutants. The concentration of these two parameters, namely O3 and VOC, increases during spring months. The O3 and VOC increase by 78.1%, and 43.2%, respectively due to photochemical reactions in the atmosphere in spring.