Ground-Level NO2 Surveillance from Space Across China for High Resolution Using Interpretable Spatiotemporally Weighted Artificial Intelligence

ABSTRACT: Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at the ground level poses a serious threat to environmental quality and public health. This study developed a novel, artificial intelligence approach by integrating spatiotemporally weighted information into the missing extra-trees and deep forest models to first fill the satellite data gaps and increase data availability by 49% and then derive daily 1 km surface NO2 concentrations over mainland China with full spatial coverage (100%) for the period 2019-2020 by combining surface NO2 measurements, satellite tropospheric NO2 columns derived from TROPOMI and OMI, atmospheric reanalysis, and model simulations. Our daily surface NO2 estimates have an average out-of-sample (out-of-city) cross-validation coefficient of determination of 0.93 (0.71) and rootmean-square error of 4.89 (9.95) mu g/m3. The daily seamless high-resolution and high-quality dataset ChinaHighNO2 allows us to examine spatial patterns at fine scales such as the urban-rural contrast. We observed systematic large differences between urban and rural areas (28% on average) in surface NO2, especially in provincial capitals. Strong holiday effects were found, with average declines of 22 and 14% during the Spring Festival and the National Day in China, respectively. Unlike North America and Europe, there is little difference between weekdays and weekends (within +/- 1 mu g/m3). During the COVID-19 pandemic, surface NO2 concentrations decreased considerably and then gradually returned to normal levels around the 72nd day after the Lunar New Year in China, which is about 3 weeks longer than the tropospheric NO2 column, implying that the former can better represent the changes in NOx emissions. KEYWORDS: surface NO2, air pollution, big data, artificial intelligence, COVID-19

Automated summary

This study developed a novel artificial intelligence approach to fill the gaps in satellite data and derive high-resolution daily surface NO2 concentrations over mainland China. The resulting dataset provides valuable information for studying air pollution patterns, holiday effects, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on NO2 concentrations.