Satellite derived trends in NO2 over the major global hotspot regions during the past decade and their inter-comparison

We assessed satellite derived tropospheric NO2 distribution on a global scale and identified the major NO2 hotspot regions. Combined GOME and SCIAMACHY measurements for the period 1996-2006 have been used to compute the trends over these regions. Our analysis shows that tropospheric NO2 column amounts have increased over the newly and rapidly developing regions like China (11 +/- 2.6%/year), south Asia (1.76 +/- 1.1%/year), Middle East (2.3 +/- 1%/year) and South Africa (2.4 +/- 2.2%/year). Tropospheric NO2 column amounts show some decrease over the eastern US (-2 +/- 1.5%/year) and Europe (0.9 +/- 2.1%/year). We found that although tropospheric NO2 column amounts decreased over the major developed regions in the past decade, the present tropospheric NO2 column amounts over these regions are still significantly higher than those observed over newly and rapidly developing regions (except China). Tropospheric NO2 column amounts show some decrease over South America and Central Africa, which are major biomass burning regions in the Southern Hemisphere. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.