1 April 2021 – Niigata, Japan

Scientific and Technological Research Papers from Participating Countries are research articles written by scientists from the EANET Participating Countries, in collaboration with the EANET Network Center, in Niigata, Japan. They are published in the EANET Science Bulletin and have required the use of EANET data.

Alisa Trifonova-Yakovleva and Sergey Gromov, from Russia, estimated airborne concentrations of ammonia (NH₃) in the Baikal region by using measurements conducted at two EANET monitoring sites and compared with satellite data (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI)).

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Sources and Impacts of Ammonia

Ammonia (NH₃) is an important air pollutant that may eventually fall back to earth by means of wet and dry acid deposition. It is emitted both naturally and from anthropogenic sources such as animal husbandry, the use of nitrogen fertilizers, and biomass burning.

Atmospheric deposition containing NH₃, aside from acidification impacts through the oxidizing to nitric acids in rain waters or on wet surfaces, cause also other negative effects on ecosystems, such as eutrophication and loss of biodiversity. In addition, when NH₃ reacts with other atmospheric constituents, it forms particulate matter (e.g. PM_2.5) triggering harmful impacts on human health.

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Airborne Ammonia Concentrations in the Baikal Region

For this research study, Alisa Trifonova-Yakovleva and Sergey Gromov used satellite data for better coverage and understanding of the air pollution at a wider regional level and ground-based measurements (filterpack method) at the Russian Litstvyanka and Mondy EANET stations from 2015 to 2017.

The goal of this study was to understand the constant levels of NH₃ concentrations or their higher values of episodic nature in different locations within the Baikal Region, season-to-season.

More precise estimations of the regional airborne NH₃ concentrations are indeed necessary to enhance the understanding of the scales and extension of detrimental impacts of air pollution and acid deposition on the environment and on human health.

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Discover the results of the study by reading the full article in the EANET Science Bulletin, Vol 5.

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This study was carried out in the framework of the Research Project AAAA-A20-120013190049-4 “Development of methods and technologies for monitoring of environmental pollution under the influence of transboundary pollutants transport (UNECE: EMEP, ICP IM) and acid deposition in East Asia (EANET)”.

Processing of satellite measurement data was performed as part of the research theme under the Plan of Basic Scientific Research of the State Academies of Sciences No. 0148-2019-0009, AAAA-A19-119022190173-2 “Climate changes and their consequences for the environment and the life of the population in Russia”.

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Photo credits: Baikal ice on sunset, by Sergey Pesterev, free of the copyright license.