Affiliations 

  • 1 Universiti Sains Malaysia
MyJurnal

Abstract

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a ubiquitous, an indoor and outdoor air pollutant. It is not a significant greenhouse gas as it absorbs little infrared radiation from the Earth. It is produced by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, and biomass burning. The CO data are obtained from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite. The AIRS provides information for several greenhouse gases, CO2, CH4, CO, and O3 as a one goal of the AIRS instrument (included on the EOS Aqua satellite launched, May 4, 2002) as well as to improve weather prediction of the water and energy cycle. The results of the analysis of the retrieved CO total column amount (CO_total_column_A) as well as effective of the CO volume mixing ratio (CO_VMR_eff_A), Level-3 monthly (AIR*3STM) 1º*1º spatial resolution, ascending are used to study the CO distribution over the East and West Malaysia for the year 2003. The CO maps over the study area were generated by using Kriging Interpolation technique and analyzed by using Photoshop CS. Variations in the biomass burning and the CO emissions where noted, while the highest CO occurred at late dry season in the region which has experienced extensive biomass burning and greater draw down of CO occurred in the pristine continental environment (East Malaysia). In all cases, the CO concentration at West Malaysia is higher than East Malaysia. The southeastern Sarawak (lat. 3.5˚ - long. 115.5˚) is less polluted regions and less the CO in most of times in the year. Examining satellite measurements revealed that the enhanced CO emission correlates with occasions of less rainfall during the dry season.