The View from Afar: Satellite-Derived Estimates of Global PM 2.5

Abstract

noabstract Extract: More than 3 million people died prematurely in 2010 due to ambient exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), according to estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study. Although air pollution measurements taken from ground-level monitors can help inform such estimates, a paucity of monitoring stations outside of North America and Western Europe make it difficult to compare levels and trends in PM2.5 and their health effects around the world. Fortunately, satellite data provide a way of filling in data gaps for areas with no ground-based monitoring. In this issue of EHP, a team of researchers report their satellite-derived estimates of global exposure trends to PM2.5 over 15 years. "We found notable trends of increasing PM2.5 in South and East Asia, where billions of people live. Meanwhile, parts of North America are getting cleaner," says study author Randall Martin, an atmospheric scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.