Urban NO2 concentrations in the U.K. in 1987

A mational air quality monitoring network has been established in the U.K. by Warren Spring Laboratory, on behalf of the U.K. Department of the Environment, to determine compliance with the European Community Directive for nitrogen dioxide. Data from the six network sites for 1987 are presented and analysed.No site in the U.K. breached the NO₂ Directive Limit Value during this year, though the closest approaches were at the two London stations. Annual average NO₂ concentrations, which varied from 23 to 39 ppb, were consistent with the top five percentile of long-term measurements from a national survey of over 360 U.K. urban areas carried out in 1986.The temporal variability of NO₂ concentrations was substantially lower over all time scales than that for NO: winter/summer ratios for all sites averaged 2.9 for NO and 1.3 for NO₂. Most sites showed strong diurnal variations for NO which were primarily influenced by traffic emissions during rush hours, although these variations were less marked for NO₂.A markedly non-proportional relationship between annual and daily average NO₂ and NO_x levels was observed, and this has important implications for its efficacy of possible NO_x emission control strategies. An analysis of measured NO₂/NO_x ratios over weekends and weekday periods demonstrates, for instance, that a 20% emission cutback may result, typically, in a corresponding NO₂ reduction of 12% at urban locations in the U.K. NO_x reductions, however, exert a more proportional effect on NO₂ concentrations at kerbside and rural locations.