Tropospheric Ozone Pollution in Some Major Cities of West Africa and its Relationship with Atmospheric Circulations

Abstract

This study utilizes a decade long (2005-2014) monthly data of Total Column Tropospheric Ozone (TCTO) in Dubson units to evaluate the spatial and temporal trend of LAO over some major cities of West Africa, namely Lagos, Accra, Niamey, Abuja, Bamako, Dakar, Agadez, Conakry, Kano, and Ouagadougou which are either capital cites or major commercial hubs, where the population ranges from 0.09 million (Agadez, Niger) to over 9 million (Kano and Lagos, Nigeria). The mean (long term average) of TCTO in Lagos (Nigeria) was 34.4±0.6 DU (α=5%) for the entire period, being the highest in all major cities of this study. The lowest TCTO, 30.4±0.5 DU (α=5%), occurred in Bamako (Mali). It was also observed that the concentrations of TCTO vary seasonally. The seasonal changes in TCTO was investigated by categorizing months of the year to very dry months of December, January, and February (DJF), onset of rainy season months of March, April, and May (MAM), wet season months of June, July, and August (JJA), and end of rainy season months of September, October, and November (SON). Seasonal mean of TCTO is higher in all cities, close to the coast during DJF, and cities, north of latitude 12^o N, during MAM, compared to rest of the seasons. Elevated TCTO concentrations can be attributed to transport mixing, due to the flow direction of well-known wind regime over the study area. This was established from the analysis of correlation coefficient between the mean of zonal, meridional winds, vertical wind speeds and divergence, and TCTO over region.