Wuhan Sulfur Dioxide Levels Abnormally High or Just Industry?
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First saw someone talking about this on Twitter. What can we deduce from the high levels of sulfur dioxide in Wuhan? I see a few similar hotspots in Chongqing, Northern Canada, and Russia (I suspect some of these could be high pollutive mining operations). When I look at the date, it appears that Windy gives recent history, real time, and future. I wonder how future gets calculated and how accurate it is.
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anyone have WuHan's Sulfur Dioxide history data?
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@dljonesaz @seeletw
Hello, Windy.com gets the SO2 mass data from NASA model GEOS-5, but we don't display archive data. There is an explanation of data right in the layer.You can also find more information on NASA's website - https://so2.gsfc.nasa.gov/
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@Korina. How do we change the scale of the So2 to see a better view above the 80mg/m3? Thank you. (i guess it is somewhere in 'settings'. But i can't find it.)
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@dljonesaz Hello, the SO2 concentration is given only in µg/m³.
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@edo-7
Go to Settings -> Customize color scale. This is only available on the website www.windy.com.
You can see that I’ve modified on my side the SO2 color scale and added a step at 400μg/m3 above 80 μg/m3. You may add several steps.
Here is a tutorial to change color scales:
https://community.windy.com/topic/10336/customize-the-color-scales-of-windy-layers -
There is the Yangluo coal power plant close by which if not using SOx scrubbers will produces massive ammounts of SO2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_power_stations_in_Hubei_province
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That coal plant is only ~10km away from the highest concentration of SO2 levels: The area between Houhu Lake, Lijiadun Residential District and Shekou Residential District.
There are countless studies that show that high levels of SO2 can cause susceptibility to viral and bacterial infections. Maybe this is the reason the deaths are so high in Wuhan compared to other effected cities.
I wish some Chinese official could see this and investigate the connection.
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@rick1000 so i think it need to compare history data to know now;s data is normal or abnormal
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how to see history data on windly ... or not available?
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@RomanIvanov
Hello, it's not possible to see historic data on Windy, only the forecast. -
@seeletw I wish we would have this historic data, but even still we would probably not be able to use this to make the connection of burning bodies as it could just be an increased coal plant output.
I recommend to check out Wuhan on the Windy map with same color coding as described in this thread, but instead of looking at a still image, use the play button on the bottom to see how much the SO2 concentration varies based on wind direction and speed.
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@rick1000
It could be increased power plant or industrial output...but does that make sense considering the city is in quarantine and businesses are on shut down...? Also, the levels around the Hong Kong area are relatively low comparatively, especially considering the massive industry there? -
@rick1000 And three iron works...I wonder why some media connect this report with the
pneumonia in WuHan. -
@rick1000 I appreciate your reasonable words.The area said to have a high SO2 rate also has some local air monitoring stations ,which give a "4~8 ug/m3 "date .So maybe someone is wrong.But people who connects SO2 with burning remains straightly don't care so much about it, they never ask what the truth is ,what the science is.
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@rayatthebeach Good point. I have not seen any news that the businesses and factories there are up and running and this should reduce the current power demand.
Also to be honest, I'm no chemist, I just remembered some lectures of coal power plants and SO2, and then happened to look at this map/model over time here.
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I think there's a thing we may have missed to realize. Maybe the elevation is caused by the unreasonable amount of bleaching they are doing in the streets. As long as I know, SO2 is also used in bleach and could easily raise levels way up.
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What about anomalies in NO2? An average Human body contains 10 times more nitrogen than sulphur, and they are definitely gonna escape into the atmosphere as oxides(NOx) if the body is being burned. I think there should also be a spike in NO2 if a mass cremation big enough to elevate SO2 so much actually happened. So far I haven't heard anyone talking about NO2 and I haven't seen any anomalies on that.
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