Determination of carbon monoxide pollution of the atmosphere over Moscow with a spectroscopic method

The results of measurements of the total content of carbon monoxide in an atmospheric column over Moscow and the Zvenigorod Scientific Station (ZSS) are given for the period 1993–2005. The simultaneous measurements of the regional background contents of carbon monoxide over a rural area (ZSS) and over Moscow made it possible to isolate an urban portion of the CO content. The total content of CO over the city varies significantly from day to day from values close to the background value to values that are 2.5–3 times greater than the background value. The number of days with such a CO content is 5% of the total number of measurement days. Such a CO content is most often observed during the cold seasons. During the warm seasons, in most of the cases, slight excesses of the CO background value are observed in the urban atmosphere. Variations in the CO content are determined mainly by wind-velocity variations and temperature inversions. In 2002, the high CO concentrations were due to forest and peatbog fires. On some days, over the ZSS, the concentrations of CO were high as never before. Over this period (12 years), the CO content in the surface air layer over the city did not increase.