ENIVRONMENT ASIA

Volume 11, No. 03, Month SEPTEMBER, Year 2018, Pages 235 - 250

Variation of ground-level ozone in the west coast of peninsular malaysia

Norazian Mohamed Noor, Nor Naimah Binti Mohamad, and Nur Izzah Mohamad Hashim

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Hourly air pollutants data and weather parameters over the time period of 2008-2012 were obtained from the Air Quality Division, Department of Environment (DOE) Malaysia. The main aim of this study is to examine the variations of ground-level ozone in the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Shah Alam recorded the highest number of hours and days of ozone concentration above the threshold limit that was suggested by the Recommended Malaysian Air Quality Guidelines (RMAQG) with a maximum concentration of 0.158 ppm. The highest ozone concentration recorded in Petaling Jaya and Nilai were 0.12 ppm and 0.115 ppm respectively. The diurnal pattern shows that the maximum concentration was observed in the afternoon, which is the peak occurred between 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and a minimum reading was recorded early in the morning and night-time. Analysis of ozone concentration and its precursors showed that the amount of Ultraviolet B (UVB) and the concentration of nitrogen dioxide had impacted the ozone photochemistry through the titration processes. The results show that there are visible seasonal patterns in the ground-level ozone among the three stations. The high concentration of ozone is usually observed between January to April (end of northeast monsoon that bring hot temperature from Cambodia) whereas the wind direction during different monsoons was found out to influence the concentration of surface ozone.

Keywords

Ground level ozone; Surface ozone; Nitrogen oxides; Temporal analysis; Spatial analysis

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