That air pollutants of different kind has impact on our climate can hardly have
avoided anyone during the past years environment explosion in the media. But how
is it actually with the reverse, i. e. the climate's impact on air pollutants? The aim
with our degree thesis is to try to find out if different weather factors, statistically
seen, promotes atmospheric pollutants and particles in the air and vice versa.
We got access to data on air pollutants and weather factors that was registered
during year 2007 at Femmanhusets air pollutant and weather station in Gothenburg.
In order to do a statistical investigation of these data, and to be able to analyze if it
occurs relations of various kind, we used the statistics program SPSS. In SPSS we
worked with correlation, regression and multiple linear regressions in order to get
our statistical relations between atmospheric pollutants and weather conditions.
Our results showed that ozone is the atmospheric pollutant that is most weather
sensitive and ozone has also proven to have the strongest connections to the weather
factors. Also nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide are
considerably influenced by the weather, however not in equally big extent as ozone.
Sulphur dioxide and PM10 is on the other hand influenced in a low extent and it is in
these cases difficult to say if the weather actually has any influence at all. Wind speed
was, apart from sulphur dioxide and PM10, the weather factor that were strongest
correlated to the remaining atmospheric pollutants. The relative humidity and the air
pressure were the two factors that overall gave the weakest connections to the
pollutants. As a conclusion, we can say that our results can be seen as an indication
to the public about how sensitive people should minimize their time outdoors in the
inner city on cold and calm days. It is when these weather conditions occur that the
highest concentrations of atmospheric pollutants, statisticall...
