Air Quality In Australia

Air Quality

Air quality is one of the most significant environmental issues facing Australians in urban areas. As the Australian population continues to grow, the more we pump pollutants into the atmosphere by burning fuels for industrial production, domestic use and transport are having harmful effects.

Over the past twenty years there has been a large increase in the population in urban areas such as Sydney and Melbourne. This influx of people into these areas means there is going to be a rise in the air pollutants being forced into the atmosphere.

The main sources of the increasing amount of air pollution in the atmosphere include both industrial and diffuse sources including the emissions from industries and manufacturing activities, burning fossil fuels but also household items such as barbeques, aerosol cans, fires, transport and lawn mowing. Motor vehicles are the main source of Sydney’s air pollution. They are responsible for over 80% of nitrous oxide emissions, 50% of hydrocarbons, 85% of carbon monoxide plus several more

An inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. This means that as you get higher the temperature should decrease but when there is a temperature inversion this isn’t the case. When is happens that means that a high-pressure system is formed and the air doesn’t move around much. During the night the earth radiates back into space the heat accumulated from during the day. When the sun comes up, when the coldest air is near the ground this is when inversion is greatest. This process causes air pollutants to sit at a certain altitude and causing the air quality to go down. Photochemical smog is another formation that causes the air quality to decreases. Photochemical smog is a visible brown haze that forms over urban areas due to a several complex reactions. The resulting compounds are highly toxic to humans, plants and