Long-term spatial distributions and trends of ambient CO concentrations in the central Taiwan Basin

Long-term spatial distributions and trends of atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations in the central Taiwan Basin were investigated by analysis of CO data obtained from the Taiwan Air Quality Monitoring Network (TAQMN). The influence of meteorological conditions on the CO patterns was also analyzed in this paper. The results showed the highest CO concentrations were found in the vicinity of urban areas with a 13-yr mean value of 0.79±0.16 ppm. This was associated with the most intensive anthropogenic CO emissions at the urban sites. For all sites, lower CO levels were consistently observed during the summer season. This was explained by favorable conditions for dispersion and loss of CO via photochemical reactions. Analysis of wind fields and backward trajectories revealed that two types of synoptic sea breezes directly influenced the CO spatial distributions in the basin. During autumn to spring, northerly flow accompanied by pollutants traveled to inland areas, resulting in higher CO concentrations in the remote areas. During summer, breezes coming from the sea or areas to the south with lower CO emissions, resulted in more uniform spatial distributions of CO in the study region. While CO concentrations exhibited decreasing trends, the average CO mixing ratio from 1994 through 2006 decreased at a rate of approximately 0.02 ppm yr−1 in the central Taiwan Basin.