Climate change could lead to increased air pollution in the most populated areas, thanks to greater stagnation of air masses allowing pollutants such as ground-level ozone to build up.
A team led by Daniel Horton of Stanford University in California used climate models to study how global warming can produce stagnant air by altering atmospheric circulation and precipitation patterns. The models predict that air stagnation will increase over the rest of this century across most of the tropics and subtropics. For example, large swathes of India (pictured) and Mexico could experience more 'stagnation days', and longer lasting stagnation events.
The areas at highest risk are home to roughly 55% of the world's population.
Nature Clim. Change http://doi.org/tch (2014)
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Warming could boost air pollution. Nature 510, 447 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/510447b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/510447b
