Characterizing concentration of NO₂ in Indonesia using satellite instrument of GOME 2 MetOp-B

Indonesia is a country with rapid development of industries, trades, tourism and transportation in recent years. This causes a progressive increase in energy use, and as a result, more emission of pollutants; one of them is nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). NO₂ is a pollutant resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Based on that fact, air quality monitoring is crucial as part of air quality management. However, air quality monitoring stations in Indonesia are still lacking, and there is only a few that remain active, such as in Jakarta and Surabaya. To overcome this problem, one can use NO₂ information from satellite instruments. The linear correlation analysis based on NO₂ concentration data and totals column data from satellite remote sensing of GOME 2 MetOp-B was conducted to make spatial predictions of NO₂ concentration in Indonesia. It is observed that relationship between NO₂ ground measurements (y) and total column NO₂ (x) follows regression formula y = 2·10⁻⁵x +0.0002 with R² value of 0.436. This technique demonstrates a promising alternative in characterizing and predicting NO₂ concentration in areas where there are no monitoring stations.