During a seminar Sept. 24, 2025 ‘Understanding wintertime air pollution: the roles of building heating emissions and temperature’ Atmospheric & Ocean Sciences” Graduate Student Cara Scalpone presented her masters research.
There are many interconnections between the atmosphere and human activity that impact air quality, Scalpone said.
Variability within the lowest levels of the earth’s atmosphere impacts energy use, ultimately producing emissions causing a disruption in atmospheric chemistry and harming the air quality, Scalpone said. Pollutants from certain types of energy production have a negative impact on human health.
“Combustion emissions [such as] a combination of nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide, are harmful to human health. These come from electrical power: car and home heating emissions, which have impacts on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems,” Scalpone said.
Scalpone said ozone depletion and particulate matter resulting from these emissions also impact health. Winter weather conditions affect processes of air quality regulation from emissions and chemicals.
The presentation emphasizes how NOx, Nitrogen Oxide, emissions and concentrations are at their highest levels during the winter months.
A decrease in temperature leads to an increase in need of temperature dependent emissions, such as heating in the winter, ultimately shifting the NOx atmospheric lifetime from two to 11 hours in the summer to six to 29 hours in the winter, Scalpone said.
During the winter months there is less daylight which leads to an increase in nocturnal chemistry and a decrease in photochemistry.
“An increase in nocturnal chemistry increases reservoir species which hold onto NOx emissions and become reemitted during the day time and contribute to high concentrations during the day,” Scalpone said.
The majority of home heating emissions, resulting in the form of NOx and other greenhouse gases, are concentrated in the northeast where there is a higher population density, colder temperatures, Scalpone said.
2019 meteorology data from the EPA, daily air temperatures and a developed temperature based Annual-to-Day scaling factors were all used to create a home heating annual inventory, without variability. Data is subject to change as a result of region, climate and whether it be vast rural areas of land or high contributions from urban regions, Scalpone said.
She said tracking home heating emissions is the key to understanding the influence of NOx levels, especially during winter months.
This ultimately helps researchers have a better understanding of the harmful effects of NOx on the environment and human health, Scalpone said.
