Air quality in Ny-Ålesund. Monitoring of local air quality 2014-2015.

The concentrations of the measured components are generally low and below national limit values for the protection of human health and critical levels for the protection of vegetation.
Wind from northern sectors gave the highest average concentrations of nitrogen oxides, which indicates the power station and the harbour as possible sources. From September 2014 to February 2015, volcanic eruptions at Iceland emitted large volumes of SO2, which gave episodes of elevated concentrations in Ny-Ålesund. The measurement results for CO2 show an annual variation with higher concentrations in the winter and lower in summer. Measured concentrations of CO were most likely caused by local snowmobile traffic and long-range transport of emissions from wildfires in North America.