Why is the air quality so poor Jan 2nd 2023?

[Elkski]

I see minimum Crop burning near SI sa khet.   Did this high pm 2.5 air blow in from the North? It actually doesn't look so bad so just imaging the aqi numbers when we think it's dirty looking. 

[Thailand]

Long established Thai tradition, when the rain stops burn everything.

Played golf a.m. today, choking in places.

[KhunLA]

If you plan on moving to the area, get use to it.  Almost 6 months a year.  May want to consider that before leaving Utah on a permanent basis.

 

I endured 16 yrs of it in Udon Thani, 1/4 of my life, and surely affected my lungs, even if slightly.  Add that to a smoker (I'm not) and it adds to later health issues.

 

I can't stay in the house with air purifiers on all day ????  Moved south, below Hua Hin, still an issue a few months a year, but not nearly as bad as the NE,  Actually been quite nice lately and had all the doors & windows open most of yesterday.

 

Crop burning, trash burning (which we actually contribute to ????), and locals keeping warm, during Global Warming ????

 

You damn ICE drivers ... oh yea, and a wee bit blowing over from Laos & Nam.

Edited January 2, 2023 by KhunLA

[KhunLA]

https://www.windy.com/-PM2-5-pm2p5?cams,pm2p5,16.521,103.149,7

[zzaa09]

8 hours ago, KhunLA said:

If you plan on moving to the area, get use to it.  Almost 6 months a year.  May want to consider that before leaving Utah on a permanent basis.

 

I endured 16 yrs of it in Udon Thani, 1/4 of my life, and surely affected my lungs, even if slightly.  Add that to a smoker (I'm not) and it adds to later health issues.

 

I can't stay in the house with air purifiers on all day ????  Moved south, below Hua Hin, still an issue a few months a year, but not nearly as bad as the NE,  Actually been quite nice lately and had all the doors & windows open most of yesterday.

 

Crop burning, trash burning (which we actually contribute to ????), and locals keeping warm, during Global Warming ????

 

You damn ICE drivers ... oh yea, and a wee bit blowing over from Laos & Nam.

Indeed.

Perhaps the OP was inquiring rhetorically.

[nigelforbes]

What you see and what you feel right now is the inversion layer at work. A layer of cold dense air, typical at this time of year, hangs low to the ground and prevents warmer air from rising. That warmer air contains all the pollution from burning and vehicular traffic et al. Under normal conditions that warmer polluted air would disperse and you wouldn't notice the pollution, not yet anyway, it's too early in the season for serious burning. Don't believe me? Go find somewhere where there is a fire and watch as the smoke rises and then travels horizontally.

[Lorry]

8 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

Go find somewhere where there is a fire and watch as the smoke rises and then travels horizontally.

I had a nice view of a big fire today,  probably around Srinakarin.

Smoke rose at an angle of 30° (ie 30° between the smoke and the horizon).

I often see fires. Yes, sometimes the smoke rises more (ie the angle is bigger). But the view today wasn't unusual. 

[Maestro]

Removed an off-topic post.

[nigelforbes]

3 hours ago, Lorry said:

I had a nice view of a big fire today,  probably around Srinakarin.

Smoke rose at an angle of 30° (ie 30° between the smoke and the horizon).

I often see fires. Yes, sometimes the smoke rises more (ie the angle is bigger). But the view today wasn't unusual. 

I'm not going to post pictures here but if you google, "inversion layer pictures," you'll see some of the visual effects of an inversion layer, which are not all the same, as you might imagine. Even when an inversion layer is present it tends not to be uniform and in some areas can be quite patchy, in some parts smoke even continues to rise. Perhaps an easier way to observe an inversion layer is from above, if there's a tall mountain near by, take a drive and go observe what sits below. It's also useful to understand the wind and pollution charts, AQI maps are good in this respect because they combine both, see here:   https://www.iqair.com/thailand

 

From the map linked above, there are two things to note. The first is that at this time of the year, the air currents all flow from North to South, which brings with it the cold dense air from China and the Arctic. The second thing is that there are only a few fires in SE Asia, if you zoom out the map you'll see that Cambodia and  Myanmar have started to burn but Thailand is still relatively light. The IQAir index for the greater region shows that heavily polluted air sits over central China and northern India but that is thermal, not burning related, as the FIRMS Fire map confirms - Thailand by comparison is still almost clear. 

 

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:2023-01-01..2023-01-02,2023-01-01;@104.2,19.9,5z

[sidneybear]

17 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

What you see and what you feel right now is the inversion layer at work. A layer of cold dense air, typical at this time of year, hangs low to the ground and prevents warmer air from rising. That warmer air contains all the pollution from burning and vehicular traffic et al. Under normal conditions that warmer polluted air would disperse and you wouldn't notice the pollution, not yet anyway, it's too early in the season for serious burning. Don't believe me? Go find somewhere where there is a fire and watch as the smoke rises and then travels horizontally.

True - temperature inversions are a meteorological phenomenon that occur ths time of year. Polluition is held at ground level because there is no convection upwards.

[Elkski]

Not planning to live or move here at present.   We get inversions often in SLC Utah because it's a big valley with mountains around.  In fact  I'm glad I wasn't there last week.   AQI seems better today.  I use purpleair.org my buddies company but not lots of sensors in Thailand.  

Edited January 3, 2023 by Elkski

[Lorry]

5 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

I'm not going to post pictures here but if you google, "inversion layer pictures," you'll see some of the visual effects of an inversion layer, which are not all the same, as you might imagine. Even when an inversion layer is present it tends not to be uniform and in some areas can be quite patchy, in some parts smoke even continues to rise. Perhaps an easier way to observe an inversion layer is from above, if there's a tall mountain near by, take a drive and go observe what sits below. It's also useful to understand the wind and pollution charts, AQI maps are good in this respect because they combine both, see here:   https://www.iqair.com/thailand

 

From the map linked above, there are two things to note. The first is that at this time of the year, the air currents all flow from North to South, which brings with it the cold dense air from China and the Arctic. The second thing is that there are only a few fires in SE Asia, if you zoom out the map you'll see that Cambodia and  Myanmar have started to burn but Thailand is still relatively light. The IQAir index for the greater region shows that heavily polluted air sits over central China and northern India but that is thermal, not burning related, as the FIRMS Fire map confirms - Thailand by comparison is still almost clear. 

 

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:2023-01-01..2023-01-02,2023-01-01;@104.2,19.9,5z

Thanks for explaining and for the links

[metisdead]

An off topic post about Delhi has been removed.

[azaazo9]

22 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

What you see and what you feel right now is the inversion layer at work. A layer of cold dense air, typical at this time of year, hangs low to the ground and prevents warmer air from rising. That warmer air contains all the pollution from burning and vehicular traffic et al. Under normal conditions that warmer polluted air would disperse and you wouldn't notice the pollution, not yet anyway, it's too early in the season for serious burning. Don't believe me? Go find somewhere where there is a fire and watch as the smoke rises and then travels horizontally.

Thanks for this information.

[007 RED]

Yep, the air is foul at the moment.  I live on the western outskirts of BKK and the dust is noticeably accumulating on my solar panels.

 

No signs of any actual burning locally, but suspect the local factories are starting up their processes.   This morning at approximately 9 am my little PM 2.5. meter was almost off the scale as shown below.  

 

Time to get a new gas mask !

[nigelforbes]

43 minutes ago, 007 RED said:

Yep, the air is foul at the moment.  I live on the western outskirts of BKK and the dust is noticeably accumulating on my solar panels.

 

No signs of any actual burning locally, but suspect the local factories are starting up their processes.   This morning at approximately 9 am my little PM 2.5. meter was almost off the scale as shown below.  

 

Time to get a new gas mask !

That is not a measure of <PM2.5, it looks like it might be PM10. A PM 2.5 reading of 35 would be very unhealthy, 50 would be dangerous.

 

PM10 figures on the other hand tend to be higher. 80-120 is poor, more than 300 is extremely poor/dangerous. 

 

 

https://www.indoorairhygiene.org/pm2-5-explained/#:~:text=Most studies indicate PM2.,breathing issues such as asthma.

[007 RED]

On 1/3/2023 at 5:33 PM, nigelforbes said:

That is not a measure of <PM2.5, it looks like it might be PM10. A PM 2.5 reading of 35 would be very unhealthy, 50 would be dangerous.

 

PM10 figures on the other hand tend to be higher. 80-120 is poor, more than 300 is extremely poor/dangerous. 

 

 

https://www.indoorairhygiene.org/pm2-5-explained/#:~:text=Most studies indicate PM2.,breathing issues such as asthma.

Sorry to correct you, but it is a PM 2.5 meter, and that was the reading at approximately 9 am on Tuesday morning.   As I said, the air was really foul outside the house, and it was like a dense mist hanging around at ground level.  The level was definitely in the Danger Zone, hence my comment about needing to get a new gas mask.  Thankfully by around 10:30 am it cleared as the sun warmed things up.

 

I've attached below a picture of from the instruction manual and you will see it clearly mentions PM 2.5.  The label on the base of the device also indicates that it's a PM 2.5 meter.

 

Below is a photo I took about 30 minutes ago which shows a reasonable reading.

[Elkski]

I once read that Thailand government uses calculations for it's AQI that results in the reported reading being half of what they would be in the West.    My buddy in Utah invented the purpleair.com monitor.   I brought 1 to BKK 3 years ago to try to give it away for free to a dental office on sukumvit and thonglor but they were suspicious of a gift that hooked up to their wifi even though my gf at the time worked for them.  I couldn't find anyone to gift it to so I took it back to USA.   It would have been the first purple sensor in BKK.  I recall there was 1 or 2 in Chiang mai. 

Purpleair.com

Edited January 5, 2023 by Elkski

[BananaStrong]

Exposure to high levels of air pollution can cause a variety of adverse health outcomes. It increases the risk of respiratory infections, heart disease and lung cancer. Both short and long term exposure to air pollutants have been associated with health impacts. More severe impacts affect people who are already ill.

 

WE all know this, and yet we stay......................... WILLINGLY.  

 

Sad, really.    Banana, listen to yourself!!!!!   Why subject yourself to this????  Well, 20 baht noodle soup let's me keep more money for Pattaya.  Oh yea!!!! Oh yea!! lol

[nigelforbes]

11 minutes ago, 007 RED said:

Sorry to correct you, but it is a PM 2.5 meter, and that was the reading at approximately 9 am on Tuesday morning.   As I said, the air was really foul outside the house, and it was like a dense mist hanging around at ground level.  The level was definitely in the Danger Zone, hence my comment about needing to get a new gas mask.  Thankfully by around 10:30 am it cleared as the sun warmed things up.

 

I've attached below a picture of from the instruction manual and you will see it clearly mentions PM 2.5.  The label on the base of the device also indicates that it's a PM 2.5 meter.

 

Below is a photo I took about 30 minutes ago which shows a reasonable reading.

It's only within recent years that PM2.5 measurement technology became available on a widespread basis. For many years, Thailand had only five air pollution measuring stations, none of which could measure PM2.5, only PM10. PM2.5 is a sub set of PM10 and can be calculated as a percentage albeit, there is some disagreement about its accuracy, naturally. Regardless of that, a PM2.5 reading is always going to be smaller than a PM10 reading, that is without question. It therefore follows that your PM2.5 reading, translates into a PM10 reading of what, 400, 600, 1,000? FWIW I recall debates on this subject were that the percentage to use in the calculation was 20%.

 

So if you believe that reading is PM2.5, you may want to check it for accuracy against other measurement methods or devices, failing that, move pretty damned quickly!

[007 RED]

3 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

It's only within recent years that PM2.5 measurement technology became available on a widespread basis. For many years, Thailand had only five air pollution measuring stations, none of which could measure PM2.5, only PM10. PM2.5 is a sub set of PM10 and can be calculated as a percentage albeit, there is some disagreement about its accuracy, naturally. Regardless of that, a PM2.5 reading is always going to be smaller than a PM10 reading, that is without question. It therefore follows that your PM2.5 reading, translates into a PM10 reading of what, 400, 600, 1,000? FWIW I recall debates on this subject were that the percentage to use in the calculation was 20%.

 

So if you believe that reading is PM2.5, you may want to check it for accuracy against other measurement methods or devices, failing that, move pretty damned quickly!

FYI.... I've had my little MIC PM 2.5 cube now for about 2 years.  Shortly after l purchased it, l stopped by the environmental monitoring van parked outside the entrance gate of Mahidol University, Salaya, and asked the technician to give me her opinion on the little cube.

 

She confirmed that its output readings were PM 2.5, and she was somewhat suprised at its accuracy.   Compared with their very expensive metering system, the cube was reading just a couple of digits above theirs over about 30 minutes.

 

It may be small, MIC and relatively cheapish, but it appears to be fairly accurate.

 

It was because of our concerns regarding the pollution possibly created by nearby factories, one being a coffee roasting plant which was using wood burning roasters and no filter system on their output chimney, that l purchased the cube.

 

Fortunately the coffee roasting plant has changed to gas burners and they have installed a water scouring system to reduce pollution, but their system still occasionally belches soot out of the chimney when the plant starts up after a holiday, like last Tuesday.

 

When the cube reading gets above 100, doors/windows get closed asap, and the ac is turned on until the numbers come down  to below 75.

 

Its just one of the joys of living in Thailand.