Monitoring and analysis of air quality in Riga

Riga, the capital of Latvia is a city with nearly 900,000 inhabitants and various highly concentrated industries. Air pollution in Riga is a serious problem affecting health and damaging valuable buildings of historical importance, as acid rain and smog take their toll. Therefore the Air Quality Management System with significant assistance from Swedish Government and persistent efforts from Riga City Council was arranged in Riga. It contains INDIC AIRVIRO system which simulates and evaluates air pollution levels at various locations. It then processes the data in order to predict air quality based on a number of criteria and parameters, measured by OPSIS differential absorption instruments, as well as data from the Meteorological Service and results of episodic measurements. The analysis of the results provided by Riga Air Quality Management System for the first time allows us to start comprehensive supervision of troposphere physical, chemical, and photochemical processes in the air of Riga as well as to appreciate the influence of local pollution and transboundary transfer. The report contains the actual results of this work and first attempts of analysis as well as overview about activities towards research and teaching in the fields of spectroscopy and photochemistry of polluted atmospheres.