NASA AI shows slashing sulfur in shipping fuel cut air pollution at sea
(2022/10/19)
- Reference: 1666160828
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/10/19/ai_model_reveals_new_policy/
- Source link:
A reduction of sulfur in shipping fuel reduced air pollution levels at sea to the lowest levels this century in 2020, according to an AI model built by NASA. The COVID-19 pandemic also helped here, too, natch.
A [1]rule set by the International Marine Organization (IMO) significantly limiting sulfur content in fuel oil for ships travelling outside emission-control areas came into effect two years ago. The restriction was predicted to cut sulfur oxide emissions by 77 per cent – equivalent to 8.5 million metric tonnes. The noxious gas increases risk of acid rain and can cause respiratory, cardiovascular, and lung disease.
Now, a study by NASA reveals that the IMO 2020 policy – and the decreased levels of shipping traffic during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic – brought shipping air pollution to the lowest levels since tracking started almost 20 years ago. Researchers crafted an AI model to identify shipping tracks in 17 years of images taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument (MODIS) aboard NASA's Earth-observation Aqua satellite from 2003 to 2020.
[2]
"Without this kind of complete and large-scale sampling of ship tracks, we cannot begin to understand this problem," Tianle Yuan, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland, [3]said Tuesday. The study's results were recently [4]published in Science .
[5]
[6]
The images revealed what the model detected as "anomalous cloud lines" at first. These clouds are formed when pollutant aerosols spewed from ships mix with water vapor. The concentrated droplets scatter more light and look brighter than other types of clouds at sea, which contain larger particles of salt.
The model helped researchers realize that ships started generating less air pollution in 2020, when the level of sulfur in fuel was capped.
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"Ship-track density experiences strong reductions in every detected major shipping lane compared to climatology and reaches record lows in the nearly 20-year data record," the paper states.
"Except the trans-Pacific and trans–North Atlantic shipping lanes, other shipping lanes are not discernible any longer. Annual mean ship-track density decreases by 50 percent or more in five major shipping lanes compared to the climatological mean. The decline is even steeper if compared to 2019."
[11]
Global shipping traffic fell by 1.4 percent for a few months during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained low in 2021, though those fewer vessels did not account for the large drop in detected shipping tracks. The researchers believe the IMO 2020 fuel regulation had a larger impact in reducing air pollution.
They also managed to trace popular shipping routes across Asia and America at different times – such as the drop in global trade following the 2008 financial crisis. There were two other dips in shipping traffic in Asia between 2014 and 2016 when China was importing and exporting less resources.
"Ship tracks are great natural laboratories for studying the interaction between aerosols and low clouds, and how that impacts the amount of radiation Earth receives and reflects back to space," Yuan said. "That is a key uncertainty we face in terms of what drives climate right now." ®
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[1] https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/HotTopics/Pages/Sulphur-2020.aspx
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y0-KvNAWV7RtrCgyQeXZ2QAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/esnt/2022/nasa-study-finds-evidence-that-fuel-regulation-reduced-air-pollution-from-shipping
[4] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn7988
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0-KvNAWV7RtrCgyQeXZ2QAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/28/ai_whale_protection_salesforce/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/26/california_to_phase_out_gas/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/10/european_union_votes_to_ban_gasoline_cars/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/19/investment_carbon_emissions/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0-KvNAWV7RtrCgyQeXZ2QAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
A [1]rule set by the International Marine Organization (IMO) significantly limiting sulfur content in fuel oil for ships travelling outside emission-control areas came into effect two years ago. The restriction was predicted to cut sulfur oxide emissions by 77 per cent – equivalent to 8.5 million metric tonnes. The noxious gas increases risk of acid rain and can cause respiratory, cardiovascular, and lung disease.
Now, a study by NASA reveals that the IMO 2020 policy – and the decreased levels of shipping traffic during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic – brought shipping air pollution to the lowest levels since tracking started almost 20 years ago. Researchers crafted an AI model to identify shipping tracks in 17 years of images taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument (MODIS) aboard NASA's Earth-observation Aqua satellite from 2003 to 2020.
[2]
"Without this kind of complete and large-scale sampling of ship tracks, we cannot begin to understand this problem," Tianle Yuan, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland, [3]said Tuesday. The study's results were recently [4]published in Science .
[5]
[6]
The images revealed what the model detected as "anomalous cloud lines" at first. These clouds are formed when pollutant aerosols spewed from ships mix with water vapor. The concentrated droplets scatter more light and look brighter than other types of clouds at sea, which contain larger particles of salt.
The model helped researchers realize that ships started generating less air pollution in 2020, when the level of sulfur in fuel was capped.
[7]Save the whales – with artificial intelligence?
[8]California to phase out gas furnaces, water heaters by 2030
[9]EU lawmakers vote to ban sales of combustion engine cars from 2035
[10]Corporate investments are a massive hidden source of carbon emissions
"Ship-track density experiences strong reductions in every detected major shipping lane compared to climatology and reaches record lows in the nearly 20-year data record," the paper states.
"Except the trans-Pacific and trans–North Atlantic shipping lanes, other shipping lanes are not discernible any longer. Annual mean ship-track density decreases by 50 percent or more in five major shipping lanes compared to the climatological mean. The decline is even steeper if compared to 2019."
[11]
Global shipping traffic fell by 1.4 percent for a few months during the COVID-19 pandemic and remained low in 2021, though those fewer vessels did not account for the large drop in detected shipping tracks. The researchers believe the IMO 2020 fuel regulation had a larger impact in reducing air pollution.
They also managed to trace popular shipping routes across Asia and America at different times – such as the drop in global trade following the 2008 financial crisis. There were two other dips in shipping traffic in Asia between 2014 and 2016 when China was importing and exporting less resources.
"Ship tracks are great natural laboratories for studying the interaction between aerosols and low clouds, and how that impacts the amount of radiation Earth receives and reflects back to space," Yuan said. "That is a key uncertainty we face in terms of what drives climate right now." ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/HotTopics/Pages/Sulphur-2020.aspx
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y0-KvNAWV7RtrCgyQeXZ2QAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/esnt/2022/nasa-study-finds-evidence-that-fuel-regulation-reduced-air-pollution-from-shipping
[4] https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn7988
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0-KvNAWV7RtrCgyQeXZ2QAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/28/ai_whale_protection_salesforce/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/26/california_to_phase_out_gas/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/10/european_union_votes_to_ban_gasoline_cars/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/19/investment_carbon_emissions/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0-KvNAWV7RtrCgyQeXZ2QAAAAg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
pollution shift
Hairy Spod
It's not just Sulphur either. Marine and coastal air quality is another reason why we need to wean ourselves off of petrol and diesel cars as quickly as we reasonably can. In basic terms every barrel of oil has a certain amount of nasty toxic shit in it. As we don't generally like breathing in toxic air in our cities we lobbied the oil industry to refine as much shit out of the fuel that we put into our cars and trucks as they possibly can, which they duly did for us.
The thing is though, the toxic crap doesn't magically disappear it just gets more concentrated further down the chain, ie goes into marine diesel and bunker fuel.
The more 'clean' city diesel we refine to use in our cars, the more toxic leftovers there are to put into bunker fuel and marine diesel. When we refine less fuel for cars the stuff that gets burned by the marine industry gets 'cleaner'
(Inadvertent) Geo engineering
Temperatures may go up when sulphur is reduced. The sulphuric acid in the atmosphere reflects incoming radiation and thereby reduces surface temperatures (just like we've seen after volcanic eruptions). When our sulphur emissions are reduced, we may see another warming trend. What do we want, die in acid rain or die in a boiler?
Icon: we burn either way