Global Emissions of Nitrogen and Sulfur Oxides in Fossil Fuel Combustion 1970–1986

Abstract

Statistical models previously introduced by the authors for estimating emission rates from rates of fuel combustion have been utilized to obtain emissions of nitrogen and sulfur gases in fossil fuel combustion for every country in the world for every year from 1970 to 1986. Changes in the global emission rates of these gases are presented together with the trends over individual continents. Global emissions of NO_x increased by nearly a third in this period, i.e., from 18 Mt N/year in 1970 to 24 Mt N/year in 1986. Emissions of SO_x increased by approximately 18 percent, from 57 Mt S/year in 1970 to 67 Mt S/year in 1986. The geographical distribution of NO_x and SO_x emissions for 1986 are presented on a latitude-longitude grid suitable for use in three-dimensional simulations of atmospheric chemistry in general circulation models.