Temporal analysis of air pollutants in the most affected monsoon region

• Published in: Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Main Author: Kairan O.; Zainudin N.N.; Mohd Hanafiah N.H.; Mohd Jafri N.E.A.; Suhami F.F.; Mustapha M.F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science 2021
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85109428762&doi=10.11591%2fijeecs.v23.i1.pp229-236&partnerID=40&md5=c7e695e14b964ee970d2b001f8c1dd2c

Air pollution has become an issue at all rates in the world. In Malaysia, there is a system is known as air quality index (API) used to indicate the overall air quality in the country where the air pollutants include or the new ambient air quality standard are sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3) and particulate matter with size less than 10 (PM10). The concentration levels of the air pollutants were said to be affected by the monsoon changes. Therefore, this study is conducted to examine the existence of temporal variations of each air pollutant then identify the differences of each air pollutants concentration in temporal variations. This study uses secondary data where data that has been retrieved from the Department of Environment (DOE) where it is data of air pollution specifically for Kota Bharu, kelantan records. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis was conducted to group monthly air quality. As a conclusion, the study can conclude that the five air pollutants grouped into several different monthly clusters mostly representing the two main monsoon seasons. Mostly air pollutant varied accordingly towards the monsoon season. During the southwestern monsoon, air pollutant concentration tends to higher compare to the northeastern monsoon with mostly due to meteorological factors. © 2021 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.