Abstract Northeast British Columbia (BC) Canada, is a region in which natural gas production has undergone rapid development since 2007. We used nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) data products of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) to assess the impact of natural gas development activity on air quality in this region from 2005 to 2018. We noticed that values of both pollutants were elevated in the immediate vicinity of large emission sources within the Montney formation and Horn River Basin – regions, which have experienced an increase in unconventional natural gas activities. Places with elevated NO2 Vertical Column Densities (VCDs) are Fort St. John, Taylor, and Dawson Creek located in the Montney formation, and higher SO2 VCDs are found near the Fort Nelson gas plant situated in the Horn River and Liard Basin areas. Although all the OMI data products consistently reported relatively high NO2 VCDs in the same areas, VCD values vary substantially with data products largely due to differences in Air Mass Factor (AMF) calculations. The rate of increase in NO2 VCDs and mass between 2005 and 2018 in the Dawson Creek area was assessed at 2.34% yr−1 and 4.32% yr−1, respectively, and these rates of change are statistically significant. Although we obtained an overall increasing trend for NO2 in Northeast BC, we also noticed a decreasing trend in the period of 2011–2013, which may be attributed, in part, to compliance and enforcement of regulations concerning flaring activities from oil and gas activities in Northeast BC, or due to less development activities. From our analysis, we suggest that the current air quality monitoring network in Northeast BC should be expanded to capture the spatial distribution of SO2 by deploying one additional station near Fort Nelson equipped with meteorology and SO2 monitoring systems.

中文翻译：

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天然气产量对加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省东北部二氧化氮和二氧化硫的影响

摘要 加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省 (BC) 东北部是自 2007 年以来天然气生产快速发展的地区。我们利用臭氧监测仪 (OMI) 的二氧化氮 (NO2) 和二氧化硫 (SO2) 数据产品评估了2005 年至 2018 年天然气开发活动对该地区空气质量的影响。我们注意到，在 Montney 地层和 Horn 河流域地区的大型排放源附近，这两种污染物的值都升高了在非常规天然气活动中。NO2 垂直柱密度 (VCD) 较高的地方是位于 Montney 地层的 Fort St. John、Taylor 和 Dawson Creek，在位于 Horn River 和 Liard 盆地地区的 Fort Nelson 天然气厂附近发现了较高的 SO2 VCD。尽管所有 OMI 数据产品在同一地区始终报告相对较高的 NO2 VCD，但 VCD 值因数据产品而有很大差异，这主要是由于空气质量因子 (AMF) 计算的差异。2005 年至 2018 年 Dawson Creek 地区 NO2 VCD 和质量的增长率分别评估为 2.34% yr-1 和 4.32% yr-1，这些变化率具有统计学意义。虽然我们获得了 BC 省东北部 NO2 的总体上升趋势，但我们也注意到 2011-2013 年期间的下降趋势，这可能部分归因于有关 BC 省石油和天然气活动的燃烧活动的法规的遵守和执行。 BC 东北部，或由于开发活动较少。根据我们的分析，