Carbon monoxide has gained quite a notorious reputation for itself over the years. One of its dark achievements has been to make it into the shortlist of the six major air pollutants that enjoy regulation in many countries around the world including the US.
What is Carbon Monoxide?
Carbon monoxide or CO, is an odorless, colorless, tasteless and poisonous gas that is emitted when carbon based fuels such as wood, oil and coal experience incomplete combustion. This gas is less dense than air which causes it to rise.
The damage and danger that is posed by carbon monoxide is not restricted to the indoors as this gas reaches the lower atmosphere or troposphere at the urging of winds and circulation patterns. This distribution occurs at an altitude of approximately 12,000 feet where carbon monoxide concentration levels rise considerably. The measurement of this concentration is expressed in the form of parts per billion by volume (ppbv). What it means is that a concentration level of 1ppbv reflects the presence of 1 carbon monoxide molecule for every billion molecules of gas in the measured volume.
The situation that has availed on the ground due to this atmospheric spread of carbon monoxide is the existence of pockets of high to moderate concentrations of CO. These concentration levels are constantly shifting owing to the change of seasons and sources of atmospheric carbon monoxide.
Agricultural burning affects the distribution of carbon monoxide in Africa a situation that avails in the south and the north in different seasons. The amazon and Asia also experience elevated levels of atmospheric carbon monoxide due to fires. This is totally opposed to places such as the US, eastern china and Europe where elevated levels of atmospheric CO occur around urban areas as a result of industrial and vehicular exhausts. These pockets of CO concentration can drift across continents.
The effect of the existence of high concentration levels is the diminished capacity of the atmosphere to rid itself of a plethora of polluting gases and the formation of urban smog and lower atmospheric ozone.
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