According to a recently published article in The Economist magazine, the average concentration of PM2.5 pollution in China is 30 micrograms per cubic metre. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says that an excess of 10 micrograms per cubic metre of PM2.5 pollution is harmful to people. Researches also noted that in many Chinese provinces, PM2.5 concentration vastly exceeds the WHO quota, with Shandong Province and Henan Province being particularly high. The article was published along with a colour-coded map of China, showing the PM2.5 concentration per province compiled from satellite measurements.
From the original article: "Though pollution data are best collected near the ground, a plausible estimate may be made from the vantage-point of a satellite by measuring how much light is blocked by particles, and estimating from those particles’ chemical composition the likely distribution of their sizes. And a report prepared for The Economist by a team led by Angel Hsu of Yale University does just that, drawing on data from American satellites to map out PM2.5 pollution across the entire country."
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From the original article: "Though pollution data are best collected near the ground, a plausible estimate may be made from the vantage-point of a satellite by measuring how much light is blocked by particles, and estimating from those particles’ chemical composition the likely distribution of their sizes. And a report prepared for The Economist by a team led by Angel Hsu of Yale University does just that, drawing on data from American satellites to map out PM2.5 pollution across the entire country."
