ABSTRACT
This paper considers the level of atmospheric air pollution of the 20 largest cities in Russia in 2019–2020. The data used for the study is initially collected by a TROPOMI instrument (on the Sentinel-5P satellite), including measurements of carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and aerosol (aerosol index). The measurements were obtained using the cloud-based platform, Google Earth Engine, which presents L3 level data available for direct analysis. The Tropomi Air Quality Index (TAQI) integrates available TROPOMI measurements into a single indicator. The calculation results showed that most of the cities under consideration (15 out of 20) have a low or higher than usual level of pollution. Formaldehyde (35.7%) and nitrogen dioxide (26.4%) play the main role in the composition of pollution particles. A significant share is occupied by sulfur dioxide (16.4%). The contribution of carbon monoxide and aerosol averages 10.8 and 10.6%, respectively. Air pollution in cities is caused by both natural (wildfires, dust storms) and anthropogenic (seasonal migrations of the population, restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic) factors. Estimating atmospheric pollution levels in urban areas using an integral index based on remote data (such as TAQI) can be considered as a valuable information addition to existing ground-based measuring systems within the multisensory paradigm.