Atmospheric space observations over the world heritage sites in danger

Abstract

In this paper we present an estimate of the level of air pollution and radiation flux over the most important world heritage sites which are in danger according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). According to UNESCO there are 36 sites which are in danger, the influence of air pollution and radiation on these sites are presented in this work. To achieve the objective we used information about black carbon and shortwave radiation using models and remote sensing instruments from space. We found that the cultural heritage from Europe is more exposed to black carbon while the cultural heritage is exposed to a high level of a shortwave radiation flux.