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Air Monitoring
Solo Flight Tracks Global Black Carbon
On 8th January 2012 a tiny ultra-light aircraft left Ljubljana in Slovenia on a mission to circumvent the globe using the smallest amount of fuel per distance flown whilst recording ambient levels of Black Carbon (BC) – one of the most important measures of air quality in terms of both human health and climate change. UK based particulate monitoring specialist Jim Mills from Air Monitors says the project, which is known as ‘GreenLight WorldFlight’, “is tremendously exciting because it will, for the first time, reveal data on Black Carbon over an enormous area, and such valuable temporal and spatial data will provide greatly improved insight into the ways in which BC emissions could be addressed.”
Black Carbon
There is a complex interplay between local pollution, regional transport and climate effects and these are major issues that need to be resolved on a global and regional level.
Black Carbon (BC) is a term describing the fine particles that are produced as the result of incomplete combustion of fuels. A large fraction of the emitted particles are light absorbing carbonaceous aerosols which exhibit very large optical absorption across the spectrum. The most measured component is aerosol black carbon – a unique primary tracer for combustion emissions because it has no non- combustion sources. BC is inert and can be transported over great distances even though its lifetime in the atmosphere is relatively short and measured in days or weeks. Whilst suspended, it affects the optical properties of the atmosphere, leading to local heating or cooling, depending on the processes involved.
After carbon dioxide, BC is recognised as the second most important cause of anthropogenic global warming; contribution between 20% and 40% with a significant regional heterogeneity. However, BC is particularly important because it only stays in the atmosphere for a relatively short period of time, so efforts to reduce BC could have an almost immediate impact on global warming.
BC is also a major human health issue because despite dramatic
reductions in airborne particulates in recent decades, problems persist and many scientists now believe that finer particles may be the major cause because they are able to travel deeper into the respiratory system.
There is a complex interplay between local pollution, regional transport and climate effects and these are major issues that need to be resolved on a global and regional level. Measurements of BC in global background locations are scarce and only recently have there been in-situ measurements performed by airborne platforms.
‘GreenLight WorldFlight’
Designed and manufactured in Slovenia, the Pipistrel Virus aircraft is being piloted by Matevž Lenarčič, a biologist, environmentalist and photographer. The plane has been modified to include an aerosol inlet
for an Aethalometer to measure aerosol Black Carbon. Measurements will be performed throughout the flight and will include regions where very little or no measurements have previously taken place, including parts of Antarctica, Africa and over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The Aethalometer was specially designed by the company Aerosol d.o.o.
Author Details:
Jim Mills, Managing Director AIR MONITORS Limited Brockeridge Park
Twyning, Tewkesbury Gloucestershire GL20 6FF
Tel: +44 (0) 1684 857530
Email:
enquire@airmonitors.co.uk Web:
www.airmonitors.co.uk
Monitoring global Black Carbon (photo: sz/bobo) IET May / June 2012
www.envirotech-online.com
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