BREATHE · Bristol environmental atmospheric chemistry
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2005-09-01 → 2009-08-31
- EU contribution
- €1,064,361
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- EST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - BREATHE (Bristol environmental atmospheric chemistry)
Climate change and surface air quality are two of the most pressing concerns as we enter the 21st century. The BREATHE EST has addressed many aspects of these important and multi-disciplinary problems. We have developed and deployed novel sensors that have allowed us to understand how emissions (stationary and moving) of pollutants released in the urban environment disperse as a function of local meteorology and building geometry. In particular, new insight into the impact of outdoor air quality on indoor air has been made, showing that pollutants may accumulate in buildings and that emissions from moving vehicles have a significantly higher impact on pollution levels than stationary sources (around five times more effective on street scales). Robust relationships developed will allow future air quality and building planning to be informed. New computer models have been developed that incorporate these data in collaboration with the United Kingdom Meteorological Office. A range of laboratory studies have provided considerable insight into the role played by aerosol in the urban environment and how these aerosol age and transform in the presence of pollutants. In particular, the role of soot has been investigated. Theoretical and laboratory studies have allowed us to understand the interaction between sunlight and key species in the atmosphere, showing that the atmospheres natural cleaning ability is more robust than first thought. New instrumentation has been developed and deployed at the Mace Head Research Station (a NASA global air watch station) providing key insights into the oxidising capacity of the atmosphere and showing that methane, a key greenhouse gas, is increasing again, with implications for warming of the atmosphere. For more details see: http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/breathe/
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Air quality and climate change are two of the most pressing environmental challenges facing us in the 21st Century. The vast majority of the population of Europe live within or near to an urban conurbation and are subject to the resultant air pollution, wi ll-implications for the health of humans, animals and plants. Release and chemical degradation of pollutants from urban and industrial centres, as well as from biomass and fossil fuel burning, contributes significantly to the atmospheric loading of so-call ed greenhouse gases, and hence to climate change. The pressing importance of an improved understanding of the atmospheric chemistry, photochemistry and dispersal of various organic pollutants is the motivation for this project to establish an Early Stage R esearch Training programme at the University of Bristol. The research programme addresses: ¿ Atmospheric modelling, including regional scale modelling of air quality; ¿ Experimental studies of heterogeneous processes at aerosol surfaces and condensed phase chemistry within aerosoldroplets; ¿ Experimental and theoretical studies of molecular and radical photochemical and reaction mechanisms; ¿ Development of new analytical instrumentation for monitoring of trace atmospheric constituents; ¿ Deployment of such novel instruments for in situ measurements of concentrations and dispersal of pollutants; ¿ Assessing the impact of air quality on public health. These six projects involve novel scientific research at the forefront of atmospheric science using state-of-t he-art instrumentation and computational methods, supported by the world-class resources of the Bristol department. The results from these projects will be fed into relevant policy making units in the UK and the rest of Europe.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL · BRISTOL, CLIFTONCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union