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£2.3 million invested in the air that we breathe
January 23, 2004A new institute opens today (27 January 2004) which will refine the art and science of predicting air quality. Its work will give advance warning of when air will become seriously polluted, helping people whose health may be affected.
The NERC Centres for Atmospheric Sciences is investing £2.3 million in the new Distributed Institute for Atmospheric Composition (DIAC).
DIAC includes experts around the UK but is led from the University of Leeds where its Director, Professor Mike Pilling, is based.
He said, "Increases in temperature associated with climate change could have serious implications for our future air quality. During a heatwave, chemicals build up in the air. As temperatures soar there is an explosion of activity as the chemicals react with one another, forming pollutants in the air above our cities. We need to measure and understand the complexities of this chemical soup to help predict when and why it happens, and what the implications are for human health."
He added, "DIAC is a great opportunity for the UK atmospheric science community to build on its excellence in observations and modelling, and to focus on the complex linkages that exist between the air that we breathe and the impact it has on our Earth system."
Experts at the launch will discuss the deteriorating air quality over London during last summer's heatwave when levels of ozone and fine particles in the air rose, exceeding EU limits designed to protect human health. They will also consider how air quality itself affects climate change: How ice clouds form from dust and aerosols and subsequently absorb or reflect the sun's radiation to heat or cool our atmosphere (one of the biggest unknowns in our climate change predictions); how soot from vehicle emissions absorbs the sun's energy causing warming (a vigorous new debate) and how the production of new gases from industry may act as greenhouse gases.
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
He said, "Increases in temperature associated with climate change could have serious implications for our future air quality. During a heatwave, chemicals build up in the air. As temperatures soar there is an explosion of activity as the chemicals react with one another, forming pollutants in the air above our cities. We need to measure and understand the complexities of this chemical soup to help predict when and why it happens, and what the implications are for human health."
He added, "DIAC is a great opportunity for the UK atmospheric science community to build on its excellence in observations and modelling, and to focus on the complex linkages that exist between the air that we breathe and the impact it has on our Earth system."
Experts at the launch will discuss the deteriorating air quality over London during last summer's heatwave when levels of ozone and fine particles in the air rose, exceeding EU limits designed to protect human health. They will also consider how air quality itself affects climate change: How ice clouds form from dust and aerosols and subsequently absorb or reflect the sun's radiation to heat or cool our atmosphere (one of the biggest unknowns in our climate change predictions); how soot from vehicle emissions absorbs the sun's energy causing warming (a vigorous new debate) and how the production of new gases from industry may act as greenhouse gases.
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
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