A group of researchers studying the science behind air pollution in the Arctic will spend seven weeks in Fairbanks this winter. The goal of the 50 scientists, including several University of Alaska Fairbanks professors, is to better understand the chemistry behind air pollution in cold climates in order to ultimately improve air quality.
Bill Simpson, a professor of atmospheric chemistry with the UAF College of Natural Science and Mathematics, is the project leader. Simpson explained that the Alaskan Layered Pollution And Chemical Analysis, or ALPACA, project got its start at a conference about three years ago. Experts met to determine the major unanswered questions about air quality in the Arctic, and created a project based around those questions.
ALPACA is unique because it is not a regulatory study, but theoretical and focused on understanding the science behind pollution. According to Simpson, this frees researchers to ask broader questions, such as examining the impact of polluted air has on the air inside homes.
Although the research involves complex science, the motive underlying the study is simple: “We want to breathe clean air,” Simpson said. Understanding the way pollution works in cold environments will help to determine how to best minimize and prevent pollution. “You need to be able to describe the chemistry to understand the outcome,” Simpson explained.
Specifically, Simpson said, the goal is to understand pollution through three main questions. First, researchers will study what happens when outside air moves inside. To do so, they rented a house in the Hamilton Acres neighborhood to study this as well as the impact of wood and pellet stoves.
Scientists will study temperature inversions by using sensors placed at various heights around Fairbanks.
Lastly, they will research the formation of aerosol particles, which are droplets that contain chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that react with the atmosphere. Understanding the process by which sulfur from fuel and coal transforms and gets stuck into particles is a big question, according to Simpson.
For this, ALPACA installed several instruments in trailers at UAF’s Community and Technical College in downtown Fairbanks. The instruments will determine the chemical and physical properties of the pollutants, which allows researchers to quantify how much of the material is in Fairbanks’s air.
It is important that the work focuses specifically on the Arctic, because air pollution works differently in cold and dark environments. In warm and sunny climates, pollution evolves due to photochemistry, meaning changes brought about by sunlight. However, in Fairbanks and other high latitude places, there is little sun and therefore the process is different.
Fairbanks was chosen as a location for the research due to its extremely poor winter air quality, as well as its intense inversions. Additionally, it has been the site for many regulator studies, said Simpson, so there is already a wealth of data.
While this study is specific to Fairbanks, the work will likely have implications for other cold climate communities that experience similar air quality problems. Therefore, one goal is to create a set of best practices that can be utilized in different contexts and to test different models. In this way, although not a regulatory study, the work could lead to regulatory changes, Simpson said. “This will inform how to keep air clean, which will help planners into the future,” he added.
The work is important because Fairbanks violates the Clean Air Act. The particles from polluted air can “get deep in the lungs” and have negative health implications. For example, fine particulate pollution is linked to respiratory illnesses and heart ailments.
ALPACA is funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as well as from European sources.
There will be two public events about the research. The first event, held on Feb. 3, will discuss the Hamilton Acres work, while the second on Feb. 17 will be on the research conducted at the Community and Technical College.
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Originally Appeared Here