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15 January 2020
Crowdsourcing pollution data could benefit public health
Low-cost sensors provide localized air quality data By Jerimiah Oetting Wildfire smoke regularly threatens air quality over vast regions of places like California. But a new study finds a network of low-cost sensors placed in private homes could paint a more detailed picture of localized pollution, especially in areas where data on air quality is limited. “[The low cost sensors are] unlikely to replace our reliable regulatory monitoring networks,” said …
Air Pollution from Oil and Gas Production Sites Visible from Space
Between 2007 and 2019, across much of the United States, nitrogen dioxide pollution levels dropped because of cleaner cars and power plants, the team found, confirming findings reported previously. The clean air trend in satellite data was most obvious in urban areas of California, Washington and Oregon and in the eastern half of the continental United States… However, several areas stuck out with increased emissions of nitrogen dioxide: The Permian, Bakken and Eagle Ford oil and gas basins, in Texas and New Mexico, North Dakota, and Texas, respectively.
5 November 2019
Satellite tracking shows how ships affect clouds and climate
By matching the movement of ships to the changes in clouds caused by their emissions, researchers have shown how strongly the two are connected.
8 May 2019
A new view of wintertime air pollution
The processes that create ozone pollution in the summer can also trigger the formation of wintertime air pollution, according to a new study led by CIRES and NOAA researchers. The team’s unexpected finding suggests that in the U.S. West and elsewhere, certain efforts to reduce harmful wintertime air pollution could backfire.
7 May 2019
Roman mining activities polluted European air more heavily than previously thought
Roman-era mining activities increased atmospheric lead concentrations by at least a factor of 10, polluting air over Europe more heavily and for longer than previously thought, according to a new analysis of ice cores taken from glaciers on France’s Mont Blanc.
30 November 2018
Fairbanks air earns unwanted ranking
Fairbanks’s air quality issues began in 1901, when shallow water grounded a Gold Rush entrepreneur.
30 August 2016
Wildfire smoke hacks clouds
Plumes of wildfire smoke envelop and alter clouds, potentially affecting local weather, according to new research based on serendipitous airborne measurements of clouds in smoke from Canadian fires. The new data confirms clouds embedded in smoke are likely to warm up the atmosphere around clouds, causing the clouds to dissipate faster.
26 April 2016
Idling diesel engines may produce dangerous pollutant
New research finds exhaust from idling diesel engines produces a significant amount of isocyanic acid when photons from sunlight help it react with other compounds in the atmosphere. The amount of this secondary photochemical isocyanic acid produced by non-road, idling diesel engines, like those in tractors, loaders, and other heavy construction and farm equipment, was 50 to 230 milligrams per kilogram of diesel burned.
9 November 2015
Renovating AGU’s Headquarters: Advancing our Mission; Serving As A Role Model
AGU has occupied our current 62,000-square foot, five-story headquarters building, located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood in Washington, D.C., since 1994. While the building has served us well for more than two decades, many of its systems are reaching the end of their useful life, making them unreliable and less efficient. Not only does this have a negative impact on the day-to-day operations of the organization—and our ability to provide …
6 October 2015
Ozone destroyer drops mysteriously
By Larry O’Hanlon Something strange has happened to the atmospheric concentration of a newly discovered, human-made, ozone-destroying gas: it has suddenly dropped and nobody knows why. The gas, HCFC-133a, is a type of hydrochlorofluorocarbon, ozone-destroying compounds used in some industrial processes, including the manufacturing of refrigerants. The use of HCFCs, which are also powerful greenhouse gases, is restricted under the Montreal Protocol. A study last year first identified HCFC-133a as …
