Aerosol science: elucidating the origins, characteristics, environmental impact and human health consequences

气溶胶在气候和空气质量中起着关键作用。尽管气雾剂的大小很小，但它对我们的环境和健康有着巨大的影响。然而，对气溶胶显示这些深刻影响的机制的科学理解仍处于初级阶段。直到最近，新的工具和跨学科合作才提供了在这一领域取得开创性进展的机会。气溶胶的许多影响在地理上与加拿大截然不同。然而，在这个快速发展的领域，加拿大落后于世界科学界。NSERC的资金将为一个综合的多学科研究计划提供必要的支持，该计划调查气溶胶科学中相互关联的关键方面。将继续对三个广泛的主题进行研究，即形成、转变和曝光，所有这些都涉及作为一个总体主题的实地测量。这项研究将研究城市和农村环境中超细颗粒物形成的潜在过程，重点是它们从车辆中释放出来。这些最小的气溶胶颗粒的尺寸小于100纳米，据推测，它们会对一系列不利的健康影响做出贡献。将针对关键活动和微环境(如烹饪、车辆、公共交通)测量城市人口对超细颗粒物的暴露，并根据路边和邻近地区的浓度梯度进行建模。将对不同活动和位置的颗粒的毒性进行评估，并与其大小和组成有关。将使用测量和建模来确定影响加拿大城市的主要污染源。将探索和解释颗粒随着年龄的变化而发生的化学变化，并根据其性质的空间或时间相关变化进行解释，作为一种应用，它们对全球变暖的影响是由于对阳光的吸收增加。NSERC的这笔资金将帮助加拿大发展所需的知识和人员，以支持未来十年与气溶胶科学有关的关键环境决策和政策制定。

Aerosols play key roles in climate and air quality. Though microscopic in size, aerosols have monumental impacts on our environment and health. Nevertheless, scientific understanding of the mechanisms through which aerosols manifest these profound impacts is still in its infancy. Only recently have novel instruments and inter-disciplinary collaboration offered the opportunity to make ground breaking progress in this field. Many of the impacts of aerosols are geographically distinct to Canada. Yet Canada is lagging behind the world's scientific communities in this rapidly evolving field. NSERC funding will provide essential support for an integrated multidisciplinary research program investigating key interlinked aspects of aerosol science. Studies on three broad topics will be pursued, formation, transformation and exposure, all involving field measurement as an over-arching theme. The research will examine the processes underlying the formation of ultrafine particles in urban and rural environments, with a focus on their release from vehicles. These smallest aerosol particles, less than 100 nm in size, are hypothesized to be contributing to a range of adverse health impacts. The exposure of urban populations to ultrafine particles will be measured for key activities and microenvironments (e.g. cooking, vehicles, public transit) and modeled in terms of roadside, and within neighbourhood, concentration gradients. The toxicity of the particles, for different activities and locations, will be evaluated and related to their size and composition. Measurement and modeling will be used to identify the major sources impacting Canadian cities. The chemical transformation of particles as they age will be explored and interpreted in terms of spatial or time related variability in their properties, with their influence on global warming due to increased absorption of sunlight as one application. This NSERC funding will help Canada develop knowledge and personnel needed to support critical environmental decision-making and policy development relating to aerosol science over the next decade.