Spectroscopic measurements of atmospheric composition and evolution for an improved understanding of air quality and climate change

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Air quality and climate change are pressing health and environmental issues with growing economic consequences. Both provincial and federal governments have enacted legislation to 1) limit the concentration of human-emitted atmospheric trace gases that affect air quality and 2) reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. The problems of air quality and climate change are connected by 1) common emission sources of trace gases in energy production, transportation, heating and cooking combustion, agriculture and industry, 2) the fact that many gases involved in photochemical smog production, such as volatile organic compounds and ozone, are powerful greenhouse gases themselves, 3) changing chemical reaction rates for smog production due to a changing climate, and 4) changing meteorological conditions affecting the dispersion, transport and washout of air pollution due to a changing climate. This complexity requires the ongoing and expanded acquisition of high-quality data sets of atmospheric composition in order to test and improve the understanding of atmospheric chemical and dynamical processes implemented in forecasting models of air quality, weather and climate. My newly established research program meets this need while addressing one of four strategic research areas of the Government of Canada (“Environmental Science and Technologies”) as well as three programs ("Weather and Environmental Services”, “Climate Change and Clean Air”, “Compliance Promotion and Enforcement – Pollution”) satisfying two strategic outcomes of Environment Canada (Informed decisions on changing weather and climate, Minimizing threats from pollution). It will significantly expand the Halifax and Atlantic Canada measurement capability of atmospheric trace gases relevant to air quality and climate change through the establishment of the Tropospheric Remote Sensing Laboratory at Saint Mary’s University. Using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic techniques the following long-term research goals will be met: 1. Characterizing and understanding atmospheric processes, composition, variation, and long-term change; 2. Assessing the effectiveness of air quality policies and regulations in the context of long-range (trans-boundary) pollution transport and climate change; 3. Assessing the effectiveness of greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in the context of a changing economy; 4. Challenging air quality models and satellite observations with precise, accurate, temporally dense and spatially diverse observations of near-surface trace gas concentrations and emissions. In the short-term, continuous and high temporal resolution measurements of a broad suite of volatile organic compounds, ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide and other trace gases relevant to air quality and the greenhouse effect will be made, characterizing stationary and mobile individual sources (ship plumes, stacks), line emission sources (roads) and diffuse sources (crop fields, fuel wood combustion). These data will be correlated with the Air Quality Health Index public advisory tool as well as information available on morbidity (disease) and mortality rates attributed to poor air quality episodes. The aim of the comparison is to improve the Index, which best serves our most vulnerable populations of children, seniors and the ill. Finally, data gathered will also be used to inform local and regional regulations, such as Air Quality Regulations and Greenhouse Gas Regulations in the Nova Scotia Environment Act. This will help ensure that Canadian governments are enacting reductions in atmospheric pollutants that lead to the greatest health benefits with the smallest economic impacts possible under the circumstances.