Probing the properties of particulate pollution: Elucidating the origins and impacts of atmospheric aerosol

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Atmospheric aerosol plays key roles in climate and air quality. Though microscopic in size, these tiny particles have global impacts on our environment and health. This proposal outlines research to enable transformational advances in our knowledge of atmospheric aerosol. The detailed chemistry of these particles will be measured over extended periods of time and in different location across Canada using the very best instruments available. These data will then be analysed using carefully selected statistical methods so as to make key connections between the many sources of these particles and their impacts on climate and health. Specifically, in one set of studies, sources of black carbon will be identified and their relative contributions to atmospheric concentrations determined. The impact of these particles on global warming will then be explored so as to understand how the amount of sunlight they absorb, and hence warming they cause, changes in time and space. These changes occur due to the evolution in the chemistry of the particles as they grow and “age”, by gathering other pollutants, while being carried long distances in the wind. In the second set of studies, particles from vehicle emissions will be studied so as to determine the relative contributions from different vehicle types (e.g. gasoline vs. diesel) and how this varies in time and space. These data will then be used to evaluate how traffic related emissions influence the exposure and health of people living near roads and at different locations across cities. This research will build on a well-established foundation so as to generate new knowledge that transcends disciplinary frontiers. The research will thereby provide unique training of Canada’s future science leaders, through immersion in a multidisciplinary community drawing from Engineering, Chemistry and Medicine, government scientists at the federal, provincial and municipal levels, and growing international partnerships in China and Brazil. Overall this research will produce talented people well equipped to tackle these issues, along with pioneering technologies and methods to study the impacts of atmospheric aerosol particles on health, air quality and climate.