Understanding the Air We Breathe: Atmospheric Composition in Urban and Arctic Environments

了解我们呼吸的空气：城市和北极环境中的大气成分

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06979
• 负责人: Strong, Kimberly
• 金额: $ 4.44万
• 依托单位: University of Toronto
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=716538
• 关键词: Understanding; Air; Breathe; Atmospheric; Composition

The overarching goal of my research is to improve our understanding of the chemical and physical processes that determine atmospheric composition and drive atmospheric change, knowledge that is essential for informed policy-making. To achieve this goal, my group develops and uses spectroscopic instruments and data analysis tools to measure atmospheric trace gas concentrations, and we collaborate with atmospheric modellers in the interpretation of these measurements. This proposal describes an integrated research program motivated by scientific questions related to the troposphere, a chemically complex region of the atmosphere where gases from natural and anthropogenic sources undergo transport and chemical processing on similar time scales. Changing emissions associated with increasing population, energy use, industrial activity, and agriculture are changing the atmospheric burden of pollutants and greenhouse gases, thus affecting air quality and climate. The Arctic is a major receptor for pollutants emitted at mid-latitudes, but uncertainty exists regarding sources, further complicated by changes in the global distribution of emissions in recent decades. The proposed research has four short-term objectives, which motivate four distinct projects: (1) To characterize the origins of urban pollution events due to local sources and long-range transport, and to quantify the impact of these episodes on tropospheric composition. (2) To determine the impact of intensive agricultural practices on ammonia and urban air quality, with a focus on Paris and Toronto as benchmark case studies. (3) To quantify urban emissions of greenhouse gases and track emission anomalies and changes over multiple timescales. (4) To investigate the determinants of air quality in the Arctic, assessing the relative contributions of anthropogenic pollution and biomass burning from Asia, Europe, North America, and local sources. To achieve these goals, we will measure trace gas concentrations at urban (Toronto), rural (Egbert), and remote Arctic (Eureka) sites, while also contributing the resulting measurements to international observing networks and using them to validate new data products from satellite missions. This program will support ten undergraduates, four graduate students, and one postdoctoral fellow. They will acquire technical skills associated with the deployment, operation, and maintenance of sophisticated instrumentation, and scientific skills associated with the numerical analysis and interpretation of atmospheric measurements. They will also gain communications skills through writing up and presenting their research, and leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills by taking responsibility for instruments, fieldwork, and collaborations. This combination of broad training and transferable skills will equip them well for careers in academia, government, and the private sector.

我研究的首要目标是提高我们对决定大气成分和驱动大气变化的化学和物理过程的理解，这些知识对明智的决策至关重要。为了实现这一目标，我的小组开发并使用光谱仪器和数据分析工具来测量大气中的微量气体浓度，我们与大气建模人员合作，对这些测量结果进行解释。