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

大气气溶胶对气候和空气质量起着关键作用。尽管这些微小颗粒的尺寸很小，但它们对我们的环境和健康产生了全球性的影响。这项提案概述了能够使我们的大气气溶胶知识取得变革性进展的研究。这些颗粒的详细化学成分将在加拿大各地的不同地点、在更长的时间内使用最好的仪器进行测量。然后将使用精心挑选的统计方法对这些数据进行分析，以便在这些颗粒物的许多来源及其对气候和健康的影响之间建立关键联系。具体地说，在一组研究中，将确定黑碳的来源，并确定它们对大气浓度的相对贡献。然后将探讨这些颗粒对全球变暖的影响，以了解它们吸收的太阳光量是如何在时间和空间上发生变化的，从而导致气候变暖。这些变化的发生是由于颗粒在生长和老化过程中化学成分的演变，这些颗粒聚集了其他污染物，同时被风吹得很远。在第二组研究中，将对汽车尾气中的颗粒物进行研究，以确定不同车辆类型(例如汽油和柴油)的相对贡献，以及这种贡献在时间和空间上的变化。然后，这些数据将被用来评估与交通相关的排放如何影响居住在城市不同地点、靠近道路的人们的暴露和健康。这项研究将建立在稳固的基础上，以产生超越学科边界的新知识。因此，这项研究将通过沉浸在一个多学科社区中为加拿大未来的科学领袖提供独特的培训，吸引了来自工程、化学和医学、联邦、省和市各级的政府科学家，以及与中国和巴西日益增长的国际合作伙伴关系。总体而言，这项研究将培养出有能力解决这些问题的人才，以及研究大气气溶胶颗粒对健康、空气质量和气候影响的开创性技术和方法。

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.