Daily Dose of Air Pollution: January 2024

IPCC Code Red! Sharing from the archives, a cartoon was drawn live during COP26, now a part of my book 'Pugmarks and Carbon Footprints': https://t.co/qJyikVlAKR #cop28 #un #cartoons #climatejustice #climatechange #disasters #africa #middleeast #europe #USA #greenhumour #asia pic.twitter.com/llG2rJRIZ7
— Green Humour (@thetoonguy) December 1, 2023

Summarising #naturebasedsolutions at the @COP28_UAE @copreshub session on NBS, moderated by @ConservationOrg . A fun moment that this cartoon sparked off at the session was a speaker remarking that "the Australian in her loves the cartoon"! 😃 Thanks, @grp_resilience pic.twitter.com/l8vJ9odIBI
— Green Humour (@thetoonguy) December 9, 2023

GDP and the #environment. Cartoon drawn live during a @COP28_UAE @copreshub session on transformative leverage for biosphere resilience for @grp_resilience #biodiversity #biosphere #gdp #resilience #climatechange #climateaction #pollution #water #sustainability #greenhumour pic.twitter.com/3ISK7IjtZM
— Green Humour (@thetoonguy) December 18, 2023

Click here for more on the atmospheric chemistry in French comic books (Courtesy: Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling Group, SEAS, Harvard University)

More on air pollution @ http://www.urbanemissions.info

Also see a primer on how to conduct source apportionment, steps, and resource material.

More on air pollution @ http://www.urbanemissions.info

Also see a primer on how to conduct source apportionment, steps, and resource material.

Primary is a direct emission source and forms a significant portion of the PM pollution, comprising of metals, elemental carbon (also known as black carbon), and organic carbon. Other primary pollutants include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile hydrocarbons, methane, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide.

Secondary is due to chemical transformation of primary gaseous emissions. In PM, the secondary aerosol components include sulfates from sulfur dioxide emissions, nitrates from nitrogen oxide emissions, organic aerosols from hydrocarbon emissions, and ammonium from ammonia emissions. The path and the quantity of chemical transformation depends on the strength of the pollutant emissions and the mix of the emissions. In an atmospheric chemical mechanism, these interlinkages can run into 300 equations. Other secondary pollutants include ozone – a result of a mix of reactions between nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon emissions in the presence of sunlight.

More such questions are answered in SIM-series # 44-2021 - 10 frequently asked questions on particulate matter (PM)

There is constant confusion between PM2.5 vs. PM10 and “fine vs. coarse” fractions of particulate matter. The schematic above presents an overview of what is part of each of these fractions and they are broadly defined like this

PM2.5 – this is all the particulate matter under 2.5 um
PM10 – this is all the particulate matter under 10.0 um
Fine PM – this is all the particulate matter under 2.5 um, which is same of PM2.5
Coarse PM – this is all the particulate matter between 2.5 and 10 um

More such questions are answered in SIM-series # 44-2021 - 10 frequently asked questions on particulate matter (PM)