The analysis of the atmospheric particulate matter (PM), or aerosol, allows us to get useful information for the study of climate changes, pollution and health.
Atmospheric PM consists of all those particles, which are suspended in atmosphere and have a diameter smaller than 100 micron. Its study is of great interest both for what concerns climate changes, as far as it influences the radiative balance of our planet, acting on atmospheric heating and cooling, and for what concerns human health. Actually, many epidemiological studies have shown the harmful effects of PM on human health, so that an increasing interest about the formation and the transport mechanisms of these particles has developed.
LABEC deals with aerosol studying the composition of PM collected on filters during sampling campaigns in urban, suburban, rural and work environments. PM can be collected on filters with a daily daily time resolution or, thanks to high-time resolution instruments, hour-per-hour, so that we can even monitor the hourly trends of the atmospheric aerosol.
From 2010, samplers managed by LABEC are installed in the Grubebadet laboratory at Ny Alesund, Svalbard Islands, in Norway. In this research centre, many scientists from all over the world cooperate to study and understand the PM formation and the transport mechanisms. Actually, samplings in a remote environment, which is characterized by no local anthropic activity, allow to easily isolating the contribution of natural emission sources (e.g. sea spray, soil erosion…) from the PM created – even at great distances – by human activities. Integrating these studies with wind trajectories as well, we can get information that are useful to understand the role of PM in processes that are responsible for climate changes.
LABEC also develops new instruments both to improve sampling collection and efficiency and to optimize the accelerator experimental set-up.