Lecture

Atmospheric Trace Compounds: Monitoring and Interpretation

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

In course

ENV-400: Air pollution and climate change

A survey course describing the origins of air pollution and climate change ...

Description

This lecture covers the composition of the atmosphere, including trace components like nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and others. It discusses the motivation for measuring trace gases, such as ozone depletion, global warming, and acid rain. The course aims to provide an overview of atmospheric trace compounds, understanding monitoring techniques, and practical measurement exercises. The schedule includes topics on measurement strategies, historical air pollution development, and different measurement techniques like in-situ and remote sensing. It also addresses the importance of location and time resolution in air quality measurements.

Instructors (2)

Satoshi Takahama

Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Julia Schmale

Expertise atmospheric science, aerosol-cloud interactions, climate change in polar regions Mission Extreme environments are particularly sensitive to climate change and are transforming at accelerated rates. This can have important global repercussions. EERL aims to create integrated process understanding by investigating interactions between the atmosphere, cryosphere, biosphere, ocean, land and anthroposphere. The goal is to characterize climate-change relevant and vertically-resolved processes that are d

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Ozone depletion

Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a steady lowering of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone (the ozone layer) around Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. There are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events in addition to these stratospheric events.

Air quality index

An air quality index (AQI) is an indicator developed by government agencies to communicate to the public how polluted the air currently is or how polluted it is forecast to become. As air pollution levels rise, so does the AQI, along with the associated public health risk. Children, the elderly, and individuals with respiratory or cardiovascular problems are typically the first groups affected by poor air quality. When the AQI is high, governmental bodies generally encourage people to reduce physical activity outdoors, or even avoid going out altogether.

Ozone layer

The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of Earth's stratosphere that absorbs most of the Sun's ultraviolet radiation. It contains a high concentration of ozone (O3) in relation to other parts of the atmosphere, although still small in relation to other gases in the stratosphere. The ozone layer contains less than 10 parts per million of ozone, while the average ozone concentration in Earth's atmosphere as a whole is about 0.3 parts per million.

Acid rain

Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but acid rain has a pH level lower than this and ranges from 4–5 on average. The more acidic the acid rain is, the lower its pH is. Acid rain can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure.

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants. Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events, the word pollution generally implies that the contaminants have an anthropogenic source – that is, a source created by human activities, such as manufacturing, extractive industries, poor waste management, transportation or agriculture.

Related lectures (64)

Sustainable Development Goals: Individual and Collective Actions

Emphasizes the role of individual and collective actions in achieving sustainability through the Sustainable Development Goals and the successes of the Millennium Development Goals.

Air Quality Modeling Techniques: Addressing Health and Climate

Explores advanced air quality modeling techniques to address health and climate issues, emphasizing the interconnectedness of air pollution and climate change.

Environmental Policies: US Clean Air Act

Explores the U.S. Clean Air Act milestones, Acid Rain Program, emissions control strategies, and significant reductions achieved.

Atmospheric Composition: Understanding Key Processes and Impacts

Introduces atmospheric composition, focusing on geochemical cycles, atmospheric lifetimes, and the impacts of gases and aerosols on health and climate.

Nanotoxicology: Emerging Discipline from Ultrafine Particles