Browsing by Subject "Black Carbon"
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(2020)The local sources influence the spatial distribution of air pollutants in urban settings, and these can be quite diverse. For better air quality forecasting, constant monitoring of pollutants, and a high volume of measurements are necessary at many locations. Building a dense air quality network by only using the reference instruments is expensive and not feasible. The use of complementary sensor like Vaisala AQT 420 can help achieve the goal of creating a robust air quality network. As part of the Helsinki metropolitan Air Quality Testbed (HAQT) project, AQT 420 was tested for its suitability as a complmentary component in an air quality monitoring network. AQT 420 is capable of measuring NO2, PM2.5, PM10, CO, O3, SO2, relative humidity (RH), temperature, wind speed (WS), wind direction (WD), and air pressure (AP). Proxies for condensation sink (CS), black carbon (BC), particles number concentration (N), and Pegasor AQ urban diffusion current (PAQDCLDSA, which can be parameterized to calculate lung deposited surface area (LDSA) concentrations) were developed for an urban background site in Helsinki, Finland. The intention is to use variables measured by the AQT 420 and predict additional variables by using proxies. Proxy variables will help to maximize the output of AQT 420 sensors, and giving extra data extraction capability from the sensors. PM2.5, NO2, RH and temperature yielded reliable proxies for both CS and PAQDCLDSA with the correlation coefficient r, 0.85 and 0.83, respectively. While, PM2.5, NO2, and NO2, RH were enough to produce satisfactory proxy parameters for BC (r, 0.80), and N (r, 0.76), respectively. Additionally, a campaign data for sulfuric acid (SA) from Helsinki, Finland site was used to produce a proxy for SA. SO2, global radiation, CS and RH gave the best version of that proxy (r, 0.85).
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(2022)The aim of this thesis is to tie the knot of art and science, searching for ways to explain and explore complex atmospheric phenomena through art. Primary methods of research are poetry, video and performance art practice. The results of this thesis are five video performance art works as well as five related poems: Listening Again, Coffee Filter, Repetition, Reflection and Snow Angel created in Iceland and Finland from August 2021 until April 2022, focused on atmospheric science. The results are divided into six sections, addressing six aspects of the traditional scientific method to explain my art works. At the same time, I ask the reader to think about the scientific methods in a different way and how can they be expanded? I connect Listening Again to hypothesis, Coffee Filter is related to field work, Repetition is about laboratory work, Reflection about data analysis and Snow Angel about interpreting the results. Finally I compile how the art works were presented at the IBA-Permafrost Snow Seminar, April 1st 2022 at the Finnish Meteorological Institute as the exhibition “Particles of Sensing”. The performances are all influenced by science in addition to their connection to scientific methods. Listening Again is sparked by mineral dust research in Iceland. Coffee Filter is derived from research of Saharan Dust in Finland and the coffee filter sampling method. Repetition deals with dedication to the laboratory, invigorated by transmittance research of black carbon and Reflection spurs from ice nucleation research. Snow Angel was an emotional life performance, a farewell ceremony of the changing cryosphere. Rather than using my art to explain the science, as in scientific communication, the artworks in this artistic research are on one hand inspired by the scientific research and methods and on the other hand they approach atmospheric science with different research questions, with different methods, gaining different results. The artistic background of this thesis will be written through chosen works by several relevant artists. I will dive into the research and repetitional element in my works and compare them to works by Anna Líndal’s, explain the use of the wedding gown as a symbol in the works by Zaituna Kala and Kong Ning and discuss performance and devotion in works by artist Marina Abromović. Furthermore, the thesis as a whole can be thought of as an art piece: a hypothetical marriage contract or manifesto of my commitment and devotion to the lab. This is a journey of becoming completely devoted to what you love, using the phrase “being married to the lab” from various angles, as an inspiration I play on and think about both during the creation of the art works and thesis. Future prospects for this artistic research is to continue exploring atmospheric science through art, expanding it in more arctic countries and contexts and exhibiting to a wider audience. So far I have created two new works and direct products of this thesis. A love relationship with Science was shown at the Arctic Festival, Iðnó Reykjavík, 17/09/22. I created the video performance Red Thread in Greenland in August 2022, a tribute to the effects of the changing ocean and oceanic folk stories. Red thread will be presented alongside the works in this thesis at the Oodi public library, Helsinki on the 7th-9th of October, 2022. Who knows where this research will take me after that.
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(2023)Black carbon is an aerosol that is a product of incomplete combustion, the main sources are anthropogenic, such as internal combustion engines and burning of biomass. It is ideally absorbing across the visible light spectrum. Carbonaceous aerosols have a range of negative effects such as lung diseases in the local population and radiative force on the Earth. Therefore it is important to determine not only the concentration of these aerosol particles but also identify their sources. Typical measurement methods for monitoring of aerosols involves instruments employing a filter based technique such as an aethalometer. The major drawbacks to such instruments are that the time resolution is in the order of some minutes and some form of correction factors must be applied depending variations such as the time of year the measurement and differing compositions of carbonaceous aerosols based on locality. A 3 wavelength cantilever enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy instrument was developed during this work to detect the absorption of these particles across the visible range. The benefits of using cantilever enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy are a time resolution in the order of seconds rather than minutes and that no correction factor is required for the measured absorption value for the particles. In this thesis it is demonstrated that multi-wavelength photoacoustic spectroscopy can be used for measuring black carbon aerosols and the information obtained can be used estimate the source of those particles.
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