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Project name:Black CaT - Black Carbon Tool
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ICMATE involved researchers:
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Starting date, ending date and duration:October 1, 2015 - March 31, 2017 (18 months)
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Project funding:Fondazione Cariplo, bando: "Progetti territoriali per la città di Milano e provincia".
Fine particulate matter (PM) is a thread for human health. PM is composed by solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere with size ranging between a few nanometers to some micrometers. Each particle is composed by different chemical species, and has different chemical and microphysical properties. During the last years several studies investigated the toxicological and epidemiological effects of the different PM components, in order to better target emission control policies to improve air quality. According to the World Health Organization, and based on scientific available evidence, black carbon (BC) is the proxy that better describes the risk of PM exposure for human health. In addition, BC is a short-lived climate forcer, and thus affects the Earth radiation budget, absorbing incoming solar radiation and altering cloud lifetime and glacier albedo.
For these reasons, it is very important BC monitoring in different environments, by using and coupling several and different instruments. The goal of the present project is to develop and optimize a methodology and an algorithm for an accurate quantification of BC in urban and rural environment in the surrounding of Milan metropolitan area, coupling continuous monitoring network observations with intensive observations performed with the best available technology.
The main research activities performed in Milano are here reported:
- BC measurements by using the home-made instrument based on Laser Induced Incandescence technique
- Optical properties evaluation of fine and ultrafine particulate matter.
Project partners are: ISAC-CNR and Politecnico di Milano – Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile ed Ambientale. The collaboration of ARPA Lombardia is effective, together with Prof Claudio Mazzoleni (Michigan Technology University) and Aerodyne Research (on founding by CNR "short term mobility").
