Our EWC seminar on this Friday, Oct 14, will feature our own Provat Saha, who will discuss air quality observations from a recent field study.  A title and abstract are included at the end of this message.  Please join us in Mann 304 from 11:45am-12:35pm.

The schedule for future seminars is available here:
http://go.ncsu.edu/ewc-seminar-schedule

Title: What’s happening in near-road air quality? Insights from a recent field study near a North Carolina Interstate freeway

Abstract: Motor vehicles emit gas- and particle-phase air pollutants, including organic and inorganic gases, black carbon (BC), organic aerosols (OA) and other species, which are linked with adverse human health effects, visibility reductions and climate effects. There are steep gradients in concentrations of these species within 10s to 100s of meters from the roadway. The mechanistic evolution of vehicle emissions downwind of a roadway involves complex physico-chemical processes and varies spatially and temporally. Exposure concentrations of different pollutants in a near road environments are influenced by the complex dispersion process, built environments and meteorological factors which lead to physico-chemical transformations of primary reactive species. To improve our understanding of exposure and evolution of near-road air pollutants, we conducted a comprehensive field study at a site near Interstate 40, outside Durham, North Carolina. The specific aims of this study were: 1) characterizing the spatio-temporal and seasonal trends of multiple air pollutant concentrations in a near highway setting, 2) characterizing near-road submicron aerosol volatility and mixing state, and 3) determining the extent to which motor vehicles contribute to ambient secondary OA production. Our observations from this field study will be discussed.