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UK Atmospheric Mercury Monitoring and the Minamata Convention

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This week sees the first Conference of Parties take place for the Minamata Convention on Mercury, in Geneva, Switzerland (24-29th September 2017). The treaty was opened for signature on the 13th October 2013 and entered force on the 16th August 2017, after more than 50 countries ratified the treaty. The treaty aims to reduce mercury pollution released to the environment from targeted activities responsible for the most prevalent releases to the environment.

Blue Light – the new way of analysing NOx at Auchencorth Moss

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NOx compounds are oxides of nitrogen, generally considered to be Nitric Oxide (NO) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2). Primary emissions of NOx are predominantly from combustion, such as vehicle exhaust emissions. But, NOx is also formed in the atmosphere, by NO reacting with Ozone (O3) to form NO2 and Oxygen (O2) – these are Secondary emissions. With some engines known to be exceeding official pollution limits in ‘real world’ running conditions, NOx and its human health impacts, specifically respiratory issues, have moved up the policy agenda once again.

Masters student visit to Auchencorth Moss

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I came to Auchencorth Moss this September to collect data for my final year project at University of Leeds. The project is concerned with measuring concentrations of airborne particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in urban and rural areas of northern England using a low-cost portable particle counter Dylos 1700.

“Lichens as Air Quality Indicators” survey at Auchencorth Moss

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On 29/04/2015 and 14/05/2015 Frances Stoakley and Chris Ellis from Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh visited Auchencorth Moss as part of the Edinburgh Living Landscape Initiative.

There project is looking to develop and deliver engagement activities around air quality monitoring in Edinburgh using lichens, with the aim of empowering local communities by helping the public to make links between biodiversity, environmental health and human health.

GAW Call for Papers

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Reactive Gases in the Global Atmosphere - Insights from the World Meteorological Organization Global Atmosphere Watch program

This Special Feature invites contributions that either describe and analyze GAW measurements or which link to GAW data by performing similar analyses (quality assurance, trend analyses, model-data comparisons) with tropospheric reactive gases observations. Frank Flocke of the NCAR Earth System Laboratory is serving as guest editor for this Special Feature.

Auchencorth Moss monitoring site given WMO-GAW Regional Status

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The Auchencorth Moss monitoring site in Scotland operated by CEH has been awarded ‘Regional Station’ status within the World Meteorological Organisation’s Global Atmosphere Watch programme. Site data will now be submitted to global databases, as well as UK-Air and European databases, enhancing the use of the measurement data.