Gone with the Wind
15 July 2004
We all look forward to a spell of summer sunshine, but when the temperature soars, so can the amount of air pollution. Now daredevil scientists are on the trail of airborne nasties. This summer, scientists around the world are taking to the skies to track an air mass as it travels around the world.
Antenna flies high...
Image: David McIntosh, BAE systems.
Polluted air travels around the world, from Asia to North America to Europe. This is called the global pass-the-parcel mechanism.
High-flying scientists are ready for takeoff. They'll follow the air as it crosses the Atlantic, using on-board sky labs to discover what gases are there and how they change during their journey.
Image: Dr J McQuaid, Leeds University
American scientists intercept the air mass as it leaves the eastern United States. The world's most powerful computers help to track it to the Azores... |
Image: NOAA / ICARTT
...where British scientists are lying in wait. German researchers take over as the air mass reaches Europe. |
So why track the cloud?
Scientists think that air leaving the United States contains a cocktail of nasties, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons emitted by vehicle exhausts and power stations. These react together in sunlight to form ozone.
Scientists think that air leaving the United States contains a cocktail of nasties, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons emitted by vehicle exhausts and power stations. These react together in sunlight to form ozone.
'It's almost a year since the 2003 summer heat wave when we measured higher levels of ozone above London. It was estimated then that up to 800 deaths were brought forward by this air pollution. Although we know some of this pollution was produced locally in the UK, we still don't know what the contribution was from other countries.
'This mission should help us to understand the way these chemicals move around the world.' Alistair Lewis, UK leader of the Intercontinental Transport of Ozone and Precursors Programme
