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News | 2016-05-12

IVL researcher heading to China for air studies

IVL researcher Åsa Hallquist will, during six weeks in Beijing and three months in Hong Kong, measure secondary air pollution on behalf of a five-year long project regarding photochemical smog in China.

The Chinese government is investing significant resources in order to reduce the country's air pollution. Primarily the reductions will be achieved through the reduction of emissions from traffic, factories and coal plants. As air pollutions from these sources are aging in the atmosphere, new, so-called secondary pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter are created. However, it is still unclear how the primary air pollution under Chinese conditions affects the secondary air pollution clear. - It seems like China has a mix of both so-called London Smog that is caused by coal burning, and photochemical smog that occurs under the influence of strong sunlight and includes ozone and secondary particulate matter. We want to identify those substances and understand the dynamics between them, says Åsa Hallquist, who is a researcher at IVL within the field of atmospheric chemistry. The monitoring campaign will be extensive, with a large amount of different measurement instruments placed in the outskirts of Beijing during May and June. The campaign will result in both laboratory studies and modelling and is intended to result in policy recommendations. The studies in China are also intended as a learning process between different disciplines, and Chinese researchers are to visit Sweden for enhanced knowledge sharing and research collaboration. In addition Åsa Hallquist and project colleagues from both Sweden and China are to carry out similar studies in Hong Kong this fall. For more information: Åsa Hallquist Read more about the project: http://photosmog.gu.se/

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