Air pollution and Aerosol Information Resource for Educators and students
Utah State University has created Science Unwrapped, an outreach program that engages the public with monthly presentations. Their website is a treasure trove of recorded presentations and blog posts by USU scholars. They also feature a series of video learning activities, perfect for a rainy day.
In this article, published in October 2017 on HuffPost India, Prof. McNeill and Dr. Julia Nunes break down the data for particulate air pollution in cities across India. Air pollution is at an unhealthy level for a large part of the year, in most Indian cities.
The pie charts show the number of days in the past year that the average PM2.5 level fell into the following three categories: Green days (PM2.5 < 35.4 μg m-3) are healthy or moderate, yellow days (35.5 μg m-3 to 55.4 μg m-3) are unhealthy for sensitive groups such as children, the elderly or those with lung disease, and red days (PM2.5 > 55.5 μg m-3) are unhealthy for all. For more information on the data sources: https://aire.mcneill-lab.org/india-aq-2016-2017/
This article was written by Prof. V. Faye McNeill and her colleague, Dr. Julia Nunes. It gives details on ways to protect yourself and your family from the effects of air pollution. It is the first in a set of articles. The next article in the series will break down air pollution data from across India, demonstrating that most Indians are exposed to unhealthy air for much of the year.
Image: Smog in the Delhi/NCR area. Photo credit: Jesse Rabek.
The newly minted Dr. Weruka Rattanavaraha of the Surratt Group at University of North Carolina created this video on atmospheric aerosols for her Ph.D. defense. Check it out!
Moms Clean Air Force is an organization of families fighting against environmental pollution. Their website is full of excellent resources, with information on such topics as indoor air pollution, fracking, smog, and more. Our favorite feature is the “mom detective.” They have a very active and interesting twitter feed at @CleanAirMoms. Moms Clean Air Force is sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund.
Scientists and educators from NASA and UCAR have written a storybook entitled “What’s Up in the Atmosphere? Exploring Colors in the Sky” aimed at elementary school-aged (K-4) children, in which atmospheric aerosols play a starring role. The story follows a group of curious students who, under the guidance of their teacher, investigate the connection between the appearance of the sky and asthma symptoms in their fellow students on a given day. The students in the story (and the readers) learn about atmospheric aerosols in the process. The storybook includes a teachers’ guide with glossary.
We recently came across the ‘Smog Blog’ maintained by the Atmospheric Lidar Group of the University of Maryland – Baltimore County/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology . They make frequent posts on current U.S. Air Quality, usually incorporating cool graphics from NASA or NOAA satellites, National Parks Service webcam images, or air quality model results. Check it out!
UMBC U.S. Air Quality: The Smog Blog
Check out this 12 minute TEDx talk on air quality, climate, and health by Prof. Ilona Riiponen of Stockholm University.
Welcome to the next generation of the McNeill Group’s bilingual outreach website, newly renamed “AIRE.” AIRE is an acronym for “Atmospheric Information Resource for Educators and students,” and also means “air” in Spanish. The McNeill Group is working to revitalize this website in our ongoing efforts to bring easy-to-understand, scientifically accurate information about the atmosphere, air pollution, and climate to the public. Please feel free to contact us with suggestions, questions, or compliments on our site. And don’t forget to follow us on twitter at @AIRE_outreach!
– The McNeill Group AIRE team