AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Monitoring Stations to Assess Near-Road Air Pollution
NATHAN HILKER, Cheol-Heon Jeong, Jon M Wang, Naomi Zimmerman, Robert Healy, Kelly Sabaliauskas, Greg J. Evans, Tony Munoz, Al Melanson, Andrew Warner, Michael Noble, Jerzy Debosz, Yushan Su, Dennis Herod, Celine Audette, Luc White, Daniel Wang, Dave Henderson, SOCAAR, University of Toronto
Abstract Number: 479 Working Group: Urban Aerosols
Abstract Exposure to air pollution near major roadways has been identified as a risk factor for a number of diseases and other adverse health outcomes. A pilot study within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has been initiated to better assess population exposure to traffic-related Criteria Air Contaminants (CACs) as well as emerging pollutants. Four separate stations are being created, each housing a common suite of instruments to measure traffic-related pollutants, many in real time. Supporting data including meteorology and traffic counts will also be collected. Traffic density differs greatly between sites, allowing the assessment of pollutant concentrations across a range of near-road conditions. This poster describes the design of these stations including the selection of sites and the suite of instruments. Preliminary data collected from an urban background and near-road site are presented. Different strategies are explored for mining the inherent spatial and temporal patterns, including differences in weekday vs. weekend patterns, roadside vs urban background diurnal patterns, and resolution of individual vehicle plumes measured using high time resolution instruments. These methods are being developed in order to estimate the contribution of traffic emissions to local air quality over multiple scales ranging from individual vehicles to fleet averages.