‘Roving sentinels’ discover new air pollution sources

Google Street View cars equipped with instrumentation sampled air quality at a scale fine enough to capture variations within neighborhoods in the Salt Lake Valley. A new atmospheric modeling method, combined with these mobile observations, can be used to identify pollution emission sources in many cities.

Empowering a Neighborhood to Breathe Easy

Companies like Purple Air and IQAir, with air pollution sensors that cost under $300, have brought air quality monitoring to the masses. But when Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Tom Kirchstetter looked at Purple Air’s map last year during wildfire season, he noticed a big hole in Richmond, a city of 110,000 to the north of Berkeley.

Soot Particles Vary in How They Soak Up the Sun

Soot in the atmosphere absorbs sunlight, warming the Earth’s atmosphere. This analysis shows that soot particles’ shape and composition can vary significantly. This creates discrepancies between real-world observations and predictions from models. This research used measurement and modeling to provide a framework that explains variation in atmospheric soot.

Nuclear War Could Trigger Big El Niño and Decrease Seafood

A nuclear war could trigger an unprecedented El Niño-like warming episode in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, slashing algal populations by 40 percent and likely lowering the fish catch, according to a Rutgers-led study. The research, published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, shows that turning to the oceans for food if land-based farming fails after a nuclear war is unlikely to be a successful strategy – at least in the equatorial Pacific.

Rutgers Legal Expert Available to Discuss Environmental, Climate Change Priorities

New Brunswick, N.J. (Jan. 21, 2021) – Rutgers University Professor Cymie R. Payne, an expert on United States and international environmental laws, is available for interviews on how the administration of President Biden can strengthen laws and regulations and efforts to…

Global Cooling After Nuclear War Would Harm Ocean Life

A nuclear war that cooled Earth could worsen the impact of ocean acidification on corals, clams, oysters and other marine life with shells or skeletons, according to the first study of its kind.