One more reason to study aerosols. See an interesting article on Doctor's Lounge.
Air Pollution Raises Risk of Sudden Cardiac Arrest: Study --Doctors Lounge
I remember an incident from early days of my PhD. I was travelling in a train and a fellow passenger asked me what is that I am doing? My reply was, "I study aerosols for their climatic effects". He was thoroughly confused. What he understood from the word "aerosol" was that I am studying gases coming out of aerosol-cans affecting the ozone layer. It was not his fault. There are very few places where aerosols scientist interact with laymen about their research. I guess still the situation may be not be very different from the perspective of layman when he or she hears word "aerosol". Beside aerosol's climatic effects, laymen have many reasons to know about aerosols, if not for the sack of curiosity, for the sack of his/her health. The obvious question is where to get this information particularly in a format that a layman can understand and use it without further processing it.
Few scientists and students from University of Maryland, Baltimore county have created a blog with the support of NASA to fill this information gap. They have named it "Smog Blog". Find out more about this blog from a video that NASA has created to popularize The Smog Blog.
Link to Smog Blog
http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/
Link to NASA video about Smog Blog
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/smogblog.html
| Section | AS - Atmospheric Science |
| Session Title | Measurement and Modeling of Atmospheric Aerosols for Climate and Air Quality Applications |
| Session Description | The ever-growing population and human activities have led to a rapid and continuous increase in the emission of aerosols and its precursor gases in past several decades. Advancement in aerosol measurements and modeling capabilities in last two decades provides an opportunity to investigate the impact of anthropogenic activities on air quality, solar energy, regional and global climate and hydrological cycle. This session is concerned primarily with aerosols measurements and their application to climate and air quality over global regions. This includes, measurement techniques, data analysis, seasonal and long term trends, ground and space based remote sensing, aerosols and climate, observations related to air quality, use of satellite data for particulate matter monitoring, aerosol model development, model validation using ground and satellite data, assimilation of satellite products into regions and community air quality models. Also include emission of aerosols and its precursors, aerosol properties and radiative effects, aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions, regional climatic and hydrological effects of aerosol, and impact of climate change and variability on aerosol. Original studies using long-term ground observations, data from field campaigns, satellite measurements, and models are also solicited. |
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