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Low-cost sensors are becoming ever more prominent in air quality research, but much work needs to be done to improve their accuracy. Laboratory and field tests are necessary to assess the response of these devices compared to reference instrumentation, while site-specific correction factors may be necessary given the strong dependence on environmental factors. This work reports preliminary results from the deployment of low-cost sensors in the context of an urban regeneration project in the city of Milan. Particulate matter (PM) concentrations were monitored by means of four low-cost optical particle counters (OPC-N3, Alphasense), coupled with a research-grade instrument (Dust Monitor Grimm 1.108), during renovation works on the campus of the University of Milano-Bicocca. As results showed a consistent underestimation of PM concentrations by the OPC-N3 in both indoor and outdoor environments, a correction factor was calculated based on the reference data. Corrected data showed better correlation with the reference instrument for the pre-works and construction phase. The applied factor proved to be less effective with the intensification of the works and the cold season forcing, failing in correcting the technical limitation of the instrument during high PM emission events. A more specific algorithm, capable of considering increased emissions from the site and environmental parameters, will be derived as this research progresses.

Light-absorbing aerosols (LAA) impact the atmosphere by heating it. Their effect in the Arctic was investigated during two summer Arctic oceanographic campaigns (2018 and 2019) around the Svalbard Archipelago in order to unravel the differences between the Arctic background and the local anthropic settlements. Therefore, the LAA heating rate (HR) was experimentally determined. Both the chemical composition and high-resolution measurements highlighted substantial differences between the Arctic Ocean background (average eBC concentration of 11.7 ± 0.1 ng/m3) and the human settlements, among which the most impacting appeared to be Tromsø and Isfjorden (mean eBC of 99.4 ± 3.1 ng/m3). Consequently, the HR in Isfjorden (8.2 × 10−3 ± 0.3 × 10−3 K/day) was one order of magnitude higher than in the pristine background conditions (0.8 × 10−3 ± 0.9 × 10−5 K/day). Therefore, we conclude that the direct climate impact of local LAA sources on the Arctic atmosphere is not negligible and may rise in the future due to ice retreat and enhanced marine traffic.

Air pollution is associated with an increased health risk and estimated to cause millions of premature deaths worldwide every year. The chemical and optical analysers needed to monitor air pollution, while providing accurate measurements, require a considerable investment, constant calibration and maintenance and are thus restricted to a limited number of applications, resulting in an inadequate spatial and temporal coverage. The development of low-cost sensors can enable the acquisition of high-resolution air quality data and the creation of a larger network, thus helping the characterization of pollutant emissions and the assessment of real-time exposure. In this context, a measuring campaign was conducted at the National Research Council (CNR) site in Portici (Naples, Italy), a pilot facility of the BIOMAT project, aimed to assess the potential occupational exposure to harmful particulate matter (PM), during the production process of nano-enabled PUR foams. For this purpose, four low-cost optical particle counters (Alphasense, OPC-N3) were deployed alongside two reference instruments (OPC Grimm 1.107). The data obtained shows good agreement between the overall trends for the OPC-N3 and the reference instrument, while highlighting the inability of the low-cost sensors to correctly estimate the absolute value of PM10 concentrations. This first campaign showed how the exposure of the facility workers was mainly attributable to the coarse fraction of particulate matter.

Climate change and associated modification of the ocean is a fact, however, it seems to be the most undervalued and little understood “pandemic” challenge of this century. We live in a world where environmental data is increasingly being amassed and models are generating finer scale and increasingly dense numbers of outputs, resulting in the production of high level scientific information on climate and ocean. However, the knowledge generated is often inaccessible, incomprehensible and misunderstood by society. Given that society has access to many levels of information through various forms of media, how do we better share this knowledge, and improve understanding of how society is impacting their immediate and remote surroundings and what behavioral changes are needed for reducing those impacts? In this paper, we assess the level of environmental and ocean awareness among young learners. We argue that, despite the wide range of environmental data available and a common use of a broad range of media, this group is not aware of or interested in climate related issues. This paper highlights the challenges in bringing researchers, data managers and educators together to provide consistent, up-to-date messages that can appeal to and can be understood by modern societies. It also highlights insufficiencies in environmental school education, including those concerning the “uncertainty” concept, which is a fundamental part of any scientific process. In identifying these challenges, we propose a pathway for improving societal knowledge on climate and ocean changes that takes advantage of the technological abilities for environmental data collection, storage and processing, global and regional research, as well as good practices in ocean literacy and climate and ocean education.

The authors provide hard evidence for a significant environmental impact of long-distance atmospheric pollution advection to the Arctic. Results from literature and of their research show that the atmospheric inflow of pollution to the Arctic has been increasing over the decades. The authors show evidence that biomass burning has a greater potential impact on radiative budget of the region than the well-known spring Arctic Haze phenomenon, which has always been regarded as the most prominent atmospheric pollution manifestation in the Arctic. Warming, which is observed in the Arctic, results in decreasing ice coverage of the region, which in turn, leads to the major changes in the ecosystem, hence affects human well-being. At the same time, the authors present results of two independent studies, dedicated to the recognition of the awareness and the level of interest of people in eight Arctic countries and among young learners in Poland. The results show that not only the level of public interest is low, but it is both decreasing or, at the best, low to societies. This is in strong contradiction to information available and the daily experience of the societies, which inhabit the region. The authors believe, that such contradiction results from a low level of knowledge and interest of the Arctic and the climate change itself. Finally, the authors provide some hints on how to link hard scientific evidence for Arctic environmental changes with proper communication to the general public, and hence to increase the level of interest among citizens.

During the summers of 2011 and 2012, two scientific cruises were carried out over the Arctic Ocean aiming at the determination of the aerosol chemical composition in this pristine environment. First, mass spectrometry was applied to study the concentration and gas/particle partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and n-alkanes. Experimental and modelled data of phase partitioning were compared: results demonstrated an equilibrium between gas and particle phase for PAHs, while n-alkanes showed a particle-oriented partitioning, due to the local marine origin of them, confirmed by the extremely low value of their carbon preference index. Moreover, the inorganic and organic ions (carboxylic acids and amines) concentrations, together with those of elemental carbon (EC) and organic matter (OM), were analyzed: 63% of aerosol was composed of ionic compounds (> 90% from sea-salt) and the OM content was very high (30.5%; close to 29.0% of Cl - ) in agreement with n-alkanes' marine signature. Furthermore, the amines' (dimethylamine, trimethylamine, diethylamine) concentrations were 3.98 ± 1.21, 1.70 ± 0.82, and 1.06 ± 0.56 p.p.t.v., respectively, fully in keeping with concentration values used in the CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplet)-chamber experiments to simulate the ambient nucleation rate in a H 2 SO 4 -DMA-H 2 O system, showing the amines' importance in polar regions to promote new particle formation. Finally, high resolution mass spectrometry was applied to determine trace elements, including Rare Earth Elements (REEs), highlighting the dominant natural versus anthropic inputs for trace metals (e.g., Fe, Mn, Ti vs. As, Cd, Ni) and possible signatures of such anthropic activity.

Biomass burning related aerosol episodes are becoming a serious threat to the radiative balance of the Arctic region. Since early July 2017 intense wildfires were recorded between August and September in Canada and Greenland, covering an area up to 4674 km2 in size. This paper describes the impact of these biomass burning (BB) events measured over Svalbard, using an ensemble of ground-based, columnar, and vertically-resolved techniques. BB influenced the aerosol chemistry via nitrates and oxalates, which exhibited an increase in their concentrations in all of size fractions, indicating the BB origin of particles. The absorption coefficient data (530 nm) at ground reached values up to 0.6 Mm-1, highlighting the impact of these BB events when compared to average Arctic background values, which do not exceed 0.05 Mm-1. The absorption behavior is fundamental as implies a subsequent atmospheric heating. At the same time, the AERONET Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data showed high values at stations located close to or in Canada (AOD over 2.0). Similarly, increased values of AODs were then observed in Svalbard, e.g., in Hornsund (daily average AODs exceeded 0.14 and reached hourly values up to 0.5). Elevated values of AODs were then registered in Sodankyla and Andenes (daily average AODs exceeding 0.150) a few days after the Svalbard observation of the event highlighting the BB columnar magnitude, which is crucial for the radiative impact. All the reported data suggest to rank the summer 2017 plume of aerosols as one of the biggest atmosphere related environmental problems over Svalbard region in last 10 years.

In this paper impact of intensive biomass burning (BB) in North America in July 2015, on aerosol optical and microphysical properties measured in the European Arctic is discussed. This study was made within the framework of the Impact of Absorbing Aerosols on radiating forcing in the European Arctic (iAREA) project. During the BB event aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 500 nm exceeded 1.2 in Spitsbergen and 0.7 in Andenes (Norway). Ångström Exponent (AE) exceeded 1.4 while the absorbing Ångström Exponent (AAE) varied between 1 and 1.25. BB aerosols were observed in humid atmosphere with a total water vapor column between 2 and 2.5 cm. In such conditions aerosols are activated and may produce clouds at different altitudes. Vertical structure of aerosol plumes over Svalbard, obtained from ceilometers and lidars, shows variability of range corrected signal between surface and middle and upper troposphere. Aerosol backscattering coefficients show values up to 10 -5m-1sr-1at 532 nm. Aerosol surface observations indicate chemical composition typical for biomass burning particles and very high single scattering properties. Scattering and absorption coefficients at 530 nm were up to 130 and 15 Mm-1, respectively. Single scattering albedo at the surface varied from 0.9 to 0.94. The averaged values over the entire atmospheric column, ranged from 0.93 to 0.99. Preliminary statistics of model and sunphotometer data as well as previous studies indicate that this event, in the Arctic region, must be considered extreme (such AOD was not observed in Svalbard since 2005) with a significant impact on energy budget.