Air Quality Monitoring Project: Riverdale, a subdivision in Whitehorse, is surrounded on three sides by an escarpment. In wintertime the subdivision is subject to temperature inversions. Wood smoke from slow burning stoves is unable to rise above the temperature inversion boundary. As a result, a heavy layer of wood smoke develops in subdivision. This smoke layer has been sufficiently dense to cause problems for people with respiratory difficulties.
The long-time goal of this project is to establish an updateable Web Site that would provide information about the air quality in Riverdale during periods of inversions. W hope this information will be useful to people who use wood heat so that they could change their burn patterns and to people with respiratory difficulties so the could minimize outside exposure times. In order to do this we hope to establish two instruments that have been owned to us loaned to us by environment Canada and the city of Whitehorse. We have located these instruments at been a Catholic secondary school because this school is located in the center of Riverdale.
Experiential Science has secured the use of two instruments and a computer to achieve this goal. We have installed the PM10u on the roof of Vanier Catholic Secondary School to filter air during clear days and days with heavy inversions. We have installed the Nephalometer in a storage area in the School with the air intake placed near the school fresh air intake. This placement we hope will minimize picking up emissions from the school's heating and air cleaning mechanics.
The Nephalometer The Nephalometer is an optical device that electronically measures the amount of scattering a bean of light undergoes when it passes through a chamber. The Nephalometer provides continuous readings on the numbers of particles in the air column that causes the light scattering. The Nephalometer needs to be calibrated using two known points. The first is the chamber evacuated. The second calibration is more difficult to obtain. In the past, freon 16 has been used as a calibrating agent by is no longer used because of the damaging effect freon has upon atmospheric chemistry. Experiential Science 11 will use the data form the PM10u to cailbrate the Nephalometer.
The long-time goal of this project is to establish an updateable Web Site that would provide information about the air quality in Riverdale during periods of inversions. W hope this information will be useful to people who use wood heat so that they could change their burn patterns and to people with respiratory difficulties so the could minimize outside exposure times. In order to do this we hope to establish two instruments that have been owned to us loaned to us by environment Canada and the city of Whitehorse. We have located these instruments at been a Catholic secondary school because this school is located in the center of Riverdale.
Experiential Science has secured the use of two instruments and a computer to achieve this goal. We have installed the PM10u on the roof of Vanier Catholic Secondary School to filter air during clear days and days with heavy inversions. We have installed the Nephalometer in a storage area in the School with the air intake placed near the school fresh air intake. This placement we hope will minimize picking up emissions from the school's heating and air cleaning mechanics.
The Nephalometer The Nephalometer is an optical device that electronically measures the amount of scattering a bean of light undergoes when it passes through a chamber. The Nephalometer provides continuous readings on the numbers of particles in the air column that causes the light scattering. The Nephalometer needs to be calibrated using two known points. The first is the chamber evacuated. The second calibration is more difficult to obtain. In the past, freon 16 has been used as a calibrating agent by is no longer used because of the damaging effect freon has upon atmospheric chemistry. Experiential Science 11 will use the data form the PM10u to cailbrate the Nephalometer.