ALBERT

Description: Biomass burnings either due to Hazards Reduction Burnings (HRBs) in late autumn and early winter or bushfires during summer periods in various part of the world (e.g., CA, USA or New South Wales, Australia) emit large amount of gaseous pollutants and aerosols. The emissions, under favourable meteorological conditions, can cause elevated atmospheric particulate concentrations in metropolitan areas and beyond. One of the pollutants of concern is black carbon (BC), which is a component of aerosol particles. BC is harmful to health and acts as a radiative forcing agent in increasing the global warming due to its light absorption properties. Remote sensing data from satellites have becoming increasingly available for research, and these provide rich datasets available on global and local scale as well as in situ aethalometer measurements allow researchers to study the emission and dispersion pattern of BC from anthropogenic and natural sources. The Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) in New South Wales (NSW) has installed recently from 2014 to 2019 a total of nine aethalometers to measure BC in its state-wide air quality network to determine the source contribution of BC and PM2.5 (particulate Matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter) in ambient air from biomass burning and anthropogenic combustion sources. This study analysed the characteristics of spatial and temporal patterns of black carbon (BC) in New South Wales and in the Greater Metropolitan Region (GMR) of Sydney, Australia, by using these data sources as well as the trajectory HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) modelling tool to determine the source of high BC concentration detected at these sites. The emission characteristics of BC in relation to PM2.5 is dependent on the emission source and is analysed using regression analysis of BC with PM2.5 time series at the receptor site for winter and summer periods. The results show that, during the winter, correlation between BC and PM2.5 is found at nearly all sites while little or no correlation is detected during the summer period. Traffic vehicle emission is the main BC emission source identified in the urban areas but was less so in the regional sites where biomass burnings/wood heating is the dominant source in winter. The BC diurnal patterns at all sites were strongly influenced by meteorology.

Description: There is increasing awareness in Australia of the health impacts of poor air quality. A common public concern raised at a number of “roadshow” events as part of the federally funded Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub (CAUL) project was whether or not the air quality monitoring network around Sydney was sampling air representative of typical suburban settings. In order to investigate this concern, ambient air quality measurements were made on the roof of a two-storey building in the Sydney suburb of Auburn, to simulate a typical suburban balcony site. Measurements were also taken at a busy roadside and these are discussed in a companion paper (Part 2). Measurements made at the balcony site were compared to data from three proximate regulatory air quality monitoring stations: Chullora, Liverpool and Prospect. During the 16-month measurement campaign, observations of carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, ozone and particulate matter less than 2.5-µm diameter at the simulated urban balcony site were comparable to those at the closest permanent air quality stations. Despite the Auburn site experiencing 10% higher average carbon monoxide amounts than any of the permanent air quality monitoring sites, the oxides of nitrogen were within the range of the permanent sites and the pollutants of greatest concern within Sydney (PM2.5 and ozone) were both lowest at Auburn. Similar diurnal and seasonal cycles were observed between all sites, suggesting common pollutant sources and mechanisms. Therefore, it is concluded that the existing air quality network provides a good representation of typical pollution levels at the Auburn “balcony” site.

Description: Location: Roof of 2-storey building at 2 Percy St, Auburn NSW 2144,Australia, -33.85469 151.0374 20.6 m rooftop above sea level, height rooftop above street level = 6.72 m; height air intake above rooftop= 3.3 m Operating dates: 28-October-2016 13:00 to 18-September-2017 13:00 Original measurement time resolution: 1 minute Averaging time: 1 hour The portable air quality monitoring site was maintained in accordance with Climate and Atmospheric Science Standard of Operation Procedures which includes scheduled site visit and instruments calibration. Interruptions or issues: Replaced the faulty (cooler failure) SO2 instrument T100 S.No 1013 with T100 S.No 276 on 28/06/16 and performed multipoint calibration (MPC). Replaced pump diaphragm of T300 CO and performed MPC. Replaced T204 NOx and Ozone instrument S.No 51 with T204 S.No 71 on 02/08/2017 due to noisy trace of Ozone and performed MPC. Issues: There was difficulty in determining the orientation of the 3D-sonic due to the surrounding infrastructure and nearby high tension electrical power lines. Final orientation was verified by comparison with wind direction data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Sydney Olympic Park AWS site (station number 066212, GPS 33.8338, 151.0718). The average difference in measured wind direction to Olympic Park AWS was -27 23 (1 s.d., N=1036, Wind speed 〉 1m/s), and 27 degrees has been added to the recorded wind directions

Description: It is recognised that Western Sydney experiences poorer air quality compared to the eastern suburbs due to the topography of the Sydney basin resulting in pollution produced in eastern Sydney being transported by the easterly sea breeze to Western Sydney, where it pools against the mountain range. As part of the Western Air-Shed and Particulate Study for Western Sydney (WASPSS), targeted air quality measurement campaigns were conducted in Western Sydney with the aim to identify hot spots for poor air quality and understand the variability in air quality in western Sydney, in particular how well the existing air quality monitoring network represents the air quality where people live. The measurement campaigns were operated in collaboration with the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), supplementing the information available from the ongoing OEH measurement network. The Auburn Air Quality measurement site was established on the roof a 2 story building at 2 Percy St, on the edge of the Auburn CBD in Western Sydney, and operated between 25 May 2016 and 9 September 2017. The site is adjacent to major rail line, used for heavy diesel freight, and major road networks. To the east is light industry, to the north and west is the Auburn CBD, with residential areas to the west. The site included a portable air monitoring station (OEH), containing instrumentation comparable to the OEH monitoring stations, an extended open path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectrometer, measuring atmospheric CO2, CO, N2O, CH4 and NH3 and an open path ultra-violet visible (UV-visible) Differential Optical Absorption Spectrometer (DOAS) measuring O3, SO2, NO2, HCHO & HONO. The two open path instruments operated with parallel measurement paths of ~ 400m, with the measurement paths terminated by mirror arrays located on the roof of a 3 story building within the Auburn CBD, on a small hill above the Percy St building. The open path FTIR and DOAS operated from October 2016 to March 2017, and May 2017 to September 2017. In August 2017 an in-situ FTIR tracer gas analyser (CO, CO2, N2O, CH4 and 13C in CO2) was installed with an air intake adjacent to the OEH monitoring station intake, and operated until September 2017. Meteorological data supplied by a 3D sonic anemometer from July 2017 to September 2017 complimented the weather station data from the portable monitoring station. Location: Roof of 2 storey building at 2 Percy St, Auburn NSW 2144, Australia, -33.85472, 151.0374; Height: roof top above sea level 20.6 m; height rooftop above street level 6.72m Site operational Dates: 28-October-2016 13:00 to 18-September-2017 13:00 Time zone: Australian Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10 hours

Description: Measurements of air quality pollutant concentration were collected using a New South Wales Department of Planning, Industry, and Environment Air Quality Monitoring Station (AQMS). Measured variables included relative humidity, ambient temperature, wind speed and direction, particulate matter less than 2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5), particulate matter less than 10 µm in diameter (PM10), ozone, nitric oxide (NO), nitrous oxide (NO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and visibility by nephelometer. The station used was identical to those used in the DPIE air quality monitoring network around N.S.W. Details of the instrumentation used can be found here: https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/air/air-quality-basics/sampling-air-pollution. Measurements were taken at Cataract Scout Park, Appin, N.S.W. (34°14'42.29"S 150°49'24.97"E) as part of the Characterising Organics and Aerosol Loading over Australia (COALA-2020) campaign. Measurements are available from late December, 2019 to mid-March, 2020. Reported measurements are at 1-minute time resolution. Data have been filtered for flagged, outlying and negative values. All gaseous measurements were corrected using overnight zero and span measurements. Ozone was corrected overnight using only zero measurements. It must be noted that the sulfur dioxide record contains some data gaps.