BC CLEAR Projects 2014-2015 (funding start dates) > Mapping Temporal and Spatial Variations in Air Quality using Real-time Mobile Membrane Introduction Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) Mapping Temporal and Spatial Variations in Air Quality using Real-time Mobile Membrane Introduction Mass Spectrometry (MIMS)posted on 7:28 PM, July 6, 2016
Project leader: Erik Krogh This project aims to develop advanced, sensitive, mobile real-time monitoring techniques that provide both qualitative and quantitative air quality data. The research will integrate multivariate statistical pattern recognition techniques and online calibration techniques with real-time, mobile membrane introduction mass spectrometry (MIMS) to classify air sample composition and identify dominant sources of influence. Combined with additional on-board air quality and meteorological sensors, the project team will evaluate multivariate statistical techniques, such as Principle Component Analysis (PCA), to classify air masses and derive back trajectories identifying potential sources. The research includes key developments at the instrumental, data processing and data visualization level to create user-friendly data layers that can be interrogated on a Google EarthTM platform. These techniques will be developed and optimized in a laboratory setting using constructed air samples, and then applied during mobile field campaigns in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley and on Vancouver Island. The project’s mobile MIMS measurements may assist in local and regional airshed management plans by helping identify conditions leading to the formation and dispersal of air toxics. |