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Invited article summarizing the Science To Achieve Results research portfolio on Black Carbon for the journal EM of the Air and Waste Management Association.
Citation:
Bloomer, B., S. Hunt, AND M. Day. Invited article summarizing the Science To Achieve Results research portfolio on Black Carbon for the journal EM of the Air and Waste Management Association. EM Magazine. Air and Waste Management Association, Pittsburgh, PA, , 8-12, (2016).
Impact/Purpose:
Invited contribution to an issue on biomass providing a summary/overview of the findings on black/brown carbon from the Science To Achieve Results (STAR) grant program. Topic: Biomass: Issues and Opportunities Coordinators: Mingming Lu Description The April issue will focus on air quality concerns relating to biomass burning (e.g., forest fire, agriculture burning) and the potential use of biomass for energy and materials. Articles Due: January 15, 2016 EM, A&WMA's (air and waste management association) monthly magazine for environmental managers, explores a range of issues affecting the industry with timely, provocative articles and regular columns written by leaders in the field. http://www.awma.org/publications/em-magazine。 EPA has worked with EM to come up with two issues on sensors in 2015, too.
Description:
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire – and black carbon. Black carbon is the sooty material emitted from combustion processes, including diesel engines and other sources that burn fossil fuels, biofuels, or biomass. This soot contributes to fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, which is small enough to be easily inhaled into the lungs and has been associated with cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. Additionally, black carbon absorbs light as heat, which can affect the climate. When black carbon is aloft, it can warm the air and instigate changes in rain and cloud patterns; black carbon on snow can speed up melting. Unlike greenhouse gases, which can remain in the atmosphere for decades or centuries, black carbon particles settle to earth in a few days or weeks. Subsequently, reducing black carbon emissions could not only improve human health, but also quickly have a positive effect on our changing climate. Since the role of black carbon in the atmosphere is broad and complex, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded research to expand black carbon knowledge through its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grants program. EPA STAR supports high-quality research by the nation's leading scientists and engineers to improve the scientific basis for decisions on environmental issues. In 2010, ten grants totaling $7.6 million were awarded by EPA STAR to universities and organizations. Grantees focused on various aspects of the black carbon issue, such as better accounting for its emissions and uncertainty, tracking its climate-relevant properties as it “ages” or reacts with other vapors and particles in the atmosphere, and better representing its ability to impact formation of cloud droplets. This cutting edge research will provide the scientific basis for policy solutions targeting black carbon sources such as biomass burning. A few highlights from the research findings are summarized below.
