Skip to content

Press Releases

Environmental modeling and source apportionment

The study of the spatial distribution of atmospheric PM and of its components is essential for a reliable identification of emission sources, the evaluation of particle dispersion over the territory and the assessment of personal exposure.
However, the very high cost of a network based on traditional PM samplers generally prevents the achievement of these goals.
A low-cost, self-powered and automatic device for PM sampling on membrane filters has been recently become available distributed by Fai Instruments S.r.l.
The sampler constitutes promising possibility to build low-cost networks for atmospheric PM .
The innovative High Spatial Resolution Samplers, allowed to build an extended and extensive monitoring network, with low associated costs, which was able to represent the different emission source contributes to total PMx in the monitored area.
From the acquisition of spatially resolved data, it was possible to properly evaluate the dispersion capacity of PMx and its elemental components, identifying the source tracers of each PMx local emission source which will be used for future source apportionment studies.
This experimental approach, based on the acquisition of spatially resolved data for analyzing spatial variability of PMx and its chemical components, will be effective for the validation of dispersion models without the high costs associated to an air quality monitoring network.

Experimental Field Report

April 11, 2018