Ukrainian polar explorers have installed the first AirVisual Pro air quality analyzer in the Antarctic from the well-known international network IQAir.
On the website of this service, you can check the air quality indicators from most countries of the world, including Ukraine. Recently, IQAir ranked Kyiv first in terms of air pollution due to smoke.
Now this network has data from our Antarctic station Akademik Vernadsky. The system allows us to monitor a number of parameters both inside and outside the station building.
Why is it important? The main indicator of air quality is atmospheric aerosol, namely PM2.5 (PM – Particulate Matter). These are small solid aerosol particles that hang in the air and are less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter.
They can be of natural origin or formed as a result of human activity. PM2.5 particles are the most harmful to health, as they penetrate the respiratory tract and can even enter the brain (especially PM1 particles with a diameter of less than 1 micrometer).
The parameter of PM2.5 concentration in the air in micrograms per cubic meter, along with several other air pollutants such as PM10 particles, ground-level ozone, NO2, SO2, and CO gases, define the so-called AQI – Air Quality Index. But the concentration of PM2.5 is the most important in the AQI assessment.
Thanks to the IQAir system, we will have a constant series of data on air quality and the content of atmospheric aerosols of various sizes near Vernadsky. This will allow us to monitor whether the Antarctic really remains a clean region, or whether atmospheric pollutants are already penetrating here, and how the air quality is changing in general.
It is very convenient that the information is displayed in real time on the network’s website, so anyone can access it. For example, the initiator of the analyzer installation, geophysicist Gennadiy Milinevsky (who led the First Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition in 1996-1997), can observe changes in the indicators from his workplace and take them into account in the context of other studies, including ozone monitoring.
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