The Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution is part of the Department of Environmental Engineering, of Democritus University of Thrace in Greece. The laboratory closely collaborates with other Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology Departments in the country and in Europe via national, international and EU funded programmes.
Scientific aims
The determination of atmospheric pollution levels in cities and rural environments.
Transboundary atmospheric pollution loads.
Greenhouse gases relation to global and local climatology
Aerosol optical and chemical properties and their relation to direct and indirect climate forcing
Study of Indoor Air Quality problems and the effect of indoor atmospheric pollutants on works of art and human health.
IAQ modelling & management.
Occupational safety and health issues and industrial hygiene problems.
Biogeochemistry
Remote sensing
Large scale facilities
I. The laboratory has instrumented and operates the only Greek aircraft for airborne research, associated also with the European Fleet for Airborne Research, with the characteristics “AEROFOTO-DUTH” (www.eufar.org).
II. It operates the 125 m flux tower at the old Voice of America station (VOCALS), 40° 53' 22.47" N 24° 51' 00.43" E, determining fluxes of Greenhouse gases and Mercury. http://www.europe-fluxdata.eu/home/sites-list
III. A regional facility for High Resolution magnetic sector GC-MS with resolving power >60,000.
IV. A regional facility for high resolution ION CHROMATOGRAPHY-UHPLC-MS/MS.
V. A Regional facility for high energy, wavelength dispersive XRF (99 elements).
Equipment
The laboratory is equipped with numerous state of the art instruments like:
a weather station with remote data transfer,
an optical particle size counter,
a carbon soot mass analyser,
a nephelometer,
a sun tracking photometer,
an atmospheric pressure ionisation mass spectrometer for direct analysis of the atmosphere,
a VG Trio GC-MS, two GCs,
a DIONEX ion chromatograph,
CO2, NOx, O3 and SO2 box analysers,
2 high volume impactors with PM10 heads,
2 high volume dichotomous virtual impactors,
a beta attenuation PM10 mass concentration instrument also equipped with a reflectrometric carbon black sensor,
a 3-d directional sonic anemometer,
a microclimatic station,
a sound analysis spectrometer,
a permeation device gas diluter,
numerous low volume filter packs and denuders,
and a high precision balance and a suit of laboratory hardware and glassware.
a zirconium Ο2 analyser
a RAMON radon monitor
an AUTOMESS 61590 AD4 radiation dose rate meter with an alpha-beta-gamma probe
a MicroTOPS Ozone water vapor monitor and UV photometer
a CS110 electric field sensor
Instrumented 125 m flux tower at 40° 53' 22.47" N by 24° 51' 00.43" E to determine:
1. Momentum, Sensible Heat, Latent Heat,CO2, CH4 and H2O fluxes utilizing the eddy-covariance method and
2. Momentum, Sensible Heat, Latent Heat, Hg, CO2, and H2O fluxes utilizing the gradient method.
CRDS with 10Hz sampling rate for the greenhouse gases CO2,CH4 and H2O.
Gaseous Hg analyser with detection limit of 5ng/m-3
Particle size analyser for number concentrations for diameters from 4 nm-10,000 nm
High Resolution magnetic secror gc-ms.
High resolution ion chromatography-uhplc-ms/ms
High energy, wavelength dispersive XRF for 99 elements in liquid or solid form.