EPA Awards More Than $4.3 Million for Climate, Air Quality Research

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced more than $4.3 million in grants to 13 institutions to study and improve the understanding of how certain organic compounds form in the atmosphere. Research performed by grantees will help the federal government improve its air quality management systems and climate change models with respect to organic aerosol formation and help EPA continue its work of protecting people’s health and the environment.

Aerosols are solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere that impact our climate because they affect the amount of radiation from the sun that reaches the earth. Because aerosols have been tied to health impacts, they also play an important role in air quality.

Support from EPA, along with that of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Southern Company and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) totals more than $20 million in research funding. EPA is also contributing staff scientists to work as part of this effort.

Researchers will have access to NOAA and NSF resources such as aircraft and towers to capture information about organic aerosols at multiple heights in the air and on the ground at the same time. The Southeastern Aerosol Research and Characterization (SEARCH) Network, a collection of air quality monitoring stations throughout the southeastern U.S. developed by EPRI and Southern Co. will be collecting ground measurements, and providing access to current and historical air quality data and analyses. The researchers will use the collected data, and high quality models built from this data, to address emerging air pollution issues.

The EPA awarded grants to the following institutions:

• Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa.
• University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.
• SUNY, Stony Brook, N.Y.
• University of California, San Diego, .
• Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich.
• Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga.
• Research Triangle Institute, Durham, N.C.
• Rutgers University, Newark, N.J.
• Reed College, Portland, Ore.
• University of California, Irvine, Calif.
• University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
• Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.

For more about these grants, visit http://epa.gov/ncer/orgaerosol.

Source: EPA