Smog is Taking Over Beijing - http://clapway.com/2015/12/07/smog-is-taking-over-beijing123/

The Chinese city of Beijing has issued a red alert for smog for the first time, causing schools to get closed, restrictions on factories, and even limited traffic. The red alert is the most serious warning in the country’s system, and following three days of severe smog, Beijing is officially at a dangerous level of pollution.

Beijing Issues Red Alert to Protect Civilians from Air Pollution

This city sees very little clear days, and authorities have seen it so that the public stays away from streets today to attempt to clean up shop. There were 300 micrograms of PM2.5 particles reported per cubic meter. The safe level, according to the WHO, is 25 particles per cubic meter. Authorities are hoping conditions will improve with the cold front that will hit the city on Thursday.

Traffic and Civilian Activity Are Restricted

Cars will be restricted so that only a fraction can be on the road. This limited traffic will be made up through public transport, making more subway trains and buses available. This is the second time the city has confronted an alarming bout of smog. The highest rate of PM2.5 levels the city has faced is 976 micrograms per cubic meter.

This level is influenced by many things. While pollution is a huge part of it, some of the power demand is necessary for the stability of citizens. November was a surprisingly cold month for Beijing. Thus, a higher amount of power was needed to keep citizens, buildings and sites warm.

Beijing Had Good Smog Levels Throughout the First 10 Months of 2015

November and December have proven to be increasingly difficult. Schools have not been able to allow students proper outdoor activities and many highways have been closed off due to limited visibility. With three days reporting over 200 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter, the city was forced to issue a red alert.

More than 60% of China is powered by coal, and some scientists predict that China’s emissions will not peak until 2030. Only then will the city see a decline in gas emissions.

 

Smog is Taking Over Beijing

How did the #Beijing, the capital of #China, manage to clear its #pollution for one day? - http://clapway.com/2015/09/09/beijing-blue-skies234/

This past Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. To celebrate, a commemorative military parade was held in Beijing and the sky displayed a beautiful shade of blue throughout the event.

It sounds quite customary, but for the Chinese capital, it is not.

Beijing’s Pollution Temporarily Disappears

Beijing is one of the most heavily polluted cities in the world. Although it’s not currently ranked among the top ten, an average day in the city is overheated with dull grey skies.

So an entirely smog-free day filled with crisp air was meaningful for the people. By Friday morning, however, the sky had returned to its customary state. Many citizens were left baffled by this: how did their polluted sky clear up only on the day of the military parade?

The Chinese Government gave an explanation this Monday.

The Secret of Beijing’s Blue Skies

The Beijing Times reported on Monday morning that officials cleaned up Beijing’s air exclusively for the parade, by suspending or limiting the operations of 12,255 coal-burning boilers, factories, and cement-mixing stations around seven provinces of the country. Nearly 5,700 of these stations are located in Beijing, as well as the Hebei province, which borders the capital. Aside from this, authorities limited the use of the city’s 5 million registered cars. Since this past August, citizens were able to use their vehicles every other day, giving way to two weeks of cleaner air.

On Thursday, the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city was 17 out of 500, which is classified as an excellent score. At midnight, after the parade, all restrictions and limitations were lifted. Consequently, the next morning, the AQI was at 160. That’s enough to cause adverse health effects, as the US Environmental Protection Agency states.

The Resulting Impact

This isn’t the first time the Chinese government took control of the smog levels. Last fall, Beijing was host to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, prompting authorities to bring similar tactics into play in order to improve the city’s air conditions. This gave away to the term “APEC blue”, which was used ephemerally but effectively. The Beijing Times reports that the military parade efforts were fifteen times as extensive as the measures taken for the APEC Summit.

These demonstrations left a deep impression, showing citizens that pollution is, in fact, the fault of the people. However, it can definitely be controlled and brought down until city pollution levels are as low as those in other metropolitan cities. On the other hand, the magic appearance of the blue skies did leave some citizens with doubt. Though the change was welcomed, it is unsettling to think one’s government can manipulate the weather.

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Government"s Secret Behind Blue Skies In Beijing

Your Dirty Windows Destroy The Environment - http://clapway.com/2015/08/18/your-dirty-windows-destroy-the-environment123/

Scientists have discovered what many of us have been suspecting: the sun aggravates air pollution and smog levels in cities and your dirty windows do not help at all.

MY DIRTY WINDOWS? YEAP.

Dr. James Donaldson, a University of Toronto chemistry professor and lead author of the study, states that when the sunlight hits overlying dust and grime on surfaces like buildings, statues or dirty windows, it can cause nitrogen gases to discharge and turn into smog.

Related post: China: Air Pollution Kills 1.6 Million People Every Year

“The current understanding of urban air pollution does not include the recycling of nitrogen oxides and potentially other compounds from building surfaces,” Donaldson states. “But based on our field studies in a real-world environment, this is happening.”

HOW DID THEY DO THAT?

On Monday, the team of researchers stated that their experiments verified a hypothesis developed some time before. For their tests, they shined artificial sunlight onto grime samples in order to determine the grime’s effect on chemical output.

The researchers were also able to determine the truth behind the rumor that nitrates in urban filthy areas are inactive. In actuality, they are being removed very quickly: “The lifetime of the nitrates is very, very short,” Dr. Donaldson stated at the conference for American Chemical Society.

The scientists are still working to quantify the extent of sunlight-fueled smog: “It may be quite a significant, and unaccounted for, contributor to air pollution in cities,” Dr. James Donaldson said. He also noted that if his research comes to a suspected conclusion, the understanding of air pollution today would be incomplete: “If our suspicions are correct, it means that the current understanding of urban air pollution is missing a big chunk of information.”

THE EXPERIMENTS IN SHANGAI

Dr. Donaldson announced that he and his team of scientists are in discussion about the commencement of a real-life experiment in Shangai, in an effort to study the influence of varying pollution levels across the world – specifically “in someplace that is ‘really grubby’ and someplace that is ‘really clean.”

Of course, Donaldson is going to take into account weather and climate conditions, in order to discover the various factors that lead sunlit grime to create smog. According to him, what he has found so far in the laboratory experiments indicates that “there could be very different sorts of chemistry happening in dry climates.”

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Air pollution and climate change can rid the world of the beautiful nature that exists around us:

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Your Dirty Windows Destroy The Environment

A successful launch for Sentinel 2-A. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/23/the-esas-sentinel-2a-earth-observation-satellite-successfully-launches-345/

An optical Earth observation satellite successfully launched into space late on Monday, June 22, 2015.

MISSION IS A GO

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel-2A blasted into space aboard a Vega rocket from the European spaceport in French Guiana at 10:51 p.m. local time.

After a flight time of slightly more than an hour, the satellite was deployed and its solar panel was extended. Sentinel-2A, developed and constructed for the ESA by Airbus Defence and Space, is ready to begin its mission of observing Earth from its polar orbit approximately 484 miles above the Earth’s surface.

WATCHING FROM ABOVE

Sentinel-2A is the first in a pair of optical Earth observation satellites that are central to the ESA’s Copernicus program, formerly known as the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security program (GMES). According to the ESA, this is the most ambitious Earth observation program ever conducted.

The ESA describes that its Copernicus program “will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.”

The high-resolution multispectral imager aboard the Sentinel-2A observation satellite will provide scientists with an unprecedented level of detail, and will be able to observe plant growth, monitor forests, and provide information about water pollution. And, through the mapping of natural disasters like volcano eruptions, floods, and landslides, Sentinel-2 will be a great tool to assist with disaster relief efforts.

The ESA plans to launch Sentinel-2B in mid-2016.

JUST GETTING STARTED

The Sentinel-1A satellite was launched in 2014 (with 1B scheduled for launch in 2016). Although 2A just launched, the program is just getting started. There are a total of six pairs of satellites slated for the Copernicus program, which will essentially create a nexus of space-based environmental management tools.

Through the various Sentinel satellite pairs, this ambitious program hopes to gain a wealth of data in order to better monitor weather, atmospheric conditions, surface temperatures, and ocean conditions and topography.

The mission is a partnership between the ESA and the European Commission.

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The ESA’s Sentinel-2A Earth Observation Satellite Successfully Launches