Measuring Black Carbon Emissions

Black carbon emissions from fossil and biomass fuel combustion pose a health concern to urban and rural communities in developed and developing regions. Black carbon emissions also absorb sunlight in the atmosphere and when deposited on snow and ice, and contribute to climate change with a radiative forcing on par with methane.

The spatial distribution of black carbon in the atmosphere is heterogeneous, which makes it difficult to assess personal exposures and climate impacts. Professor Kirchstetter's research group is in the midst of an effort to fill some key missing pieces. These include the development of a very small and low-cost black carbon sensor (pictured above) and the creation of a first-of-its kind community black carbon air quality network. Leading this work with Kirchstetter are graduate students Julien Caubel and Chelsea Preble and UCB's research specialist Troy Cados.

Partnering with the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP), the Environmental Defense Fund, and with support of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the UC Berkeley research team is leading a study of the spatial and temporal patterns of black carbon air pollution in West Oakland. The study - called the 100 x 100 West Oakland Community Air Quality Study - aims to establish and operate a network of 100 black carbon sensors for 100 days. The goal is to provide a better understanding of how black carbon from diesel engines and other sources vary within the residential community, and with distance from freeways and commercial corridors. The study provides an opportunity to evaluate the benefits of a network of air pollution sensors dispersed within a community over the traditional approach of monitoring air pollution at centrally located sites.

Pictured right are graduate student Chelsea Preble; Prof Kirchstetter; undergraduate students Annie Rosen, Kelly Archer, and Shannon Chang; Berkeley Lab's Jonathan Slack; undergraduate student Carter Keeling; WOEIP's Ms. Margaret Gordon; graduate student Julien Caubel; and UCB's research specialist Troy Cados.

Related research includes a pilot project that measured vertical profiles of black carbon in the troposphere using a balloon-borne platform (preliminary findings), the first thermal spectral-optical analysis method (1), and an evaluation of the loading artifact that affects black carbon measurements made with aethalometers (2).