Transboundary air pollution station

ICIMOD, as a UNEP GRID node, is a partner with UNEP, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California, and others in the Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC) Project, a collaborative programme on transboundary air pollution with a system of strategically located ground-based observatories in the Indo-Asian and Pacific regions. ICIMOD hosts a radiation and aerosol measurement station at the Headquarters site, and a rainwater and aerosol measurement station at Godavari. The measurements taken at Godavari will help improve understanding of the composition, origin, and properties of the carbonaceous fraction of the aerosols distributed across the Asian region. Samples of particulate matter are being collected, and analysed for black and organic carbon at the University of Wisconsin, USA. The rainwater and aerosol measurement samples are analysed at the Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University (MISU), Sweden, to identify the characteristics of particulate matter in both air and rain. The research will contribute to understanding of the impact of global climate change on agriculture, human health, and the water cycle in the mountain ecosystem.