Again our partner Scapeler made animations of the air pollution measurements in Eindhoven during the fireworks tradition around newyear.

The animations are projected over town and one needs to know the layout of the city in order to zoom into specifics if interested. Here is the city map without animation:

For orientation purpose

For orientation purpose

You see the inner ring that surrounds the city´s center and the C shape motorways that border the outer limits of the city. All but one Airbox (this one is used for background measurement outside town) is locatied within this C. The network of 35 Airboxes is configured to get an as good as possible view of the human exposure to pollution.

Pollution measured in all Airboxes is PM 1, PM 2.5, PM 10. We also measure UFP (ultrafinedust) on 6 locations but no city representative video can be made of this. To get an idea of the size of particulate matter in microns we use this picture:

Using the thickness of a human hair as reference

Using the thickness of a human hair as reference

PM 1, 2.5 and 10 together this newyears eve:

Interesting to see the differences with last years animation. The differences are caused by weather type and changes in firework usages.

2014/2015 animation to compare:

This year Scapeler also made specific animations of the particle sizes:

PM 1: invisible for the human eye and cause of multiple disfunctions due to disturbing our cells causing infections, cancer and even genetic disorder.

PM 2.5: See the picture with the human hair

PM 10: Also refering to the picture

Interesting to observe is that different peaks occur at various moments that may be unexpected. That is because of individuals and groups that become active when they choose to do so. We measure at the same time the pollution coming from traffic and woodstoves. The `strange` peaks are therefore mostly found along the inner ring.