Fighting urban air pollution from space
A new technique to monitor particulate air pollution using satellite-mounted sensors has been developed by ICAROS-NET, a Commission-funded project. ICAROS-NET (Integrated computational assessment of urban air quality via remote observation systems NETwork), involves an 11 partner team drawn from Greece, Germany, Hungary and Italy working together with the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). It was funded under the 'Environment and climate programme' of the Fourth Framework Programme. Their newly developed system monitors atmospheric pollution at very high resolution in areas as small as 30 metres in diameter by measuring the proportion of light blocked by particulate matter. 'ICAROS-NET will provide for a user-friendly system to access air quality. It will be of great help to public authorities for taking the right decisions in the environmental field,' said EU Commissioner for Research Philippe Busquin. 'This project is an excellent example of the types of services that could become available as a result of the EU Commission's initiative for building a global monitoring for environment and security capability (GMES).' The satellite system will be tested on urban areas across Europe, and by integrating the information it measures with data from ground-based monitoring systems, ICAROS-NET will be able to provide a constant picture of air pollution over a wide geographic area. It is also hoped that the results produced by the project will help improve environmental policy making in Europe, and the effectiveness of international environmental treaties.