Besides a high temporal resolution also a high spatial resolution is needed to study traffic pollutions and particle size distributions in real driving conditions. Mobile laboratories have been shown to be useful tools as recently reported by Kittelson et al. (2000), Bukowiecki et al. (2002), Vogt et al. (2003), and Seakins et al. (2002).
The objectives of a Finnish national project LIPIKA - Fine particles from traffic and their relation to laboratory test measurements, 1.9.2002-31.5.2005, funded by the National Technology Agency (TEKES) and the Ministry of Transport and Communications Finland are:
  • to investigate how well the dynamometer measurements carried out in laboratory conditions correlate with the real measurements in street canyons and on roads. From those comparisons it is possible to determine what kind of parameters and dilution methods should be used in laboratory measurements
  • to study the effects of traffic emissions on urban air, especially to investigate how necessary number concentrations of nucleation mode particles should be measured instead of measuring only soot particles under traffic conditions
  • to study how sensitive the results are against environmental conditions, different driving speeds and different fuels
  • to build a mobile laboratory (“sniffer”) and develop a high quality measuremnet system for sampling on roads and highways, and chasing in tunnels and underground sites
Results will be presented in national and international meetings and published in peer reviewed journals.

References:

Kittelson, D, et al., 2000. Diesel aerosol sampling in the atmosphere. SAE paper No. 2000-01-2212.
Bukowiecki, N.et al., 2002. A mobile pollutant measurement laboratory - measuring gas phase and aerosol ambient concentrations with high spatial and temporal resolution. Atmos. Environ. 36, 5569-5579.
Seakins, P.W. et al., 2002. New directions: Mobile laboratory reveals new issues in urban air quality. Atmos. Environ. 36, 1247-1248.
Vogt, R. et al., 2003. Identification of diesel exhaust particles at an Autobahn, urban and rural location using single-particle mass spectrometry. J. Aerosol Sci. 34, 319-337.