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 was established to study urban air quality and to find out dilution methods and parameters to be used in laboratory measurements to be comparable with real traffic measurements provided by a mobile laboratory.

Unlike stationary measuring sites, the mobile laboratory enables measurements under real city traffic conditions, chasing in tunnels and other underground sites as well as surveys on roads and highways. It is also useful for static measurements when the instruments should be rapidly moved from site to site as for example, in dispersion studies.

The partners are Tampere University of Technology (coordinator), Finnish Meteorological Institute, University of Helsinki and Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki Polytechnic, Technical Research Centre of Finland, and Helsinki Metropolitan Area Council.

Fine particles are sampled during several weeks in 2003-2004 in different conditions such as winter, summer, weekend and rush hour conditions.

Year 2002
06-10: Building a mobile laboratory
10-12: Testing the mobile laboratory
10-12: Preparing the campaign (choosing the vehicles and fuels, comparing the measurement devices)

Year 2003
01-02: On road measurements in winter conditions I
05: Chasing and mapping measurements in traffic
06: Traffic tunnel measurements in summer conditions
08: On road measurements in summer conditions I
10: Laboratory measurements in summer conditions
10-12: Handling the data and analysing the results

Year 2004
01: On road measurements in winter conditions II
02: Traffic tunnel measurements in winter conditions
03: Laboratory measurements in winter conditions
08: On road measurements in summer conditions II
09-12: Handling the data and analysing the results

Year 2005
01-06: Reporting, writing the publications