Sensitivity of air pollution in Québec to regional emissions and meteorology
Speaker(s)
Description
This presentation will describe two methods used to quantify pollution sources including their geographical location and strength: positive matrix factorization and chemical transport modeling.
Summary
It is estimated that air pollution in Canada causes more than 15,000 premature deaths each year. The sources of air pollution emissions are numerous and complex, and thus, pollution mitigation strategies require precise evaluation of these sources. This presentation will describe two methods used to quantify pollution sources including their geographical location and strength: positive matrix factorization and chemical transport modeling. Combing their results with long-term meteorological reanalyses, the dependence of air pollution concentrations on local and synoptic meteorology can be quantified. The presentation will also show how future air pollutant concentrations can be projected using the resulting datasets.
Learning objectives
Understand how transboundary transport of pollution from the United States and the Rest of Canada impacts air quality in Quebec
Learn about the major sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and
Understand how climate change may increase the concentrations of major air pollutants in Quebec
Speakers
Patrick Hayes, Professor, Université de Montréal
Patrick Hayes is a professor of atmospheric chemistry at Université de Montréal. His group studies a variety of topics ranging wildfire smoke to industrial emissions of atmospheric contaminants. This research involves field work, chemical transport modeling, and instrumentation development. The Hayes Group collaborates actively with government (ECCC, MELCCFP), the private sector (Glencore, Newmont), as well as a variety of university researchers.
Megha Bisht, PhD candidate, Université de Montréal
Megha Bisht is a 2nd year PhD student in Hayes’ group at the University of Montreal, studying atmospheric chemistry and modeling. She is currently working on identifying and quantifying the sources of Volatile Organic Compounds across multiple sites in Quebec using Positive Matrix Factorization.
