Associate Professor Teppei Yasunari of our center had worked with NASA and the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) to install a NASA AERONET and NIES ground-based lidar (for optical measurements of atmospheric aerosols) at the Faculty of Engineering. Those were a part of the long-term research objective of Dr. Yasunari to establish a super-site for atmospheric aerosol and air pollutant observations at Hokkaido University in the future. This year, he installed the following instruments at the new observation site at the rooftop of the building where our center is located: a black carbon measurement device (microAeth(R)/MA350; AethLabs); a PM2.5 measurement system for cold regions (the commercial version of the PM2.5 measurement system, see the recently published relevant paper in detail), and an additional PM2.5 sensor; various gas sensors (CO, NO, NO2, OX; Alphasense); meteorological sensors (RH and temperature). Professor Emeritus Yutaka Matsumi’s group produced the prototype of multiple sensor system (gas and meteorological sensors inside) at Nagoya University in collaborative research with Dr. Yasunari. Last year, this atmospheric observation site was set up as part of the center’s functional enhancement project (HAI-FES: Hokkaido University Arctic Initiative for Future Earth and SDGs) to monitor transboundary and local air pollution over a long time in the future. The project is now underway. In the future, Hokkaido University will be able to accumulate many different long-term observation data on atmospheric aerosols and air pollution by the above many measurements. Those measured data will be useful and helpful for various studies on climate, environment, and impact effects.
Although the extra space for the additional installations of observation equipment is limited in number and size, the center is open to consultation with researchers interested in installing such atmospheric measurement instruments under the collaboration of Dr. Yasunari. Researchers interested in installing observation equipment are requested to contact him or our center.
