Student Research Reports

View Research Report

This experiment focused on the question; What is the relationship between the many factors that influence air quality, including temperature, humidity, wind, pressure, PM2.5, AQI, precipitation? The hypothesis states if the temperature and humidity is high, the pressure is high, and there has not been rain in the past twenty four hours, then there will be higher Aerosols levels, most likely along with PM2.5 and AQI levels. Aerosols is a dirt particle in the air directly linked with the Air Quality (AQI). PM2.5 is the measurement of the dirt particles in the air at our breathing level which would also be directly linked to Air Quality. Data was collected outside by observing the cloud coverage, observing which way the wind was blowing, and measuring the Aerosols Optical Thickness, using a Calitoo sun photometer, and temperature. PM2.5 and AQI data was collected from the Arendtsville, PA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Weather Underground to try to better understand the relationship between all values and air quality. The hypothesis was partially supported by the data. It seemed that when the pressure was low, the aerosols were high. This could be because low pressure signals a front coming through, possibly bringing in pollutants. When there was no rain, the aerosols were higher and larger. However, just after it rained, the aerosols were measured smaller and in low levels. When the PM2.5 and AQI levels were high, the aerosols were also high. Keywords: PM2.5, aerosols, calitoo, clouds, temperature, relative humidity, pressure, AQI