Australia's urban and regional atmosphere: investigating influences on air quality

Overview

Global concern about urban air quality has been steadily increasing in recent years. However, most studies on the factors influencing air quality have focused on heavily polluted regions or locations in the Northern Hemisphere, where weather patterns, industrial activity, and vegetation differ significantly from those in Australia.

Historically, urban areas in Australia have enjoyed relatively good air quality. Yet, rising population density, deforestation, and land use changes are placing increasing pressure on this status. Furthermore, the natural emissions from Australian vegetation remain less well understood compared to their Northern Hemisphere counterparts, creating uncertainty around how our air quality will respond to ongoing climate change.

Research activities

In this project, you will have the opportunity to participate in data collection at our air sampling facility at QUT, and participate in analysis of real field data from an intensive measurement campaign conducted at the Kennaook/Cape Grim atmospheric sampling station in collaboration with CSIRO and the US Department of Energy’s ARM User Facility.

Specifically, you will:

• summarise the physical properties of aerosols observed uncover geospatial patterns and relate them to atmospheric processes
• investigate how aerosol properties are linked to local and long-range emissions sources and weather patterns
• build hands-on skills in Python, R, or MATLAB for environmental data analysis
• work closely with atmospheric scientists, data scientists, and climate experts.

Outcomes

This research will provide valuable insight into the typical influences to air quality over Brisbane and northwest Tasmania, forming a basis from which further research can focus on physical and chemical study of natural and anthropogenic sources in the region.

Skills and experience

This project suits those with the following background:

• earth science
• physics
• chemistry
• engineering.

Basic programming skills in R, Python or other programming languages are desirable.

Keywords

• aerosols
• meteorology
• climate
• atmospheric physics
• data science

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.