The Black Carbon Network is the automated update to the old UK Black Smoke Network, which was the first Air Quality Network established to measure airborne pollution throughout the UK. It provides a valuable historical dataset with some sites operating since the early 1960s, which recorded the impacts of the Clean Air Acts.

Black Carbon is typically formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuel, and biomass, and is emitted in both anthropogenic and naturally occurring soot. Black Carbon warms the planet by absorbing heat in the atmosphere and by reducing albedo (the ability to reflect sunlight) when deposited on snow and ice. Black Carbon stays in the atmosphere for periods of days to weeks, whereas CO₂ has an atmospheric lifetime of more than 100 years.

Automatic Magee AE22 Aethalometers Black Carbon analysers replaced the manual Black Smoke samplers in 2008 and are currently running at 21 sites across the UK. Aethalometers quantify Black Carbon on filter samples based on the transmission of light through a sample.

The Aethalometers run on the Network operate at two wavelengths: 880nm and 370 nm. The 880nm wavelength is used to measure the Black Carbon (BC) concentration of the aerosol, while the 370nm wavelength gives a measure of the 'UV component' of the aerosol. At wavelengths shorter than about 400 nm, certain classes of organic compounds (such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and also certain compounds present in tobacco smoke and fresh diesel exhaust) start to show strong UV absorbance. The UV component can be used as a tracer for oil and solid fuel emissions.

The Network has been designed to optimise use of the data in epidemiological studies. These require high data capture from duplicate samplers in large centres of population (one million) at sites where other pollutants are measured.

 

 

Map key:

Non-AURN

 

AURN sites

Reports on Network operation and data produced can be found on the UK-AIR: Air Information Resource page (on the Defra website).

Particles Network references 11/11

On the applicability of XPS for quantitative total organic and elemental carbon analysis of airborne particulate matter
Gilham R J J, Spencer S J, Butterfield D M, Seah M, Quincey P G.
Atmospheric Environment 2008 42 (16) p3888-3891

Measurement and mitigation of response discontinuities of a widely used condensation particle counter
Gilham RJJ, Quincey PG
Journal of Aerosol Science 2009 40 (7) p633-637

An evaluation of measurement methods for organic, elemental and black carbon in ambient air monitoring sites
Paul Quincey, David Butterfield, David Green, Mhairi Coyle, J Neil Cape
Atmospheric Environment 2009 43 (32) p5085-5091

Ambient air particulate matter PM10 and PM2.5: developments in European measurement methods and legislation
Paul Quincey and David Butterfield
Biomarkers 14 Issue S1 July 2009 p34-38

Black Carbon Network references 11/11

A relationship between Black Smoke Index and Black Carbon concentration
Paul Quincey
Atmospheric Environment, 2007, 41 (36), p7964-7968

An evaluation of measurement methods for organic, elemental and black carbon in ambient air monitoring sites
Paul Quincey, David Butterfield, David Green, Mhairi Coyle, J Neil Cape
Atmospheric Environment, 2009 43 (32), p5085-5091

Black Smoke and Black Carbon: further investigation of the relationship between these ambient air metrics
Paul Quincey, David Butterfield, David Green and Gary W Fuller
Atmospheric Environment 2011, 45 p3528-3534

Variability of levels of PM, black carbon and particle number concentration in selected European cities
Cristina Reche, Xavier Querol, Andrés Alastuey, Mar Viana, Jorge Pey, Teresa Moreno, Sergio Rodríguez, Yenny González, Rocío Fernández-Camacho, Ana M Sánchez de la Campa, Jesús de la Rosa, Manuel Dall’Osto, André S H Prevot, Christoph Hueglin, Roy M Harrison, and Paul Quincey
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Volume: 11 Issue: 13 p6207-6227

Links

Links to Health Effects studies and similar monitoring carried out in elsewhere in Europe are shown below:

• APHEIS is a network of environmental health professionals in 26 European cities, which publishes the results of joint epidemiological studies on the effects of air pollution.
• The Netherlands National Air Quality Monitoring Network, a division of RIVM, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, carries out automatic Black Smoke Measurements.
• Reports on Network operation and data produced can be found on the UK-AIR: Air Information Resource page (on the Defra website).