Circumnavigating The World To Map The Polluted Skies
The Soot Surveyor The device picked up high particle levels over the Gulf of Thailand. Courtesy Matevž Lenarčič Fighting atmospheric soot is one of the easiest ways to combat global warming. A Slovenian pilot has flown around the globe with a prototype to make it even easier. In the atmosphere, soot traps heat like carbon dioxide does. But unlike CO2, soot stays near its source and falls to Earth in weeks, so it's considered low-hanging fruit in the fight against global warming. The first step to reducing atmospheric soot is to find it, which scientists have been doing since the 1980s with a particle-measuring tool called an aethalometer. A tube catches outside air and sends it to the instrument's main box, where the air passes through a particle-catching filter. The device shines light of different wavelengths through the filter, and a sensor and processor analyze how the particles block...