Air pollution

Scientists at the University of Leicester have, for the first time, measured air pollution on the city-scale using a single instrument, designed and built in their labs.

Seated on the University of Leicester's Space Research Centre rooftop, the novel instrument captures the sun's rays and uses them to build up a daily picture, in 3D, of the city's air pollution.

Just the size of a suitcase, the instrument has nine telescopes that protrude out and point in different directions across the city, collecting the sunlight every minute of every day. The trapped sunlight is bounced by mirrors inside the instrument straight into the mouth of a device that measures its properties. These are then used to work out how much light has been absorbed by air pollutants before reaching the instrument.

Crucially for Leicester, the instrument can measure levels of nitrogen-dioxide in the air, a pollutant produced by traffic and one which poses a particular problem for the air quality in the city centre.