Air Quality

Scientists bring in schoolchildren to help with air quality research

Media Release
22 May 2018
Pupils at a Central Otago primary school are helping NIWA air quality scientists learn more about pollution in their town in a four-month project that will track where smoke comes from and where it goes over winter.

Mass Spectrometry techniques and measurements

A wide range of mass spectrometry techniques and measurements are available for air, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, water, carbonates, organics, and other specific isotopes.

Blog: atmospheric research - 5 March

5 March 2018

Sean Hartery, a PhD student from Canterbury University based at NIWA, is collecting samples and data for two main areas of atmospheric research while he is out here in the Ross Sea: ice nuclei and aerosols.

Blog: atmospheric gas measurements - 21 February

21 February 2018

John McGregor from NIWA checks on the instruments that measure atmospheric gases throughout our voyage.

Monitoring air quality in your neighbourhood

Monitoring air quality in your neighbourhood

Monitoring air quality in your neighbourhood. Part of the NIWA Community Observation Networks for Air (CONA) research project, this video explains what's involved in the observations and research findings so far.

Profile: Wills Dobson - small town, huge horizons

Feature story
5 October 2017
If it wasn't for a damaged shoulder, Wills Dobson wouldn't be launching weather balloons or fixing high-precision atmospheric measuring instruments.

Atmospheric services and data

How can we help you?

Clouds

Common questions about clouds, how they are formed and how they behave.

Air quality monitoring with low-cost sensors

NIWA provides ambient air quality monitoring services using low-cost ODIN (Outdoor Dust Information Node) sensors.  

Monitoring air quality with PACMAN

NIWA has developed a device for measuring and monitoring indoor air quality. It is called the Particles, Activity and Context Monitoring Autonomous Node - PACMAN for short.
Injy's Odyssey

Injy’s Odyssey

Late 2016, Sir Peter Blake NIWA Ambassador Injy Johnstone travelled to one of NIWA's more remote atmospheric monitoring outposts in the central North Island. Another successful ambassadorship - check it out!

Where there’s smoke, there’s air quality scientists

Media Release
1 October 2015
NIWA scientists are now analysing data gathered from an air quality pilot experiment in Rangiora that could revolutionise the way communities can measure and control pollution.

Community Observation Networks for Air (CONA): previous projects

CONA studies in Rangiora in 2015-17 and Alexandra in 2018 have proven that the technologies and methodologies used provide valuable data to support mitigation efforts by local authorities.

Traffic emissions mapping - black carbon and nitrogen dioxide

Black carbon, commonly known as soot, is made of microscopic particles generated by incomplete combustion. Download our latest maps of long-term average concentrations of black carbon from road traffic. Equivalent maps for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are coming soon.

NIWA scientists test air quality in our kiwi homes

31 July 2012
NIWA has a new tool that will help scientists understand pollutants that take the form of small airborne particles.

NIWA scientists find wood burners need careful owner-drivers?

2 August 2011

New Zealanders love their wood burners and keeping warm in winter, but wood burners and how they are being used are the major contributors to winter urban air pollution. NIWA scientists are assessing the emissions from wood burners, and learning more about how users' behaviour may affect emissions.

Exposure Research

Using land-use and traffic assignment models to derive estimates of exposure to traffic emissions and ultrafine particles.

Sustainable Air Quality (TOTUS)

TOwards susTainable Urban formS (TOTUS)

Urban areas face increasing challenges to manage their growth. The complexities inherent to the interrelations between urban planning, people's behaviour and the natural environment highlight the need to tackle sustainability issues in an integrated framework.

Top international climate scientists meet in NZ to discuss state-of-the-art global climate observation network

28 February 2011

More than 30 international experts in climate science will meet in Queenstown this week to discuss implementing a new a state-of-the-art global network to improve the quality of measurements of upper air climate variables.

World experts converge in Wellington for the Extreme Weather Conference

11 February 2011

Over the past decade, predicting the weather, and understanding the changes in climate, has emerged as one of the most important and topical areas of scientific endeavour.

UPTECH-NZ: Ultrafine Particles from Traffic Emissions and Childrens’ Health in New Zealand

UPTECH is a world-leading observational study currently underway in SE Queensland - UPTECH-NZ is one of several related projects.

Instrument Systems Update 15, May 2010

Latest projects and technology from NIWA's Instrument Systems team.

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