Aerosols Blog

While aerosols are something that we experience everyday—we don’t always think about it like we should. Aerosols are an important thing to study. Our everyday air has thousands of particles suspended in it. An aerosol can be defined as a system of solid or liquid particles suspended in air or other gaseous environment. Some examples of aerosols are: sand, smog, cigarette fumes, or any types of dust clouds. Many of these are man-made, though typically they are naturally present. Burning fossil fuels in vehicles, power plants, and various industrial processes also emit a significant amount of particles in the atmosphere, and these are activities that are all controlled by man. Human activities actually account for about 10 percent of the total mass of aerosols in the atmosphere.  The increase of these activities have increased concentrations of atmospheric aerosols, which have led to a cooling of climate. This cooling “acts to counterbalance some of the warming due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases,” which, are also caused by human activities. Despite popular belief, numerous studies have showed that it is a myth that aerosols that come from spray canisters, used for products such as deodorant, damage the ozone layer. It is said that in the past gases used as propellants in spray cans were damaging to the ozone layer, but it is not actually the aerosol particles themselves. Under the “Montreal Protocol”, these propellants have been replaced by non-ozone depleting alternatives. But, all in all, these gas replacements are greenhouse gases and add a small component to the global warming problem.

Why Surface Ozone Should be Studied

            Whether it’s something that we really notice, or something we haven’t even heard of- surface level ozone is a very important factor in our everyday lives and is definitely something that needs to be studied. Without a full understanding of ozone- what it is, how it works, how it affects us, etc. Ozone is found in two regions of the Earth's atmosphere – at ground level and in the upper regions of the atmosphere. Both types of ozone have the same chemical composition (O3). While upper atmospheric ozone protects the earth from the sun's harmful rays, ground level ozone is the main component of smog. Ozone can reach really unhealthy levels on hot sunny days in urban environments; transported long distances by wind. Because of this, even rural areas can experience high ozone levels. The formation of ozone can be caused by: emissions from industrial facilities and electric utilities, motor vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapors, and chemicals solvents. Ozone isn’t emitted directly into the air- but it is created by chemical reactions caused by these things. It helps us because it screens out most of the sun’s harmful ultra violet rays- but it definitely also comes with some risks. There are some people who are even more sensitive to these risks: those with lung disease, children, older adults, and people who are active outdoors. Children are at such a great risk because their lungs aren’t completely developed, and they are likely to be active outdoors when ozone levels are high. Ozone also affects: forests, parks, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas.

Team Reflection

My team and I ended up finsihing everything we needed to finish, but it didn't go as well as it could. Instead of getting an A on our assignment, we got a B, when an A could have been achieved with more team work. We didn't have much communication at all. We all picked different things we wanted to do at the beginning, and that was it. I chose to do the entire powerpoint and procedure blog. This was alot of work for one person, and once my teammates were finished they just put their heads down to rest instead of helping- which is what should have happened. Other than that we got along well and they finished what they assigned themselves to do on their part, it was just difficult communicating with them because we couldn't really understand eachother and we didn't understand what one another was saying. Usually in a group if you're confused you can ask around and someone will understand it, but it didn't go that smoothly with us. If we were confused we basically all were confused. But, all in all, we finished it and did it mostly correctly, and got along well with no huge troubles in our group- the only bad thing- like stated before, was communication.