Evaluation of cumulative exposure to air pollutant mixtures has been challenged by traditional techniques due to the weight, limited battery life, and cost. The performance of a novel wearable air pollutant sampler, the Fresh Air wristband, to passively concentrate nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was investigated. The Fresh Air Wristband consisted of a commercially-available triethanolaminecoated pad to collect NO 2 and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) sorbent bar to sample VOCs and PAHs. Concentrations were measured off-line following the assessment period. The repeatability and rate of VOC and PAHs uptake by the PDMS sorbent bar was evaluated and the Fresh Air wristband was tested as exposure tool. The PDMS sorbent bar achieved reproducible uptake of from ambient air with uptake rates varying from 2 to 5 days across compounds. Higher molecular weight compounds (>180 g/mol) were well retained in the PDMS sorbent bar over multi-day periods. The Fresh Air wristband was demonstrated as a personal exposure tool; exposures of school-aged children were found to differ by sex, asthma status, home kitchen characteristics, and mode of travel to school. The lightweight, wearable Fresh Air wristband will enable future longitudinal air pollutant exposure assessment in vulnerable populations.
Mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is a primary contributor to sea level rise, but substantial uncertainty exists in estimates of future ice sheet losses. Surface mass balance (SMB) models, the current leading approach to sea level rise projection, anticipate continued dominance of runoff as a mass loss pathway. Despite their preeminence, SMB models in vulnerable northern environments lack adequate field validation, particularly for error-sensitive runoff estimates. We have installed a cluster of high quality field instruments at the Minturn Elv, a proglacial river site in Inglefield Land, NW Greenland to provide discharge and weather datasets for the validation and refinement of climate/SMB runoff models. The instrument cluster has meteorological, hydrological, and time lapse camera instrumentation, including a vented water level stage recorder, single shot and scanning lidars, time lapse cameras, and in situ ADCP discharge and terrestrial scanning lidar measurements. The instrument suite provides novel flow and weather datasets with the opportunity to evaluate experimental approaches to stage measurement in adverse, high-latitude areas. Inglefield is a uniquely advantaged location because proglacial runoff is dominated by SMB processes operating on the ice surface without interference from subglacial hydrology. Overall, our hydrometeorological instrument cluster at Inglefield Land will provide one of the few validation datasets for regional climate models outside of Southwest Greenland.
Abstract. Meltwater runoff from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is an important contributor to global sea level rise, but substantial uncertainty exists in its measurement and prediction. Common approaches for estimating ice sheet runoff are in situ gauging of proglacial rivers draining the ice sheet, and surface mass balance (SMB) modeling. To obtain hydrological and meteorological datasets suitable for both runoff characterization and SMB model validation, we established an automated weather station (AWS) and cluster of traditional and experimental river stage sensors on the Minturn River, the largest proglacial river draining Inglefield Land, NW Greenland. Secondary installations measuring river stage were installed in the Fox Canyon River and North River at Thule Air Base, NW Greenland. Proglacial runoff at these sites is dominated by supraglacial processes only, uniquely advantaging them for SMB studies. The three installations provide rare hydrological time-series and an opportunity to evaluate experimental measurements of river stage from a harsh, little-studied polar region. The installed instruments include submerged vented and non-vented pressure transducers, a bubbler sensor, experimental bank-mounted laser rangefinders, and time-lapse cameras. The first three years of observations (2019 to 2021) from these stations indicate a) a meltwater runoff season from late June to late August/early September, roughly synchronous throughout the region; b) early onset (~ June 23 to July 8) of a strong diurnal runoff signal in 2019 and 2020, suggesting minimal meltwater storage in snow/firn; c) one-day lagged air temperature displays the strongest correlation with river stage; d) river stage correlates more strongly with ablation zone albedo than with net radiation; and e) late-summer rain-on-ice events appear to trigger the region’s sharpest and largest floods. The new gauging stations provide valuable in situ hydrological observations from a little-studied, rapidly changing area and are freely available through the PROMICE network (https://promice.org/weather-stations/).
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