A new paper led by Westervelt group undergraduate Celeste McFarlane titled “First Measurements of Ambient PM2.5 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo and Brazzaville, Republic of Congo Using Field-calibrated Low-cost Sensors” has been published in AAQR!
This was a collaboration between several CAMS-Net partner networks, including Université Marien Ngouabi in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo and Ecole Régionale postuniversitaire d’Aménagement et de Gestion Intégrés des Forêts et Territoire tropicaux (ERAIFT) in Kinshasa.
The authors presented the first-ever ambient measurements of PM2.5 in Kinshasa and Brazzaville using field-calibrated low cost sensors from 2018 to 2020. They found high levels of PM2.5, exceeding WHO healthy guidelines by a factor of 4 or 5. The authors also noticed a decrease in PM2.5 of up to 40% during the April 2020 COVID19 lockdown period.
The Columbia University Earth Institute has a nice write up of the paper here: https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2021/04/06/air-quality-kinshasa-brazzaville/
The full study is published here: https://aaqr.org/articles/aaqr-20-11-oa-0619
