Air pollution measurements in Coyhaique, Chilean Patagonia

Abstract:

Coyhaique is frequently quoted as being in the top 10 most polluted towns in South America. The air pollution in winter is particularly visible as strong temperature inversions form and the surrounding mountains trap the smoke from domestic wood-burning. The city has installed two monitoring stations in the centre of the town but with its varied topography and the poorer neighbourhoods situated on the hillsides, there are large differences in air pollution across the town. The community is very aware of this issue and the local council is very active in measures that attempt to tackle this issue.

A month long measurement campaign was carried out in July 2019, involving mobile monitoring of Particulate Matter and Black Carbon, ground-based measurements and measurements of the Boundary Layer profile and local winds. We used several members of the local community to carry out walking experiments with Particulate Matter sensors, producing maps that display the strong spatio-temporal variability in Coyhaique. These were combined with data from the monitoring stations, meteorological instrumentation and complemented by air quality modelling studies