Air Quality Supersite

The Air Quality Supersite, housed at the Firs environmental research station in Manchester, is an air quality research laboratory that gathers detailed data on the composition of harmful urban air pollution; enabling researchers to work out where the gases and particles that pollute our air are coming from and how they form and interact.

As evidence that a range of human illnesses such as respiratory and heart disease and cancer are significantly influenced by air pollution continues to rise, it’s never been more important to understand and address air quality in our urban environments.

Understandably, air pollution is a key issue facing policymakers, with much of the population living in urban centres.

Air quality targets for particulate matter are set to reduce substantially in the future, but since national networks are unable to unpick the contribution to the overall load made by different sources, targeting effective reduction measures is not possible.

Understanding how polluted our cities really are, and the effects this has on our health, is paramount if we are to address this challenge.

The Air Quality Supersite in Manchester – one of only three such sites, spread around the country – produces real-time data on the composition of our urban air in such detail that the contribution of different sources of pollution can be determined.

The measurements enable changes in pollution to be identified, how pollution interacts with weather determined, and the effects of urban changed assessed.

Data from the site underpins several research projects both within the University and nationally, and is delivered to policymakers to inform policy change.

Our impact

The lab has been used to quantify the effect of covid on pollution in Manchester, quantify the contribution of different sources to the burden of particulate matter in the city, provide a benchmark for sensor networks across the city in collaboration with local government.