Tower to Survey City’s Air

In February, a 150-foot Air Pollutant Monitoring tower was raised on the site of the Syracuse CoE headquarters. The tower will be used for a long-term, one-of-a-kind study that will assess Syracuse’s urban air quality, air flow, and how outside air affects air quality inside a building.

Eventually, this air quality data could lead to intelligent building management systems that will tell occupants when it is a good time to open a window and when they should close up because of air pollution.

Both the tower installation and the research are collaborative efforts involving scientists from several Members of Syracuse CoE, including Syracuse University, Clarkson University, Cornell University, and SUNY-ESF.

Prof. Myron Mitchell of SUNY-ESF, leads the team that installed the tower and fitted instruments, a project funded with part of a $380,000 New York State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation (NYSTAR) grant administered through Syracuse CoE.

Leading the data monitoring team is Prof. Philip Hopke of Clarkson University. Hopke’s project, funded with a $600,000 Syracuse CoE research grant, is titled, “Characterization of the Ambient Air Quality in Syracuse and Identification of Its Origins.”

See a list of Professor Myron Mitchell’s published research.