Recently, a joint meeting of specialists from the Chelyabinsk Centre for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring and scientists from South Ural State University has taken place.
SUSU was represented by the First Vice-Rector and Vice-Rector for Research, Professor Anton Korzhov, Head of Research and Innovation Services Leonid Shipulin, Director of the Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Alena Zamyshlyaeva, as well as environmental scientists Tatiana Krupnova and Olga Rakova. The Chelyabinsk Centre for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (part of Roshydromet) was represented by the Head of the Chelyabinsk Centre for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Ural Centre for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring") Valery Kochegorov and the Head of the Weather Forecasting Department Ekaterina Vykhodtseva.
The Chelyabinsk Centre for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring has modern equipment, 10 air pollution observation posts in the capital of the South Ural Region, and accumulates a huge amount of weather data from the entire region.
These data could help ecologists. A research team of teachers from the SUSU Institute of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, led by Olga Rakova, is currently working on the RSF grant 24-27-20017 "The Impact of Temperature Inversions on Air Pollution Episodes in an Industrial City".
We are talking about emissions from factories and cars, as well as secondary atmospheric pollution, for example, with formaldehyde and ozone, which are formed from precursors – nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds – as a result of chemical reactions.
The condition of the air in the atmospheric column can be measured from above and below. Air samples can be taken and their composition can be analyzed on the ground. Satellite data from space can be looked at from above.
SUSU scientists, using specially written software code, analyzed open data from the international Sentinel-5P satellite and the TROPOMI instrument, which allow quantitative determination and differentiation of pollutant content in the troposphere and stratosphere. Roshydromet collects the "bottom-up" indicators.
A cooperation agreement has been in force between the Chelyabinsk Centre for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring and South Ural State University for three years now, and it has already brought good results. A joint working scientific group has been created, which includes Ekaterina Vykhodtseva, Tatyana Krupnova and Olga Rakova.
In addition, at the end of last year, the regional centre for collective use "Ecoanalytics" was opened at the premises of SUSU. Its laboratories are equipped with unique equipment. The centre includes a mobile laboratory for continuous analysis of air quality. There is stationary chromatographic equipment. It is possible to determine the elemental composition of environmental objects using a mass spectrometer with inductively coupled plasma.
Jointly collected data may be useful both for SUSU research projects and for the analytical work of the Chelyabinsk Centre for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring.
Meanwhile, the results of SUSU ecologists on environmental monitoring, in particular on the problems of inversions and secondary pollution of the atmosphere, have already attracted the attention of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Tatyana Krupnova also has further plans for joint projects with meteorologists, for example, the creation of an analytical "background station". It should be noted that there are no such stations in the South Ural region yet.