2007 annual report for the UK Black Smoke Network.

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) was awarded the contract to set up and run the UK Black Smoke Network by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in September 2006 under contract “RMP 2951, The Provision of Consultancy Services for the Monitoring of Black Smoke in the UK”. During 2007 the number of sites in the network expanded from 14 sites to 21 sites, as samplers were installed into mainly Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) sites. By March 2007 all of the 21 sites were operational. This report covers the operation of the UK Black Smoke Network and the data collected by the Network in 2007. The average data capture for the Network over 2007 was 89%, compared with 86% for 2006. Measured annual average Black Smoke Index ranged from 4.4 µg.m-3 in Folkestone to 38.8 µg.m-3 at Marylebone Road. At those sites for which many years’ data are available, annual average Black Smoke Index values were broadly similar to previous years. The drop in concentration at Strabane 2, attributable to the replacement of domestic coal-burning with oil-burning, was observed to continue. These sites all have annual average Black Smoke Index values of 5 to 12 µg.m-3. Black smoke concentrations measured by the Network were compared with TEOM PM10, total oxides of nitrogen (expressed as nitrogen dioxide) and particle number concentrations, for those sites where these measurements were colocated. Correlation was generally best between Black Smoke Index and NOx concentration. Major changes to the Network instrumentation are planned for 2008. This replacement of the manual 8-port black smoke samplers with automatic aethalometers is discussed.