Two ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ chemists are among the recipients of one of NASA's highest honours for their role in a major North American air quality campaign – work that could help improve how wildfire smoke risks are understood and communicated in Canada.
Faculty of Science Professor Cora Young and Associate Professor Trevor VandenBoer were recognized through the NASA Group Achievement Award for their contributions to the Atmospheric Emissions and Reactions Observed from Megacities to Marine Areas (AEROMMA) campaign, a joint effort between NASA and the The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to study air quality and climate interactions across North America.
The award is reserved for those who have made exceptional contributions to NASA's mission and scientific endeavours.
AEROMMA combined aircraft, ground-based measurements and satellite observations to study how contemporary emissions from cities and oceans affect air quality and climate. NASA and NOAA approached York to lead the Toronto supersite, one of several measurement hubs established in major North American cities to contribute to the campaign's airborne data.
Young served as scientific lead, coordinating a team of 25 to 30 researchers; VandenBoer served as logistical lead, overseeing the physical transformation of York's rooftop laboratory – on the Petrie Science and Engineering Building – to host the research.
Also involved were York colleagues Mark Gordon, associate professor at the , and Rob McLaren, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry.
Collaborators came from across Canada and internationally, including Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and the University of York in the U.K.
York graduate and undergraduate students had the opportunity to work on the project with those visiting researchers.
"Our ability to bring together this strong team of researchers allowed us to ensure it was worthwhile for AEROMMA to include Toronto," says Young. "Otherwise, we would have missed out on this unprecedented opportunity to learn about modern air quality here."
The 2023 summer AEROMMA project unfolded during a period of intense wildfire smoke across the region, an unplanned development that offered a rare opportunity for study.
"Wildfires will exacerbate air quality issues," says VandenBoer. "Understanding the chemistry of wildfire plumes arriving in the city is going to be critical to informing the public on when and how to protect their respiratory health."
The existing Air Quality Health Index is not well-suited to wildfire conditions because the smoke differs from the other drivers of urban air pollution.
One of the first papers to emerge from the project, now in its final round of peer review, found that wildfire smoke changed chemically as it travelled, changing how health and climate impacts are understood and communicated.
York researchers have also been in dialogue with the team behind ECCC’s 2024 ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ of Winter Air Pollution in Toronto (SWAPIT). Together, the summer and winter datasets create a year-round picture of urban air quality in Canada’s largest city that could inform policy on everything from wood-burning smoke to the atmospheric impacts of road salt.
The work also validated NASA’s TEMPO satellite, a space-based instrument tracking air pollution across North America. Measurements from York’s site, alongside NASA research aircraft and ECCC sites, were essential in confirming the satellite’s early readings, helping move the tool into practical use for ongoing air-quality monitoring and research.
For York graduate students, the initiative created opportunities to build international networks. VandenBoer says students helped host collaborators by familiarizing them with York’s facilities and procedures, and in some cases were involved with operating, maintaining and responding to issues with visiting researchers’ instruments.
Those connections continued beyond the project. Graduate student Yashar Ebrahimi-Iranpour later spent two weeks collaborating at NOAA’s Chemical Sciences Laboratory, while graduate student Na-Yung Seoh went on to join an international University of York-led campaign in Cape Verde.
AEROMMA involved a range of York collaborators, including facilities staff, operations teams and University leadership.
"It's a York community undertaking," says VandenBoer. "A lot of people wanted to support us, and for no other reason than that's just the type of community that we have."
Young points to why the work is imperative today.
"There are a lot of chemicals being emitted into the environment we can't see or smell or taste," she says. "Just because we can't detect them with our own senses doesn't mean they're not a problem. We need to keep on top of it."
With files from Mzwandile Poncana