Observatories

The sites the laboratory runs, with heavy-lifting instruments and lab equipments.

Two stations: a clean baseline, and the city compared against it.

  1. UpwindBay of BengalClean sea air comes in.
  2. Station 1 · Rural backgroundBholaMeasured before it reaches the city.
  3. Station 2 · Urban backgroundDhakaThe city’s air, from a rooftop.
The Bangladesh Climate Observatory at Bhola: a white monitoring station and sampling tower standing in a paddy field under a blue sky

Station 1 · Rural background

Bangladesh Climate Observatory, Bhola

A rural background station on Bhola island, in the Meghna estuary south of Dhaka. Air coming in from the Bay of Bengal is sampled here before it passes over the city, so Dhaka’s readings have a clean baseline to be compared with.

The Bangladesh Climate Observatory at Bhola: the station and its sampling tower in a paddy field
A SIBATA HV-RW high-volume air sampler on the Bhola observatory platform
The PM inlet of a DIGITEL high-volume sampler at Bhola
The sun photometer at Bhola tracking the sun above the paddy fields

At Bhola: the station in the paddy, a SIBATA HV-RW high-volume sampler, the inlet of a DIGITEL high-volume sampler, and the sun photometer. Each is on the instruments page.

Mukarram Hossain Bhaban, the laboratory's building at the University of Dhaka, seen from the ground

Station 2 · Urban background

AECRL, Mukarram Hossain Bhaban, Dhaka

A rooftop site in Dhaka with filter samplers and real-time instruments. Up on the roof, the inlets are away from street-level exhaust, so the readings reflect the city as a whole rather than one busy road.

Researchers gathered around the Cimel CE318 sun-sky-lunar photometer on the rooftop, with the Dhaka skyline behind
The Dhaka rooftop monitoring site: a mast of sensors and samplers above the city
The SPARTAN AirPhoton filter sampler in its yellow case on the Dhaka rooftop, a laptop connected
The SPARTAN sampler's display, running a sampling script on cartridge 49
An AS-LUNG outdoor PM2.5 sensor with its solar panel on the Dhaka rooftop

On the Dhaka roof: the Cimel CE318 sun-sky-lunar photometer, the laboratory’s own AERONET instrument; the monitoring mast; the SPARTAN filter sampler and its display; and an AS-LUNG outdoor sensor from the Hi-ASAP collaboration with Academia Sinica, Taiwan.

Networks the laboratory contributes to

The laboratory runs an AERONET sun photometer and a Pandora spectrometer, both part of global networks coordinated by NASA. They measure aerosols and trace gases through the whole column of air overhead, the same quantities satellites are checked against.

We also collect filter samples for SPARTAN, a global particulate matter network, which gives it a site in Bangladesh.

Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET)

Aerosol optical depth, measured from the ground by a sun photometer: the number satellite retrievals are checked against.

With NASA, USA · National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA

201320302013 to 2030

InstrumentAERONET Sunphotometer

Pandonia Global Network

Nitrogen dioxide, ozone and other trace gases through the whole column of air above the station.

With NASA, USA · National Aeronautics and Space Administration, USA

202320302023 to 2030

InstrumentPandora spectrometer

Surface Particulate Matter Network (SPARTAN)

PM2.5 collected on filters and weighed, beside a nephelometer, to evaluate satellite estimates of ground-level particulate matter.

With Clean Air Fund, NSF fund · Dalhousie University, Canada; Washington University, USA

201320332013 to 2033

InstrumentAirPhoton

Health Investigation and Air Sensing for Asian Pollution (Hi-ASAP)

PM2.5 in homes, streets and outdoors across Asia with research-grade low-cost sensors, and what that exposure does to health.

With Academia Sinica, Taiwan · Center for Sustainability Science, Academia Sinica

201920342019 to 2034

InstrumentAS-LUNG outdoor sensors

Sponsors and dates for each network are on the collaborations page.