(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-07 20:25

BEIJING -- Chinese atmospheric scientists recently conducted surveys on the process of midair pollutant transfer in the low sky above downtown Beijing. The data will help in the quest to improve the capital's air quality.

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The Chinese Academy of Sciences' (CAS) Institute of Atmospheric Physics made the surveys from its standing observatory atop Mangshan Hill, 40 kilometers north of downtown Beijing, the CAS website reported on Monday.

Wang Huijun, head of the CAS institute who was also a principal investigator, said his team were now depicting elaborate three-dimensional pictures of pollutant particle's movement tracks. This might help scientists better understand pollutant transfer and transformation in the air.

The results were expected to provide hints on how midair pollutant transfer and transformation influenced air quality, he said.

The scientists had employed many of the most sophisticated research devices, such as laser detection radars, particle spectrum analyzers, AMS aerosol analyzers and pollutant particle monitors, he said. They were currently assembling and analyzing data obtained by the devices.

The scientific results and proposed solutions would be submitted to Beijing government decision makers, Wang said.

The municipal government had taken a hard line on improving air quality in the city, a requirement for its hosting of the upcoming Olympic Games. It announced last week that Beijing saw a total of 245 days of "blue sky" in 2007, within the category of fairly good air quality, the best in the past nine years.