The largest air wash experiment in history

In order to have fresh air in the last hour before the Olympics, Chinese authorities have suspended dozens of factories and banned strict driving, expelling half of 3.3 million Beijing cars from Street.

"Such a thing has never been done before," said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, an atmospheric researcher at the University of California in San Diego. "And I don't believe this will be repeated again."

Mr. Veerabhadran is a member of an international research project that tracks the results of the Chinese ecological initiative. Unmanned aircraft, satellites and ground measurement stations measure air quality during the Olympics and later. The researchers tracked the distribution of contaminants in large areas and tested the consequences of air pollution to the circulatory system.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to quickly accelerate our research," Veerabhadran said. He specializes in large brown pollution clouds that once covered large parts of Asia.

The skyscrapers in Beijing are covered with haze on July 28 . Photo: Reuters.

The weather is decisive

Staci Simonich, Oregon State University's Professor of Chemistry and Poisoning also spoke of a "tremendous experiment".

"As far as I know, no city has ever made such scale measures to improve air quality. From a scientific perspective, this is really fascinating."

Immediately to the news agencies also participated in drunken measurements. Now many journalists not only work with microphones and pen paper, but also airborne dust gauges. For example, AP has reported that they monitor dust concentrations in Beijing air since mid-July.

How successful the eco-campaign still has to wait. Since the ban on driving and closing factories took effect on July 10, air pollution has sometimes increased.

Although generally tending to decrease, but now one can see the thing is, the final decision is due to the weather. And this, the organizers are almost uncontrollable. As soon as they put the cannon in position to be ready to make rain.

. and clear on August 1.But mostly thanks to rain and wind.Photo: Reuters.

In the past 2 weeks, there are 4 days of air quality that is not up to national standards. Beijing City is buckling under the hot heat; in the gray fog, skyscrapers are only dark shadows.

Currently, authorities are considering to introduce more stringent measures. Mr. Du Shaozhong, deputy director of Beijing Environment Department, believes that in "a stable situation", air quality will be ensured. But he did not rule out the possibility of further tough handling of environmental pollution crimes and the cessation of more cars.

Scientists hope that the government's eco-campaign will succeed. Since it is likely that other countries will think about similar measures, the researcher Simonich believes: "The problem here is not only China but super cities around the world. . "