Dr. Camerliza Navasca is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at UAB.  In this presentation she will share how air pollution and climate change are intertwined. Particles in the atmosphere are constantly interacting and forming new mixtures that have potential human health impacts. These airborne agents contribute to warming of the planet as well as imparting cooling effects. Moreover, nearly half of Americans are breathing unhealthy air; specially people in low-income communities are disproportionately impacted. EPA and the American Lung Association are leading the change for environmental justice.

In this talk, Dr. Navasca will focus on mathematical tools for analyzing air pollution data. Specifically,  the dataset is a size- and time-resolved particulate matter samples collected at the Washington-Dulles International Airport (IAD). Mathematical methods of tensor decomposition, a generalization of singular value decomposition (aka PCA) will be discussed.  Five major emission sources: soil, road salt, aircraft landings, transported secondary sulfate and local sulfate/construction were identified by the algorithm. This study shows that time- and size -resolved data can assist in the identification of the airport emission sources and atmospheric processes leading to the observed ambient concentrations.

• 11:30 am-12:00 pm Light Refreshments
• 12:00-12:45 pm Presentation
• 12:45 pm Questions & Answers