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You may know recent air pollution research and regulation has focused on PM 2.5 – the very tiny particles less than 2.5 micrometers, that can enter your bloodstream after you breathe them in. It turns out, a lot of the PM 2.5 mass in Fairbanks’s winter air is made of hydroxymethanesulfonate or HMS.
Researchers stumbled on to the new compound when sampling air in Fairbanks and North Pole in 2019 as part of the Alaska Pollution and Chemical Analysis project, or ALPACA.
Jingqiu (Jing-Chew) Mao teaches Chemistry at UAF and is a researcher at the Geophysical Institute.
“The unique thing of this project is that this really tells us there’s a chemical reaction happening in the air. That could really tell us a lot more information about what’s happening in Fairbanks’ winter, by studying this compound.”