Publications related to Gaiasens Technologies

Good enough: Intermediate complexity atmospheric models improve the representation of processes affecting seasonal snow

Snow plays a crucial role in processes regulating ecosystems, the climate, and human development. Mountain snowpack in particular has great relevance for downstream communities. Knowledge about the distribution and properties of the snowpack thus help in p ...

EPFL2024

The microbial genomics of glacier-fed streams: adaptations to an extreme ecosystem

Massimo Bourquin

Glacier-fed streams are the cold, ultra-oligotrophic, and unstable streams that are fed by glacial meltwater. Despite these extreme conditions, they harbour a diverse and abundant microbial diversity that develops into biofilms, covering the boulders and s ...

EPFL2024

Human personal air pollution clouds in a naturally ventilated office during the COVID-19 pandemic

Dusan Licina, Shen Yang, Maria Viviana Gonzalez Serrano, Akila Muthalagu

Personal cloud, termed as the difference in air pollutant concentrations between breathing zone and room sites, represents the bias in approximating personal inhalation exposure that is linked to accuracy of health risk assessment. This study performed a t ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2023

Adequacy of stationary measurements as proxies for residential personal exposure to gaseous and particle air pollutants

Dusan Licina, Maria Viviana Gonzalez Serrano

People are exposed to myriad of airborne pollutants in their homes. Owing to diverse potential sources of air pollution and human activity patterns, accurate assessment of residential exposures is complex. In this study, we explored the relationship betwee ...

ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE2023

Assessment of personal exposure to particle and gaseous air pollutants in residences and offices

Maria Viviana Gonzalez Serrano

Poor indoor air quality has been associated with health issues and decreased work performance. Personal exposure that takes place both in outdoor and indoor environments is the result of dy-namic processes and complex interactions between people and surrou ...

EPFL2023

The biofilm ecology of proglacial floodplain streams

Jade Brandani

Glacial forelands figure among the most dynamic landscapes on Earth, and their formation is currently accelerating given glacier shrinkage. Draining these forelands are streams hosting unique microbial communities, which have the capacity to impact both th ...

EPFL2023

Rapid transformation of wildfire emissions to harmful background aerosol

Athanasios Nenes, Spyros Pandis

Wildfires are a significant source of organic aerosol during summer, with major impacts on air quality and climate. However, studies in Europe suggest a surprisingly low (less than 10%) contribution of biomass burning organic aerosol to average summertime ...

Nature Portfolio2023

Importance of 3D radiative transfer effects on high-resolution NO2 remote sensing in cities

Marc Damien Schwärzel

Urban air quality is a major concern in the context of human health since cities are at the same time emission hot spots and home to a large fraction of the world's population. Airborne imaging spectrometers may be a valuable addition to traditional air po ...

EPFL2022

Influence of Ambient Air Pollution on Natural Ventilation Potential in Europe

Dusan Licina, Evangelos Belias

When designed and operated adequately, natural ventilation (NV) can improve the buildings' energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality. There is a plethora of factors that limit the effectiveness of NV, such as the climate, surrounding buildings, no ...

AMER SOC HEATING, REFRIGERATING AND AIR-CONDITIONING ENGS2022

The Biogeochemical Legacy of Arctic Subglacial Sediments Exposed by Glacier Retreat

Tyler Joe Kohler

During past periods of advance, Arctic glaciers and ice sheets overrode soil, sediments, and vegetation and buried significant stores of organic matter (OM); these glaciers are now shrinking rapidly due to climate warming. Little is known about the biogeoc ...

2022

In situ observations of the Swiss periglacial environment using GNSS instruments

Alessandro Cicoira, Matthias Meyer, Hugo Raetzo

Monitoring of the periglacial environment is relevant for many disciplines including glaciology, natural hazard management, geomorphology, and geodesy. Since October 2022, Rock Glacier Velocity (RGV) is a new Essential Climate Variable (ECV) product within ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2022

Nighttime chemistry of biomass burning emissions in urban areas: A dual mobile chamber study

Athanasios Nenes, Spyros Pandis

Residential biomass burning for heating purposes is an important source of air pollutants during winter. Here we test the hypothesis that significant secondary organic aerosol production can take place even during winter nights through oxidation of the emi ...

Copernicus GmbH2021

Investigation of perceived air quality, occupants’ behaviour and air pollutant levels in two open-space office buildings in Switzerland

Dusan Licina, Dolaana Khovalyg, Caroline Karmann, Verena Marie Barthelmes, Maria Viviana Gonzalez Serrano

indoor air quality, perceived air quality, occupant behavior, office environment ...

2020

Glacier retreat changes diurnal variation intensity and frequency of hydrologic variables in Alpine and Andean streams

Tom Ian Battin, Asa Lovisa Viktoria Horgby, Marta Boix Canadell, Nicolas Thomas Georges Escoffier

The impacts of glacier mass and area loss are assumed to affect stream hydrology and related ecosystems. We applied wavelet analysis to high frequency time series of discharge, conductivity, turbidity, air and water temperature in mountain streams influenc ...

2020

Carbon fluxes and productivity regimes in Alpine streams

Marta Boix Canadell

High-altitude catchments have a major role in the transport of organic matter to streams due to the storage of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in soils and glacier ice and the subsequent mobilization during the melting processes. Yet, stream function goes b ...

EPFL2020

Critical review of standards for indoor thermal environment and air quality

Dolaana Khovalyg

Quality of the indoor environment has become an important parameter to account for in new and existing buildings due to the increasing number of people spending most of their time indoors. Generally, the design and evaluation of indoor environments in buil ...

2020

Multi-objective optimization in waste plastics - recycling vs thermo-valorization

François Maréchal, Ivan Daniel Kantor, Rafael Amorim Leandro De Castro Amoedo

In the past few years, waste management has received increasing attention not only from industry but also from academics. With an increase in plastic content, motivated by China’s ban on its import, waste composition is expected to change in the near futur ...

Osaka, Japan, ECOS 2020 Local Organizing Committee2020

Evidence of traffic-generated air pollution in Havana

François Golay, Alain Clappier, Jessie Madrazo Bacallao

In Havana, transport is blamed as a likely source of pollution issues. which is usually supported on arguments referring to a vehicle fleet mainly made of old cars (i.e., most models are American from the 1950s or Russian from the 1980s) with poor technica ...

2019

Effects of Atmospheric Processing on the Oxidative Potential of Biomass Burning Organic Aerosols

Athanasios Nenes, Kalliopi Violaki

Oxidative potential (OP), which is the ability of certain components in atmospheric particles to generate reactive oxidative species (ROS) and deplete antioxidants in vivo, is a prevailing toxicological mechanism underlying the adverse health effects assoc ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2019

Microphysics of Snowfall Over Coastal East Antarctica Simulated by Polar WRF and Observed by Radar

Alexis Berne, Josué Etienne Gehring, Nikola Besic, Etienne Gabriel Henri Vignon, Nicolas Jean François Jullien

The current assessment of the Antarctic surface mass balance mostly relies on reanalysis products or climate model simulations. However, little is known about the ability of models to reliably represent the microphysical processes governing the precipitati ...

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION2019