Seems like there’s one place on Earth that humans havespared from the devastating effects of air pollution and scientists claim tohave pinpointed that precious location.
According to a CNN report, Scientists from Colorado StateUniversity found t the world’s cleanest air, located over the Southern Ocean.The team of researchers has said that the atmospheric region over the ocean —which surrounds Antarctica — has not been adversely impacted by human activity.
The Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica has the air thatshows the smallest concentration of particles caused by human pollution. Thefirst of its kind study of the bioaerosol composition of the Southern Ocean wasconducted by researchers from Colorado State University.
A research ship sailed from Tasmania to within 24 miles(40 km) of the Antarctic ice edge to conduct "bacterial profiling"from air filter samples. But scientists found the air was so clean there waslittle DNA to analyse.
Professor Sonia Kreidenweis and her team from Colorado StateUniversity identified one such pocket while conducting a first-of-its-kindstudy of the bioaerosol composition of the Southern Ocean. The team found thataerosol particles — which are produced by human activity like burning fossilfuels, planting certain crops, and fertiliser production — were absent in theboundary layer.
“The aerosols controlling the properties of SO (SouthernOcean) clouds are strongly linked to ocean biological processes, and thatAntarctica appears to be isolated from southward dispersal of microorganismsand nutrient deposition from southern continents,” Thomas Hill, co-author ofthe study, said in astatement.
"We were able to use the bacteria in the air over The Southern Ocean as a diagnostic tool to infer key properties of the loweratmosphere," said co-author of the study Thomas Hill.
He said the particles they discovered were linked to marinebacteria from sea spray, with no contaminants from outside the region.
According to the university statement, the bacterialcomposition of the microbes also was differentiated into broad latitudinalzones, which suggested that aerosols from distant land masses and humanactivities, such as pollution or soil emissions driven by land use change, werenot traveling south into Antarctic air.
21 of the World’s 30 most polluted cities are in India.Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh was named the world’s most polluted city in 2019, asper the World Air Quality Report 2019.