The first-ever real-time air pollution exposure calculator has been developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with Swiss air quality technology company IQAir, and was announced on Tuesday.

The first of its kind exposure calculator builds on the work done by UNEP and IQAir on the world’s largest air quality data platform launched in 2020.

According to UNEP, more than 80% of people living in urban areas are exposed to air pollution levels that exceed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) guideline limits.

Developed with support from the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN) and the Frontier Technologies Hub, the calculator combines global governmental, crowd-sourced and satellite-derived air quality data with population data and applies artificial intelligence (AI) to calculate country population exposure to air pollution.

This information is then used to enhance air quality monitoring and improve air quality in urban spaces.

Air pollution not only affects public health, but also affects ecosystems and food production, and is linked to climate change.

“With nine in ten people on earth breathing unclean air, this real-time air pollution exposure calculator is an important step in our efforts to utilize technology to support cleaner air and, in turn, improved health and a healthier environment,” said UNEP executive director Inger Andersen.

“We must continue to increase international cooperation on air quality data and research, develop new technologies and, crucially, work to reduce air pollution,” Andersen said.

By assessing real-time exposure to poor air quality, the calculator can aid waste management efforts to significantly reduce air pollution in cities.

Sandia National Laboratories researchers combined large sets of real-world solar data and advanced machine learning to study the impacts of severe weather on U.S. solar farms, and sort out what factors affect energy generation.

Their results were published earlier this month in the scientific journal Applied Energy.

Hurricanes, blizzards, hailstorms and wildfires all pose risks to solar farms both directly in the form of costly damage and indirectly in the form of blocked sunlight and reduced electricity output.

Two Sandia researchers scoured maintenance tickets from more than 800 solar farms in 24 states and combined that information with electricity generation data and weather records to assess the effects of severe weather on the facilities.

By identifying the factors that contribute to low performance, they hope to increase the resiliency of solar farms to extreme weather.

“Trying to understand how future climate conditions could impact our national energy infrastructure, is exactly what we need to be doing if we want our renewable energy sector to be resilient under a changing climate,” said Thushara Gunda, the senior researcher on the project.

“Right now, we’re focused on extreme weather events, but eventually we’ll extend into chronic exposure events like consistent extreme heat.”

Sandia National Laboratories researchers Thushara Gunda, front, and Nicole Jackson examine solar panels at Sandia’s Photovoltaic Systems Evaluation Laboratory as summer monsoon clouds roll by.

Using machine learning and data from solar farms across the U.S., they uncovered the age of a solar farm, as well as the amount of cloud cover, have pronounced effects on farm performance during severe weather.