Fight against global warming goes miniature!

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TORONTO: A small space-borne pollution monitor launched by a Canadian
university in April has started beaming back data to
earth.

A complete analysis of the data from this wonder device will take
months.

Built by York University here and launched by the University of
Toronto's CanX-2 micro-satellite, the Argus microspectrometer is so
precise that it can detect sources of industrial pollution to a
resolution of one kilometre on earth.

Weighing just 230 grammes and small enough to fit into the palm of an
adult, the device transmits data via infrared radiation emitted to
space.

In a release, York University said Argus will enable scientists to
determine local levels of carbon dioxide and other climate change
gases by recording infrared spectra, which contain information about
atmospheric composition.

"We're very excited about this. It's a Canadian first," said York
University professor and principal investigator Brendan Quine.

"In order to get it onto the micro-satellite, we had to miniaturize
everything," he said.

He said his accomplished this by reducing a spectrometer - which
normally the size of a laser printer - to the size of a box of
paperclips.

Quine said they seeking arrangement with other partners large-scale
deployment of this small device to fight global warming.

``We need to fly a network of about one hundred Argus instruments in
order to quantify pollution accurately and build detailed pollution
maps.

``A global pollution-monitoring system is critical in order to
quantify progress towards emission-reduction targets.''