Belgium 2

Veronique Noens (18)

City/Region: Temse, Oost-Vlaanderen E-mail: Veronique.Noens@rug.ac.be Hobbies: Sports (squash) Career: Dentist School: University of Ghent (RUG)

Evy Volckerick (19)

City/Region: Kruibeke, Oost-Vlaanderen Hobbies: The theatre and sports Career: Pharmaceutical chemist School: Rijksuniversitair Centrum Antwerpen

Looking Through Thin Air

Having read an article in Scientific American, Evy and Veronique, were inspired to build their own Visible Haze Sensor (photometer). Photometers are devices that measure the strength of electromagnetic radiation in the range from ultraviolet to infrared (including the whole visible light spectrum). Instead of using an expensive broad-spectrum photo detector coupled with a narrow band filter, they used a light-emitting diode (LED). The two girls measured the intensity of the sunlight on clear days in the atmosphere, and the intensity of the sunlight on the surface of the earth. Their measurements were spread right across the four seasons. They found a relationship between air pollution caused by heavy industry, forest fires etc. and a decrease in the intensity of the sunlight on the surface of the earth. And concluded that even if we see a blue sky today there is a marked substantial decrease in the intensity of sunlight.

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