Tracer and Dispersion of Gaseous Pollutants (GASPOL) was a NERC Urban Regeneration and the Environment (URGENT) Air project (GST/02/1974 - Duration: 2/9/1998 - 31/8/2001) led by Prof Peter Simmonds, University of Bristol.

The transport and dispersion of pollutants, within and from a large urban area, are important processes due to their potential environmental impact on city inhabitants and those living in nearby communities. The release of atmospheric Tracers is a powerful technique to simulate the dispersion of pollutants and to enable direct measurement of the transport path and concentrations along the trajectory. Successful Tracers a inert, non-toxic, non-depositing, with low atmospheric background concentrations, long atmospheric lifetimes, and limited commercial use. This research project developed the Tracer technology necessary to characterise atmospheric dispersion within the urban environment.

Bristol University were exploiting the many years of experience in Tracer technology coupled with recent advances in gas chromatography/mass spectrometry techniques. There were several components to developing an effective experimental Tracer technology and this project was addressing each of these in turn:

-Selection of Tracers
-Analytical instrumentation for their quantitative determination in the femtolitre/litre range
-Design and construction of automated sequential samplers
-Tracer release apparatus
-The preparation of accurate perfluorocarbon standards.