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Dataset

 

Images of airborne particles including microplastics captured using Burkard spore traps at Hull, UK and Gqeberha, South Africa (March, July, and August 2023)

Update Frequency: Not Planned
Latest Data Update: 2026-05-13
Status: Pending
Online Status: ONLINE
Publication State: Published
Publication Date: 2026-08-10
Download Stats: last 12 months
Dataset Size: 1.54K Files | 48MB

Abstract

This dataset contains images of airborne particles captured by Burkard spore traps, a method commonly used for global pollen monitoring. The images can be used for the identification, characterisation, and quantification of outdoor airborne particles, including microplastics.

Burkard spore traps continuously sampled air for seven days at the following times and locations:
- The University of Hull, UK (53° 46’ 16.87” N; 0° 22’ 2.64” W) starting at 10:00 on 10/03/2023
- The University of Hull, UK (53° 46’ 16.87” N; 0° 22’ 2.64” W) starting at 11:00 on 18/07/2023
- Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa (34° 0'4.66"S; 25°40'2.40"E) starting at 13:00 on 03/08/2023

Traps were on flat roofs with the sampling orifice at least 1 m above the surface and at least 2 m away from the building edge. Tape adhesive was glycine jelly and an oxidative digest using 30% hydrogen peroxide was performed to remove organic mater.

This dataset consists of screenshot images of airborne particles during downstream analysis with Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, used to identify materials, in OMNIC Picta software. Low-resolution screenshots are provided because the original images are no longer available.

Files are named using the convention Burkard_City_Country_Month_DataCollectionDay_ParticleNumber.jpg, e.g.:
- Burkard_Gqeberha_SA_August_1B_3.jpg
- Burkard_Hull_UK_March_C4_48.jpg

This dataset was produced under Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) project 'Development of the first global standard for airborne microplastic monitoring' (grant reference: NE/X010201/1).

Citable as:  Chapman, E.; Williams, B.; Rotchell, J. (2026): Images of airborne particles including microplastics captured using Burkard spore traps at Hull, UK and Gqeberha, South Africa (March, July, and August 2023). NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis, date of citation. https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/b11a935c076243c1bf5c0c590e62af66

Abbreviation: Not defined
Keywords: Airborne, Particles, Microplastics, Pollution, Pollen, Monitoring, Public Health, Air Quality

Details

Previous Info:
No news update for this record
Previously used record identifiers:
No related previous identifiers.
Access rules:
Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.
Use of these data is covered by the following licence(s):
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.
Data lineage:

Data were produced by the project team and supplied for archiving at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA).

Data Quality:
This dataset does not contain the original image data. The original images are no longer available, so low-resolution JPEG screenshots from the OMNIC Picta software have been provided in their place.
File Format:
JPEG

Process overview

This dataset was generated by instruments deployed on platforms as listed below.
Output Description

None

No variables found.

Coverage
Temporal Range
Start time:
2023-03-10T10:00:00
End time:
2023-08-10T13:00:00
Geographic Extent

 
53.7714°
 
-0.3674°
 
25.6673°
 
-34.0013°
 
Related parties
Funders (1)
Principal Investigators (1)