Wet conditions means 2012 Olympics could be one of the least polluted Games in history

Wet conditions over the summer means that the London Olympics could be one of the least polluted Games in history.

Hype before the Games suggested that we were about to witness one of the most polluted Olympics in history. However, scientists monitoring air pollution levels in the capital have revealed that the wet conditions could have given us one of the least polluted Games in history, turning initial estimates on their head.

Dr Grant Allen from the University of Manchester explained: "Put simply, the reason the air quality is so good is because the weather has been so bad this summer.

"The areas of low pressure have left us with very clean air, unusually clean for summer months over the UK. The pollution that is generated moves away in the evenings and goes in a variety of directions depending on wind direction."

A change in the weather system to more warm and dry conditions could reverse this trend and bring pollution levels back to norm, although whether this will have a significant impact on air quality is not yet known.

The ClearfLo project - or Clean Air for London - started back in January 2010, and a science team have been utilising air monitoring equipment to measure pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone, and heat pollution.

There is a ground-station measurement team as well as a research aircraft which takes measurements from the sky. The flying laboratory, managed by the NERC/Met Office Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurement (FAAM), is fitted with the latest equipment that can measure a range of environmental factors, such as wind speed, temperature, humidity, and air particles.

The Met Office is one of the many partners in ClearfLo, which is coordinated by NERC's National Centre for Atmospheric Science. The project also involves a whole host of universities and the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Posted by Lauren Steadman