gather data and track outcomes on the switch to clean-cooking technologies in northern india

The majority of the rural poor in developing nations still burn biomass such as wood, charcoal, and dung, to cook their food, often in enclosed areas. The emission of CO2, smoke, and particulate matter (of which soot is a major component) created by these fires not only accelerates the greenhouse effect, but is also a significant public health problem for women and children in particular due to their greater exposure.  The problem is global, but especially severe in India, where exposure to polluted indoor air led to more than 1 million premature deaths in the year 2000.
Project Surya will replace traditional fire cooking with clean-cooking technologies in the Mukteshwar region of Northern India. Climate scientists will evaluate Project Surya’s impacts on global warming and local climate using data collected from four climate observatories installed at the boundaries of the region, a mobile instrumented van that will sample indoor pollution in about 20 homes each day, and NASA satellites,. Epidemiologists will evaluate Project Surya’s impacts on health using activity profiles and indoor air pollution data collected with mobile phones carried by villagers to. Mobile phones instrumented with GPS, cameras and accelerometers will provide data in unprecedented detail, greatly augmenting traditional survey-based data collection methods.