Parisians are known for their innovative trends world over be it in fashion& beauty, art& architecture, literature& cinema and even eco-concerns. Parisian skyline these days adores a giant tethered helium balloon which is in fact a pollution indicator! The concept is about giving a real-time report of breathable air quality and display the level of air pollution produced by auto emissions via this balloon. The brainchild behind this concept is a company Aérophile. Its AERO30NG model is no less than a tourist attraction since the time it has been installed in the Parc Andre Citroën. The balloon uses a unique lighting system which is visible from more than 12.4 miles! It can store up to 6,000 cubic meters of helium and take up to 30 passengers at a time for a pollution-free joy ride. One can have a 360° panoramic view of the beautiful city while flying at 150m in the sky!

The innovative lighting system of this biggie informs Parisians about air quality via 2 distinct indices:
A) Ambient air quality gets reflected through general illumination using three projectors located upon the envelope’s equatorial plane. The night time visibility is reportedly better.
B) The quality of air near traffic-jam prone areas and bylanes is displayed using a high-power rotating laser beam. The latter sweeps the envelope’s southern tropical plane.

The data for all this is collected by “Airparif”- organization that uses sensors to collect info. Within the city of Paris and compiles the data with the nouveau European index developed for the CITEAIR project (currently used by about thirty large cities). The displays are made in colors.
Color code:
RED- highly polluted air; ORANGE- polluted air, YELLOW- mediocre pollution, LIGHT GREEN-clean air and GREEN- very clean air (a blessing for your lungs!)

Note: collected indices also reflect the quantity of the 3 most harmful contaminants: Nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particles.

With this latest attraction now we can only imagine the popularity graph of Paris to be one of the most sought-after traveler’s destinations. The cultural hub now becomes an center of green-tourism as well.

Via GreenPacks