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| Titel |
Evaluation of simulated air quality levels over Europe in 2008 and main drivers of uncertainty |
| VerfasserIn |
Ulas Im, Kostas Markakis, Nikos Daskalakis, Evangelos Gerasopoulos, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Jens Hjorth, Nikos Mihalopoulos, Tayfun Kindap, Alper Unal, Andreas Richter, John Burrows, Ulrike Doering, John van Aardenne, Maria Kanakidou |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2013
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 15 (2013) |
| Datensatznummer |
250073947
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Major gaseous and particulate pollutant levels over Europe in 2008 have been simulated using
WRF-CMAQ modeling system in frame of the FP7 CityZen and Eclipse projects. INERIS
anthropogenic emissions have been used for Europe while biogenic, dust and biomass
burning emissions have been calculated using the MEGAN, GOCART and FINN models,
respectively. The model results are compared with observations from EMEP for the surface
levels of the major pollutants. Additional comparisons have been conducted with ozone (O3)
soundings, ship-borne O3 observations in the Western Mediterranean, tropospheric NO2
vertical column densities (VCD) from SCIAMACHY and aerosol optical depths (AOD) from
the AERONET.
O3 levels are slightly overestimated by 1% on a domain-mean basis with underestimations
over western and north-western Europe (up to 30%) attributed to overestimated NOx
emissions. Simulated tropospheric NO2 VCDs are overestimated by 40%, particularly
over Western Europe. Overestimated O3 levels are simulated over southern Europe
(up to 75%) with overestimations by 26% over the Western Mediterranean Sea.
Overestimations of O3 levels over the southern Europe can be attributed to underestimated
anthropogenic NOx as well as biogenic NMVOC emissions, and to uncertainties in the
meteorological simulations. Vertical O3 levels are generally underestimated in the
PBL by 10-20% that can be attributed to overestimations in the tropospheric NO2
VCDs. Bulk PM10 and PM2.5 levels are underestimated by up to 60%, particularly in
southern and Eastern Europe, suggesting underestimated particulate emissions. Larger
differences are calculated for individual aerosol components, particularly for OC and
EC. On the other hand, better agreements have been obtained in terms of aerosol
species over the urban areas of the East Mediterranean, particularly in nss-SO42-,
attributed to more detailed and finer resolution emission inventories. Simulated
AOD levels underestimate the AERONET observations by 10% on average, with
underestimations over 40Ë N by 3% on average, attributed to the underestimated
anthropogenic emissions and underestimated below 40Ë N by 22% on average, suggesting
underestimated natural dust emissions. Overall, results show differences in the
model performance between northern and southern Europe, suggesting significant
differences in the emission inventories in representing both anthropogenic and natural
emissions. Additional uncertainties may come from the grid resolution (30 km) and its
representativeness of the EMEP stations, which are characterized as remote stations. |
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