A numerical study of the effect of sea breeze circulation on photochemical pollution over a highly industrialized peninsula

Abstract

Numerical simulations compared with measurements are used to investigate the effect of sea breeze circulation on the ozone accumulation over a highly industrialized peninsula in southern Italy, where high levels of ozone concentration are often registered. A frequent meteorological phenomenon in this region during weak summer synoptic conditions is the development of complex sea breeze systems from the coastlines, with convergence areas within the peninsula. A case study characterized by strong winds alternating with sea breeze circulations was selected. The simulations show that during weak synoptic conditions, sea breezes transport ozone and its precursors over land from the sea, as well as from the coastlines where the largest industrialized districts are localized. The overlapping breezes lead to ozone accumulation in the area where sea breeze convergence occurs. This may explain the high values of ozone registered close to the sea breeze convergence lines. The comparison between predictions and experimental data indicates that the numerical system successfully reproduces both weather and ground level ozone concentration in different meteorological conditions, resulting in a fundamental tool for both scientific comprehension of the evolution of air contaminants and interpretation of the monitoring data.

Characteristics of colliding sea breeze gravity current fronts: a laboratory study

“…Byers and Rodebush, 1948; Forbes and Merritt, 1984; Blanchard and López, 1985; Noonan and Smith, 1986; Nicholls et al , 1991; Sumner et al , 1993; Fankhauser et al , 1995; Carbone et al , 2000; Crook 2001; Golding, 2005; Wapler and Lane, 2012; Warren, 2014; Rizza et al , 2015). Sea breeze convergence may also lead to enhanced air pollution (Mangia et al , 2010). The timing and location of the collision and its heaviest impacts depend on many factors including the curvature of coastlines, topographic features, soil moisture levels and the presence of land breezes prior to sea breeze development (Baker et al , 2001).…”

A Lagrangian modelling approach to assess the representativeness area of an industrial air quality monitoring station

“…For a detailed description of emission input in the model, see Section 2.2.2. Moreover, the monitoring site is placed fairly close to the coastline and so it experiences complex transport and dispersion phenomena due to land-sea interface (Mangia et al, 2010).…”

Mapping air quality zones for coastal urban centers

“…Air dispersion patterns were modeled using CALPUFF 5.8.4 and CALMET 5.8.4 (EPA, 2014) set to 1 km  1 km receptor grids in a 20 km  20 km area at ground level for a total of 400 points per run. CALMET can accommodate the complex wind fields associated with coastal environments and has been used for modeling land-sea breezes for other similar flat terrain (Mangia et al, 2010). Lakes Environmental generated the mesoscale numerical weather prediction (NWP) model (MM5) data to compute wind fields for three individual years (2009 to 2011).…”