Analysis of two heat wave driven ozone episodes in Barcelona and surrounding region: Meteorological and photochemical modeling

Jaén, Clara; Udina, Mireia; Bech, Joan

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.118037

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Gaseous O 3 concentrations were not considered as an important health risk to the population in the studied air quality stations, although it has been indicated as a risk factor in the areas of Manlleu and Cerdanya in previous studies [19,38]. O 3 can reach high concentrations during a few hours, especially in summer, however, its levels drop rapidly due to its reactivity, which in turn can imply the formation of SOA and enhance PM concentrations.…”

Section: Health Impact Of Air Pollution In Cataloniamentioning

confidence: 82%

“…The meteorological model fields that were used to compute the trajectories were simulated with the fully compressible non-hydrostatic Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-ARW) version 3.5 [37] coupled in the ARAMIS air quality modeling system [21] with a resolution of 3 km × 3 km. Vertical coordinates, grid type, configuration domains, boundary conditions, and model physics configuration are described in more detail elsewhere [21,38]. The WRF-ARW model also provides data of the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH), which helps to characterize the air pollution dispersion conditions.…”

Section: Air Mass Back-trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Source Apportionment and Toxicity of PM in Urban, Sub-Urban, and Rural Air Quality Network Stations in Catalonia

et al. 2021

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Air quality indicators, i.e., PM10, NO2, O3, benzo[a]pyrene, and several organic tracer compounds were evaluated in an urban traffic station, a sub-urban background station, and a rural background station of the air quality network in Catalonia (Spain) from summer to winter 2019. The main sources that contribute to the organic aerosol and PM toxicity were determined. Traffic-related air pollution dominated the air quality in the urban traffic station, while biomass burning in winter and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) in summer impact the air quality in the sub-urban and rural background stations. Health risk assessment for chronic exposure over the past decade, using WHO air quality standards, showed that NO2, PM10 and benzo[a]pyrene from traffic emissions pose an unacceptable risk to the human population in the urban traffic station. PM10 and benzo[a]pyrene from biomass burning were unacceptably high in the sub-urban and rural background stations. Toxicity tests of the PM extracts with epithelial lung cells showed higher toxicity in wintertime samples in the sub-urban and rural stations, compared to the urban traffic station. These results require different mitigation strategies for urban and rural sites in order to improve the air quality. In urban areas, traffic emissions are still dominating the air quality, despite improvements in the last years, and may directly be responsible for part of the SOA and O3 levels in sub-urban and rural areas. In these later areas, air pollution from local biomass burning emissions are dominating the air quality, essentially in the colder period of the year.

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Section: Health Impact Of Air Pollution In Cataloniamentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Air Mass Back-trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Source Apportionment and Toxicity of PM in Urban, Sub-Urban, and Rural Air Quality Network Stations in Catalonia

et al. 2021

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“…In the region of study there are two areas where the legal thresholds of pollutants are usually exceeded: i) the Barcelona urban area and its surroundings ( and PM10), and ii) the Vic plane and its surroundings, where peaks occur during summer when the sea breeze transports ozone precursors from urban regions inland to the rural plane (Jaén et al. 2021 ). Therefore, the XVPCA measurement stations used to analyze the air quality in this study included two urban stations in Barcelona: a traffic station (Eixample) and a background station (Palau Reial), hereafter called traffic and background respectively, and a suburban inland station in Vic (hereafter called suburban) —see Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollutant Concentration Changes During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Barcelona and Surrounding Regions: Modification of Diurnal Cycles and Limited Role of Meteorological Conditions

García-Dalmau

Udina

Bech

et al. 2021

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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One of the consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns has been the modification of the air quality in many cities around the world. This study focuses on the variations in pollutant concentrations and how important meteorological conditions were for those variations in Barcelona and the surrounding area during the 2020 lockdown. Boundary-layer height, wind speed, and precipitation were compared between mid-March and April 2016–2019 (pre-lockdown) and the same period in 2020 (during lockdown). The results show the limited influence of meteorological factors on horizontal and vertical dispersion conditions. Compared with the pre-lockdown period, during lockdown the boundary-layer height slightly increased by between 5% and 9%, mean wind speed was very similar, and the fraction of days with rainfall increased only marginally, from 0.33 to 0.34, even though April 2020 was extremely wet in the study area. Variations in nitrogen dioxide ($$\hbox {NO}_{{2}}$$ NO 2 ), particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 $${\mu }$$ μ m (PM10), and ozone ($$\hbox {O}_{{3}}$$ O 3 ) concentrations over a 10-year period showed a 66% reduction in $$\hbox {NO}_{{2}}$$ NO 2 , 37% reduction in PM10, and 27% increase in $$\hbox {O}_{{3}}$$ O 3 at a traffic station in Barcelona. The differences in the daily concentration cycle between weekends and weekdays were heavily smoothed for all pollutants considered. The afternoon $$\hbox {NO}_{{2}}$$ NO 2 peak at the traffic station was suppressed compared with the average daily cycle. The analysis of ozone was extended to the regional scale, revealing lower concentrations at rural sites and higher ones in urban zones, especially in Barcelona and the surrounding area. The results presented not only complement previous air quality COVID-19 lockdown studies but also provide insights into the effects of road-traffic reduction.

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“…For example, Vautard et al (2005) show that the persistent heatwave of August 2003 led to high O 3 concentration over the Western Europe for several days (daily maximum above 150µg/m 3 , spatially averaged). Jaén et al (2021) report hourly values of O 3 exceeding 250µg/m 3 during a shorter heatwave (28-29 June 2019) at local scale (Barcelona). These values are well above the European Union (EU) recommendation of a 8h-average maximum of 120µg/m 3 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High temperatures favour emissions of biogenic V OCs (BV OCs), which can induce an increased formation of O 3 in the case of a N O x -limited regime as many areas in the Mediterranean basin (Richards et al, 2013). Persistent and intense solar radiation also allows long photochemical episodes (Jaén et al, 2021). Heatwaves in the Mediterranean being often related to a blocking situation of atmospheric systems, stagnant anticyclonic conditions lead to the accumulation of both precursors and O 3 (Otero et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions between the terrestrial biosphere and atmosphere during droughts and heatwaves: impact on surface ozone over Southwestern Europe

Guion

Turquety²,

Cholakian³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. At high concentration, tropospheric O3 deteriorates air quality, inducing adverse effects on human and ecosystem health. Meteorological conditions are key to understand the variability of O3 concentration, especially during extreme weather events. They modify the photochemistry activity and the vegetation state. An important source of uncertainties and inaccuracy in simulating surface O3 during droughts and heatwaves is the lack of interactions between the biosphere and the troposphere. Based on the biogenic emission model MEGAN v2.1 and the chemistry-transport model CHIMERE v2020r1, the first objective of this study is to assess the sensitivity of biogenic emissions, O3 dry deposition and surface O3 to biomass decrease and soil dryness effect (using several configurations) during the extremely dry summer 2012. Secondly, this research aims at quantifying the variation of observed (EEA’s air quality database, 2000–2016) and simulated (CHIMERE, 2012–2014) surface O3 during summer heatwaves and agricultural droughts that have been identified using the Percentile Limit Anomalies (PLA) method. Our sensitivity analysis shows that soil dryness is a key factor during drought events, decreasing considerably the C5H8 emissions and O3 dry deposition velocity. This effect has a larger impact than the biomass decrease. However, the resulting effect on surface O3 remains limited. Based on a cluster approach using the PLA indicator, we show that observed O3 concentration is on average significantly higher during heatwaves (+18 μg/m3 in daily maximum) and droughts (+9 μg/m3) compared to normal conditions. Despite a difference of several μg/m3, CHIMERE correctly simulates the variations of O3 concentration between the clusters of extreme events. The overall increase of surface O3 during both heatwaves and droughts would be explained by O3 precursor emission enhancement (in agreement with HCHO satellite observations), O3 dry deposition decrease and favourable weather conditions. However, we simulated a decrease of C5H8 emissions (in agreement with HCHO observations) during droughts not accompanied by a heatwave, resulting in a non-significant difference of surface O3 compared to normal conditions (from both observations and simulations). Finally, we stress that considerable uncertainties characterize our simulated surface-troposphere interactions. Multi-year flux measurements would contribute to better assess the model performance. Nevertheless, we emphasize the need for a more dynamical representation of interactions between vegetation, hydrology, meteorology and atmospheric chemistry in models in order to improve the simulation of summer O3.

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Analysis of two heat wave driven ozone episodes in Barcelona and surrounding region: Meteorological and photochemical modeling

Cited by 15 publications

References 62 publications

Source Apportionment and Toxicity of PM in Urban, Sub-Urban, and Rural Air Quality Network Stations in Catalonia

Source Apportionment and Toxicity of PM in Urban, Sub-Urban, and Rural Air Quality Network Stations in Catalonia

Pollutant Concentration Changes During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Barcelona and Surrounding Regions: Modification of Diurnal Cycles and Limited Role of Meteorological Conditions

Interactions between the terrestrial biosphere and atmosphere during droughts and heatwaves: impact on surface ozone over Southwestern Europe

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