Interactions of Physical, Chemical, and Biological Weather Calling for an Integrated Approach to Assessment, Forecasting, and Communication of Air Quality

Abstract

This article reviews interactions and health impacts of physical, chemical, and biological weather. Interactions and synergistic effects between the three types of weather call for integrated assessment, forecasting, and communication of air quality. Today's air quality legislation falls short of addressing air quality degradation by biological weather, despite increasing evidence for the feasibility of both mitigation and adaptation policy options. In comparison with the existing capabilities for physical and chemical weather, the monitoring of biological weather is lacking stable operational agreements and resources. Furthermore, integrated effects of physical, chemical, and biological weather suggest a critical review of air quality management practices. Additional research is required to improve the coupled modeling of physical, chemical, and biological weather as well as the assessment and communication of integrated air quality. Findings from several recent COST Actions underline the importance of an increased dialog between scientists from the fields of meteorology, air quality, aerobiology, health, and policy makers.

Grass pollen allergy in children and adolescents‐symptoms, health related quality of life and the value of pollen prognosis

“…According to EU directives, this information should not only comprise anthropogenic, but also natural sources of such aerosols [31], [32]. Information about registered and forecasted amounts of allergenic and airborne pollen helps the allergy sufferer to identify his or her disease and relate it to ambient concentration levels.…”

Enviro-HIRLAM online integrated meteorology–chemistry modelling system: strategy, methodology, developments and applications (v7.2)

“…The two-stream approximation equations for anisotropic non-conservative scattering described by Thomas and Stamnes (2002) are used for these calculations. The Global Aerosol Data Set/Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds (GADS/OPAC) aerosols of Köpke et al (1997) are used as input to the routine. The species include BC (soot), minerals (nucleus, accumulation, coarse and transported modes), sulfuric acid, sea salt (accumulation and coarse modes), "water soluble" and "water insoluble" aerosols.…”

“…The species include BC (soot), minerals (nucleus, accumulation, coarse and transported modes), sulfuric acid, sea salt (accumulation and coarse modes), "water soluble" and "water insoluble" aerosols. In addition to the more standard nucleation, accumulation and coarse aerosol size modes, we consider, according to Köpke et al (1997), the transported size mode to describe aerosols that have been transported over a long distance, for instance, Saharan aerosols that have been blown to the Atlantic Ocean. In order to make the calculations fast, optical properties that are spectrally averaged over the entire SW and LW spectra are used.…”

“…A more detailed overview of the history and current experience in the online integrated meteorology-chemistry modelling, the importance of different chains of feedback mechanisms for meteorological and atmospheric composition processes are discussed for US (Zhang, 2008) and European ) models. Klein et al (2012) extended applications of coupled models for "biological weather", defined as "the short-term state and variation of concentrations of bioaerosols", in particular for pollen modelling and forecasting.…”

Prescribed burning of logging slash in the boreal forest of Finland: emissions and effects on meteorological quantities and soil properties

“…In the Northern Hemisphere, smoke from wildfires can be transported over long distances from the boreal forest areas in Eurasia and North America to the Arctic (e.g., Radke et al, 1991;Goldammer et al, 1996;Lavoué et al, 2000;Randerson et al, 2006;Stohl, 2006;Law and Stohl, 2007;Shindell et al, 2008;Paris et al, 2009;Hirdman et al, 2010;Lamarque et al, 2010;AMAP, 2011AMAP, , 2011. Smoke originating from wildfires and agricultural fires in eastern Europe can affect extensive regions in western and central Europe and the Arctic (Law and Stohl, 2007;Saarnio et al, 2010;Klein et al, 2012). Fires directly emit long-lived greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O)) and short-lived greenhouse gases (e.g., methane (CH 4 )), countless volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NO x ) that are precursors of ozone (O 3 ), a short-lived greenhouse gas (e.g., Andreae and Merlet, 2001;Akagi et al, 2011;Simpson et al, 2011;Jaffe and Widger, 2012;Yokelson et al, 2013).…”