Regional-scale modelling for the assessment of atmospheric particulate matter concentrations at rural background locations in Europe

Gašparac, Goran, Jeričević, Amela, Kumar, Prashant and Branko, Grisogono (2019) Regional-scale modelling for the assessment of atmospheric particulate matter concentrations at rural background locations in Europe Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

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Abstract

The application of regional-scale air quality models is an important tool in air quality assessment and management. For this reason, the understanding of model abilities and performances is mandatory. The main objective of this research was to investigate the spatial and temporal variability of background particulate matter (PM) concentrations, to evaluate the regional air quality modelling performance in simulating PM concentrations during statically stable conditions and to investigate processes that contribute to regionally increased PM concentrations with a focus on Eastern and Central Europe. The temporal and spatial variability of observed particulate matter (PM) was analysed at 310 rural background stations in Europe during 2011. Two different regional air quality modelling systems (offline coupled EMEP and online coupled Weather Research and Forecast-Chem) were applied to simulate the transport of pollutants and to further investigate the processes that contributed to increased concentrations during high pollution episodes. Background PM measurements from rural background stations and wind speed, surface pressure and ambient temperature data from 920 meteorological stations across Europe, classified according to the elevation, were used for the evaluation of individual model performance. Among the sea-level stations (up to 200 m), the best modelling performance, in terms of meteorology and chemistry, was found for both models. The underestimated modelled PM concentrations in some cases indicated the importance of accurate assessment of regional air pollution transport under statically stable atmospheric conditions and the necessity of further model improvements.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions :	Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences > Civil and Environmental Engineering
Authors :	Name Email ORCID Gašparac, Goran Jeričević, Amela Kumar, Prashant P.Kumar@surrey.ac.uk Branko, Grisogono
Date :	15 October 2019
DOI :	10.5194/acp-2019-389
Copyright Disclaimer :	© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Depositing User :	Clive Harris
Date Deposited :	07 Nov 2019 09:12
Last Modified :	07 Nov 2019 09:12
URI:	http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/id/eprint/853064

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