Carlos Ordóñez

Strong influence of lowermost stratospheric ozone on lower tropospheric background ozone changes over Europe

[1]xa0Using ozone measurements from two sounding sites and two high-altitude stations in Central Europe, we show evidence for a dominant influence of changes in lowermost stratospheric ozone on the variability and overall upward trend of background ozone in the lower troposphere (3000–3500 m asl) during the 1992–2004 period. Numerical simulations with a stratospheric chemistry transport model suggest that changes in lower stratospheric ozone were driven by dynamics rather than by changes in stratospheric chlorine loading. In addition, Lagrangian model simulations indicate that changes in downward transport of ozone from the stratosphere into the troposphere were dominated by changes in lowermost stratospheric ozone concentrations rather than by variations of cross-tropopause air mass transport. This suggests that the positive ozone trends and concentration anomalies in the lower free troposphere over Europe during the 1990s were likely to a large extent due to enhanced stratospheric ozone contributions, particularly in winter–spring.

Comparison of 7 years of satellite-borne and ground-based tropospheric NO2 measurements around Milan, Italy

[1]xa0Tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities (VCDs) over the Lombardy region were retrieved from measurements of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) spectrometer for the period 1996–2002 using a differential optical absorption method. This data set was compared with in situ measurements of NO2 at around 100 ground stations in the Lombardy region, northern Italy. The tropospheric NO2 VCDs are reasonably well correlated with the near-surface measurements under cloud-free conditions. However, the slope of the tropospheric VCDs versus ground measurements is higher in autumn-winter than in spring-summer. This effect is clearly reduced when the peroxyacetyl nitrate and nitric acid (HNO3) interferences of conventional NOx analyzers are taken into account. For a more quantitative comparison, the NO2 ground measurements were scaled to tropospheric VCDs using a seasonal NO2 vertical profile over northern Italy calculated by the Model of Ozone and Related Tracers 2 (MOZART-2). The tropospheric VCDs retrieved from satellite and those determined from ground measurements agree well, with a correlation coefficient R = 0.78 and a slope close to 1 for slightly polluted stations. GOME cannot reproduce the high NO2 amounts over the most polluted stations, mainly because of the large spatial variability in the distribution of pollution within the GOME footprint. The yearly and weekly cycles of the tropospheric NO2 VCDs are similar for both data sets, with significantly lower values in the summer months and on Sundays, respectively. Considering the pollution level and high aerosol concentrations of this region, the agreement is very good. Furthermore, uncertainties in the ground-based measurements, including the extrapolation to NO2 VCDs, might be as important as those of the NO2 satellite retrieval itself.

Air stagnation in Europe: Spatiotemporal variability and impact on air quality

This paper characterizes the spatiotemporal variability of air stagnation over the Euro-Mediterranean area for the 1979-2016 period by using a simplified air stagnation index (ASI) based on daily precipitation as well as near-surface and upper wind speed data. We have also undertaken the first comparison of stagnation as derived from meteorological reanalysis and observations, finding a reasonably good agreement between both datasets. The main differences arise from the surface wind speed, as this field depends on the local setting of the observational sites and imperfect parameterizations within the reanalysis model. Since air stagnation has considerable spatial heterogeneity over the region, we have regionalized the monthly frequency of stagnant days, resulting five regions with consistent temporal patterns: Scandinavia (SCAN), Northern-Europe (NEU), Central-Europe (CEU), South-West (SW) and South-East (SE). The northern regions (SCAN and NEU), which are affected by moderately strong near-surface winds and ample precipitation, present low frequency and temporal variability in stagnation compared to the southern regions (SW and SE). The winters and summers with the highest stagnation frequency often concur with positive 500u202fhPa geopotential height anomalies over the regions, with the exception of negative anomalies and a displacement of the extratropical jet to the south in the case of SCAN and NEU during winter. Air stagnation exerts a clear influence on air quality (AQ), with anomalies above 10% for summer ozone (O3) and 30% for winter PM10 (particulate matter ≤10u202fμm in diameter) on stagnant vs. non-stagnant days over most of the regions. These values exceed 20% and 50%, respectively, in the case of CEU, where air stagnation also drives significant changes in the frequency distributions of these pollutants and increases the likelihood of AQ exceedances. Moreover, persistent and widespread stagnation events favour the build-up of both O3 and PM10 over most of the continent.