Fernando Martín

Summer ozone episodes in the Greater Madrid area. Analyzing the ozone response to abatement strategies by modelling

Abstract The development of ozone control strategies requires analysing the sensitivity of the dispersion model used to changes in emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOX) and volatile organic compounds. The ozone response to variations in road traffic and total anthropogenic emissions is evaluated for two different summer ozone episodes in the Greater Madrid Area (GMA). This study uses the TVM model and a transport/chemistry module in which different chemical mechanisms (EMEP, RACM) are implemented. The results show that the areas of maximum impact and ozone responses are notably influenced by the different transport and dispersion patterns established in the area. However, the contribution of anthropogenic sources other than road traffic is patent in both episodes. Strategies based only on decreasing road traffic emissions were not sufficient for an effective control of the air quality in the GMA. Moreover, certain discrepancies observed in the predicted trends, as a response to these control strategies posed, reflect the importance of variations in the precursors balance. The ozone production regime associated to these ozone episodes and the sensitivity of the ozone response to changes in this balance has been investigated. A chemical indicator has been used to deepen in that evaluation.

Multi-year assessment of photochemical air quality simulation over Spain

Ground-level ozone concentrations in the atmospheric boundary layer over Spain are still exceeding thresholds established in EU legislation to protect human health and prevent damage to ecosystems. The increasing role that air quality models play in air quality management requires comparison between model results and previous observations in order to determine the capacity of the model to reproduce past events. The CHIMERE chemistry-transport model has been used by several research groups to estimate air pollutant concentrations in different European countries. An evaluation of the model performance of the CHIMERE air quality model was carried out for the spring and summer periods of 2003-2005 in Spain, using EMEP emissions. This evaluation has demonstrated a fair agreement between observed and modelled ozone values for background stations, with a mean normalized absolute error below 15% for rural background air quality sites. This value lays inside the range proposed in EPAs guideline for an acceptable level of model performance. In spite of this acceptable model performance, further studies need to be carried out to explain some underestimation found over Madrid surroundings.

A computational fluid dynamic modelling approach to assess the representativeness of urban monitoring stations

Air quality measurements of urban monitoring stations have a limited spatial representativeness due to the complexity of urban meteorology and emissions distribution. In this work, a methodology based on a set of computational fluid dynamics simulations based on Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS-CFD) for different meteorological conditions covering several months is developed in order to analyse the spatial representativeness of urban monitoring stations and to complement their measured concentrations. The methodology has been applied to two urban areas nearby air quality traffic-oriented stations in Pamplona and Madrid (Spain) to analyse nitrogen oxides concentrations. The computed maps of pollutant concentrations around each station show strong spatial variability being very difficult to comply with the European legislation concerning the spatial representativeness of traffic-oriented air quality stations.

Evaluation of a CFD-based approach to estimate pollutant distribution within a real urban canopy by means of passive samplers.

The distribution of pollutants is spatially heterogeneous within urban streets making difficult to build a realistic concentration map. In this paper, a methodology based on computational fluid dynamic modeling with Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes approach is used to compute maps of concentration for a period of several weeks. The methodology is evaluated by comparing simulation results against experimental data from two different campaigns where a large number of passive samplers deployed in an area with heavy vehicular traffic in Madrid (Spain). The evaluation shows that the methodology is able to reproduce the general pattern of several-week averaged pollutant distribution in an urban area with heavy vehicular traffic, resolving the spatial variability up to a resolution of 1-2m. In addition, the model results fit satisfactorily the time evolution of the pollutant concentration measured at an air quality station deployed in the studied area. However, problems were detected close to zones with complex emissions patterns (tunnels, street forks, etc.), where the model compared poorly against passive sampler measurements. A preliminary assessment of the uncertainties induced in the numerical methodology due to consider NO2 as non-reactive pollutant under winter conditions indicates that it would be an acceptable approach for this particular case study. Overall, our analysis contributes to raise the confidence in that approached similar to the one presented in this study can be adopted for dealing with several aspects of the air quality management such as air quality assessment, optimization of the location of measurement stations, and the evaluation of air pollution reduction strategies.

On Dry Deposition Modelling of Atmospheric Pollutants on Vegetation at the Microscale: Application to the Impact of Street Vegetation on Air Quality

A Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes model is used to investigate the impact of urban canopy vegetation on air quality, with particular emphasis on the comparison between the positive effect induced by deposition versus the negative effect due to a reduction of ventilation. With this aim, a series of simulations over a simplified urban geometry with different vegetation designs are carried out. The problem is tackled at two scales. From the mesoscale point of view, the relevant variable is the total deposition flux of pollutant as a function of the pollutant concentration above the canopy (e.g. the “mesoscale” deposition velocity). This is assessed within the Monin–Obukov similarity theory framework, and a modification of the classical formulation is proposed based on the numerical results. At the microscale, the distribution of concentration within the urban canopy is investigated for the different configurations. The main conclusion is that the height of the vegetation and the magnitude of the microscale deposition velocity are key parameters that determine which of the two effects (deposition or reduction of ventilation) prevails.

Modelling the air flow in symmetric and asymmetric street canyons

The main objective of this paper is to describe flow features in sequences of two-dimensional street canyons. Several configurations of symmetric and asymmetric canyons are studied by CFD modelling. Streets with different aspect ratios (W/H), where W is the width of street and H is the building height, are investigated. In asymmetric situations, one building (in the central canyon) is taller (30 m) than the others (20 m). The presence of the taller building seems to have a large influence on the wind flow inside the central street canyon and in ones located downstream. These results show that simulations are Reynolds-independent.

Analysis of the spatial representativeness of rural background monitoring stations in Spain

The spatial representativeness of rural background air quality stations was estimated using the spatial distribution of air pollutants computed by the combinations of the results of annual WRF–CHIMERE model simulations and data measured at stations of the Iberian Peninsula in 2008, 2009 and 2010 for NO2, SO2, O3 and PM10. The advantage of using validated models combined with measurements is that effects of the emission sources distribution and atmospheric pollutant processes are both taken into account and that the model bias and errors are corrected. This methodology provides a considerably realistic spatial view of air pollutant concentration distribution around the rural background stations. The criteria for delimiting the representativeness area are based on the assumptions that: (1) concentration does not differ by more than a certain percentage from the concentration at the station; and (2) the air quality in the station and in the representativeness area should have the same status regarding the legal standard. The results showed that there is a large variability in the size and shape of the representativeness area of rural background stations in Spain, also depending on the pollutant and the limit or target value. In addition, the interannual variability of the representativeness areas, station redundancy and network coverage have been analyzed. A high interannual variability of spatial representativeness areas was found, except for daily and hourly SO2, hourly O3 and annual NO2. Roughly 50% of rural background stations measured O3 overlap with other stations in at least 80% of their spatial representativeness area, denoting a high percentage of station redundancy. Concerning network coverage, there are zones that are not covered by stations, the worst coverage being for PM10. The proposed methodology seems to be useful for determining the spatial representativeness of air quality stations.

Influence of Model Resolution on Ozone Predictions over Madrid Area (Spain)

Modeling has become a very useful tool in air quality management. The use of an air quality model requires comparison between model results and previous observations in order to determine the capacity of the model to reproduce air pollution episodes. In this paper the influence of three different model resolutions on model predictions has been analyzed over Madrid area for 2004. A lower mean normalized absolute error was found for the highest resolution domain, when comparing hourly-predicted ozone to 2004 observations. The improvement of model predictions is more clearly observed for NO 2 . When considering an episode occurred in July, 2004, this improvement in model performance is significantly reduced. For this episode, meteorological evaluation indicates that temperature and speed predictions for the coarsest domain present worse agreement to observations than those for the other two domains.

An Evaluation of the Performance of the CHIMERE Model over Spain Using Meteorology from MM5 and WRF Models

The presence of high pollution levels in the atmosphere can produce damages to human health and ecosystems. Because of this reason, the prediction of air pollutant concentration is important to prevent any potential damage. Chemistry-transport models constitute a useful tool to quantify the presence of pollutants in the atmosphere. Input information, such as meteorology and emissions, has a strong influence on model results. Many research activities are focused on trying to reduce errors affecting input information. In this paper we have applied the CHIMERE photochemical model to simulate ozone, NO2 and SO2 in Spain for two sets of meteorological fields obtained with the MM5 and WRF meteorological models. An evaluation of the performance of the CHIMERE model for both meteorological data sets is presented. Very similar air pollutant concentrations were found for the three pollutants and for the two sets of meteorological information.

Simulations of Mesoscale Circulations in the Center of the Iberian Peninsula for Thermal Low Pressure Conditions. Part I: Evaluation of the Topography Vorticity-Mode Mesoscale Model

The Topography Vorticity-Mode Mesoscale (TVM) model has been evaluated for four different cases of thermal low pressure systems over the Iberian Peninsula. These conditions are considered to be representative of the range of summer thermal low pressure conditions in this region. Simulation results have been compared with observations obtained in two intensive experimental campaigns carried out in the Greater Madrid Area in the summer of 1992. The wind fields are qualitatively well simulated by the model. Detailed comparisons of the time series of simulations and observations have been carried out at several meteorological stations. For wind speed and direction, TVM results are reasonably good, although an underprediction of the daily thermal oscillation has been detected. The model reproduces the observed decoupled flow in the nighttime and early morning along with the evolution of mixing layer flow during the day. In addition, the model has simulated specific features of the observed circulations such as low-level jets and drainage, downslope, upslope, and upvalley flows. The model also simulates the formation of hydrostatic mountain waves in the nighttime in some cases.