scholarly journals Analysis of derived optical parameters of atmospheric particles during a biomass burning event. Comparison with fossil fuel burning

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 012005
Author(s):  
A Costa ◽  
S Mogo ◽  
V Cachorro ◽  
A de Frutos ◽  
M Medeiros ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Atmospheric Particles ◽  
Optical Parameters ◽  
Fossil Fuel Burning ◽  
Fuel Burning

scholarly journals Better constraints on sources of carbonaceous aerosols using a combined <sup>14</sup>C – macro tracer analysis in a European rural background site

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2503-2547 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Gilardoni ◽  
E. Vignati ◽  
F. Cavalli ◽  
J. P. Putaud ◽  
B. R. Larsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Elemental Carbon ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Carbonaceous Aerosol ◽  
Po Valley ◽  
Fossil Fuel Burning ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
Fuel Burning ◽  
Source Contributions

Abstract. The source contributions to carbonaceous PM2.5 aerosol were investigated at a European background site at the edge of the Po Valley, in Northern Italy, during the period January–December 2007. Carbonaceous aerosol was described as the sum of eight source components: primary (1) and secondary (2) biomass burning organic carbon, biomass burning elemental carbon (3), primary (4) and secondary (5) fossil fuel burning organic carbon, fossil fuel burning elemental carbon (6), primary (7) and secondary (8) biogenic organic carbon. The concentration of each component was quantified using a set of macro tracers (organic carbon OC, elemental carbon EC, and levoglucosan), micro tracers (arabitol and mannitol), and 14C measurements. This was the first time that 14C measurements were performed on a long time series of data able to represent the entire annual cycle. This set of 6 tracers, together with assumed uncertainty ranges of the ratios of OC-to-EC, and the fraction of modern carbon in the 8 source categories, provides strong constraints to the source contributions to carbonaceous aerosol. The uncertainty of contributions was assessed with a Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) method accounting for the variability of OC and EC emission factors, and the uncertainty of reference fractions of modern carbon. During winter biomass burning composed 50% of the total carbon (TC) concentration, while in summer secondary biogenic OC accounted for 45% of TC. The contribution of primary biogenic aerosol particles was negligible during the entire year. Moreover, aerosol associated with fossil fuel burning represented 26% and 43% of TC in winter and summer, respectively. The comparison of source apportionment results in different urban and rural areas showed that the sampling site was mainly affected by local aerosol sources during winter and regional air masses from the nearby Po Valley in summer. This observation was further confirmed by back-trajectory analysis applying the Potential Source Contribution Function method to identify potential source regions. The contribution of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) to the organic mass (OM) was significant during the entire year. SOA accounted for 23% and 83% of OM during winter and summer, respectively. While the summer SOA was dominated by biogenic sources, winter SOA was mainly due to biomass and fossil fuel burning. This indicates that the oxidation of intermediate volatility organic compounds co-emitted with primary organics is a significant source of SOA, as suggested by recent model results and Aerosol Mass Spectrometer measurements in urban regions. Comparison with previous global model simulations, indicates a strong underestimate of wintertime primary aerosol emissions in this region.

scholarly journals Impacts of air pollutants from fire and non-fire emissions on the regional air quality in Southeast Asia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsiang-He Lee ◽  
Oussama Iraqui ◽  
Yefu Gu ◽  
Hung-Lam Steve Yim ◽  
Apisada Chulakadabba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuel Burning ◽  
Fuel Burning ◽  
Particulate Pollutants ◽  
Low Visibility

Abstract. Severe haze events in Southeast Asia caused by particulate pollution have become more intense and frequent in recent years, degrading air quality, threatening human health, and interrupting economic and societal activities. Widespread biomass burning activities are a major source of severe haze events in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, particulate pollutants from human activities other than biomass burning also play an important role in degrading air quality in Southeast Asia. In this study, numerical simulations have been conducted using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with a chemistry component (WRF-Chem) to quantitatively examine the contributions of aerosols emitted from fire (i.e., biomass burning) versus non-fire (including fossil fuel combustion, road and industrial dust, land use, and land change, etc.) sources to the degradation of air quality and visibility over Southeast Asia. These simulations cover a time period from 2002 to 2008 and were respectively driven by emissions from: (a) fossil fuel burning only, (b) biomass burning only, and (c) both fossil fuel and biomass burning. Across ASEAN 50 cities, these model results reveal that 39 % of observed low visibility days can be explained by either fossil fuel burning or biomass burning emissions alone, a further 20 % by fossil fuel burning alone, a further 8 % by biomass burning alone, and a further 5 % by a combination of fossil fuel burning and biomass burning. The remaining 28 % of observed low visibility days remain unexplained, likely due to emissions sources that have not been accounted for. Further analysis of 24-hr PM2.5 Air Quality Index (AQI) indicates that comparing to the simulated result of the case with stand-alone non-fire emissions, the case with coexisting fire and non-fire PM2.5 can substantially increase the chance of AQI being in the moderate or unhealthy pollution level from 23 % to 34 %. The premature mortality among major Southeast Asian cities due to degradation of air quality by particulate pollutants is estimated to increase from ~ 4110 per year in 2002 to ~ 6540 per year in 2008. In addition, we demonstrate the importance of certain missing non-fire anthropogenic aerosol sources including anthropogenic fugitive and industrial dusts in causing urban air quality degradation. An exploratory experiment of using machine learning algorithms to forecasting the occurrence of haze events in Singapore is also demonstrated in this study. All these results suggest that besides minimizing biomass burning activities, an effective air pollution mitigation policy for Southeast Asia needs to consider controlling emissions from non-fire anthropogenic sources.

scholarly journals Impacts of air pollutants from fire and non-fire emissions on the regional air quality in Southeast Asia

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 6141-6156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsiang-He Lee ◽  
Oussama Iraqui ◽  
Yefu Gu ◽  
Steve Hung-Lam Yim ◽  
Apisada Chulakadabba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Pollution Level ◽  
Fire Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuel Burning ◽  
Fuel Burning ◽  
Particulate Pollutants

Abstract. Severe haze events in Southeast Asia caused by particulate pollution have become more intense and frequent in recent years. Widespread biomass burning occurrences and particulate pollutants from human activities other than biomass burning play important roles in degrading air quality in Southeast Asia. In this study, numerical simulations have been conducted using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with a chemistry component (WRF-Chem) to quantitatively examine the contributions of aerosols emitted from fire (i.e., biomass burning) versus non-fire (including fossil fuel combustion, and road dust, etc.) sources to the degradation of air quality and visibility over Southeast Asia. These simulations cover a time period from 2002 to 2008 and are driven by emissions from (a) fossil fuel burning only, (b) biomass burning only, and (c) both fossil fuel and biomass burning. The model results reveal that 39 % of observed low-visibility days (LVDs) can be explained by either fossil fuel burning or biomass burning emissions alone, a further 20 % by fossil fuel burning alone, a further 8 % by biomass burning alone, and a further 5 % by a combination of fossil fuel burning and biomass burning. Analysis of an 24 h PM2.5 air quality index (AQI) indicates that the case with coexisting fire and non-fire PM2.5 can substantially increase the chance of AQI being in the moderate or unhealthy pollution level from 23 to 34 %. The premature mortality in major Southeast Asian cities due to degradation of air quality by particulate pollutants is estimated to increase from  ∼  4110 per year in 2002 to  ∼  6540 per year in 2008. In addition, we demonstrate the importance of certain missing non-fire anthropogenic aerosol sources including anthropogenic fugitive and industrial dusts in causing urban air quality degradation. An experiment of using machine learning algorithms to forecast the occurrence of haze events in Singapore is also explored in this study. All of these results suggest that besides minimizing biomass burning activities, an effective air pollution mitigation policy for Southeast Asia needs to consider controlling emissions from non-fire anthropogenic sources.

scholarly journals XCO2 retrieved from IASI using KLIMA algorithm

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuele Del Bianco ◽  
Bruno Carli ◽  
Marco Gai ◽  
Lucia Maria Laurenza ◽  
Ugo Cortesi
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Reliable Estimate ◽  
Natural Sources ◽  
Sources And Sinks ◽  
Fossil Fuel Burning ◽  
Fuel Burning

Carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) is the main greenhouse gas released into the Earth’s atmosphere by human activities. The concentration of CO<sub>2</sub> in the atmosphere depends on the balance of natural sources and sinks, which are being perturbed by anthropogenic forcing due to fossil fuel burning, uncontrolled urban development, deforestation and other land use changes. An improvement in our understanding of processes responsible for absorption of CO<sub>2</sub> is urgently needed both for a reliable estimate of future CO<sub>2</sub> levels, and for the enforcement of effective international agreements for its containment. [...]

A Contribution to Detection of Humans Located in Closed Areas

2014 ◽  
Vol 656 ◽  
pp. 450-457
Author(s):  
Stefan Cornak
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Human Detection ◽  
Infrared Spectrometry ◽  
Measuring Instruments ◽  
Fossil Fuel Burning ◽  
Fuel Burning ◽  
Measuring Outcomes ◽  
Crime Detection ◽  
Good Price

This paper deals with a detection of persons in closed areas. After a brief overview and providing a background the author focuses on the latest tools, which are available and on two examples explains the use of infrared spectrometry to arrive at the results. He points out the objectivity and rationality of the measuring outcomes as well as its commercial availability, simple control, relatively good price and the weight of the CO2 measuring instruments. The method described in the article has been neglected and is not used in the present time for a detection of humans located in closed areas although it can be easily used for human detection in the fight against terrorism, organized crime, detection of hidden immigrants but also for searching the involuntarily trapped people (earthquake, avalanche), too. It is necessary to produce the bleeder probe for air taking from the closed space for the implementation of this method to the practice. It is also important to notice, that the closed object air could be polluted by the pollutants from the external environment (e. g. from exhalation from the fossil fuel burning) and from the exhalations, which can transpire from the interior material (e. g. phthalates, formaldehydes) as suggested in the article. That is why the author recommends dealing more with this topic, including a closer co-operation with car makers, research laboratories and medical organizations.

scholarly journals Exploiting multi-wavelength aerosol absorption coefficients in a multi-time resolution source apportionment study to retrieve source-dependent absorption parameters

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (17) ◽  
pp. 11235-11252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Corina Forello ◽  
Vera Bernardoni ◽  
Giulia Calzolai ◽  
Franco Lucarelli ◽  
Dario Massabò ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Source Apportionment ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
Time Resolution ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Optical Data ◽  
Optical Parameters ◽  
Bootstrap Analysis ◽  
Aerosol Absorption ◽  
Fossil Fuel Emissions

Abstract. In this paper, a new methodology coupling aerosol optical and chemical parameters in the same source apportionment study is reported. In addition to results on source contributions, this approach provides information such as estimates for the atmospheric absorption Ångström exponent (α) of the sources and mass absorption cross sections (MACs) for fossil fuel emissions at different wavelengths. A multi-time resolution source apportionment study using the Multilinear Engine (ME-2) was performed on a PM10 dataset with different time resolutions (24, 12, and 1 h) collected during two different seasons in Milan (Italy) in 2016. Samples were optically analysed by an in-house polar photometer to retrieve the aerosol absorption coefficient bap (in Mm−1) at four wavelengths (λ=405, 532, 635, and 780 nm) and were chemically characterized for elements, ions, levoglucosan, and carbonaceous components. The dataset joining chemically speciated and optical data was the input for the multi-time resolution receptor model; this approach was proven to strengthen the identification of sources, thus being particularly useful when important chemical markers (e.g. levoglucosan, elemental carbon) are not available. The final solution consisted of eight factors (nitrate, sulfate, resuspended dust, biomass burning, construction works, traffic, industry, aged sea salt); the implemented constraints led to a better physical description of factors and the bootstrap analysis supported the goodness of the solution. As for bap apportionment, consistent with what was expected, biomass burning and traffic were the main contributors to aerosol absorption in the atmosphere. A relevant feature of the approach proposed in this work is the possibility of retrieving a lot of other information about optical parameters; for example, in contrast to the more traditional approach used by optical source apportionment models, here we obtained source-dependent α values without any a priori assumption (α biomass burning =1.83 and α fossil fuels =0.80). In addition, the MACs estimated for fossil fuel emissions were consistent with literature values. It is worth noting that the approach presented here can also be applied using more common receptor models (e.g. EPA PMF instead of multi-time resolution ME-2) if the dataset comprises variables with the same time resolution as well as optical data retrieved by widespread instrumentation (e.g. an Aethalometer instead of in-house instrumentation).

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