scholarly journals Assessment of wood burning versus fossil fuel contribution to wintertime black carbon and carbon monoxide concentrations in Athens, Greece

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 10219-10236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athina-Cerise Kalogridis ◽  
Stergios Vratolis ◽  
Eleni Liakakou ◽  
Evangelos Gerasopoulos ◽  
Nikolaos Mihalopoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Monitoring Site ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Urban Background ◽  
Wood Burning ◽  
Ambient Concentrations ◽  
Co Concentrations

Abstract. The scope of this study was to estimate the contribution of fossil fuel and wood burning combustion to black carbon (BC) and carbon monoxide (CO) during wintertime, in Athens. For that purpose, in situ measurements of equivalent black carbon (eBC) and CO were simultaneously conducted in a suburban and an urban background monitoring site in Athens during the 3 months of winter 2014–2015. For the deconvolution of eBC into eBC emitted from fossil fuel (BCff) and wood burning (BCwb), a method based on the spectral dependency of the absorption of pure black carbon and brown carbon was used. Thereafter, BCwb and BCff estimated fractions were used along with measured CO concentrations in a multiple regression analysis, in order to quantify the contribution of each one of the combustion sources to the ambient CO levels. For a comparative analysis of the results, we additionally estimated the wood burning and fossil fuel contribution to CO, calculated on the basis of their CO ∕ NOx emission ratios. The results indicate that during wintertime BC and CO are mainly emitted by local sources within the Athens Metropolitan Area (AMA). Fossil fuel combustion, mainly from road traffic, is found to be the major contributor to both eBC in PM2.5 and CO ambient concentrations in AMA. However, wintertime wood burning makes a significant contribution to the observed eBC (of about 30 %) and CO concentrations (on average, 11 and 16 % of total CO in the suburban and urban background sites respectively). Both BC and CO from biomass burning (BCwb and COwb, respectively) present a clear diurnal pattern, with the highest concentrations during night-time, supporting the theory of local domestic heating being their main source.

scholarly journals Assessment of wood burning versus fossil fuel contribution to wintertime black carbon and carbon monoxide concentrations in Athens, Greece

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athina-Cerise Kalogridis ◽  
Stergios Vratolis ◽  
Eleni Liakakou ◽  
Evangelos Gerasopoulos ◽  
Nikolaos Mihalopoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Monitoring Site ◽  
Wood Burning ◽  
Independent Evaluation ◽  
Range Transport ◽  
Ambient Concentrations ◽  
Co Concentrations

Abstract. The scope of this study was to estimate the contribution of fossil fuel and wood burning combustion to black carbon (BC) and carbon monoxide (CO) during wintertime, in Athens. For that purpose, in-situ measurements of equivalent Black Carbon (eBC) and CO were simultaneously conducted in a suburban and an urban background monitoring site in Athens during three months of winter 2014–2015. For the deconvolution of eBC into eBC emitted from fossil fuel (BCff) and wood burning (BCwb), a method based on the spectral dependency of the absorption of pure black carbon and brown carbon was used. Thereafter, BCwb and BCff estimated fractions were used along with measured CO concentrations in a multiple regression analysis, in order to quantify the contribution of each one of the combustion sources to the ambient CO levels. For an independent evaluation of the results, we additionally estimated the wood-burning and fossil fuel contribution to CO, calculated on the basis of their CO/NOx emission ratios. The results indicate that during wintertime BC and CO are mainly emitted by local sources within the Athens Metropolitan Area (AMA), and are only occasionally affected by long-range transport. Fossil fuel combustion, mainly from road traffic, is found to be the major contributor to both eBC in PM2.5 and CO ambient concentrations in AMA. However, wintertime wood burning makes a significant contribution of about 30 % to the observed eBC and the CO concentrations (on average, 11 % and 16 % of total CO in the two sites, respectively). Both, BC and CO from biomass burning (BCwb and COwb, respectively) present a clear diurnal pattern with highest concentrations during night, supporting the local domestic heating as their main source.

scholarly journals Comparison of measured residential black carbon levels outdoors and indoors with fixed-site monitoring data and with dispersion modelling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olena Gruzieva ◽  
Antonios Georgelis ◽  
Niklas Andersson ◽  
Tom Bellander ◽  
Christer Johansson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Dispersion Model ◽  
Monitoring Data ◽  
Dispersion Modelling ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Urban Background ◽  
Site Monitoring

AbstractEpidemiologic studies on health effects of air pollution usually rely on time-series of ambient monitoring data or on spatially modelled levels. Little is known how well these estimate residential outdoor and indoor levels. We investigated the agreement of measured residential black carbon (BC) levels outdoors and indoors with fixed-site monitoring data and with levels calculated using a Gaussian dispersion model. One-week residential outdoor and indoor BC measurements were conducted for 15 families living in central Stockholm. Time-series from urban background and street-level monitors were compared to these measurements. The observed weekly concentrations were also standardized to reflect annual averages, using urban background levels, and compared spatially to long-term levels as estimated by dispersion modelling. Weekly average outdoor BC level was 472 ng/m3 (range 261–797 ng/m3). The corresponding fixed-site urban background and street levels were 313 and 1039 ng/m3, respectively. Urban background variation explained 50% of the temporal variation in residential outdoor levels averaged over 24 h. Modelled residential long-term outdoor levels were on average comparable with the standardized measured home outdoor levels, and explained 49% of the spatial variability. The median indoor/outdoor ratio across all addresses was 0.79, with no difference between day and night time. Common exposure estimation approaches in the epidemiology of health effects related to BC displayed high validity for residencies in central Stockholm. Urban background monitored levels explained half of the outdoor day-to-day variability at residential addresses. Long-term dispersion modelling explained half of the spatial differences in outdoor levels. Indoor BC concentrations tended to be somewhat lower than outdoor levels.

Year-long variability of the fossil fuel and wood burning black carbon components at a rural site in southern Delhi outskirts

2019 ◽  
Vol 216 ◽  
pp. 11-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
U.C. Dumka ◽  
D.G. Kaskaoutis ◽  
P.C.S. Devara ◽  
R. Kumar ◽  
S. Kumar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Rural Site ◽  
Wood Burning

scholarly journals Summer ammonia measurements in a densely populated Mediterranean city

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 7557-7575 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pandolfi ◽  
F. Amato ◽  
C. Reche ◽  
A. Alastuey ◽  
R. P. Otjes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Road Traffic ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Urban Background ◽  
Phase Partitioning ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Background Traffic ◽  
Old City ◽  
Ambient Concentrations ◽  
Open Markets

Abstract. Real-time measurements of ambient concentrations of gas-phase ammonia (NH3) were performed in Barcelona (NE Spain) in summer between May and September 2011. Two measurement sites were selected: one in an urban background traffic-influenced area (UB) and the other in the historical city centre (CC). Levels of NH3 were higher at CC (5.6 ± 2.1 μg m−3 or 7.5 ± 2.8 ppbv) compared with UB (2.2 ± 1.0 μg m−3 or 2.9 ± 1.3 ppbv). This difference is attributed to the contribution from non-traffic sources such as waste containers, sewage systems, humans and open markets more dense in the densely populated historical city centre. Under high temperatures in summer these sources had the potential to increase the ambient levels of NH3 well above the urban-background-traffic-influenced UB measurement station. Measurements were used to assess major local emissions, sinks and diurnal evolution of NH3. The measured levels of NH3, especially high in the old city, may contribute to the high mean annual concentrations of secondary sulfate and nitrate measured in Barcelona compared with other cities in Spain affected by high traffic intensity. Ancillary measurements, including PM10, PM2.5, PM1 levels (Particulate Matter with aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 μm, 2.5 μm, and 1 μm), gases and black carbon concentrations and meteorological data, were performed during the measurement campaign. The analysis of specific periods (3 special cases) during the campaign revealed that road traffic was a significant source of NH3. However, its effect was more evident at UB compared with CC where it was masked given the high levels of NH3 from non-traffic sources measured in the old city. The relationship between SO42− daily concentrations and gas-fraction ammonia (NH3/(NH3 + NH4+)) revealed that the gas-to-particle phase partitioning (volatilization or ammonium salts formation) also played an important role in the evolution of NH3 concentration in summer in Barcelona.

scholarly journals On the wintertime low bias of Northern Hemisphere carbon monoxide in global model studies

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Stein ◽  
M. G. Schultz ◽  
I. Bouarar ◽  
H. Clark ◽  
V. Huijnen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Monoxide ◽  
Dry Deposition ◽  
Road Traffic ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Anthropogenic Emissions ◽  
Boreal Winter ◽  
Model Bias ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Northern Hemispheric ◽  
Co Concentrations

Abstract. The uncertainties in the global budget of carbon monoxide (CO) are assessed to explain causes for the long-standing issue of Northern Hemispheric wintertime underestimation of CO concentrations in global models. With a series of MOZART sensitivity simulations for the year 2008, the impacts from changing a variety of surface sources and sinks were analyzed. The model results were evaluated with monthly averages of surface station observations from the global CO monitoring network as well as with total columns observed from satellites and with vertical profiles from measurements on passenger aircraft. Our basic simulation using MACCity anthropogenic emissions underestimated Northern Hemispheric near-surface CO concentrations on average by more than 20 ppb from December to April with the largest bias over Europe of up to 75 ppb in January. An increase in global biomass burning or biogenic emissions of CO or volatile organic compounds (VOC) is not able to reduce the annual course of the model bias and yields too high concentrations over the Southern Hemisphere. Raising global annual anthropogenic emissions results in overestimations of surface concentrations in most regions all-year-round. Instead, our results indicate that anthropogenic emissions in the MACCity inventory are too low for the industrialized countries during winter and spring. Thus we found it necessary to adjust emissions seasonally with regionally varying scaling factors. Moreover, exchanging the original resistance-type dry deposition scheme with a parameterization for CO uptake by oxidation from soil bacteria and microbes reduced the boreal winter dry deposition fluxes and could partly correct for the model bias. When combining the modified dry deposition scheme with increased wintertime road traffic emissions over Europe and North America (factors up to 4.5 and 2, respectively) we were able to optimize the match to surface observations and to reduce the model bias significantly with respect to the satellite and aircraft observations. A reason for the apparent underestimation of emissions may be an exaggerated downward trend in the RCP8.5 scenario in these regions between 2000 and 2010, as this scenario was used to extrapolate the MACCity emissions from their base year 2000. This factor is potentially amplified by a lack of knowledge about the seasonality of emissions. A methane lifetime of 9.7 yr for our basic model and 9.8 yr for the optimized simulation agrees well with current estimates of global OH, but we cannot exclude a potential effect from errors in the geographical and seasonal distribution of OH concentrations. Finally, underestimated emissions from anthropogenic VOCs can also account for a small part of the missing CO concentrations.

scholarly journals Summer ammonia measurements in a densely populated Mediterranean city

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 10381-10424 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pandolfi ◽  
F. Amato ◽  
C. Reche ◽  
A. Alastuey ◽  
R. P. Otjes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Road Traffic ◽  
Meteorological Data ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Urban Background ◽  
Phase Partitioning ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Background Traffic ◽  
Old City ◽  
Ambient Concentrations ◽  
Open Markets

Abstract. Real-time measurements of ambient concentrations of gas-phase ammonia were performed in Barcelona (NE Spain) in summer between May and September 2011. Two measurement sites were selected: one in an urban background traffic-influenced area (UB) and the other in the historical city centre (CC). Levels of ammonia were higher at CC (5.6 ± 2.1 μg m−3 or 7.5 ± 2.8 ppbv) compared with UB (2.2 ± 1.0 μg m−3 or 2.9 ± 1.3 ppbv). This difference is attributed to the contribution from non-traffic sources such as waste containers, sewage systems, humans and open markets more dense in the densely populated historical city centre. Under high temperatures in summer these sources had the potential to increase the ambient levels of ammonia well above the urban-background-traffic-influenced UB measurement station. Measurements were used to assess major local emissions, sinks and diurnal evolution of NH3. The measured levels of NH3, especially high in the old city, may contribute to the high mean annual concentrations of secondary sulfate and nitrate measured in Barcelona compared with other cities in Spain affected by high traffic intensity. Ancillary measurements, including PM10, PM2.5, PM1 levels (Particulate Matter with aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 μm, 2.5 μm, and 1 μm), gases and black carbon concentrations and meteorological data, were performed during the measurement campaign. The analysis of specific periods (3 special cases) during the campaign revealed that road traffic was a significant source of NH3. However, its effect was more evident at UB compared with CC where it was masked given the high levels of NH3 from non-traffic sources measured in the old city. The relationship between SO42− daily concentrations and gas-fraction ammonia (NH3/(NH3+NH4+)) revealed that the gas-to-phase partitioning (volatilization or ammonium salts formation) also played an important role in the evolution of NH3 concentration in summer in Barcelona.

scholarly journals Effects of road traffic on the ambient concentrations of three PM fractions and their main components in a large Upper Silesian city

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wioletta Rogula-Kozłowska ◽  
Patrycja Rogula-Kupiec ◽  
Barbara Mathews ◽  
Krzysztof Klejnowski
Keyword(s):  
Road Traffic ◽  
Water Soluble ◽  
Urban Background ◽  
The Road ◽  
Soluble Ions ◽  
Water Soluble Ions ◽  
Ambient Concentrations ◽  
Main Components ◽  
Pollution Emissions ◽  
Elementary Carbon

Abstract Effects of road traffic on the ambient concentrations of three PM fractions and their main components in a large Upper Silesian city. The study concerns the assessment of the traffic influence on the concentrations of three particulate matter (PM) fractions and their basic components. The PM samples were collected simultaneously at two receptors in Katowice. The measurement sites represented the so-called urban background and traffic points. The contents of the organic and elementary carbon as well as water- -soluble ions were determined in the samples. It has been observed that the traffic (car engines) pollution emissions enrich the submicron and fine PM particles with the elementary carbon at a typical urban background in southern Poland. On the other hand, the influence of the re-suspension of the road and soil dust, caused by traffic, on the concentrations and chemical composition is observed for the coarse PM fraction.

scholarly journals A 2.5 year's source apportionment study of black carbon from wood burning and fossil fuel combustion at urban and rural sites in Switzerland

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 1409-1420 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Herich ◽  
C. Hueglin ◽  
B. Buchmann
Keyword(s):  
Black Carbon ◽  
Source Apportionment ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Light Absorption ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Near Ultraviolet ◽  
Wood Burning ◽  
Multi Wavelength ◽  
Rural Sites

Abstract. The contributions of fossil fuel (FF) and wood burning (WB) emissions to black carbon (BC) have been investigated in the recent past by analysis of multi-wavelength aethalometer data. This approach utilizes the stronger light absorption of WB aerosols in the near ultraviolet compared to the light absorption of aerosols from FF combustion. Here we present 2.5 years of seven-wavelength aethalometer data from one urban and two rural background sites in Switzerland measured from 2008–2010. The contribution of WB and FF to BC was directly determined from the aerosol absorption coefficients of FF and WB aerosols which were calculated by using confirmed Ångstrom exponents and aerosol light absorption cross-sections that were determined for all sites. Reasonable separation of total BC into contributions from FF and WB was achieved for all sites and seasons. The obtained WB contributions to BC are well correlated with measured concentrations of levoglucosan and potassium while FF contributions to BC correlate nicely with NOx. These findings support our approach and show that the applied source apportionment of BC is well applicable for long-term data sets. During winter, we found that BC from WB contributes on average 24–33 % to total BC at the considered measurement sites. This is a noticeable high fraction as the contribution of wood burning to the total final energy consumption is in Switzerland less than 4 %.

scholarly journals Black carbon in spring aerosols of Moscow urban background

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga B. Popovicheva ◽  
Elena Volpert ◽  
Nikolay M. Sitnikov ◽  
Marina A. Chichaeva ◽  
Sara Padoan
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Black Carbon ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Urban Background ◽  
The North ◽  
Meteorological Observatory ◽  
Remote Sites ◽  
Pollution Accumulation ◽  
Mass Concentrations

Air quality in megacities is recognized as the most important environmental problem. Aerosol pollution by combustion emissions is remaining to be uncertain. Measurements of particulate black carbon (BC) were conducted at the urban background site of Meteorological Observatory (MO) MSU during the spring period of 2017 and 2018. BC mass concentrations ranged from 0.1 to 10 μg m–3, on average 1.5±1.3 and 1.1±0.9 µg/m3 , in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Mean BC concentrations displayed significant diurnal variations with poorly prominent morning peak and minimum at day time. BC mass concentrations are higher at night time due the shallow boundary layer and intensive diesel traffic which results in trapping of pollutants. Wind speed and direction are found to be important meteorological factors affected BC concentrations. BC pollution rose identifies the North as the direction of the preferable pollution. A negative correlation between BC concentrations and wind speed confirms the pollution accumulation preferably in stable weather days. Relation of BC pollution to a number of agriculture fires is distinguishable by air mass transportation from South and South-Est of Russia and Western Europe. Mean season ВС concentrations at rural and remote sites in different world locations are discussed.

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