Meteorology during the DOMINO campaign and its connection with trace gases and aerosols

Abstract. The DOMINO (Diel Oxidant Mechanisms in relation to Nitrogen Oxides) campaign was carried out from 21 November to 8 December 2008 at El Arenosillo station (SW of Spain) in a coastal-rural background environment. The main weather conditions are analysed using local meteorological variables, meteorological soundings, synoptic maps, as well as back trajectories of the air masses using the HYSPLIT model and high spatial resolution of meteorological fields. Measurements of the main meteorological parameters were collected both on the surface and on a tall tower. A detailed land use analysis was performed on a 80 km scale showing the main vegetation types. Also the main anthropogenic atmospheric emission sources both industrial-urban from Huelva and from the urban Seville area are shown. A study to identify air mass origins and their variation with height was carried out. In this intensive campaign air masses coming from different areas with different emission sources were observed: from the NW, with a highly industrial-urban character; continental flows from northerly directions; from the NE, with pathway, first, over the Seville metropolitan area and, then, over the Doñana National Park; and maritime air masses coming from the Atlantic Ocean. To study the chemistry in the four atmospheric scenarios identified, gas phase measurements of primary and secondary species such as ozone, NO, NO2 and SO2, biogenic and anthropogenic VOCs like benzene and isoprene, as well as total particles concentration and chemical composition of the aerosols are compared and discussed. The highest levels for total particle concentration, NO, NO2, SO2, benzene, PM10, PM2.5 and chemical elements such as As or Cu were found under flows associated with industrial-urban emissions from the Huelva-Portugal sector which are transported to the site before significant removal by chemical or deposition mechanism can occur. The air masses from the north were affected mainly by crustal elements and biogenic sources, the latter being exemplified by the biogenic species such as isoprene, particularly in the first part of the campaign. The urban air from the Seville area, before arriving at El Arenosillo traverses the Doñana National Park and therefore, was affected by industrial-urban and biogenic emissions. This air can transport low levels of NOx, total particle concentration and SO2 with aged ozone and some isoprene. Marine air masses from the Atlantic Ocean influence El Arenosillo frequently. Under these conditions the lowest levels of almost all the species were measured with the exception of ozone levels associated to long-range transport.

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Meteorology during the DOMINO campaign and its connection with trace gases and aerosols

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-14-2325-2014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 14 (5) ◽

pp. 2325-2342 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

J. A. Adame ◽

M. Martínez ◽

M. Sorribas ◽

P. J. Hidalgo ◽

H. Harder ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Atlantic Ocean ◽

National Park ◽

Particle Concentration ◽

Chemical Elements ◽

Emission Sources ◽

Doñana National Park ◽

Back Trajectories ◽

Air Masses ◽

Total Particle

Abstract. The DOMINO (Diel Oxidant Mechanisms in relation to Nitrogen Oxides) campaign was carried out from 21 November to 8 December 2008 at the El Arenosillo station (SW of Spain) in a coastal-rural environment. The main weather conditions are analysed using local meteorological variables, meteorological soundings and synoptic maps, as well as back trajectories of the air masses using the HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model) model and a high spatial resolution of meteorological fields. Measurements of the main meteorological parameters were collected both from the surface and from a tall tower. A detailed land use analysis was performed on a 80 km scale showing the main types of vegetation and land use. Also the main anthropogenic atmospheric emission sources – both industrial-urban from Huelva and from the urban Seville area – are shown. A study to identify air mass origins and their variation with height was carried out. In this intensive campaign, air masses coming from different areas with different emission sources were observed: from the NW, with a highly industrial-urban character; continental flows from northerly directions; from the NE, with a pathway starting over the Seville metropolitan area and then continuing over the Doñana National Park; and maritime air masses coming from the Atlantic Ocean. To study the chemistry in the four atmospheric scenarios identified, gas -phase measurements of primary and secondary species such as ozone, NO, NO2 and SO2, biogenic and anthropogenic VOCs (volatile organic compounds) like benzene and isoprene, as well as total particle concentration and chemical composition of the aerosols are compared and discussed. The highest levels for total particle concentration, NO, NO2, SO2, benzene, PM10, PM2.5 and chemical elements such as As or Cu were found under flows associated with industrial-urban emissions from the Huelva–Portugal sector which are transported to the site before significant removal by chemical or deposition mechanism can occur. The air masses from the north were affected mainly by crustal elements and biogenic sources, the latter being exemplified by the biogenic species such as isoprene, particularly in the first part of the campaign. The urban air from the Seville area, before arriving at El Arenosillo, traversed the Doñana National Park and therefore was affected by industrial-urban and biogenic emissions. This aged air parcel can transport low levels of NOx, total particle concentration and SO2 as well as ozone and isoprene. Marine air masses from the Atlantic Ocean influence El Arenosillo frequently. Under these conditions, the lowest levels of almost all the species – with the exception of ozone levels associated to long-range transport – were measured.

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Identification of the Aerosol Types over Athens, Greece: The Influence of Air-Mass Transport

Advances in Meteorology ◽

10.1155/2010/168346 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2010 ◽

pp. 1-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

D. G. Kaskaoutis ◽

P. G. Kosmopoulos ◽

H. D. Kambezidis ◽

P. T. Nastos

Keyword(s):

Winter Season ◽

Saharan Dust ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Hysplit Model ◽

Air Mass ◽

Back Trajectories ◽

Air Masses ◽

Local Pollution ◽

Coarse Mode ◽

Aerosol Types

Aerosol optical depth at 550 nm () and fine-mode (FM) fraction data from Terra-MODIS were obtained over the Greater Athens Area covering the period February 2000–December 2005. Based on both and FM values three main aerosol types have been discriminated corresponding to urban/industrial aerosols, clean maritime conditions, and coarse-mode, probably desert dust, particles. Five main sectors were identified for the classification of the air-mass trajectories, which were further used in the analysis of the ( and FM data for the three aerosol types). The HYSPLIT model was used to compute back trajectories at three altitudes to investigate the relation between -FM and wind sector depending on the altitude. The accumulation of local pollution is favored in spring and corresponds to air masses at lower altitudes originating from Eastern Europe and the Balkan. Clean maritime conditions are rare over Athens, limited in the winter season and associated with air masses from the Western or Northwestern sector. The coarse-mode particles origin seems to be more complicated proportionally to the season. Thus, in summer the Northern sector dominates, while in the other seasons, and especially in spring, the air masses belong to the Southern sector enriched with Saharan dust aerosols.

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Aerosol Characteristics in the Three Poles of the Earth Observed by CALIPSO

10.5194/acp-2020-1159 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yikun Yang ◽

Chuanfeng Zhao ◽

Quan Wang ◽

Zhiyuan Cong ◽

Xingchuan Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Asia ◽

Ross Sea ◽

Temporal Trends ◽

Arctic Region ◽

The Arctic ◽

Hysplit Model ◽

Back Trajectories ◽

Air Masses ◽

Spatial And Seasonal Variation ◽

The Antarctic

Abstract. To better understand the aerosol properties over the Arctic, Antarctic, and Tibetan Plateau (TP), the aerosol optical properties were investigated using 13 years CALIPSO L3 data, and the back trajectories for air masses were also simulated using the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. The results show that the aerosol optical depth (AOD) has obvious spatial and seasonal variation characteristics, and the aerosol loading over Eurasia, Ross Sea, and South Asia is relatively large. The annual average AOD in the Arctic, Antarctic, and TP are 0.046, 0.025, and 0.098, respectively. The Arctic and Antarctic regions have larger AOD values in winter and spring, while the TP in spring and summer. There are no significant temporal trends of AOD anomalies in the three study regions. Clean marine and dust-related aerosols are the dominant types over ocean and land respectively in both the Arctic and Antarctic, while dust-related aerosol types have greater occurrence frequency (OF) over the TP. The OF of dust-related and elevated smoke is large for a broad range of heights, indicating that they are likely transported aerosols, while other types of aerosols mainly occurred at heights below 2 km in the Antarctic and Arctic. The maximum OF of dust-related aerosols mainly occurs at 6 km altitude over the TP. The analysis of back trajectories of the air masses shows large differences among different regions and seasons. The Arctic region is more vulnerable to mid-latitude pollutants than the Antarctic region, especially in winter and spring, while the air masses in the TP are mainly from the Iranian Plateau, Tarim Basin, and South Asia.

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Identification of PM10 air pollution origins at a rural background site

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/20182801031 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 28 ◽

pp. 01031 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Magdalena Reizer ◽

José A. G. Orza

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Cluster Analysis ◽

Hysplit Model ◽

Back Trajectories ◽

Air Masses ◽

Rural Background ◽

Central Eastern Europe ◽

Background Site ◽

North Eastern ◽

Slow Moving

Trajectory cluster analysis and concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) approach have been applied to investigate the origins of PM10 air pollution recorded at a rural background site in North-eastern Poland (Diabla Góra). Air mass back-trajectories used in this study have been computed with the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model for a 10-year period of 2006–2015. A cluster analysis grouped back-trajectories into 7 clusters. Most of the trajectories correspond to fast and moderately moving westerly and northerly flows (45% and 25% of the cases, respectively). However, significantly higher PM10 concentrations were observed for slow moving easterly (11%) and southerly (20%) air masses. The CWT analysis shows that high PM10 levels are observed at Diabla Góra site when air masses are originated and passed over the heavily industrialized areas in Central-Eastern Europe located to the south and south-east of the site.

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Spatial distribution and seasonal variability in atmospheric ammonia measured from ground-based FTIR observations at Hefei, China

10.5194/amt-2020-39 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Wei Wang ◽

Cheng Liu ◽

Lieven Clarisse ◽

Martin Van Damme ◽

Pierre-François Coheur ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spatial Distribution ◽

Air Temperature ◽

Satellite Data ◽

Fine Particulate Matter ◽

Clear Correlation ◽

Emission Sources ◽

Hysplit Model ◽

Back Trajectories ◽

Atmospheric Ammonia ◽

Potential Sources

Abstract. Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) plays an important role in the formation of fine particulate matter, leading to severe environmental degradation and human health issues. In this work, ground-based FTIR observations are used to obtain the total columns and vertical profiles of atmospheric NH3 at a measurement site in Hefei, China, from December 2016 to November 2018. The spatial distribution and temporal variation, seasonal trend, emission sources and potential sources of NH3 are analyzed. The time series of ammonia columns show that FTIR observations captured the seasonal cycle of NH3 over the two years of measurement, with a 22.14 % yr-1 annual increase rate over the Hefei site. We used IASI satellite data to compare with the FTIR data, and the correlation coefficients (R) between the two datasets are 0.86 and 0.78 for IASI-A and IASI-B, respectively. The results demonstrate the IASI data are in broad agreement with our FTIR data. To examine the contribution of traffic to NH3 columns, we analyze the relationship of NH3 columns with CO surface concentrations. NH3 columns show high correlation (R = 0.77) with CO concentrations in summer, indicating that the elevated NH3 columns are partly caused by urban emissions from vehicles. Further, high correlation of NH3 columns with air temperature is obvious from their diurnal variation during the observation period. In addition, the clear correlation between NH3 columns and air temperature in spring and autumn over Hefei, suggests that agriculture was indeed the main source of ammonia in spring and autumn. Furthermore, the back trajectories of air masses calculated by the HYSPLIT model confirmed that agriculture was the dominant source of ammonia in spring, autumn and winter, while urban anthropogenic emissions contributed to the high level of NH3 in summer over the Hefei site. The potential source areas influencing the NH3 columns were distributed in the local area of Hefei, the northern part of Anhui province, as well as Shangdong, Jiangsu and Henan provinces. This study helps to identify the emission sources and potential sources that contribute to NH3 columns over Hefei, a highly populated and polluted area. This is the first time that ground-based FTIR remote sensing of NH3 columns and comparison with satellite data are reported in China.

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Aerosol characteristics at the three poles of the Earth as characterized by Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-21-4849-2021 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (6) ◽

pp. 4849-4868

Author(s):

Yikun Yang ◽

Chuanfeng Zhao ◽

Quan Wang ◽

Zhiyuan Cong ◽

Xingchuan Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Asia ◽

Ross Sea ◽

Temporal Trends ◽

Satellite Observations ◽

The Arctic ◽

Hysplit Model ◽

Back Trajectories ◽

Air Masses ◽

Spatial And Seasonal Variation ◽

The Antarctic

Abstract. To better understand the aerosol properties over the Arctic, Antarctic and Tibetan Plateau (TP), the aerosol optical properties were investigated using 13 years of CALIPSO (Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) L3 data, and the back trajectories for air masses were also simulated using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. The results show that the aerosol optical depth (AOD) has obvious spatial- and seasonal-variation characteristics, and the aerosol loading over Eurasia, Ross Sea and South Asia is relatively large. The annual-average AODs over the Arctic, Antarctic and TP are 0.046, 0.024 and 0.098, respectively. Seasonally, the AOD values are larger from late autumn to early spring in the Arctic, in winter and spring in the Antarctic, and in spring and summer over the TP. There are no significant temporal trends of AOD anomalies in the three study regions. Clean marine and dust-related aerosols are the dominant types over ocean and land, respectively, in both the Arctic and Antarctic, while dust-related aerosol types have greater occurrence frequency (OF) over the TP. The OF of dust-related and elevated smoke is large for a broad range of heights, indicating that they are likely transported aerosols, while other types of aerosols mainly occurred at heights below 2 km in the Antarctic and Arctic. The maximum OF of dust-related aerosols mainly occurs at 6 km altitude over the TP. The analysis of back trajectories of the air masses shows large differences among different regions and seasons. The Arctic region is more vulnerable to mid-latitude pollutants than the Antarctic region, especially in winter and spring, while the air masses in the TP are mainly from the Iranian Plateau, Tarim Basin and South Asia.

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Chemical characteristics assigned to trajectory clusters during the MINOS campaign

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-3-459-2003 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 459-468 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

M. Traub ◽

H. Fischer ◽

M. de Reus ◽

R. Kormann ◽

H. Heland ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Atlantic Ocean ◽

South Asia ◽

North Atlantic ◽

Western Europe ◽

North Atlantic Ocean ◽

Lower Troposphere ◽

Back Trajectories ◽

Air Masses ◽

Upper Troposphere ◽

Mixing Ratios

Abstract. During the Mediterranean Intensive Oxidant Study (MINOS) in August 2001 a total of 14 measurement flights were performed with the DLR Falcon jet aircraft from Heraklion, Crete. One objective of this campaign was to investigate the role of long-range transport of pollutants into the Mediterranean area. An analysis of 5-day back trajectories indicates that in the lower troposphere (0-4 km) air masses originated from eastern and western Europe, in the mid-troposphere (4-8 km) from the North Atlantic Ocean region and in the upper troposphere (8-14 km) from North Atlantic Ocean/North America (NANA) as well as South Asia. We allocated all back trajectories to clusters based on their ending height and source region. The mixing ratios of ozone, nitrogen oxide, total reactive oxidized nitrogen (NOy), formaldehyde, methanol, acetonitrile, acetone, peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane measured along the flight tracks are examined in relation to the different cluster trajectories. In the lower troposphere the mean trace gas mixing ratios of the eastern Europe cluster trajectories were significantly higher than those from western Europe. In the upper troposphere air from the NANA region seems to be influenced by the stratosphere, in addition, air masses were transported from South Asia, being influenced by strong convection in the Indian monsoon.

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Finescale Radar and Airmass Structure of the Comma Head of a Continental Winter Cyclone: The Role of Three Airstreams

Monthly Weather Review ◽

10.1175/mwr-d-14-00057.1 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 142 (11) ◽

pp. 4207-4229 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Robert M. Rauber ◽

Matthew K. Macomber ◽

David M. Plummer ◽

Andrew A. Rosenow ◽

Greg M. McFarquhar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gulf Of Mexico ◽

Wrf Model ◽

Vertical Motion ◽

Cold Side ◽

Hysplit Model ◽

Thermal Contrast ◽

Air Mass ◽

Precipitation Distribution ◽

Back Trajectories ◽

Air Masses

Abstract Data from airborne W-band radar, thermodynamic fields from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, and air parcel back trajectories from the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model are used to investigate the finescale reflectivity, vertical motion, and airmass structure of the comma head of a winter cyclone that produced 15–25 cm of snow across the U.S. Midwest on 29–30 January 2010. The comma head consisted of three vertically stacked air masses: from bottom to top, an arctic air mass of Canadian origin, a moist cloud-bearing air mass of Gulf of Mexico origin, and a drier air mass originating mostly at low altitudes over Baja California and the Mexican Plateau. The drier air mass capped the entire comma head and significantly influenced precipitation distribution and type across the storm, limiting cloud depth on the warm side, and creating instability with respect to ice-saturated ascent, cloud-top generating cells, and a seeder–feeder process on the cold side. Convective generating cells with depths of 1.5–3.0 km and vertical air velocities of 1–3 m s−1 were ubiquitous atop the cold side of the comma head. The airmass boundaries within the comma head lacked the thermal contrast commonly observed along fronts in other sectors of extratropical cyclones. The boundary between the Gulf and Canadian air masses, although quite distinct in terms of precipitation distribution, wind, and moisture, was marked by almost no horizontal thermal contrast at the time of observation. The higher-altitude airmass boundary between the Gulf of Mexico and Baja air masses also lacked thermal contrast, with the less-stable Baja air mass overriding the stable Gulf of Mexico air.

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