Impact of the Christmas 2018 Mount Etna Eruption on the Regional Air Quality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Lamotte ◽  
Jonathan Guth ◽  
Virginie Marécal ◽  
Giuseppe Salerno ◽  
Nicolas Theys ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Mount Etna ◽  
Surface Measurement ◽  
Volcanic Plume ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Sulfate Aerosols ◽  
Lower Altitude ◽  
The Impact

<p><span>Volcanic eruptions are events that can eject several tons of material into the atmosphere. Among these emissions, sulfur dioxide is the main sulfurous volcanic gas. It can form sulfate aerosols that are harmful to health or, being highly soluble, it can condense in water particles and form acid rain. Thus, volcanic eruptions can have an environmental impact on a regional scale.</span></p><p><span>The Mediterranean region is very interesting from this point of view because it is a densely populated region with a strong anthropogenic activity, therefore polluted, in which Mount Etna is also located. Mount Etna is the largest passive SO<sub>2</sub> emitter in Europe, but it can also sporadically produce strong eruptive events. It is then likely that the additional input of sulfur compounds into the atmosphere by volcanic emissions may have effects on the regional atmospheric sulfur composition.</span></p><p><span>We are particularly investigating the eruption of Mount Etna on December 24, 2018 [Corradini et al, 2020]. This eruption took place along a 2 km long breach on the side of the volcano, thus at a lower altitude than its main crater. About 100 kt of SO<sub>2</sub> and 35 kt of ash were released in total, between December 24 and 30. With the exception of the 24th, the quantities of ash were always lower than the SO<sub>2.</sub></span></p><p><span>The availability of the TROPOMI SO<sub>2</sub><sub></sub></span><span>column </span><span>estimates, at fine </span><span>spatial</span><span> resolution </span><span>(7 km x 3.5 km at nadir) and </span><span>associated averaging kernels</span><span>,</span><span> during this eruptive period made it also an excellent case study. </span><span>It </span><span>allow</span><span>s</span><span> us to follow the evolution of SO<sub>2</sub> in the volcanic plume over several days.</span></p><p><span>Using the CNRM MOCAGE chemistry-transport model (CTM), we aim to quantify the impact of this volcanic eruption on atmospheric composition, sulfur deposition and air quality at the regional scale. The comparison of the model with the TROPOMI observation data allows us to assess the ability of the model to properly represent the plume. In spite of a particular meteorological situation, leading to a complex plume transport, MOCAGE shows a good agreement with TROPOMI observations. Thus, from the MOCAGE simulation, we can evaluate the impact of the eruption on the regional concentrations of SO<sub>2</sub> and sulfate aerosols, but also analyse the quantities of dry and wet deposition, and compare it to surface measurement stations.</span></p>

scholarly journals Using the 3D MOCAGE CTM to simulate the chemistry of halogens in the volcanic plume of Etna's eruption in December 2018 at the regional scale

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herizo Narivelo ◽  
Virginie Marécal ◽  
Paul David Hamer ◽  
Luke Surl ◽  
Tjarda Roberts ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Transport Model ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Mount Etna ◽  
Volcanic Plume ◽  
Gaseous Species ◽  
Modelling Studies ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Halogen Species

<p><span>Volcanoes emit different gaseous species, SO₂ and in particular halogen species especially bromine and chlorine compounds. In general, halogens play an important role in the atmosphere by contributing to ozone depletion in the stratosphere (WMO Ozone assessment, 2018) and by modifying air composition and oxidizing capacity in the troposphere (Von Glasow et al. 2004). The halogen species emitted by volcanoes are halides. The chemical processing occurring within the plume leads to the formation of BrO from HBr following the ‘bromine explosion’ mechanism as evidenced from both observations and modelling (e.g., Bobrowski et al. Nature, 2003; Roberts et al., Chem. Geol. 2009). Oxidized forms of chlorine and bromine are modelled to be formed within the plume due to the heterogenous reaction of HOBr with HCl and HBr, forming BrCl and Br₂ that photolyses and produces Br and Cl radicals. So far, modelling studies were mainly focused on the very local scale and processes occurring within a few hours after eruption.</span></p><p><span>In this study, the objective is to go a step further by analyzing the impact at the regional scale over the Mediterranean basin of a Mt Etna eruption event. For this, we use the MOCAGE model (Guth et al., GMD, 2016), a chemistry transport model run with a resolution of 0.2°x 0.2°, to quantify the impacts of the halogens species emitted by the volcano on the tropospheric composition. We have selected here the case of the eruption of Mount Etna around Christmas 2018 characterised by large amounts of emissions over several days (Calvari et al., remote sensing 2020; Corrdadini et al., remote sensing 2020). The results show that MOCAGE represents rather well the chemistry of the halogens in the volcanic plume because it established theory of plume chemistry. The bromine explosion process takes place on the first day of the eruption and even more strongly the day after, with a rapid increase of the in-plume BrO concentrations and a corresponding strong reduction of ozone and NO2 concentrations.</span></p><p><span>We also compared MOCAGE results with the WRF-CHEM model simulations for the same case study. We note that the tropospheric column of BrO and SO₂ in the two models have the same order of magnitude with more rapid bromine explosion occurring in WRF-CHEM simulations. Finally, we compared the MOCAGE results to tropospheric columns of BrO and SO</span><sub><span>2</span></sub><span> retrieved from TROPOMI spaceborne instrument.</span></p>

New strategies for chemistry-transport modelling of volcanic plumes: application to the case of Mount Etna eruption in March 18, 2012

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Lachatre ◽  
Sylvain Mailler ◽  
Laurent Menut ◽  
Solene Turquety ◽  
Pasquale Sellitto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Field ◽  
Substantial Reduction ◽  
Vertical Direction ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Vertical Wind ◽  
Mount Etna ◽  
Volcanic Plume ◽  
Large Spatial Scale ◽  
Numerical Diffusion ◽  
The Impact

<p>Atmospheric modelling allows to study large spatial scale events such as volcanic eruptions, which can emit large amounts of plume-confined particulate matter and gases, to evaluate their transport in the atmosphere and their subsequent impacts. However, to study more precisely these events, different issues have to be addressed. One notable example of these issues is the well-known excessive numerical diffusion in the atmospheric column in Eulerian models leading to excessive plume dispersion misrepresentation of the plume three-dimensional morphology and subsequent geographical extent of its impacts. Mount Etna volcano’s moderate eruption of March 18, 2012, which released about 3kT of sulphure dioxide in the atmosphere, has been simulated in this study with the CHIMERE chemistry-transport model. The simulated plume has been observed and tracked with satellite instruments (OMI and IASI) for several days during its transport over the Mediterranean Sea in order to compare with model outputs.</p><p>Sensitivity tests have been performed to evaluate the impact of injection altitude and profile shape on the subsequent trajectory of the plume. It was shown that altitude is the most sensitive parameter when results remain weakly sensitive to the vertical shape of injection.</p><p>In order to effectively address the problem of excessive numerical diffusion, we have included a new antidiffusive transport scheme in the vertical direction and a new strategy to use directly the vertical wind field provided by the forcing meteorological model. We show that both these improvements permit a substantial reduction in numerical diffusion. The use of the new antidiffusive vertical scheme has brought the strongest improvement in our model outputs. To a lesser extent, a more realistic representation of the vertical wind field has also been shown to reduce volcanic plume spreading. In summary, we show that these two improvements bring an improvement in the representation of the plume which is as strong as the improvement brought by increasing the number of vertical levels, but without an additional burden in computational power.</p><p>This study has been supported by AID (Agence de l'Innovation de Défense) under grant TROMPET.</p>

Revisiting the Krakatau 1883 Volcanic Aerosol Dispersal 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Castro ◽  
Tushar Mittal ◽  
Stephen Self
Keyword(s):  
Climate Model ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Climate Impact ◽  
Volcanic Plume ◽  
Quasi Biennial Oscillation ◽  
Aerosol Cloud ◽  
Pinatubo Eruption ◽  
The Impact

<p>The 1883 Krakatau eruption is one of the most well-known historical volcanic eruptions due to its significant global climate impact as well as first recorded observations of various aerosol associated optical and physical phenomena. Although much work has been done on the former by comparison of global climate model predictions/ simulations with instrumental and proxy climate records, the latter has surprisingly not been studied in similar detail. In particular, there is a wealth of observations of vivid red sunsets, blue suns, and other similar features, that can be used to analyze the spatio-temporal dispersal of volcanic aerosols in summer to winter 1883. Thus, aerosol cloud dispersal after the Krakatau eruption can be estimated, bolstered by aerosol cloud behavior as monitored by satellite-based instrument observations after the 1991 Pinatubo eruption. This is one of a handful of large historic eruptions where this analysis can be done (using non-climate proxy methods). In this study, we model particle trajectories of the Krakatau eruption cloud using the Hysplit trajectory model and compare our results with our compiled observational dataset (principally using Verbeek 1884, the Royal Society report, and Kiessling 1884).</p><p>In particular, we explore the effect of different atmospheric states - the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) which impacts zonal movement of the stratospheric volcanic plume - to estimate the phase of the QBO in 1883 required for a fast-moving westward cloud. Since this alone is unable to match the observed latitudinal spread of the aerosols, we then explore the impact of an  umbrella cloud (2000 km diameter) that almost certainly formed during such a large eruption. A large umbrella cloud, spreading over ~18 degrees within the duration of the climax of the eruption (6-8 hours), can lead to much quicker latitudinal spread than a point source (vent). We will discuss the results of the combined model (umbrella cloud and correct QBO phase) with historical accounts and observations, as well as previous work on the 1991 Pinatubo eruption. We also consider the likely impacts of water on aerosol concentrations and the relevance of this process for eruptions with possible significant seawater interactions, like Krakatau. We posit that the role of umbrella clouds is an under-appreciated, but significant, process for beginning to model the climatic impacts of large volcanic eruptions.</p>

scholarly journals The influence of spatiality on shipping emissions, air quality and potential human exposure in Yangtze River Delta/Shanghai, China

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junlan Feng ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Shanshan Li ◽  
Jingbo Mao ◽  
Allison P. Patton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Yangtze River ◽  
Human Exposure ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Yangtze River Delta ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Population Exposure ◽  
Inland Water ◽  
The Yrd ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and the megacity of Shanghai are host to one of the busiest port clusters in the world, the region also suffers from high levels of air pollution. The goal of this study was to estimate the contributions of shipping to emissions, air quality, and population exposure and characterize their dependence on the geographic spatiality of ship lanes from the regional scale to city scale for 2015. The WRF-CMAQ model was used to simulate the influence of coastal and inland-water shipping, in port emissions, shipping-related cargo transport on air quality and, population-weighted concentrations, a measure of human exposure. Our results showed that the impact of shipping on air quality in the YRD was attributable primarily to shipping emissions within 12 NM of shore, but emissions coming from the coastal area of 24 to 96 NM still contributed substantially to ship-related PM2.5 concentrations in YRD. The overall contribution of ships to PM2.5 concentration in YRD could reach to 4.62 μg/m3 in summer when monsoon winds transport shipping emissions onshore. In Shanghai city, inland-water going ships were major contributors (40–80 %) to the shipping impact on urban air quality. Given the proximity of inland-water ships to urban populations of Shanghai, the emissions of inland-water ships contributed more to population-weighted concentrations. These research results provide scientific evidence to inform policies for controlling future shipping emissions; in particular, stricter standards could be considered for the ships on inland rivers and other waterways close to residential regions.

scholarly journals The impact of MISR-derived injection height initialization on wildfire and volcanic plume dispersion in the HYSPLIT model

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 6289-6307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles J. Vernon ◽  
Ryan Bolt ◽  
Timothy Canty ◽  
Ralph A. Kahn
Keyword(s):  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Volcanic Plume ◽  
Plume Dispersion ◽  
Hysplit Model ◽  
Particle Injection ◽  
Nominal Model ◽  
Satellite Retrievals ◽  
Aerosol Sources ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The dispersion of particles from wildfires, volcanic eruptions, dust storms, and other aerosol sources can affect many environmental factors downwind, including air quality. Aerosol injection height is one source attribute that mediates downwind dispersion, as wind speed and direction can vary dramatically with elevation. Using plume heights derived from space-based, multi-angle imaging, we examine the impact of initializing plumes in the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory's Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model with satellite-measured vs. nominal (model-calculated or VAAC-reported) injection height on the simulated dispersion of six large aerosol plumes. When there are significant differences in nominal vs. satellite-derived particle injection heights, especially if both heights are in the free troposphere or if one injection height is within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and the other is above the PBL, differences in simulation results can arise. In the cases studied with significant nominal vs. satellite-derived injection height differences, the HYSPLIT model can represent plume evolution better, relative to independent satellite observations, if the injection height in the model is constrained by hyper-stereo satellite retrievals.

scholarly journals Assessing the Economic and Environmental Sustainability of a Regional Air Quality Plan

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Carnevale ◽  
Fabrizio Ferrari ◽  
Giorgio Guariso ◽  
Giuseppe Maffeis ◽  
Enrico Turrini ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Energy Savings ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Pollutant Emission ◽  
Regional Air Quality ◽  
The Impact

Air quality plans must be demonstrated to be economically sustainable and environmentally effective. This paper presents a full cost–benefit and environmental analysis of a large regional air quality plan involving several different actions covering a large spectrum of fields, from domestic heating to passenger and freight transport, from electricity generation to agriculture. The impact of each action is analyzed looking at the possible energy savings, greenhouse gases (GHG) emission reductions, the improvement in air quality, and the consequent decrease in external costs, namely the reduced impact on population health. The analysis is performed by applying a flexible and fast computer tool (RIAT+) that allows for a rapid simulation of different pollutant emission scenario, to assess different air quality indices (AQIs) over a regional scale domain. The results show that, in most cases, the economic savings exceed the implementation costs and thus that these actions can be introduced in air quality plans for the domain under study. The reduced health and climate costs, though relevant in absolute terms, are, in general, only a fraction of the economic benefits of energy savings. This is not true for the measures acting on improvements in electricity generation, since a reduction in power plant emissions (generally with high stacks, far from populated areas) does not significantly impact the air quality inside the region. A shift in energy production to renewable sources can instead provide noticeable effects on GHG emissions. This research raises some interesting and general questions about the adequacy of the methodologies applied to attribute costs (and benefits) to actions, improving a variety of sectors that are different from the one in which the measures are applied here.

The contribution of shipping to air pollution in the Mediterranean region – a model evaluation study 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lea Fink ◽  
Volker Matthias ◽  
Matthias Karl ◽  
Ronny Petrik ◽  
Elisa Majamäki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Mediterranean Coast ◽  
Emission Model ◽  
Ship Emissions ◽  
Scale Models ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Impact

<p>Shipping has major contribution to emissions of air pollutants like NOx and SO2 and the global maritime transport volumes are projected to increase significantly. The Mediterranean Sea is a region with dense ship traffic. Air quality observations in many cities along the Mediterranean coast indicate high levels of NO2 and particulate matter with significant contributions from ship emissions.<br>To quantify the current impact of shipping on air pollution, models for ship emissions and atmospheric transport can be applied, but model predictions may differ from observational data. To determine how well regional scale chemistry transport models simulate pollutant concentrations, the model outputs from several regional scale models were compared against each other and to measured data.<br>In the framework of the EU H2020 project SCIPPER, ship emission model STEAM and the regional scale models CMAQ and CHIMERE model were applied on a modelling domain covering the Mediterranean Sea. Modeling results were compared to air quality observations at coastal locations. The impact of shipping in the Mediterranean Sea was extracted from the model excluding shipping emissions.</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Constraining chemical transport PM<sub>2.5</sub> modeling outputs using surface monitor measurements and satellite retrievals: application over the San Joaquin Valley

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (17) ◽  
pp. 12891-12913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariel D. Friberg ◽  
Ralph A. Kahn ◽  
James A. Limbacher ◽  
K. Wyat Appel ◽  
James A. Mulholland
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Aerosol Optical Depth ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Cross Validation ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Chemical Transport ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Air Mass ◽  
Uncertainty Estimates ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Advances in satellite retrieval of aerosol type can improve the accuracy of near-surface air quality characterization by providing broad regional context and decreasing metric uncertainties and errors. The frequent, spatially extensive and radiometrically consistent instantaneous constraints can be especially useful in areas away from ground monitors and progressively downwind of emission sources. We present a physical approach to constraining regional-scale estimates of PM2.5, its major chemical component species estimates, and related uncertainty estimates of chemical transport model (CTM; e.g., the Community Multi-scale Air Quality Model) outputs. This approach uses ground-based monitors where available, combined with aerosol optical depth and qualitative constraints on aerosol size, shape, and light-absorption properties from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on the NASA Earth Observing System's Terra satellite. The CTM complements these data by providing complete spatial and temporal coverage. Unlike widely used approaches that train statistical regression models, the technique developed here leverages CTM physical constraints such as the conservation of aerosol mass and meteorological consistency, independent of observations. The CTM also aids in identifying relationships between observed species concentrations and emission sources.Aerosol air mass types over populated regions of central California are characterized using satellite data acquired during the 2013 San Joaquin field deployment of the NASA Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality (DISCOVER-AQ) project. We investigate the optimal application of incorporating 275 m horizontal-resolution aerosol air-mass-type maps and total-column aerosol optical depth from the MISR Research Aerosol retrieval algorithm (RA) into regional-scale CTM output. The impact on surface PM2.5 fields progressively downwind of large single sources is evaluated using contemporaneous surface observations. Spatiotemporal R2 and RMSE values for the model, constrained by both satellite and surface monitor measurements based on 10-fold cross-validation, are 0.79 and 0.33 for PM2.5, 0.88 and 0.65 for NO3−, 0.78 and 0.23 for SO42−, 1.00 and 1.01 for NH4+, 0.73 and 0.23 for OC, and 0.31 and 0.65 for EC, respectively. Regional cross-validation temporal and spatiotemporal R2 results for the satellite-based PM2.5 improve by 30 % and 13 %, respectively, in comparison to unconstrained CTM simulations and provide finer spatial resolution. SO42− cross-validation values showed the largest spatial and spatiotemporal R2 improvement, with a 43 % increase. Assessing this physical technique in a well-instrumented region opens the possibility of applying it globally, especially over areas where surface air quality measurements are scarce or entirely absent.

The Prediction of SO2 Pollutant Concentration Using a RBF Neural Network

2011 ◽  
Vol 55-57 ◽  
pp. 1392-1396
Author(s):  
Cheng Yuan Wang ◽  
Wen Yu Zhang ◽  
Ju Jie Wang ◽  
Wen Fang Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Quality Indicators ◽  
Rbf Neural Network ◽  
Management Systems ◽  
Percentage Error ◽  
Nonlinear Phenomena ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Data Sequence ◽  
The Impact

Air pollution may cause pernicious effects on human health, and is a widespread problem in the world. Air quality management systems have became an important research issue with strong implications for inhabitants’ health. Monitoring and forecasting of air quality indicators plays an important role in the management systems. Artificial intelligent techniques are successfully used in modelling of highly complex and nonlinear phenomena. In this paper, a model, which is radial basis function (RBF) neural network, is established to estimate the impact of meteorological indicators on SO2. The proposed model achieves 9.91% in mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) compared to real observation data sequence. For air quality, it could be a promising candidate for forecasting the air quality indicators data sequence.

scholarly journals Synergistic use of Lagrangian dispersion and radiative transfer modelling with satellite and surface remote sensing measurements for the investigation of volcanic plumes: the Mount Etna eruption of 25–27 October 2013

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 6841-6861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasquale Sellitto ◽  
Alcide di Sarra ◽  
Stefano Corradini ◽  
Marie Boichu ◽  
Hervé Herbin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Size Distribution ◽  
Volcanic Eruption ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Mount Etna ◽  
Aerosol Size Distribution ◽  
Volcanic Plume ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Lagrangian Dispersion ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. In this paper we combine SO2 and ash plume dispersion modelling with satellite and surface remote sensing observations to study the regional influence of a relatively weak volcanic eruption from Mount Etna on the optical and micro-physical properties of Mediterranean aerosols. We analyse the Mount Etna eruption episode of 25–27 October 2013. The evolution of the plume along the trajectory is investigated by means of the FLEXible PARTicle Lagrangian dispersion (FLEXPART) model. The satellite data set includes true colour images, retrieved values of volcanic SO2 and ash, estimates of SO2 and ash emission rates derived from MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) observations and estimates of cloud top pressure from SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager). Surface remote sensing measurements of aerosol and SO2 made at the ENEA Station for Climate Observations (35.52° N, 12.63° E; 50 m a.s.l.) on the island of Lampedusa are used in the analysis. The combination of these different data sets suggests that SO2 and ash, despite the initial injection at about 7.0 km altitude, reached altitudes around 10–12 km and influenced the column average aerosol particle size distribution at a distance of more than 350 km downwind. This study indicates that even a relatively weak volcanic eruption may produce an observable effect on the aerosol properties at the regional scale. The impact of secondary sulfate particles on the aerosol size distribution at Lampedusa is discussed and estimates of the clear-sky direct aerosol radiative forcing are derived. Daily shortwave radiative forcing efficiencies, i.e. radiative forcing per unit AOD (aerosol optical depth), are calculated with the LibRadtran model. They are estimated between −39 and −48 W m−2 AOD−1 at the top of the atmosphere and between −66 and −49 W m−2 AOD−1 at the surface, with the variability in the estimates mainly depending on the aerosol single scattering albedo. These results suggest that sulfate particles played a large role in the transported plume composition and radiative forcing, while the contribution by ash particles was small in the volcanic plume arriving at Lampedusa during this event.

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