Enhancing anthropogenic NMVOC emission speciation for European air quality modelling.

Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds (NMVOCs) impact health and air quality, contributing to ozone and secondary organic aerosols (SOA). With stricter pollutant limits and a growing emphasis on modelling under the new European Ambient Air Quality Directive, improving NMVOC representation - particularly in terms of speciation - is essential. Current state-of-the-art European inventories rely on outdated data, potentially limiting accuracy.

Comparison of High-Resolution Gridded Emission Maps of Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide in Europe: GRACED & CAMS-REG.

Gridded maps of CO emissions are increasingly being applied in emission change analyses and atmospheric studies. In this study, we compared two high-resolution gridded estimates of anthropogenic CO emissions in Europe for 2019-2021: the near-real-time Global gridded daily CO emission data set (GRACED, latest updated version May 2024) and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service regional inventory (CAMS-REG, v6 for 2019-2020, and v7 for 2021). Total CO emissions of the two data sets are comparable, with a 2.

Health impact assessment of urban and transport developments in Barcelona: A case study.

Background: Urban spaces need to be rethought to address growing health and environmental challenges. Urban density and transport systems contribute significantly to air pollution, negatively impacting public health. Barcelona has begun a transformation by introducing the Superblock model, an urban development with proven health benefits.

Geographic sources of ozone air pollution and mortality burden in Europe.

Ground-level ozone (O) is a harmful air pollutant formed in the atmosphere by the interaction between sunlight and precursor gases. Exposure to current O levels in Europe is a major source of premature mortality from air pollution. However, mitigation actions have been mainly designed and implemented at the national and regional scales, lacking a comprehensive assessment of the geographic sources of O pollution and its associated health impacts.

Uncertainties in source allocation of carbonaceous aerosols in a Mediterranean region.

Understanding the atmospheric processes involving carbonaceous aerosols (CAs) is crucial for assessing air pollution impacts on human health and climate. The sources and formation mechanisms of CAs are not well understood, making it challenging to quantify impacts in models. Studies suggest residential wood combustion (RWC) and traffic significantly contribute to CAs in Europe's urban and rural areas.

Assessing ozone abatement scenarios in the framework of the Spanish ozone mitigation plan.

Tropospheric ozone (O) is a secondary air pollutant that affects human health, vegetation and climate, especially in Mediterranean countries such as Spain. In order to tackle this long-standing issue, the Spanish government recently started to design the Spanish O Mitigation Plan. To support this initiative and ultimately provide recommendations, we performed a first ambitious emission and air quality modeling exercise.

Global nature run data with realistic high-resolution carbon weather for the year of the Paris Agreement.

The CO Human Emissions project has generated realistic high-resolution 9 km global simulations for atmospheric carbon tracers referred to as nature runs to foster carbon-cycle research applications with current and planned satellite missions, as well as the surge of in situ observations. Realistic atmospheric CO, CH and CO fields can provide a reference for assessing the impact of proposed designs of new satellites and in situ networks and to study atmospheric variability of the tracers modulated by the weather. The simulations spanning 2015 are based on the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service forecasts at the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, with improvements in various model components and input data such as anthropogenic emissions, in preparation of a CO Monitoring and Verification Support system.

Differential impact of government lockdown policies on reducing air pollution levels and related mortality in Europe.

Previous studies have reported a decrease in air pollution levels following the enforcement of lockdown measures during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these investigations were mostly based on simple pre-post comparisons using past years as a reference and did not assess the role of different policy interventions. This study contributes to knowledge by quantifying the association between specific lockdown measures and the decrease in NO, O, PM, and PM levels across 47 European cities.

To what extent the traffic restriction policies applied in Barcelona city can improve its air quality?

Barcelona city (Spain) is applying a series of traffic restriction measures that aim at renewing and reducing the amount of circulating vehicles to improve air quality. The measures include changes in the built environment to reduce private vehicle space in specific areas through the so-called "superblocks" and tactical urban planning actions, along with the implementation of a city-wide Low Emission Zone (LEZ) that restricts the entry of the most polluting vehicles to the city. Our study quantifies the impact of these measures in the greater area of Barcelona combining a coupled macroscopic traffic and pollutant emission model with a multi-scale air quality model.

Ozone source apportionment during peak summer events over southwestern Europe.

It is well established that in Europe, high O concentrations are most pronounced in southern/Mediterranean countries due to the more favourable climatological conditions for its formation. However, the contribution of the different sources of precursors to O formation within each country relative to the imported (regional and hemispheric) O is poorly quantified. This lack of quantitative knowledge prevents local authorities from effectively designing plans that reduce the exceedances of the O target value set by the European air quality directive.

Integrated assessment of air pollution using observations and modelling in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Canary Islands).

The present study aims to analyse the atmospheric dynamics of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife region (Tenerife, Canary Islands). This area is defined by the presence of anthropogenic emissions (from a refinery, a port and road traffic) and by very specific meteorological and orographic conditions-it is a coastal area with a complex topography in which there is an interaction of regional atmospheric dynamics and a low thermal inversion layer. These factors lead to specific atmospheric pollution episodes, particularly in relation to SO2 and PM10.