HOUSE PROJECT

Description

The photochemical reactions in atmosphere take place in a very complex system in which solar radiation, humidity, temperature, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including biogenic ones (BVOCs), inorganic gaseous pollutants (NOx, NH₃, SO₂), halogens (I, Cl, Br), radicals, O₃ and ultrafine particles (UFP, those <100nm) play major roles. The generation of O₃, UFP and secondary aerosols (SA) from this system is a hot topic in atmospheric science, but also for air quality. The horizontal and vertical variation of O₃ and UFP is poorly experimentally described in both urban and regional backgrounds; and this is of special relevance in the Western Mediterranean where specific meteorological, geographic and emission patterns results in enhanced photochemistry. In this area O₃ and UFP are recorded in high levels and are important for policies focusing on abatement of both climate forcing and health-ecosystems effects of air pollution. Another important sub-product of this NOx catalysed system is the organic SA (SOA), from both anthropogenic (ASOA) and enhanced biogenic (eBSOA) origins.

Objectives

i) investigating the spatial variability of O₃ and UFP in NE Iberian Peninsula where these air quality parameters are of special relevance; and

ii) analysing the atmospheric scenarios yielding to high formation rates of O₃, UFP, SOA and inorganic SA (SIA) in the Western Mediterranean. Our final aim is providing experimental results describing the atmospheric episodes yielding to high levels of these pollutants and to investigate the source origins (natural/anthropogenic, local/regional/hemispheric) based on results from specially designed measurement campaigns with state of the art instrumentation for UFP (PSM), aerosols (TAG-AMS, ACSM), VOCs (HR-PTR-MS), airborne measurements (balloons) equipped with miniaturised instruments, passive dosimeters and long term measurements. The results will be integrated with those from the existing ground based and vertical measurements carried out in the IDAEA air quality experimental to support building of new knowledge as well as policy issues on climate change, air quality, and long-range transport of pollutants.

Our results on the photochemical pollution episodes coupled with modelling outputs from other teams and projects developed will provide important information for designing and assessing air quality plans for abating photochemical pollutants in Spain.

Field campaign

In the framework of HOUSE we are organizing a field campaign in July 2017 that will take place in Northern Barcelona area (Vic, Montseny, Barcelona). The campaign is focused on ozone and photochemical precursors and will consist of three major activities:

1. Ozone measurements by using passive dosimeters, conventional monitors and sensors covering a large spatial area northern Barcelona, during July 2017.

2. Intensive measurements of O₃, ultrafine particles, clusters and gaseous precursors (VOCs and NOx) at Montseny and Barcelona, July 4th to 20th 2017.

3. Vertical profiles of O₃, UFP, BC, by using instrumented tethered balloons, during measurements of UFP and O₃. July 10th to 14th 2017.

Collaborators

The campaign is organized by EGAR (IDAEA-CSIC) in collaboration with:
CUD: Centro Universitario de Defensa (Zaragoza, Spain). Co-coordination
Hangyang University: Vertical profiling using tethered balloons with miniaturised SMPS, CPC, OPC, meteo, and O₃ instrumentation. Data interpretation.
University of Birmingham: Intensive measurements of number of ultrafine particles in the range 1-3 nm using PSM and chemistry of ion clusters by Aerodyne Research Tof – CIMS. Data interpretation.
Aix Marseille University: Intensive measurements at Montseny site using HR-ToF-PTR MS. Data interpretation.
LAC-PSI: Off line characterization of filters by using HR-ToF-AMS. Data interpretation.
University of Helsinki: Data interpretation.
CEAM: Data interpretation.
UPV/EHU: Data interpretation.
AEMET: Ozone Soundings.