Project Description
High Ozone, Ultrafine particles and Secondary aerosol Episodes in urban and regional backgrounds in NE Spain
The HOUSE project is leaded by Xavier Querol and Andres Alastuey, from EGAR. The international research team is integrated by researchers from IDAEA-CSIC, CUD, AEMET, CEAM, UPV/EHU, Hangyang University, U. Birmingham, U. Marseille-CNR, U. Helsinki.
Marco Pandolfi, EGAR, IDAEA-CSIC
Gloria Titos, EGAR, IDAEA-CSIC
Noemí Pérez, EGAR, IDAEA-CSIC
Cristina Reche, EGAR, IDAEA-CSIC
Miguel Escudero, Centro Universitario de Defensa (CUD), Zaragoza, Spain
Juan Ramón Moreta: Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET)
Enrique Mantilla: Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterráneo (CEAM)
Gotzon Gangoiti: Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU
Lucio Alonso Gangoiti: Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU
Roy M. Harrison: University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
David C. Beddows: University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Markku Kulmala: University of Helsinki (UHEL), Finland
Tuukka Petäjä: University of Helsinki (UHEL), Finland
Nicolas Marchand: Aix Marseille University, France
Kang-Ho Ahn: Hanyang University, South Korea
Andre Prevot: Laboratory Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC) Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Switzerland
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.
Additional measurements are welcome.
Foreigner users may participate via the opportunities of ACTRIS transnational access (TNA). The procedure for TNA can be found here
For more information, please contact: Andrés Alastuey, Xavier Querol
HOUSE (CGL2016-78594-R) is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds.