Emissões atmosféricas e implicações potenciais sobre a biota terrestre devido as atividades antrópicas na Baía do Almirantado/ Ilha Rei George Antártica

Neste trabalho foi realizado um estudo sobre o impacto sobre a atmosfera e a biota terrestre devido às emissões antrópicas na Baia do Almirantado/Ilha Rei George Antártica. Foram monitoradas as emissões dos compostos orgânicos voláteis e semi-voláteis, tanto nas fontes emissoras como no entorno da Estação Antártica Comandante Ferraz e estimadas as emissões dos navios, dos geradores a diesel e da incineração de lixo. Na avaliação do entorno, coletaram-se amostras de ar, neve e penas de aves. Com os resultados das emissões, do estudo topográfico e da meteorologia, realizou-se uma modelagem de plumas gaussiana para avaliar os impactos. Quatro cenários foram avaliados: dois com a presença dos navios NApOc Ary Rongel e Maximiano apresentaram concentrações máximas de até 356 g m-3 de COV e 18 g m-3 de material particulado, enquanto os demais, sem a presença dos navios, apenas considerando as estações de pesquisa EACF e Arctowski, apresentaram concentrações máximas de até 2,5 g m-3 de COV e 1,3 g m-3 de material particulado. Amostras de COV coletadas foram compatíveis com o cenário mais crítico. O estudo de correlação para carbonilas e HPA atmosférico e Carbono elementar e HPA, depositados em neve, apontaram a EACF como a principal fonte de emissão. As concentrações de levoglucosano detectadas a aproximadamente 2 km da EACF apontaram para a prática de incineração de lixo da EACF. Todas as áreas de interesse biológicos, anteriormente mapeados, dentro da AAEG, são vulneráveis às emissões antrópicas, como sugeriu o modelo de dispersão e a sobreposição dos resultados encontrados.

Future Air Quality Related Health Effects in Europe and the Nordic Region—Sensitivity to Changes in Climate, Anthropogenic Emissions, Demography and Building Stock

Future changes in population exposures to ambient air pollution are inherently linked with long-term trends in outdoor air quality, but also with changes in the building stock. Moreover, the burden of disease is further driven by the ageing of the European populations. This study aims to assess the impact of changes in climate, emissions, building stocks and population on air pollution related human health impacts across Europe in the future. Therefore an integrated assessment model combining atmospheric models and health impacts has been setup for projections of the future developments in air pollution related premature mortality. The focus is here on the regional scale impacts of exposure to surface ozone (O3), Secondary Inorganic Aerosols (SIA) and primary particulate matter (PPM).

Gaussian mixture modeling with Gaussian process latent variable models

Density modeling is notoriously difficult for high dimensional data. One approach to the problem is to search for a lower dimensional manifold which captures the main characteristics of the data. Recently, the Gaussian Process Latent Variable Model (GPLVM) has successfully been used to find low dimensional manifolds in a variety of complex data. The GPLVM consists of a set of points in a low dimensional latent space, and a stochastic map to the observed space. We show how it can be interpreted as a density model in the observed space. However, the GPLVM is not trained as a density model and therefore yields bad density estimates. We propose a new training strategy and obtain improved generalisation performance and better density estimates in comparative evaluations on several benchmark data sets. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Climate responses to anthropogenic emissions of short-lived climate pollutants

Policies to control air quality focus on mitigating emissions of aerosols and their precursors, and other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). On a local scale, these policies will have beneficial impacts on health and crop yields, by reducing particulate matter (PM) and surface ozone concentrations; however, the climate impacts of reducing emissions of SLCPs are less straightforward to predict. In this paper we consider a set of idealised, extreme mitigation strategies, in which the total anthropogenic emissions of individual SLCP emissions species are removed. This provides an upper bound on the potential climate impacts of such air quality strategies. We focus on evaluating the climate responses to changes in anthropogenic emissions of aerosol precursor species: black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). We perform climate integrations with four fully coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models (AOGCMs), and examine the effects on global and regional climate of removing the total land-based anthropogenic emissions of each of the three aerosol precursor species. We find that the SO2 emissions reductions lead to the strongest response, with all three models showing an increase in surface temperature focussed in the northern hemisphere high latitudes, and a corresponding increase in global mean precipitation and run-off. Changes in precipitation and run-off patterns are driven mostly by a northward shift in the ITCZ, consistent with the hemispherically asymmetric warming pattern driven by the emissions changes. The BC and OC emissions reductions give a much weaker forcing signal, and there is some disagreement between models in the sign of the climate responses to these perturbations. These differences between models are due largely to natural variability in sea-ice extent, circulation patterns and cloud changes. This large natural variability component to the signal when the ocean circulation and sea-ice are free-running means that the BC and OC mitigation measures do not necessarily lead to a discernible climate response.

Nitrogen Oxides in the North Atlantic Troposphere: Impacts of Boreal Wildfire and Anthropogenic Emissions

Nitrogen oxides play a crucial role in the budget of tropospheric ozone (O sub(3)) and the formation of the hydroxyl radical. Anthropogenic activities and boreal wildfires are large sources of emissions in the atmosphere. However, the influence of the transport of these emissions on nitrogen oxides and O sub(3) levels at hemispheric scales is not well understood, in particular due to a lack of nitrogen oxides measurements in remote regions. In order to address these deficiencies, measurements of NO, NO sub(2) and NO sub(y) (total reactive nitrogen oxides) were made in the lower free troposphere (FT) over the central North Atlantic region (Pico Mountain station, 38 degree N 28 degree W, 2.3 km asl) from July 2002 to August 2005. These measurements reveal a well-defined seasonal cycle of nitrogen oxides (NO sub(x) = NO+NO sub(2) and NO sub(y)) in the background central North Atlantic lower FT, with higher mixing ratios during the summertime. Observed NO sub(x) and NO sub(y) levels are consistent with long-range transport of emissions, but with significant removal en-route to the measurement site. Reactive nitrogen largely exists in the form of PAN and HNO sub(3) ( similar to 80-90% of NO sub(y)) all year round. A shift in the composition of NO sub(y) from dominance of PAN to dominance of HNO sub(3) occurs from winter-spring to summer-fall, as a result of changes in temperature and photochemistry over the region. Analysis of the long-range transport of boreal wildfire emissions on nitrogen oxides provides evidence of the very large-scale impacts of boreal wildfires on the tropospheric NO sub(x) and O sub(3) budgets. Boreal wildfire emissions are responsible for significant shifts in the nitrogen oxides distributions toward higher levels during the summer, with medians of NO sub(y) (117-175 pptv) and NO sub(x) (9-30 pptv) greater in the presence of boreal wildfire emissions. Extreme levels of NO sub(x) (up to 150 pptv) and NO sub(y) (up to 1100 pptv) observed in boreal wildfire plumes suggest that decomposition of PAN to NO sub(x) is a significant source of NO sub(x), and imply that O sub(3) formation occurs during transport. Ozone levels are also significantly enhanced in boreal wildfire plumes. However, a complex behavior of O sub(3) is observed in the plumes, which varies from significant to lower O sub(3) production to O sub(3) destruction. Long-range transport of anthropogenic emissions from North America also has a significant influence on the regional NO sub(x) and O sub(3) budgets. Transport of pollution from North America causes significant enhancements on nitrogen oxides year-round. Enhancements of CO, NO sub(y) and NO sub(x) indicate that, consistent with previous studies, more than 95% of the NO sub(x) emitted over the U.S. is removed before and during export out of the U.S. boundary layer. However, about 30% of the NO sub(x) emissions exported out of the U.S. boundary layer remain in the airmasses. Since the lifetime of NO sub(x) is shorter than the transport timescale, PAN decomposition and potentially photolysis of HNO sub(3) provide a supply of NO sub(x) over the central North Atlantic lower FT. Observed Delta O sub(3)/ Delta NO sub(y) and large NO sub(y) levels remaining in the North American plumes suggest potential O sub(3) formation well downwind from North America. Finally, a comparison of the nitrogen oxides measurements with results from the global chemical transport (GCT) model GEOS-Chem identifies differences between the observations and the model. GEOS-Chem reproduces the seasonal variation of nitrogen oxides over the central North Atlantic lower FT, but does not capture the magnitude of the cycles. Improvements in our understanding of nitrogen oxides chemistry in the remote FT and emission sources are necessary for the current GCT models to adequately estimate the impacts of emissions on tropospheric NO sub(x) and the resulting impacts on the O sub(3) budget.

Historic records of organic compounds from a high Alpine glacier: influences of biomass burning, anthropogenic emissions, and dust transport

Historic records of α-dicarbonyls (glyoxal, methylglyoxal), carboxylic acids (C6–C12 dicarboxylic acids, pinic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, phthalic acid, 4-methylphthalic acid), and ions (oxalate, formate, calcium) were determined with annual resolution in an ice core from Grenzgletscher in the southern Swiss Alps, covering the time period from 1942 to 1993. Chemical analysis of the organic compounds was conducted using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled to electrospray ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry (ESI-HRMS) for dicarbonyls and long-chain carboxylic acids and ion chromatography for short-chain carboxylates. Long-term records of the carboxylic acids and dicarbonyls, as well as their source apportionment, are reported for western Europe. This is the first study comprising long-term trends of dicarbonyls and long-chain dicarboxylic acids (C6–C12) in Alpine precipitation. Source assignment of the organic species present in the ice core was performed using principal component analysis. Our results suggest biomass burning, anthropogenic emissions, and transport of mineral dust to be the main parameters influencing the concentration of organic compounds. Ice core records of several highly correlated compounds (e.g., p-hydroxybenzoic acid, pinic acid, pimelic, and suberic acids) can be related to the forest fire history in southern Switzerland. P-hydroxybenzoic acid was found to be the best organic fire tracer in the study area, revealing the highest correlation with the burned area from fires. Historical records of methylglyoxal, phthalic acid, and dicarboxylic acids adipic acid, sebacic acid, and dodecanedioic acid are comparable with that of anthropogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The small organic acids, oxalic acid and formic acid, are both highly correlated with calcium, suggesting their records to be affected by changing mineral dust transport to the drilling site.

Deposition and washout computations based on the generalized Gaussian plume model /

"September 30, 1963."

Global modeling of pollutant transport and deposition from anthropogenic emission hot spots on global scale

Urban centers significantly contribute to anthropogenic air pollution, although they cover only a minor fraction of the Earth's land surface. Since the worldwide degree of urbanization is steadily increasing, the anthropogenic contribution to air pollution from urban centers is expected to become more substantial in future air quality assessments. The main objective of this thesis was to obtain a more profound insight in the dispersion and the deposition of aerosol particles from 46 individual major population centers (MPCs) as well as the regional and global influence on the atmospheric distribution of several aerosol types. For the first time, this was assessed in one model framework, for which the global model EMAC was applied with different representations of aerosol particles. First, in an approach with passive tracers and a setup in which the results depend only on the source location and the size and the solubility of the tracers, several metrics and a regional climate classification were used to quantify the major outflow pathways, both vertically and horizontally, and to compare the balance between pollution export away from and pollution build-up around the source points. Then in a more comprehensive approach, the anthropogenic emissions of key trace species were changed at the MPC locations to determine the cumulative impact of the MPC emissions on the atmospheric aerosol burdens of black carbon, particulate organic matter, sulfate, and nitrate. Ten different mono-modal passive aerosol tracers were continuously released at the same constant rate at each emission point. The results clearly showed that on average about five times more mass is advected quasi-horizontally at low levels than exported into the upper troposphere. The strength of the low-level export is mainly determined by the location of the source, while the vertical transport is mainly governed by the lifting potential and the solubility of the tracers. Similar to insoluble gas phase tracers, the low-level export of aerosol tracers is strongest at middle and high latitudes, while the regions of strongest vertical export differ between aerosol (temperate winter dry) and gas phase (tropics) tracers. The emitted mass fraction that is kept around MPCs is largest in regions where aerosol tracers have short lifetimes; this mass is also critical for assessing the impact on humans. However, the number of people who live in a strongly polluted region around urban centers depends more on the population density than on the size of the area which is affected by strong air pollution. Another major result was that fine aerosol particles (diameters smaller than 2.5 micrometer) from MPCs undergo substantial long-range transport, with about half of the emitted mass being deposited beyond 1000 km away from the source. In contrast to this diluted remote deposition, there are areas around the MPCs which experience high deposition rates, especially in regions which are frequently affected by heavy precipitation or are situated in poorly ventilated locations. Moreover, most MPC aerosol emissions are removed over land surfaces. In particular, forests experience more deposition from MPC pollutants than other land ecosystems. In addition, it was found that the generic treatment of aerosols has no substantial influence on the major conclusions drawn in this thesis. Moreover, in the more comprehensive approach, it was found that emissions of black carbon, particulate organic matter, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides from MPCs influence the atmospheric burden of various aerosol types very differently, with impacts generally being larger for secondary species, sulfate and nitrate, than for primary species, black carbon and particulate organic matter. While the changes in the burdens of sulfate, black carbon, and particulate organic matter show an almost linear response for changes in the emission strength, the formation of nitrate was found to be contingent upon many more factors, e.g., the abundance of sulfuric acid, than only upon the strength of the nitrogen oxide emissions. The generic tracer experiments were further extended to conduct the first risk assessment to obtain the cumulative risk of contamination from multiple nuclear reactor accidents on the global scale. For this, many factors had to be taken into account: the probability of major accidents, the cumulative deposition field of the radionuclide cesium-137, and a threshold value that defines contamination. By collecting the necessary data and after accounting for uncertainties, it was found that the risk is highest in western Europe, the eastern US, and in Japan, where on average contamination by major accidents is expected about every 50 years.

Emissões de compostos orgânicos voláteis de um aterro controlado e o potencial formador de ozônio

O presente estudo teve como objetivo quantificar as emissões de Compostos Orgânicos Voláteis do Aterro Controlado Morro do Céu localizado na cidade de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Para tanto, vinte amostras foram coletadas, usando uma bomba de ar operada a bateria durante dois dias de dezembro de 2009. Uma câmara de fluxo cilíndrica de PVC de 30L foi inserida 5 cm no solo do aterro, e as amostras foram coletadas através de uma válvula na parte superior da câmera. Os resultados indicaram um valor de 1.980 Kg Km-2 h-1. O modelo Gaussiano de dispersão atmosférica ISCST3 foi utilizado para calcular a difusão e transporte dos poluentes a fim de estimar as concentrações de COV no bairro, usando dados topográficos, meteorológicos e de emissões. Valores de 525 μg m-3 de COV foram encontrados a 500 metros do aterro. As emissões do aterro foram usadas em conjunto com dados meteorológicos, utilizando o modelo de trajetória OZIPR e o mecanismo químico SAPRC para demonstrar o impacto na formação do ozônio troposférico na região. É conhecido que o ozônio é formado pela reação entre COV, NOx e luz solar. A contribuição de valores elevados de COV provenientes das emissões do aterro conduzirá a uma nova situação com valores mais elevados de ozônio na região. Os resultados da modelagem indicaram um aumento maior que 1000% nos níveis de ozônio na região do aterro, se comparado com a modelagem do ozônio para a região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro. Os resultados mostram ser necessário que maior atenção seja dada à política de gerenciamento de RSU no Brasil, incluindo a escolha adequada para o local de instalação, o monitoramento da área durante e após o período de operação e técnicas mais adequadas de disposição dos resíduos sólidos urbanos

Aircraft-based in-situ aerosol mass spectrometry: Chemical characterization and source identification of submicron particulate matter in the free and upper troposphere and lower stratosphere

The composition of the atmosphere is frequently perturbed by the emission of gaseous and particulate matter from natural as well as anthropogenic sources. While the impact of trace gases on the radiative forcing of the climate is relatively well understood the role of aerosol is far more uncertain. Therefore, the study of the vertical distribution of particulate matter in the atmosphere and its chemical composition contribute valuable information to bridge this gap of knowledge. The chemical composition of aerosol reveals information on properties such as radiative behavior and hygroscopicity and therefore cloud condensation or ice nucleus potential. rnThis thesis focuses on aerosol pollution plumes observed in 2008 during the POLARCAT (Polar Study using Aircraft, Remote Sensing, Surface Measurements and Models, of Climate, Chemistry, Aerosols, and Transport) campaign over Greenland in June/July and CONCERT (Contrail and Cirrus Experiment) campaign over Central and Western Europe in October/November. Measurements were performed with an Aerodyne compact time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) capable of online size-resolved chemical characterization of non-refractory submicron particles. In addition, the origins of pollution plumes were determined by means of modeling tools. The characterized pollution episodes originated from a large variety of sources and were encountered at distinct altitudes. They included pure natural emissions from two volcanic eruptions in 2008. By the time of detection over Western Europe between 10 and 12 km altitude the plume was about 3 months old and composed to 71 % of particulate sulfate and 21 % of carbonaceous compounds. Also, biomass burning (BB) plumes were observed over Greenland between 4 and 7 km altitude (free troposphere) originating from Canada and East Siberia. The long-range transport took roughly one and two weeks, respectively. The aerosol was composed of 78 % organic matter and 22 % particulate sulfate. Some Canadian and all Siberian BB plumes were mixed with anthropogenic emissions from fossil fuel combustion (FF) in North America and East Asia. It was found that the contribution of particulate sulfate increased with growing influences from anthropogenic activity and Asia reaching up to 37 % after more than two weeks of transport time. The most exclusively anthropogenic emission source probed in the upper troposphere was engine exhaust from commercial aircraft liners over Germany. However, in-situ characterization of this aerosol type during aircraft chasing was not possible. All long-range transport aerosol was found to have an O:C ratio close to or greater than 1 implying that low-volatility oxygenated organic aerosol was present in each case despite the variety of origins and the large range in age from 3 to 100 days. This leads to the conclusion that organic particulate matter reaches a final and uniform state of oxygenation after at least 3 days in the free troposphere. rnExcept for aircraft exhaust all emission sources mentioned above are surface-bound and thus rely on different types of vertical transport mechanisms, such as direct high altitude injection in the case of a volcanic eruption, or severe BB, or uplift by convection, to reach higher altitudes where particles can travel long distances before removal mainly caused by cloud scavenging. A lifetime for North American mixed BB and FF aerosol of 7 to 11 days was derived. This in consequence means that emission from surface point sources, e.g. volcanoes, or regions, e.g. East Asia, do not only have a relevant impact on the immediate surroundings but rather on a hemispheric scale including such climate sensitive zones as the tropopause or the Arctic.

Entwicklung und Anwendung von mobilen Messstrategien und Analysemethoden zur Untersuchung urbanen Aerosols

Seit Anbeginn der Menschheitsgeschichte beeinflussen die Menschen ihre Umwelt. Durch anthropogene Emissionen ändert sich die Zusammensetzung der Atmosphäre, was einen zunehmenden Einfluss unter anderem auf die Atmosphärenchemie, die Gesundheit von Mensch, Flora und Fauna und das Klima hat. Die steigende Anzahl riesiger, wachsender Metropolen geht einher mit einer räumlichen Konzentration der Emission von Luftschadstoffen, was vor allem einen Einfluss auf die Luftqualität der windabwärts gelegenen ruralen Regionen hat. In dieser Doktorarbeit wurde im Rahmen des MEGAPOLI-Projektes die Abluftfahne der Megastadt Paris unter Anwendung des mobilen Aerosolforschungslabors MoLa untersucht. Dieses ist mit modernen, zeitlich hochauflösenden Instrumenten zur Messung der chemischen Zusammensetzung und Größenverteilung der Aerosolpartikel sowie einiger Spurengase ausgestattet. Es wurden mobile Messstrategien entwickelt und angewendet, die besonders geeignet zur Charakterisierung urbaner Emissionen sind. Querschnittsmessfahrten durch die Abluftfahne und atmosphärische Hintergrundluftmassen erlaubten sowohl die Bestimmung der Struktur und Homogenität der Abluftfahne als auch die Berechnung des Beitrags der urbanen Emissionen zur Gesamtbelastung der Atmosphäre. Quasi-Lagrange’sche Radialmessfahrten dienten der Erkundung der räumlichen Erstreckung der Abluftfahne sowie auftretender Transformationsprozesse der advehierten Luftschadstoffe. In Kombination mit Modellierungen konnte die Struktur der Abluftfahne vertieft untersucht werden. Flexible stationäre Messungen ergänzten den Datensatz und ließen zudem Vergleichsmessungen mit anderen Messstationen zu. Die Daten einer ortsfesten Messstation wurden zusätzlich verwendet, um die Alterung des organischen Partikelanteils zu beschreiben. Die Analyse der mobilen Messdaten erforderte die Entwicklung einer neuen Methode zur Bereinigung des Datensatzes von lokalen Störeinflüssen. Des Weiteren wurden die Möglichkeiten, Grenzen und Fehler bei der Anwendung komplexer Analyseprogramme zur Berechnung des O/C-Verhältnisses der Partikel sowie der Klassifizierung der Aerosolorganik untersucht. Eine Validierung verschiedener Methoden zur Bestimmung der Luftmassenherkunft war für die Auswertung ebenfalls notwendig. Die detaillierte Untersuchung der Abluftfahne von Paris ergab, dass diese sich anhand der Erhöhung der Konzentrationen von Indikatoren für unprozessierte Luftverschmutzung im Vergleich zu Hintergrundwerten identifizieren lässt. Ihre eher homogene Struktur kann zumeist durch eine Gauß-Form im Querschnitt mit einem exponentiellen Abfall der unprozessierten Schadstoffkonzentrationen mit zunehmender Distanz zur Stadt beschrieben werden. Hierfür ist hauptsächlich die turbulente Vermischung mit Umgebungsluftmassen verantwortlich. Es konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass in der advehierten Abluftfahne eine deutliche Oxidation der Aerosolorganik im Sommer stattfindet; im Winter hingegen ließ sich dieser Prozess während der durchgeführten Messungen nicht beobachten. In beiden Jahreszeiten setzt sich die Abluftfahne hauptsächlich aus Ruß und organischen Partikelkomponenten im PM1-Größenbereich zusammen, wobei die Quellen Verkehr und Kochen sowie zusätzlich Heizen in der kalten Jahreszeit dominieren. Die PM1-Partikelmasse erhöhte sich durch die urbanen Emissionen im Vergleich zum Hintergrundwert im Sommer in der Abluftfahne im Mittel um 30% und im Winter um 10%. Besonders starke Erhöhungen ließen sich für Polyaromaten beobachten, wo im Sommer eine mittlere Zunahme von 194% und im Winter von 131% vorlag. Jahreszeitliche Unterschiede waren ebenso in der Größenverteilung der Partikel der Abluftfahne zu finden, wo im Winter im Gegensatz zum Sommer keine zusätzlichen nukleierten kleinen Partikel, sondern nur durch Kondensation und Koagulation angewachsene Partikel zwischen etwa 10nm und 200nm auftraten. Die Spurengaskonzentrationen unterschieden sich ebenfalls, da chemische Reaktionen temperatur- und mitunter strahlungsabhängig sind. Weitere Anwendungsmöglichkeiten des MoLa wurden bei einer Überführungsfahrt von Deutschland an die spanische Atlantikküste demonstriert, woraus eine Kartierung der Luftqualität entlang der Fahrtroute resultierte. Es zeigte sich, dass hauptsächlich urbane Ballungszentren von unprozessierten Luftschadstoffen betroffen sind, advehierte gealterte Substanzen jedoch jede Region beeinflussen können. Die Untersuchung der Luftqualität an Standorten mit unterschiedlicher Exposition bezüglich anthropogener Quellen erweiterte diese Aussage um einen Einblick in die Variation der Luftqualität, abhängig unter anderem von der Wetterlage und der Nähe zu Emissionsquellen. Damit konnte gezeigt werden, dass sich die entwickelten Messstrategien und Analysemethoden nicht nur zur Untersuchung der Abluftfahne einer Großstadt, sondern auch auf verschiedene andere wissenschaftliche und umweltmesstechnische Fragestellungen anwenden lassen.

Ice-Core Based Assessment of Historical Anthropogenic Heavy Metal (Cd, Cu, Sb, Zn) Emissions in the Soviet Union

The development of strategies and policies aiming at the reduction of environmental exposure to air pollution requires the assessment of historical emissions. Although anthropogenic emissions from the extended territory of the Soviet Union (SU) considerably influenced concentrations of heavy metals in the Northern Hemisphere, Pb is the only metal with long-term historical emission estimates for this region available, whereas for selected other metals only single values exist. Here we present the first study assessing long-term Cd, Cu, Sb, and Zn emissions in the SU during the period 1935–1991 based on ice-core concentration records from Belukha glacier in the Siberian Altai and emission data from 12 regions in the SU for the year 1980. We show that Zn primarily emitted from the Zn production in Ust-Kamenogorsk (East Kazakhstan) dominated the SU heavy metal emission. Cd, Sb, Zn (Cu) emissions increased between 1935 and the 1970s (1980s) due to expanded non-ferrous metal production. Emissions of the four metals in the beginning of the 1990s were as low as in the 1950s, which we attribute to the economic downturn in industry, changes in technology for an increasing metal recovery from ores, the replacement of coal and oil by gas, and air pollution control.

Investigation of the airborne submicrometer particles emitted by dredging vessels using a plume capture method

This paper presents a method for investigating ship emissions, the plume capture and analysis system (PCAS), and its application in measuring airborne pollutant emission factors (EFs) and particle size distributions. The current investigation was conducted in situ, aboard two dredgers (Amity: a cutter suction dredger and Brisbane: a hopper suction dredger) but the PCAS is also capable of performing such measurements remotely at a distant point within the plume. EFs were measured relative to the fuel consumption using the fuel combustion derived plume CO2. All plume measurements were corrected by subtracting background concentrations sampled regularly from upwind of the stacks. Each measurement typically took 6 minutes to complete and during one day, 40 to 50 measurements were possible. The relationship between the EFs and plume sample dilution was examined to determine the plume dilution range over which the technique could deliver consistent results when measuring EFs for particle number (PN), NOx, SO2, and PM2.5 within a targeted dilution factor range of 50-1000 suitable for remote sampling. The EFs for NOx, SO2, and PM2.5 were found to be independent of dilution, for dilution factors within that range. The EF measurement for PN was corrected for coagulation losses by applying a time dependant particle loss correction to the particle number concentration data. For the Amity, the EF ranges were PN: 2.2 - 9.6 × 1015 (kg-fuel)-1; NOx: 35-72 g(NO2).(kg-fuel)-1, SO2 0.6 - 1.1 g(SO2).(kg-fuel)-1and PM2.5: 0.7 – 6.1 g(PM2.5).(kg-fuel)-1. For the Brisbane they were PN: 1.0 – 1.5 x 1016 (kg-fuel)-1, NOx: 3.4 – 8.0 g(NO2).(kg-fuel)-1, SO2: 1.3 – 1.7 g(SO2).(kg-fuel)-1 and PM2.5: 1.2 – 5.6 g(PM2.5).(kg-fuel)-1. The results are discussed in terms of the operating conditions of the vessels’ engines. Particle number emission factors as a function of size as well as the count median diameter (CMD), and geometric standard deviation of the size distributions are provided. The size distributions were found to be consistently uni-modal in the range below 500 nm, and this mode was within the accumulation mode range for both vessels. The representative CMDs for the various activities performed by the dredgers ranged from 94-131 nm in the case of the Amity, and 58-80 nm for the Brisbane. A strong inverse relationship between CMD and EF(PN) was observed.

Studis on the climatological aspects of air pollution potential over trivandrum

The deteriorating air quality especially in urban environments is a cause of serious concern. In spite of being an effective sink, the atmosphere also has its own limitations in effectively dispersing the pollutants being dumped into it continuously by various sources, mainly industries. Many a time, it is not the higher emissions that cause alarming level of pollutants but the unfavourable atmospheric conditions under which the atmosphere is not able to disperse them effectively, leading to accumulation of pollutants near the ground. Hence, it is imperative to have an estimate of the atmospheric potential for dispersal of the substances emitted into it. This requires a knowledge of mixing height, ventilation coefficient, wind and stability of the region under study. Mere estimation of such pollution potential is not adequate, unless the probable distribution of concentration of pollutants is known. This can be obtained by means of mathematical models. The pollution potential coupled with the distribution of concentration provides a good basis for initiating steps to mitigate air pollution in any developing urban area. In this thesis, a fast developing industrial city, namely, Trivandrum is chosen for estimating the pollution potential and determining the spatial distribution of sulphur dioxide concentration. Each of the parameters required for pollution potential is discussed in detail separately. The thesis is divided into nine chapters.