The regional pollutant budget of the atmospheric boundary layer: Concept, interpretations and observational results

Regional budgets of pollutants in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) provide valuable information on transport and chemical processes, especially over complex terrain where local assessments are not representative. Horizontal transport, vertical transport (advective and non-advective), deposition,...

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Main Author: Michael Lehning
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Borntraeger 1998-07-01
Series:Meteorologische Zeitschrift
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/metz/7/1998/112
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author Michael Lehning
author_facet Michael Lehning
author_sort Michael Lehning
collection DOAJ
description Regional budgets of pollutants in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) provide valuable information on transport and chemical processes, especially over complex terrain where local assessments are not representative. Horizontal transport, vertical transport (advective and non-advective), deposition, emissions and chemical production/destruction constitute the regional budget. Partial budgets using reduced sets of budget terms also have meaningful interpretations: If only horizontal and vertical advective transport is included, the corresponding budget describes the accumulation of the pollutant within the ABL. The transport terms can be estimated from simultaneous observations of wind and concentrations. Observational budget results from the areas Swiss Plateau, Heilbronn, Berlin, Vienna and Hong Kong are analyzed: On sunny summer afternoons, typical accumulation rates from larger urban areas in Europe are 1.5 ppb/h for O3 and 0.1 ppb/h for NO2. If estimates of non-advective vertical transport and deposition are available, the budget provides net chemical production rates of secondary pollutants. Typical values for O3 are between 2 and 5 ppb/h. In case of primary pollutants such as NO2, this budget estimates the sum of net chemical production and emission. Observational results range around 0.15 ppb/h. From the budgets, also an estimation of the fraction of locally produced or "homemade" pollution is possible and typical values from 10 to 30 % and 20 to 70 % for O3 and NO2 respectively, are found. It is shown that all individual terms achieve non-negligible contributions to the regional budget and that the overall budget as well as the relative importance of the individual terms depend on size and extent of the budget box.
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spelling doaj.art-0896ad2e951d435185ba3be5b3e393682024-02-08T08:18:31ZengBorntraegerMeteorologische Zeitschrift0941-29481998-07-017311211910.1127/metz/7/1998/11289055The regional pollutant budget of the atmospheric boundary layer: Concept, interpretations and observational resultsMichael LehningRegional budgets of pollutants in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) provide valuable information on transport and chemical processes, especially over complex terrain where local assessments are not representative. Horizontal transport, vertical transport (advective and non-advective), deposition, emissions and chemical production/destruction constitute the regional budget. Partial budgets using reduced sets of budget terms also have meaningful interpretations: If only horizontal and vertical advective transport is included, the corresponding budget describes the accumulation of the pollutant within the ABL. The transport terms can be estimated from simultaneous observations of wind and concentrations. Observational budget results from the areas Swiss Plateau, Heilbronn, Berlin, Vienna and Hong Kong are analyzed: On sunny summer afternoons, typical accumulation rates from larger urban areas in Europe are 1.5 ppb/h for O3 and 0.1 ppb/h for NO2. If estimates of non-advective vertical transport and deposition are available, the budget provides net chemical production rates of secondary pollutants. Typical values for O3 are between 2 and 5 ppb/h. In case of primary pollutants such as NO2, this budget estimates the sum of net chemical production and emission. Observational results range around 0.15 ppb/h. From the budgets, also an estimation of the fraction of locally produced or "homemade" pollution is possible and typical values from 10 to 30 % and 20 to 70 % for O3 and NO2 respectively, are found. It is shown that all individual terms achieve non-negligible contributions to the regional budget and that the overall budget as well as the relative importance of the individual terms depend on size and extent of the budget box.http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/metz/7/1998/112pollutantsadvective transportatmospheric boundary layer (abl)schadstoffbilanzatmosphärische grenzschicht (abl)
spellingShingle Michael Lehning
The regional pollutant budget of the atmospheric boundary layer: Concept, interpretations and observational results
Meteorologische Zeitschrift
pollutants
advective transport
atmospheric boundary layer (abl)
schadstoffbilanz
atmosphärische grenzschicht (abl)
title The regional pollutant budget of the atmospheric boundary layer: Concept, interpretations and observational results
title_full The regional pollutant budget of the atmospheric boundary layer: Concept, interpretations and observational results
title_fullStr The regional pollutant budget of the atmospheric boundary layer: Concept, interpretations and observational results
title_full_unstemmed The regional pollutant budget of the atmospheric boundary layer: Concept, interpretations and observational results
title_short The regional pollutant budget of the atmospheric boundary layer: Concept, interpretations and observational results
title_sort regional pollutant budget of the atmospheric boundary layer concept interpretations and observational results
topic pollutants
advective transport
atmospheric boundary layer (abl)
schadstoffbilanz
atmosphärische grenzschicht (abl)
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/metz/7/1998/112
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AT michaellehning regionalpollutantbudgetoftheatmosphericboundarylayerconceptinterpretationsandobservationalresults