Five years of aircraft measurements of air pollution in an industrialized region in eastern Germany

Between 1990 and 1994, 19 flights were performed with a highly instrumented research aircraft in and around an industrialized region in eastern Germany to study horizontal transport and temporal trends of air pollutants after the time of German unification. Besides the dolphin flight path for vertic...

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Main Author: Otto Klemm
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Borntraeger 1996-11-01
Series:Meteorologische Zeitschrift
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/metz/5/1996/221
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author Otto Klemm
author_facet Otto Klemm
author_sort Otto Klemm
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description Between 1990 and 1994, 19 flights were performed with a highly instrumented research aircraft in and around an industrialized region in eastern Germany to study horizontal transport and temporal trends of air pollutants after the time of German unification. Besides the dolphin flight path for vertical screening of the boundary layer, a mapping flight path at 150 m above ground was employed. The meteorological conditions severely limited the interpretability of the data sets in many cases. We found those data that were gained during conditions with a stable boundary layer can not be utilized for emission flux computations or trend analyses. Also, in cases with a neutrally stratified or convective boundary layer, the data sets were of complex structure which hindered the application of parametric statistical tools. Therefore, any meaningful emission fluxes could not be decided from data sets that were measured in short distance to the emission sources. Trend analyses with non-parametric tests indicate that the flux densities of SO2 decreased both on the upwind and downwind sides of our area of investigation. Although no trend could be identified for nitrogen oxides, it seems that the relative contribution of nitrogen oxides to primary air pollution has been gaining weight at the expense of sulfur dioxide in eastern Germany in the early 1990s.
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spelling doaj.art-f7188125a4154dd49443fa11316327f52024-02-08T08:15:33ZengBorntraegerMeteorologische Zeitschrift0941-29481996-11-015522123310.1127/metz/5/1996/22189502Five years of aircraft measurements of air pollution in an industrialized region in eastern GermanyOtto KlemmBetween 1990 and 1994, 19 flights were performed with a highly instrumented research aircraft in and around an industrialized region in eastern Germany to study horizontal transport and temporal trends of air pollutants after the time of German unification. Besides the dolphin flight path for vertical screening of the boundary layer, a mapping flight path at 150 m above ground was employed. The meteorological conditions severely limited the interpretability of the data sets in many cases. We found those data that were gained during conditions with a stable boundary layer can not be utilized for emission flux computations or trend analyses. Also, in cases with a neutrally stratified or convective boundary layer, the data sets were of complex structure which hindered the application of parametric statistical tools. Therefore, any meaningful emission fluxes could not be decided from data sets that were measured in short distance to the emission sources. Trend analyses with non-parametric tests indicate that the flux densities of SO2 decreased both on the upwind and downwind sides of our area of investigation. Although no trend could be identified for nitrogen oxides, it seems that the relative contribution of nitrogen oxides to primary air pollution has been gaining weight at the expense of sulfur dioxide in eastern Germany in the early 1990s.http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/metz/5/1996/221air pollutionmeteorologicalemission fluxesnitrogen oxidesluftverschmutzungmeteorologischemissionsflüssestickoxidegermany
spellingShingle Otto Klemm
Five years of aircraft measurements of air pollution in an industrialized region in eastern Germany
Meteorologische Zeitschrift
air pollution
meteorological
emission fluxes
nitrogen oxides
luftverschmutzung
meteorologisch
emissionsflüsse
stickoxide
germany
title Five years of aircraft measurements of air pollution in an industrialized region in eastern Germany
title_full Five years of aircraft measurements of air pollution in an industrialized region in eastern Germany
title_fullStr Five years of aircraft measurements of air pollution in an industrialized region in eastern Germany
title_full_unstemmed Five years of aircraft measurements of air pollution in an industrialized region in eastern Germany
title_short Five years of aircraft measurements of air pollution in an industrialized region in eastern Germany
title_sort five years of aircraft measurements of air pollution in an industrialized region in eastern germany
topic air pollution
meteorological
emission fluxes
nitrogen oxides
luftverschmutzung
meteorologisch
emissionsflüsse
stickoxide
germany
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/metz/5/1996/221
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