Diferencias en las estimaciones de compuestos gaseosos según diferentes mecanismos químicos

Ponencia presentada en: XXXII Jornadas Científicas de la AME y el XIII Encuentro Hispano Luso de Meteorología celebrado en Alcobendas (Madrid), del 28 al 30 de mayo de 2012.En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de la evaluación de tres mecanismos químicos (SAPRC99, CB05 y MELCHIOR2) frente a datos obtenidos en las cámaras del EUPHORE

Evolución de las emisiones de acidificadores, precursores de ozono y gases de efecto invernadero en el periodo 1990-2005 en España. Modelización fotoquímica de la reducción de precursores del ozono

Ponencia presentada en: VI Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Climatología celebrado en Tarragona del 8 al 11 de octubre de 2008.[ES]La Unión Europea promulgó en 2001 la Directiva 2001/81/EC en la que se establecen los techos de emisión de acidificadores y precursores de ozono que deberán alcanzarse en 2010. El inventario nacional de emisiones (hasta 2005) muestra que las emisiones se sitúan por encima de los techos establecidos. Una pauta similar se observa también para las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero en el marco del Protocolo de Kioto. En este estudio se estima el impacto sobre las concentraciones de ozono de un hipotético control de emisiones (reducciones del 25% en NOx y COVNM procedentes de la industria y el tráfico) para la Península Ibérica (PI) durante dos episodios de contaminación fotoquímica. Las simulaciones numéricas muestran reducciones horarias en las concentraciones en superficie de ozono en torno a los 30 μg/m3, lo que supone una mejoría en la calidad del aire en grandes áreas de la PI.[EN]In 2001, the European Union enacted Directive 2001/81/EC with the aim of limiting emissions of acidifying and eutrophying pollutants and ozone precursors by establishing national emissions ceilings for SO2, NOx, NMVOC and NH3, to be attained by 2010. The national emissions inventory for Spain (up to 2005) shows that the emissions exceed the established ceilings. A similar trend is also observed for greenhouse gas emissions in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. In this study we evaluate the impact on ozone concentrations of a hypothetical emissions control (25% reductions in NOx and NMVOC from industry and traffic) during two episodes of photochemical pollution in the Iberian Peninsula. The simulations show hourly surface ozone reductions of around 30 μg/m3, which represents an improvement in air quality over large areas of the Peninsula

Modelización de la contribución de las emisiones biogénicas y antropogénicas en la superación de los umbrales normativos durante un episodio de contaminación fotoquímica en la Península Ibérica

Ponencia presentada en: VI Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Española de Climatología celebrado en Tarragona del 8 al 11 de octubre de 2008.[ES]En este estudio se evalúa el impacto por separado de las emisiones biogénicas y de las emisiones antropogénicas en la formación fotoquímica de ozono durante el episodio del 10 al 15 de agosto de 2003. Durante este periodo los umbrales de información y de protección a la salud definidos en la Directiva 2002/3/EC se superaron en varias áreas de la Península Ibérica. Se concluye que la mayor contribución procede de la interacción mutua entre las emisiones biogénicas y antropogénicas, aunque la contribución pura de las emisiones antropogénicas es suficiente para superar los umbrales de información y protección a la salud en algunos puntos de la Península.[EN]During the 10 - 15 August 2003 ozone pollution event, anticyclonic conditions were accompanied by long residence times of polluted air masses in the atmospheric boundary layer, inhibiting the renovation of air masses. These atmospheric conditions, together with a cloudless sky and elevated temperatures, favored photochemical ozone formation. The aim of this paper is to understand and quantify computationally the influence of both biogenic and anthropogenic emissions in the formation of tropospheric ozone during this high ozone episode. Being able to differentiate how much ozone comes from biogenic emissions alone and how much comes from the interaction between anthropogenic and biogenic emissions would be helpful to develop a feasible and effective ozone control strategy

Paralelización de la obtención de datos de entrada del modelo de concentraciones de HYSPLIT

En esta memoria se presenta un estudio del funcionamiento del programa HYSPLIT realizado con el objetivo de detectar puntos débiles que permitan mejorar su eficiencia. HYSPLIT es un software que implementa un modelo de cálculo de trayectorias, concentraciones y dispersión de partículas atmosféricas y contaminantes ampliamente utilizado en meteorología. El trabajo se ha desarrollado en el marco de un convenio de colaboración entre la Universidad de La Laguna y la Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET)

Multi year aerosol characterization in the tropical Andes and in adjacent Amazonia using AERONET measurements

This work focuses on the analysis of columnar aerosol properties in the complex geophysical tropical region of South America within 10-20 South and 50-70 West. The region is quite varied and encompasses a significant part of Amazonia (lowlands) as well as high mountains in the Andes (highlands,~4000 m a.s.l.). Several AERONET stations were included to study the aerosol optical characteristics of the lowlands (Rio Branco, Ji Parana and Cuiaba in Brazil and Santa Cruz in Bolivia) and the highlands (La Paz, Bolivia) during the 2000-2014 period. Biomass-burning is by far the most important source of aerosol in the lowlands, particularly during the dry season (August-October). Multi-annual variability was investigated and showed very strong burning activity in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. This resulted in smoke characterized by correspondingly strong, above-average AODs (aerosol optical depths) and homogeneous single scattering albedo (SSA) across all the stations (~0.93). For other years, however, SSA differences arise between the northern stations (Rio Branco and Ji Parana) with SSAs of ~0.95 and the southern stations (Cuiaba and Santa Cruz) with lower SSAs of ~0.85.Such differences are explained by the different types of vegetation burned in the two different regions. In the highlands, however, the transport of biomass burning smoke is found to be sporadic in nature. This sporadicity results in highly variable indicators of aerosol load and type (Angstrom exponent and fine mode fraction) with moderately significant increases in both. Regional dust and local pollution are the background aerosol in this highland region, whose elevation places it close to the free troposphere. Transported smoke particles were generally found to be more optical absorbing than in the lowlands: the hypothesis to explain this is the significantly higher amount of water vapor in Amazonia relative to the high mountain areas. The air-mass transport to La Paz was investigated using the HYSPLIT air-concentration five-days back trajectories. Two different patterns were clearly differentiated: westerly winds from the Pacific that clean the atmosphere and easterly winds favoring the transport of particles from Amazonia.Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF) ACE_GFAT (grant agreement No 659398).European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 654109, ACTRIS-2

Modelling PM2.5 chemical composition with CAMx in southwest Spain

Comunicación presentada en: 2012 European Aerosol Conference (EAC-2012), B-WG01S2P30, celebrada del 2 al 7 de septiembre de 2012 en Granada

Measurements and simulation of speciated PM2.5 in south-west Europe

Chemically speciated concentrations of PM2.5 (sulphate, ammonium, nitrate, elemental and organic carbon) were simulated in south-west Europe using the three-dimensional air quality model CAMx driven by the MM5 meteorological model. The inner domain covered the south-west region of Spain with a high spatial (2 km × 2 km) and temporal resolution (1 h). The simulation results were evaluated against experimental data obtained in four intensive field campaigns performed in 2008 and 2009 at urban and rural sites. PM2.5 measurements of secondary inorganic compounds and carbonaceous aerosol plus a suite of major and trace elements were determined. High time resolution (10 min) measurements of Black Carbon (BC) were also conducted. The model captured the variability in the ammonium concentrations in both summer and winter periods, although it tended to underestimate the magnitude of concentrations, while for sulphate the performance was better during the summer periods. Particulate ammonium nitrate was only simulated in significant concentrations in the wintertime campaign. This was found to be consistent with the measured composition of PM2.5 where most of nitrate (79–94%) and a significant fraction of sulphate (24–37%) were estimated to be present as non-ammonium salts. These non-ammonium nitrate salts were attributed to the formation of NaNO3. The model PM2.5 primary elemental carbon simulations, evaluated with hourly resolution, captured the diurnal and seasonal variability of PM2.5 BC concentrations at the urban site while poorer performance was observed at the rural site. A large underestimation was observed for simulated PM2.5 organic carbon concentrations during all campaigns. Scenarios of pollution events linked to emissions from south-west Spain, shipping and contributions from more distant emission sources such as Portugal were identified. These results highlight how the distinct features of PM2.5 composition in southern Europe regions, such as the large contribution of non-ammonium salts, need to be taken into account both in model evaluation and in future implementation of aerosol modelling systems.The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Department of Innovation, Science and Enterprise of the Government of Andalusia through the research projects AER-REG (P07-RNM- 03125) and SIMAND (P07-RNM-02729) and from the Department of Environment, Andalusian Regional Government (project: 199/ 2011/C/00). In addition, we thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for funding through the project POLLINDUST (CGL2011-26259)

Kilonova Luminosity Function Constraints Based on Zwicky Transient Facility Searches for 13 Neutron Star Merger Triggers during O3

We present a systematic search for optical counterparts to 13 gravitational wave (GW) triggers involving at least one neutron star during LIGO/Virgo's third observing run (O3). We searched binary neutron star (BNS) and neutron star black hole (NSBH) merger localizations with the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and undertook follow-up with the Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen (GROWTH) collaboration. The GW triggers had a median localization area of 4480 deg², a median distance of 267 Mpc, and false-alarm rates ranging from 1.5 to 10⁻²⁵ yr⁻¹. The ZTF coverage in the g and r bands had a median enclosed probability of 39%, median depth of 20.8 mag, and median time lag between merger and the start of observations of 1.5 hr. The O3 follow-up by the GROWTH team comprised 340 UltraViolet/Optical/InfraRed (UVOIR) photometric points, 64 OIR spectra, and three radio images using 17 different telescopes. We find no promising kilonovae (radioactivity-powered counterparts), and we show how to convert the upper limits to constrain the underlying kilonova luminosity function. Initially, we assume that all GW triggers are bona fide astrophysical events regardless of false-alarm rate and that kilonovae accompanying BNS and NSBH mergers are drawn from a common population; later, we relax these assumptions. Assuming that all kilonovae are at least as luminous as the discovery magnitude of GW170817 (−16.1 mag), we calculate that our joint probability of detecting zero kilonovae is only 4.2%. If we assume that all kilonovae are brighter than −16.6 mag (the extrapolated peak magnitude of GW170817) and fade at a rate of 1 mag day⁻¹ (similar to GW170817), the joint probability of zero detections is 7%. If we separate the NSBH and BNS populations based on the online classifications, the joint probability of zero detections, assuming all kilonovae are brighter than −16.6 mag, is 9.7% for NSBH and 7.9% for BNS mergers. Moreover, no more than 10⁻⁴, or φ > 30° to be consistent with our limits. We look forward to searches in the fourth GW observing run; even 17 neutron star mergers with only 50% coverage to a depth of −16 mag would constrain the maximum fraction of bright kilonovae to <25%

The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new optical time-domain survey that uses the Palomar 48 inch Schmidt telescope. A custom-built wide-field camera provides a 47 deg 2 field of view and 8 s readout time, yielding more than an order of magnitude improvement in survey speed relative to its predecessor survey, the Palomar Transient Factory. We describe the design and implementation of the camera and observing system. The ZTF data system at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center provides near-real-time reduction to identify moving and varying objects. We outline the analysis pipelines, data products, and associated archive. Finally, we present on-sky performance analysis and first scientific results from commissioning and the early survey. ZTF’s public alert stream will serve as a useful precursor for that of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope