Hiukkasmittausten vaatimuksenmukaisuuden todentaminen (HIVATO) 2019-2020

Kansallinen ilmanlaadun vertailulaboratorio varmistaa Suomessa tehtävien ilmanlaatumittausten korkean laadun tekemällä ilmanlaatumittausten auditointeja ja vertailumittauksia. Tässä hankkeessa arvioitiin hiukkasmittausten vaatimuksenmukaisuutta keskittyen erityisesti keskimääräisen altistumisindikaattorin (AEI) määrittämiseen käytettävään mittaukseen. Tutkimuksessa arvioitiin Helsingin Kalliossa mitatun PM2,5-altistumisindikaattorin mittauksen tulosten soveltuvuutta ja edustavuutta Suomessa. Havaittiin, että Kallion mittaus edustaa hyvin keskimääräistä pienhiukkasaltistusta sekä pienhiukkaspitoisuuden vuositrendiä Suomessa. Lisäksi vuodesta 2015 eteenpäin Suomen kaupunkitausta-asemilla tehtyjen PM2,5-mittausten keskiarvot niin asemakohtaisesti kuin asemien yhteisenä keskiarvona alittavat kokonaisuudessaan vuoden 2020 keskimääräisen altistumisindikaattorin enimmäisarvon 8,5 µg/m3, jota käytetään altistumisen vähennystavoitteen arvioinnissa. AEI-mittaukseen käytetyn TEOM 1405 -hiukkasmonitorin mittaustuloksia vertailtiin Kalliossa menetelmästandardin SFS-EN 12341:2014 mukaisella vertailumenetelmällä saatuihin tuloksiin. Havaittiin, että AEI-laskentaan käytettävä Kallion TEOM 1405 -laite täyttää niukasti standardissa määritetyn 25 %:n epävarmuusvaatimuksen ja sillä tehtävän mittauksen laatu riittää altistumisindikaattorin määrittämiseen, vaikka vertailtavat pitoisuudet olivat yleisesti ottaen pieniä eikä menetelmästandardin SFS-EN 16450:2017 mukaisen vertailumittauksen pitoisuusvaatimus täyttynyt vertailujaksolla korkeiden pitoisuuksien puuttuessa. Tässä raportissa esitellään myös tulokset jatkuvatoimisille hiukkasmittalaitteille järjestetyistä vertailumittauksista Virolahdella ja Helsingissä sekä PM10- että PM2,5-hiukkaskokojakeelle sekä näiden lisäksi Kuopiossa ja Lahdessa PM2,5-hiukkaskokojakeelle. Vertailumittauksista saatujen tulosten perusteella määritettiin ensimmäistä kertaa korjauskertoimet FIDAS 200 -hiukkasmittalaitteen PM10- ja PM2,5-mittaukselle Suomessa. Tulosten perusteella FIDAS 200 -hiukkasmonitori soveltuu ulkoilman PM10- ja PM2,5-hiukkaskokojakeiden mittaukseen Suomessa käyttäen tässä raportissa esitettyjä korjauskertoimia, vaikkakin on huomioitava, että kertoimet eivät täytä ekvivalenttisuuden osoittamiselle asetettuja vaatimuksia. Kyseisiä kertoimia on kuitenkin suositeltavaa käyttää siihen asti, kunnes ekvivalenttisuus on osoitettu seuraavassa ekvivalenttisuuden osoittamiskampanjassa. Kahta muuta jatkuvatoimista laitetta (SHARP 5030 ja TEOM 1405) verrattiin referenssikeräimeen Virolahdella ja Helsingissä. Havaittiin, että Kuopion vertailumittauksessa 2014–2015 eri laitteille määritetyt korjauskertoimet eivät aina sovellu eri paikoissa ja eri vuodenaikoina PM10- ja PM2,5-hiukkaspitoisuuksien mittauksiin, koska mittauspaikat ja niiden olosuhteet vaihtelevat. Tämän takia vertailulaboratorio esittää ekvivalenttisuuden osoitusta viiden vuoden välein sekä jatkuvaa ohjelmaa käytettävien kertoimien soveltuvuuden osoittamiseksi paikallisilla vertailumittauksilla, joissa jatkuvatoimisten hiukkasmonitorien mittaustuloksia verrataan vertailumenetelmää vastaan eri paikoissa ja vaihtelevissa olosuhteissa jatkuvana kampanjana pitempiaikaisesti, puolesta vuodesta vuoteen kestävillä paikallisilla vertailuilla. Näillä ns. ongoing-mittauksilla voidaan osaltaan varmentaa Suomessa mitattavien PM10- ja PM2,5-hiukkasmittausten laatu ja vertailukelpoisuus myös varsinaisten ekvivalenttisuuden osoittamiseen soveltuvien vertailumittauskampanjoiden välillä.The National Reference Laboratory for Air Quality (NRL) ensures the high quality of air quality measurements in Finland by organising audits and intercomparison campaigns. In this project, the conformity of the particulate matter measurements was evaluated with a particular focus on the measurement used for calculating the average exposure index (AEI) of Finland. The representativity and applicability of the AEI measurements made at the Kallio station in Helsinki were evaluated. It was noticed that the results of the Kallio measurement represent well the average fine particle (PM2.5) concentrations and the yearly based trend of fine particles in Finland. In addition, the yearly average concentrations of fine particles have been smaller than the AEI limit value of 8.5 µg/m3, at all individual urban background stations in Finland since year 2015. The measurement results made with the PM monitor used for AEI measurement, i.e. TEOM 1405 analyser at the Kallio station, were compared to the results from the reference method that follows the standard SFS-EN 12341:2014. It was noticed that the uncertainty requirement of 25% was reached and therefore the quality of the measurement is sufficient to use it for the calculation of AEI. However, the fine particle concentrations were generally very low and therefore the requirements given in the standard SFS-EN 16450:2017 for an intercomparison against the reference method were not perfectly fulfilled. This report presents also results from intercomparison measurements made for automated continuous measurement systems (AMS). At the Virolahti station and at the Mäkelänkatu station in Helsinki, PM10 and PM2.5 measurements were compared. In Kuopio and in Lahti, intercomparison measurements were made for PM2.5 only. Based on the results from these intercomparisons, the calibration coefficients both for PM10 and PM2.5 were defined for the first time in Finland for a FIDAS 200 analyser that is a new PM monitor in the Finnish market. It was concluded that FIDAS 200 analysers can be used for the PM measurements in Finland when the calibration coefficients are applied for the data; however, one must note that the presented calibration coefficients do not fulfil the requirements given for the demonstration of equivalence (DoE). Nevertheless, these coefficients are recommended to be used until the official coefficients will be delivered from the next DoE campaign. Two AMS (SHARP 5030 and TEOM 1405) were compared to the reference method for the measurements of PM10 and PM2,5 in Virolahti and in Helsinki, respectively. It was revealed that the calibration coefficients based on the DoE in Kuopio (2014–2015) do not always fit ideally at different locations and seasons due to differences in the environmental characteristics of the measurement sites. Therefore, NRL recommends that DoE should be organised every five years and in between the DoE’s so called ongoing-intercomparison measurements should be carried out continuously. In the ongoing-intercomparison, suitability of the calibration coefficients from DoE will be verified in different locations with varying environmental characteristics. The ongoing-intercomparison campaigns should take place at one site from a half a year to one year and after that, the campaign should continue at a different location similarly. This would ensure that the influence of seasonal differences to the suitability of coefficients will be verified at each measurement site

Evaluation of the impact of wood combustion on benzo[a] pyrene (BaP) concentrations; ambient measurements and dispersion modeling in Helsinki, Finland

Even though emission inventories indicate that wood combustion is a major source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), estimating its impacts on PAH concentration in ambient air remains challenging. In this study the effect of local small-scale wood combustion on the benzo[a] pyrene (BaP) concentrations in ambient air in the Helsinki metropolitan area in Finland is evaluated, using ambient air measurements, emission estimates, and dispersion modeling. The measurements were conducted at 12 different locations during the period from 2007 to 2015. The spatial distributions of annual average BaP concentrations originating from wood combustion were predicted for four of those years: 2008, 2011, 2013, and 2014. According to both the measurements and the dispersion modeling, the European Union target value for the annual average BaP concentrations (1 ngm(-3) ) was clearly exceeded in certain suburban detached-house areas. However, in most of the other urban areas, including the center of Helsinki, the concentrations were below the target value. The measured BaP concentrations highly correlated with the measured levoglucosan concentrations in the suburban detached-house areas. In street canyons, the measured concentrations of BaP were at the same level as those in the urban background, clearly lower than those in suburban detached-house areas. The predicted annual average concentrations matched with the measured concentrations fairly well. Both the measurements and the modeling clearly indicated that wood combustion was the main local source of ambient air BaP in the Helsinki metropolitan area.Peer reviewe

Is forest management a significant source of monoterpenes into the boreal atmosphere?

Peer reviewe

Ilmanlaadun mittausohje 2017

Suomen ilmanlaadun seurantaa säätelevät suurelta osin EU:n ilmanlaatua koskevat direktiivit. Ilman epäpuhtauksien pitoisuuksia säädellään sitovien raja-arvojen ja tavoitearvojen avulla. Myös kansalliset ohjearvot ovat edelleen voimassa ja niitä käytetään suunnittelun tukena, mutta niiden merkitys on vähenemässä. Raja-arvoja valvoviksi asemiksi kutsutaan niitä ilmanlaadun mittausasemia, jotka täyttävät ilmanlaatudirektiivien kriteerit ja joiden pitoisuustiedot toimitetaan EU:lle. Raja-arvopitoisuuksia valvovien mittausasemien lisäksi ilmanlaatua seurataan mittausverkoissa laajalti erilaisista paikallisista tarpeista, mikä on ollut aikanaan lähtökohta useimpien ilmanlaatumittausten aloittamiselle. Ilmanlaatua seurataan ensisijaisesti hyvän ilmanlaadun turvaamiseksi paikallisille asukkaille ja ympäristölle. Ilmanlaatua mitataan lisäksi muun muassa yksittäisten päästölähteiden vaikutusten arvioimiseksi, asukkaiden valitusten vuoksi, ympäristölupaehtojen täyttämiseksi sekä jatkuvan ilmanlaadun seurannan tarvetta arvioitaessa. Tämä ohje koskee ilmanlaadun mittaamista osana ilmanlaadun seurantaa. Ohjeessa käsitellään ilmanlaatulainsäädäntöä, mittaustarpeen arviointia, mittausten suunnittelua, tekemistä ja laadunvarmennustoimenpiteitä, laatujärjestelmän sisältöä, raportointia sekä tiedottamista. Ohjeen tarkoituksena on kehittää mittausten laatua, luotettavuutta, edustavuutta ja vertailtavuutta sekä luoda edellytyksiä ilmanlaadun mittaustulosten monipuoliselle hyödyntämiselle. Ilmatieteen laitos päivitti ilmanlaadun mittausohjetta edellisen kerran vuonna 2004 ja nyt mittausohjetta on edelleen laajennettu ja päivitetty ajan tasalle

Role of needle surface waxes in dynamic exchange of mono- and sesquiterpenes

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) produced by plants have a major role in atmospheric chemistry. The different physicochemical properties of BVOCs affect their transport within and out of the plant as well as their reactions along the way. Some of these compounds may accumulate in or on the waxy surface layer of conifer needles and participate in chemical reactions on or near the foliage surface. The aim of this work was to determine whether terpenes, a key category of BVOCs produced by trees, can be found on the epicuticles of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and, if so, how they compare with the terpenes found in shoot emissions of the same tree. We measured shoot-level emissions of pine seedlings at a remote outdoor location in central Finland and subsequently analysed the needle surface waxes for the same compounds. Both emissions and wax extracts were clearly dominated by monoterpenes, but the proportion of sesquiterpenes was higher in the wax extracts. There were also differences in the terpene spectra of the emissions and the wax extracts. The results, therefore, support the existence of BVOC associated to the epicuticular waxes. We briefly discuss the different pathways for terpenes to reach the needle surfaces and the implications for air chemistry.Peer reviewe

Pan-Arctic surface ozone: modelling vs. measurements

Within the framework of the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA), we report a modelling-based study on surface ozone across the Arctic. We use surface ozone from six sites – Summit (Greenland), Pallas (Finland), Barrow (USA), Alert (Canada), Tiksi (Russia), and Villum Research Station (VRS) at Station Nord (North Greenland, Danish realm) – and ozone-sonde data from three Canadian sites: Resolute, Eureka, and Alert. Two global chemistry models – a global chemistry transport model (parallelised-Tropospheric Offline Model of Chemistry and Transport, p-TOMCAT) and a global chemistry climate model (United Kingdom Chemistry and Aerosol, UKCA) – are used for model data comparisons. Remotely sensed data of BrO from the GOME-2 satellite instrument and ground-based multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) at Eureka, Canada, are used for model validation. The observed climatology data show that spring surface ozone at coastal sites is heavily depleted, making ozone seasonality at Arctic coastal sites distinctly different from that at inland sites. Model simulations show that surface ozone can be greatly reduced by bromine chemistry. In April, bromine chemistry can cause a net ozone loss (monthly mean) of 10–20 ppbv, with almost half attributable to open-ocean-sourced bromine and the rest to sea-ice-sourced bromine. However, the open-ocean-sourced bromine, via sea spray bromide depletion, cannot by itself produce ozone depletion events (ODEs; defined as ozone volume mixing ratios, VMRs, < 10 ppbv). In contrast, sea-ice-sourced bromine, via sea salt aerosol (SSA) production from blowing snow, can produce ODEs even without bromine from sea spray, highlighting the importance of sea ice surface in polar boundary layer chemistry. Modelled total inorganic bromine (BrY) over the Arctic sea ice is sensitive to model configuration; e.g. under the same bromine loading, BrY in the Arctic spring boundary layer in the p-TOMCAT control run (i.e. with all bromine emissions) can be 2 times that in the UKCA control run. Despite the model differences, both model control runs can successfully reproduce large bromine explosion events (BEEs) and ODEs in polar spring. Model-integrated tropospheric-column BrO generally matches GOME-2 tropospheric columns within ∼ 50 % in UKCA and a factor of 2 in p-TOMCAT. The success of the models in reproducing both ODEs and BEEs in the Arctic indicates that the relevant parameterizations implemented in the models work reasonably well, which supports the proposed mechanism of SSA production and bromide release on sea ice. Given that sea ice is a large source of SSA and halogens, changes in sea ice type and extent in a warming climate will influence Arctic boundary layer chemistry, including the oxidation of atmospheric elemental mercury. Note that this work dose not necessary rule out other possibilities that may act as a source of reactive bromine from the sea ice zone

Elucidating the present-day chemical composition, seasonality and source regions of climate-relevant aerosols across the Arctic land surface

The Arctic is warming two to three times faster than the global average, and the role of aerosols is not well constrained. Aerosol number concentrations can be very low in remote environments, rendering local cloud radiative properties highly sensitive to available aerosol. The composition and sources of the climate-relevant aerosols, affecting Arctic cloud formation and altering their microphysics, remain largely elusive due to a lack of harmonized concurrent multi-component, multi-site, and multi-season observations. Here, we present a dataset on the overall chemical composition and seasonal variability of the Arctic total particulate matter (with a size cut at 10 mu m, PM10, or without any size cut) at eight observatories representing all Arctic sectors. Our holistic observational approach includes the Russian Arctic, a significant emission source area with less dedicated aerosol monitoring, and extends beyond the more traditionally studied summer period and black carbon/sulfate or fine-mode pollutants. The major airborne Arctic PM components in terms of dry mass are sea salt, secondary (non-sea-salt, nss) sulfate, and organic aerosol (OA), with minor contributions from elemental carbon (EC) and ammonium. We observe substantial spatiotemporal variability in component ratios, such as EC/OA, ammonium/nss-sulfate and OA/nss-sulfate, and fractional contributions to PM. When combined with component-specific back-trajectory analysis to identify marine or terrestrial origins, as well as the companion study by Moschos et al 2022 Nat. Geosci. focusing on OA, the composition analysis provides policy-guiding observational insights into sector-based differences in natural and anthropogenic Arctic aerosol sources. In this regard, we first reveal major source regions of inner-Arctic sea salt, biogenic sulfate, and natural organics, and highlight an underappreciated wintertime source of primary carbonaceous aerosols (EC and OA) in West Siberia, potentially associated with the oil and gas sector. The presented dataset can assist in reducing uncertainties in modelling pan-Arctic aerosol-climate interactions, as the major contributors to yearly aerosol mass can be constrained. These models can then be used to predict the future evolution of individual inner-Arctic atmospheric PM components in light of current and emerging pollution mitigation measures and improved region-specific emission inventories.Peer reviewe

Equal abundance of summertime natural and wintertime anthropogenic Arctic organic aerosols

Organic aerosols in the Arctic are predominantly fuelled by anthropogenic sources in winter and natural sources in summer, according to observations from eight sites across the Arctic Aerosols play an important yet uncertain role in modulating the radiation balance of the sensitive Arctic atmosphere. Organic aerosol is one of the most abundant, yet least understood, fractions of the Arctic aerosol mass. Here we use data from eight observatories that represent the entire Arctic to reveal the annual cycles in anthropogenic and biogenic sources of organic aerosol. We show that during winter, the organic aerosol in the Arctic is dominated by anthropogenic emissions, mainly from Eurasia, which consist of both direct combustion emissions and long-range transported, aged pollution. In summer, the decreasing anthropogenic pollution is replaced by natural emissions. These include marine secondary, biogenic secondary and primary biological emissions, which have the potential to be important to Arctic climate by modifying the cloud condensation nuclei properties and acting as ice-nucleating particles. Their source strength or atmospheric processing is sensitive to nutrient availability, solar radiation, temperature and snow cover. Our results provide a comprehensive understanding of the current pan-Arctic organic aerosol, which can be used to support modelling efforts that aim to quantify the climate impacts of emissions in this sensitive region.Peer reviewe

Results of the first European Source Apportionment intercomparison for Receptor and Chemical Transport Models

In this study, the performance of the source apportionment model applications were evaluated by comparing the model results provided by 44 participants adopting a methodology based on performance indicators: z-scores and RMSEu, with pre-established acceptability criteria. Involving models based on completely different and independent input data, such as receptor models (RMs) and chemical transport models (CTMs), provided a unique opportunity to cross-validate them. In addition, comparing the modelled source chemical profiles, with those measured directly at the source contributed to corroborate the chemical profile of the tested model results. The most used RM was EPA- PMF5. RMs showed very good performance for the overall dataset (91% of z-scores accepted) and more difficulties are observed with SCE time series (72% of RMSEu accepted). Industry resulted the most problematic source for RMs due to the high variability among participants. Also the results obtained with CTMs were quite comparable to their ensemble reference using all models for the overall average (>92% of successful z-scores) while the comparability of the time series is more problematic (between 58% and 77% of the candidates’ RMSEu are accepted). In the CTM models a gap was observed between the sum of source contributions and the gravimetric PM10 mass likely due to PM underestimation in the base case. Interestingly, when only the tagged species CTM results were used in the reference, the differences between the two CTM approaches (brute force and tagged species) were evident. In this case the percentage of candidates passing the z-score and RMSEu tests were only 50% and 86%, respectively. CTMs showed good comparability with RMs for the overall dataset (83% of the z-scores accepted), more differences were observed when dealing with the time series of the single source categories. In this case the share of successful RMSEu was in the range 25% - 34%.JRC.C.5-Air and Climat