AIR QUALITY FORECASTING SYSTEM AT FERIHEGY AIRPORT –HUNGARY

This paper presents an application of the EDMS dispersion modelling system to airport air quality calculations. The EDMS system is a combined emissions and dispersion model which can be used to produce an inventory of emissions generated at Budapest Ferihegy Airport, as well as to calculate pollutant concentrations on and around the airport. Daily average NOX concentration values are predicted for 24 hours, and these forecasted values are evaluated with the concentration values measured at the air pollution monitoring stations on the area of Budapest Ferihegy Airport

A baj nem jár egyedül – hőhullámok és levegőszennyezettség

Az elmúlt két évtized tapasztalatai alapján az éghajlatváltozás napjainkban is érzékelhető megnyilvánulása az időjárási szélsőségek, ezen belül a hőhullámok számának és időtartamának jelentős mértékű növekedése. Az emberi szervezetet önmagában is erősen megterhelő tartós hőség rendszerint rendkívül rossz levegőminőséggel párosul: az ilyenkor jellemző meteorológiai paraméterek kedveznek a fotokémiai (másként Los Angeles-típusú) szmog kialakulásának. A nagy területekre kiterjedő, szinte kivédhetetlen szmog összetevői egészségkárosító hatásuk révén súlyosbítják a hőség által okozott panaszokat, és felelőssé tehetők az ilyenkor nagy számban bekövetkező többlet-halálesetek egy részéért is. Mivel a jövőben nagy valószínűséggel a hőhullámok további erősödésére számíthatunk, nem árt, ha tisztában vagyunk annak társult veszélyeivel is

Overview of the tropospheric ozone problem: formation, measurements, trends, and impacts (Hungarian specialties)

Ground-level or tropospheric ozone (O3) is an oxidant air pollutant that has harmful effect on human health and vegetation, however, it is a short-lived greenhouse gas. Ozone is a secondary pollutant; which means that it is not directly emitted in the ambient air, but also produced from the photochemical oxidation of non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), methane (CH4), or carbon monoxide (CO) in the presence of nitrogen oxides (NOx). It is destroyed both photochemically and through deposition to the surface. Summarizing the chemistry of ozone is complex and non-linear. Background concentrations of ground-level ozone in Europe do not show a significant downward trend, but in Hungary essential reduction (–0.28 μg/m3) was observed at Kpuszta station in the last decades. In the monthly distribution the amplitude decrease with increase in altitude, at K-puszta 45.1 μg/m3, while at Nyírjes 36.6 μg/m3 amplitudes were observed. Based on our data we found that the ozone gradient is about +1.4 μg/m3/m. Breathing ozone can result in a number of negative health effects that are observed in relevant segments of the population. Ozone also is known as the air pollutant most damaging to agricultural crops and other plants. This article gives a general overview of the ozone problem focusing on the Hungarian specialties

Evidence for Nearly Complete Decoupling of Very Stable Nocturnal Boundary Layer Overland

Concentrations of 222Rn at 0.1m and 6.5m height above ground level and 222Rn flux density were measured during nights characterized by strong cooling, light winds and clear sky conditions in the Carpathian Basin in Hungary. A very stable boundary layer (vSBL) formed on 14 nights between 15 August and 3 September 2009. On 12 nights, an estimated 72% (s.d. 20%) of 222Rn emitted from the surface since sunset was retained within the lowest 6.5m above the ground until sunrise the following morning. On two nights an intermittent increase in wind speed at 9.4m height was followed by a rise in temperature at 2.0m height, indicating a larger atmospheric motion that resulted in 222Rn at 0.1m around sunrise being the same as around the preceding sunset. It does not seem to be rare in a large continental basin for a vSBL to be nearly completely decoupled from the atmosphere above for the entire period from sunset to sunris

Evidence for Nearly Complete Decoupling of Very Stable Nocturnal Boundary Layer Overland

Concentrations of (222)Rn at 0.1 m and 6.5 m height above ground level and (222)Rn flux density were measured during nights characterized by strong cooling, light winds and clear sky conditions in the Carpathian Basin in Hungary. A very stable boundary layer (vSBL) formed on 14 nights between 15 August and 3 September 2009. On 12 nights, an estimated 72% (s.d. 20%) of (222)Rn emitted from the surface since sunset was retained within the lowest 6.5 m above the ground until sunrise the following morning. On two nights an intermittent increase in wind speed at 9.4 m height was followed by a rise in temperature at 2.0 m height, indicating a larger atmospheric motion that resulted in (222)Rn at 0.1 m around sunrise being the same as around the preceding sunset. It does not seem to be rare in a large continental basin for a vSBL to be nearly completely decoupled from the atmosphere above for the entire period from sunset to sunrise. © 2011, Springer. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.co

Application of trajectory clustering for determining the source regions of secondary inorganic aerosols measured at K-puszta background monitoring station, Hungary

Understanding the formation process of atmospheric particles is vital be-cause of the significant impact of particulate matter on human health and climate change. Atmospheric particles can be formed by nucleation process via a number of different mechanisms, such as binary nucleation (involving H2SO4 and water va-pour), ternary nucleation (involving NH3, H2SO4 and water vapour) and ion-induced nucleation for charged particles, depending on the environmental conditions. Parti-cle formation increases the total number concentration of ambient submicron parti-cles and contributes thereby to climate forcing. The transformation processes of new particle formation (NPF) and secondary organic aerosol have been studied. It was found that gaseous sulphuric acid, ammonia, and organic compounds are important precursors to NPF events and H2SO4-NH3-H2O ternary nucleation is one of the im-portant mechanisms. Using cluster analysis on the backward trajectories makes it possible to identify the most relevant types of air mass transport routes, and the directions from where precursor gases are transported. The influence of synoptic-scale atmospheric transport patterns on observed levels of sulphate, nitrate and am-monium has been examined

Effect of the uncertainty in meteorology on air quality model predictions

An operational air quality forecasting model system has been developed and provides daily forecasts of ozone, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter for the area of Hungary and three big cites of the country (Budapest, Miskolc, and Pécs). The core of the model system is the CHIMERE off-line chemical transport model. The AROME numerical weather prediction model provides the gridded meteorological inputs for the chemical model calculations. The horizontal resolution of the AROME meteorological fields is consistent with the CHIMERE horizontal resolution. The individual forecasted concentrations for the following 2 days are displayed on a public website of the Hungarian Meteorological Service. It is essential to have a quantitative understanding of the uncertainty in model output arising from uncertainties in the input meteorological fields. The main aim of this research is to probe the response of an air quality model to its uncertain meteorological inputs. Ensembles are one method to explore how uncertainty in meteorology affects air pollution concentrations. During the past decades, meteorological ensemble modeling has received extensive research and operational interest because of its ability to better characterize forecast uncertainty. One such ensemble forecast system is the one of the AROME model, which has an 11-member ensemble where each member is perturbed by initial and lateral boundary conditions. In this work we focus on wintertime particulate matter concentrations, since this pollutant is extremely sensitive to near-surface mixing processes. Selecting a number of extreme air pollution situations we will show what the impact of the meteorological uncertainty is on the simulated concentration fields using AROME ensemble members

Characterization of Background Aerosol Properties during a Wintertime Smog Episode

The aim of this paper is to study the wintertime physical properties of atmospheric aerosol particles on the basis of data observed at the K-puszta regional background station in Hungary. In Hungary wintertime smog episodes are linked to strong stable air (high pressure blocking events) with thermal inversion. These atmospheric conditions are frequently formed during winter months (November–February) due to the special geographical location of the country. The formation of smog events is highly probable in cases of thermal inversion periods sustaining for at least 4 days. We discuss in the paper the role of high-pressure blocking events in aerosol properties in terms of PM10 concentrations, aerosol size distributions, new particle formation and optical properties. We found that high-pressure blocking events have significant impacts on the size distribution and particle formation processes. At K-puszta the aerosol is in highly aged state with size distribution dominated by the accumulation mode. This is further supported by the optical properties, e.g., by high scattering Ångstrom exponent and by relatively weak absorption. The most significant effect of extreme episodes is manifested in the changes in PM10 concentrations and, consequently, in aerosol optical properties. The PM10 concentrations, scattering coefficients and absorption coefficients considerably increase to extreme values that are characteristic of a heavily polluted atmosphere rather than rural air. Our results indicate that in winter, the air quality at Kpuszta is often influenced by regional air pollution as shown by spatial distribution of PM10 concentration. It is found that PM10 had almost the same concentration in regional background air and in different types of urban environments. The special meteorological conditions and the role of regional-scale transport can explain why local abatements in cities cannot lead to significant improvement of the air quality during smog events