S. Finardi

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EXPAH - ACTION 7.1: Report on evaluation of policy and mitigation scenarios (revision)

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Overview of tools and methods for meteorological and air pollution mesoscale model evaluation and user training

The designations employed in WMO publications and the presentation of material in this publicatio... more The designations employed in WMO publications and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of WMO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Opinions expressed in WMO publications are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of WMO. The mention of specific companies or products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by WMO in preference to others of a similar nature which are not mentioned or advertised. This document (or report) is not an official publication of WMO and has not been subjected to its standard editorial procedures. The views expressed herein do not necessarily have the endorsement of the Organization. European COoperation in Science and Technology (COST) COST, which is supported by the EU RTD Framework Programme, is the oldest and widest European intergovernmental network for cooperation in research. Established by the Ministerial Conference in November 1971, COST is presently used by the scientific communities of 35 European countries to cooperate in common research projects supported by national funds. The funds provided by COST support the COST cooperation networks (COST Actions) through which, with EUR 30 million per year, more than 30,000 European scientists are involved in research having a total value which exceeds EUR 2 billion per year. This is the financial worth of the European added value which COST achieves. A "bottom up approach" (the initiative of launching a COST Action comes from the European scientists themselves), "_ la carte participation" (only countries interested in the Action participate), "equality of access" (participation is open also to the scientific communities of countries not belonging to the European Union) and "flexible structure" (easy implementation and light management of the research initiatives) are the main characteristics of COST. As precursor of advanced multidisciplinary research, COST has a very important role for the realisation of the European Research Area (ERA) anticipating and complementing the activities of the Framework Programmes, constituting a "bridge" towards the scientific communities of emerging countries, increasing the mobility of researchers across Europe and fostering the establishment of "Networks of Excellence" in many key scientific domains such as: Biomedicine and Molecular Biosciences; Food and Agriculture; Forests, their Products and Services;

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Seasonal variation of PAHs concentration and source attribution through diagnostic ratios analysis

Urban Climate, 2015

An extensive monitoring campaign was conducted between November 2011 and July 2012 at schools, ho... more An extensive monitoring campaign was conducted between November 2011 and July 2012 at schools, homes, offices and Regional air quality network stations in Rome, within the LIFE+ EXPAH Project. This study allowed to improve the knowledge of actual concentrations and percent composition of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) over the city area. High concentrations of all PAH congeners were observed during winter colder periods, e.g. benzo[a]pyrene weekly average concentration reached 3.0 ng/m 3 , while much lower values were recorded in summer (<0.1 ng/m 3), with seasonal variability (winterto-summer ratios R) exceeding 10. This latter value was larger than that recorded for other pollutants including PM 2.5 (R 2.5). Also the percent composition of PAHs in particulates and the rates of diagnostic concentration ratios between selected congeners changed along the year, allowing to draw insights about the predominant sources and their respective importance. In particular, biomass burning for heating purposes was identified as the prevailing PAH source during winter and vehicle traffic in summer. Discrepancies between PAH profiles estimated from the emission inventory and observations were detected, with possible implication for modelling of PAH congeners.

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DOSSIER / ARIA DI CITTÀ Un filo di arianna per orientarsi nel labirinto dell'inquinamento urbano - Osservazioni e modelli

Analysis of pollutants exchange between the Po Valley and the surrounding European region

Urban Climate, 2014

Abstract The Po Valley is a major populated area including different conurbations, with a populat... more Abstract The Po Valley is a major populated area including different conurbations, with a population density among the highest in Europe. The region is an air pollution hot spot, where the European air quality standards are exceeded for PM10, NO 2 and O 3 . The pollutants exported from the Po Valley to the surrounding areas have been investigated through the application of a chemical transport model. Emission sensitivity simulations have been performed to identify the Po Valley footprint and to quantify its influence on the atmospheric composition. Simulation results suggest that the Po Valley emissions impact extends up to 500 km, affecting Italy, the northern Mediterranean sea and the western Balkan peninsula. The outflow directions are determined by meteorological and topographic forcing. The surface area affected is larger during the winter, while the mass injected in the free troposphere is larger during the summer for pollutants with longer lifetime. Secondary PM components show an impact area wider than the other pollutants. NO 2 footprint and its contribution to local concentration are relevant especially during wintertime. The Po Valley emissions contribute to the production of ozone at regional scale during the summer, although this contribution remains limited to few percentage points of local concentration levels.

Integrated Assessment Modelling project in Italy. Case study on the effects of the sea region emissions on air pollutant concentrations over the land

ABSTRACT Since 2002, on behalf of the Italian Ministry of the Environment, ENEA has been leading ... more ABSTRACT Since 2002, on behalf of the Italian Ministry of the Environment, ENEA has been leading a national Project, named MINNI (National Integrated Modelling system for International Negotiation), for the development of an Integrated Assessment Modelling system. The objective of the project is to support the policy makers in the elaboration and assessment of air pollution policies at international, national and local level, by means of the more recent understandings of the atmospheric processes. The MINNI Project consists of two main components: a multi pollutant eulerian Atmospheric Modelling System (AMS), and the RAINS-Italy Integrated Assessment Model, developed within a joint research project ENEA-IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxemburg, Austria). Both short and long term future scenarios foreseen an increase of NOx, PM and SOx emissions from national ship routes and the same trend is envisaged in the international courses. The modelling system has been applied to the shipping emissions and some results, in terms of concentrations and depositions over the land, are discussed.

Integrated air quality assessment of an alpine region: evaluation of the Mont Blanc tunnel re-opening effects

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Use of Chemical Transport Models and Neural Network in a Pollutants Study Over Rome Urban Area

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Operational background air pollution prediction over Slovenia by QualeAria modelling system - validation

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2014

ABSTRACT Slovenia is a country of very complex terrain and many problems with air pollution in th... more ABSTRACT Slovenia is a country of very complex terrain and many problems with air pollution in the valleys, canyons and basins, where industrial air pollution is combined with traffic and domestic heating air pollution, giving rise to problems for the health impact and the ecosystems directly or indirectly. Among indirect effects is also effect on solar radiation budget because of photochemical smog and especially particulate air pollution. To assess air pollutants over the country, a preliminary application of an experimental operational forecast system is presented here, with the aim of exploring its potentials and limitations in modelling the background air quality, and to focus the aspects where improvements are needed for a true operational use.

The MINNI project: An integrated assessment modeling system for policy making

… International Congress on …, 2005

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A gas/aerosol air pollutants study over the urban area of Rome using a comprehensive chemical transport model

Atmospheric Environment, 2007

The aim of this study was to identify areas of potential relevant exposure to pollutants within R... more The aim of this study was to identify areas of potential relevant exposure to pollutants within Rome's urban core. To meet this goal, intensive field campaigns were conducted and simulations were performed, using the flexible air quality regional model (FARM), to study winter and summer pollution episodes. The simulations were performed using a complete emission inventory that included traffic flow model results of the Roman street network to better describe, with respect to the available diffuse national emission inventory, the hourly variation of traffic emissions in the city. The meteorological reconstruction was performed by means of both prognostic and diagnostic models by using experimental data collected during the field campaigns. To evaluate the capability of the FARM model to capture the main features of the selected episodes, a comparison of modelled results against observed air quality data for different pollutants was performed at urban and rural sites. FARM performed well in predicting ozone (O 3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2) concentrations, showing a good reproduction of both daily peaks and their diurnal variations. The model also showed a good capability to reproduce the magnitude of volatile alkane, aromatic and carbonyl compound concentrations. PM 10 model results revealed the tendency to under-predict the observed values. PM composition model results were compared with observed data, evidencing good results for elemental carbon (EC), nitrate (NO 3 À) and ammonium (NH 4 +), underestimation for sulphate (SO 4 2À) and poor performance for organic matter (OM). The soil components of PM were found to be significantly under-predicted by the model, especially during Saharan dust episodes. Overall, the study results show large areas of high O 3 and PM 10 concentrations where levels of pollutants should be carefully monitored and population exposure evaluated.

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A review of operational, regional-scale, chemical weather forecasting models in Europe

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2012

Numerical models that combine weather forecasting and atmospheric chemistry are here referred to ... more Numerical models that combine weather forecasting and atmospheric chemistry are here referred to as chemical weather forecasting models. Eighteen operational chemical weather forecasting models on regional and continental scales in Europe are described and compared in this article. Topics discussed in this article include how weather forecasting and atmospheric chemistry models are integrated into chemical weather forecasting systems, how physical processes are incorporated into the models through parameterization schemes, how the model architecture affects the predicted variables, and how air chemistry and aerosol processes are formulated. In addition, we discuss sensitivity analysis and evaluation of the models, user operational requirements, such as model availability and documentation, and output availability and dissemination. In this manner, this article allows for the evaluation of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various modelling systems and modelling approaches. Finally, this article highlights the most prominent gaps of knowledge for chemical weather forecasting models and suggests potential priorities for future research Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 2 J. Kukkonen et al.: A review of operational, regional-scale, chemical weather forecasting models in Europe directions, for the following selected focus areas: emission inventories, the integration of numerical weather prediction and atmospheric chemical transport models, boundary conditions and nesting of models, data assimilation of the various chemical species, improved understanding and parameterization of physical processes, better evaluation of models against data and the construction of model ensembles. www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/1/2012/ Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 1-87, 2012 4 J. Kukkonen et al.: A review of operational, regional-scale, chemical weather forecasting models in Europe new numerical intercomparisons of model predictions, or any novel evaluation of model predictions with data. 1.3 Organization of this article This article is organized in the following manner. Section 2 introduces the 18 different CWF modelling systems and gives an overview of some of the relevant physical processes. Section 3 discusses the numerical weather prediction components of the models. Section 4 discusses the processes in the atmospheric dispersion and chemistry modelling components. Section 5 discusses the evaluation of the models. Section 6 discusses user operations of the model, including availability, computer requirements, documentation, user interfaces, sensitivity analyses, and dissemination. Section 7 looks forward to discuss emerging issues in the CWF community, including the identification of major gaps of knowledge and future research needs. Finally, Sect. 8 concludes this article. The main characteristics of the selected 18 CWF models considered in this study have been summarised and intercompared in several tables. Overviews of the main properties of the CWF and NWP models are first presented in Tables 1 and 2. The atmospheric dispersion, chemistry and aerosol modelling, and deposition components are reviewed in Tables 3-7. The natural emissions, and the grid spacings and coordinate systems are presented in Tables 8 and 9. The evaluation of each CWF model, and the availability, user communities, documentation, and presentation of forecasts in the internet are presented in Tables 10-12. Finally, in relation to future research needs, adjoint (inverse) dispersion modelling is reviewed in Table 13. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 1-87, 2012 www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/1/2012/ J. Kukkonen et al.: A review of operational, regional-scale, chemical weather forecasting models in Europe 5 Chemical and biological forecast Numerical weather prediction model Weather data analysis and assimilation Weather Forecast Biogenic and anthropogenic emissions, land use and other input data Chemical transport model Climatological or forecast air quality data Chemical, aerosol, removal, diffusion and transport modules Physical, chemical and biological forecast Meteorological and chemical data analysis, assimilation & emissions Integrated numerical weather and chemistry forecasting model

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5.17 Analysis of European Local-Scale PM10 Air Pollution Episodes, with Example Cases in Oslo, Helsinki, London and Milan

Il Modello Integrato Nazionale (MINNI). Uno strumento per simulare l'efficacia delle politiche di riduzione delle emissioni ed i costi associati

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Problematiche ed incertezze nell’uso di modelli a supporto delle decisioni: esperienze con il sis... more

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Public Information Under the New 50/2008/EC Directive: An Example of Air Quality Forecast Index

Since 2003 people living in the metropolitan area of Turin have been easily able to inquire about... more Since 2003 people living in the metropolitan area of Turin have been easily able to inquire about air pollution through the Air Quality Index (AQI), a number depending on the concentrations of the three most relevant pollutants (PM 10 , NO 2 , O 3 ) measured by some monitoring stations located inside the metropolitan area. The Air Quality Index however may be affected by local effects and it is computed using data measured one day before. Since July 2006 ARPA Piemonte has operationally used an air quality forecasting system (AQF). The forecasting system, with a series of detailed input datasets (emission inventories, IREA for Piemonte region, geographic and physiographic data, large scale air quality from the continental transport model Chimere and meteorological forecasts from the limited area model COSMO-I7), is able to simulate air pollutant emission, transport, diffusion and chemical transformation to provide concentration fields of the main atmospheric pollutants (CO, NO X , SO...

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Application of bias adjustment techniques to improve air quality forecasts

Atmospheric Pollution Research, 2015

Two bias adjustment techniques, the hybrid forecast (HF) and the Kalman filter (KF), have been ap... more Two bias adjustment techniques, the hybrid forecast (HF) and the Kalman filter (KF), have been applied to investigate their capability to improve the accuracy of predictions supplied by an air quality forecast system (AQFS). The studied AQFS operationally predicts NO 2 , ozone, particulate matter and other pollutants concentrations for the Lazio Region (Central Italy). A thorough evaluation of the AQFS and the two techniques has been performed through calculation and analysis of statistical parameters and skill scores. The evaluation performed considering all Lazio region monitoring sites evidenced better results for KF than for HF. RMSE scores were reduced by 43.8% (33.5% HF), 25.2% (13.2% HF) and 41.6% (39.7% HF) respectively for hourly averaged NO 2 , hourly averaged O 3 and daily averaged PM10 concentrations. A further analysis performed clustering the monitoring stations per type showed a good performance of the AQFS for ozone for all the groups of stations (r ¼ 0.7), while satisfactory results were obtained for PM 10 and NO 2 at rural background (r ¼ 0.6) and Rome background stations (r ¼ 0.7). The skill scores confirmed the capability of the adopted techniques to improve the reproduction of exceedance events.

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Comparison of computed and measured aerosol optical depth (AOD) over Europe for a year long chemical transport model simulation

The evaluation of Air Quality (AQ) models is very important for checking their applicability. Wit... more The evaluation of Air Quality (AQ) models is very important for checking their applicability. Within MEGAPOLI Project, model simulations over Europe were performed for the full year 2005 and evaluation results are presented here for the chemical transport model FARM. The model results have been verified at several regional monitoring sites across Europe by comparing its monthly averaged Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) predictions with data provided by the MODIS satellite sensor and AERONET photometer observations. As for PM10 and ozone, surface concentration fields have been compared with observed data across Europe made available at EMEP Chemical Coordinating Centre at NILU. As for PM10 we have compared daily concentrations during June and December; while as for ozone we have limited the analysis to June comparing calculated and observed daily 1 hour maxima. Such evaluation has evidenced an excellent agreement between observed and predicted ozone levels; as for PM10 and AOD, a better agreement has been observed during warmer season and an overestimation of measured data during colder periods particularly at northerly sites. The use of statistical indicators, suggested in the frame of FAIRMODE benchmarking activities, corroborated these results.

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Evaluation of data assimilation techniques for a mesoscale meteorological model and their effects on air quality model results

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2008

ABSTRACT Data assimilation techniques are methods to limit the growth of errors in a dynamical mo... more ABSTRACT Data assimilation techniques are methods to limit the growth of errors in a dynamical model by allowing observations distributed in space and time to force (nudge) model solutions. They have become common for meteorological model applications in recent years, especially to enhance weather forecast and to support air-quality studies. In order to investigate the influence of different data assimilation techniques on the meteorological fields produced by RAMS model, and to evaluate their effects on the ozone and PM10 concentrations predicted by FARM model, several numeric experiments were conducted over the urban area of Rome, Italy, during a summer episode.

Analysis of Industrial Plumes Superposition Effects in a Mediterranean Coastal Region

Air Pollution Modeling and Its Application XIII, 2000

Coastal tidal effects on thermal plumes are investigated, exploiting remote sensing of two major ... more Coastal tidal effects on thermal plumes are investigated, exploiting remote sensing of two major coastal industrial installations. The installations use sea water as a coolant, which is then released back into coastal environments at a higher-than-ambient temperature, allowing the plume to be delineated from the ambient waters. Satellite-based thermal sensors observing the Earth at spatial resolutions of 90 and 100 m are used. It is possible to identify coastal features and thermal spatial distributions. This paper presents coastal tidal effects on detected plumes for two case studies: an intertidal embayment and open water exposure, both on the coast of the UK. We correlated the behaviours of thermal plumes using remotely sensed high resolution thermal imagery with tidal phases derived from tide gauges. The results show very distinct behaviours for the flood and ebb tides. The detected surface plume location was dependent on flow switching direction for the different types of tide. The detected surface area was dependent on the strength of the currents, with the largest area observed during the strongest currents. Understanding the dispersion of the plume is essential to influence understanding of any potential ecological impacts.

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