Search results for " quality."
showing 10 items of 2995 documents
The driving factors of new particle formation and growth in the polluted boundary layer
2021
Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Mao Xiao et al. New particle formation (NPF) is a significant source of atmospheric particles, affecting climate and air quality. Understanding the mechanisms involved in urban aerosols is important to develop effective mitigation strategies. However, NPF rates reported in the polluted boundary layer span more than 4 orders of magnitude, and the reasons behind this variability are the subject of intense scientific debate. Multiple atmospheric vapours have been postulated to participate in NPF, including sulfuric acid, ammonia, amines and organics, but their relative roles remain unclear. We investigated NPF in the CLOUD chamber using mixtures of anthropogenic vap…
Coastal zone water quality: Calibration of a water-turbidity equation for MODIS data
2013
AbstractA nephelometric turbidity algorithm has been specifically calibrated for coastal waters in Sicily. To this purpose, intensive field campaigns were performed in July, August and September 2008. Measurements were collected in situ in three different gulfs. Statistical analysis suggests that field data should be spatially grouped but temporally separated; hence, new calibration parameters have been proposed.Turbidity retrieved by applying the algorithm using literature coefficients and the ones calibrated in situ are shown and compared. The comparison demonstrated that a specific calibration was necessary for quantitatively monitoring turbidity in Sicilian gulfs.
A case study of the radiative effect of aerosols over Europe: EUCAARI-LONGREX
2016
Abstract. The radiative effect of anthropogenic aerosols over Europe during the 2008 European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions Long Range Experiment (EUCAARI-LONGREX) campaign has been calculated using measurements collected by the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe-146 aircraft and radiative transfer modelling. The aircraft sampled anthropogenically perturbed air masses across north-western Europe under anticyclonic conditions with aerosol optical depths ranging from 0.047 to 0.357. For one specially designed “radiative closure” flight, simulated irradiances have been compared to radiation measurements for a case of aged Europe…
Comparative assessment of RAMS and WRF short-term forecasts over Eastern Iberian Peninsula using various in-situ observations, remote sensing product…
2018
The Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale models are being used for weather and air quality studies as well as forecasting tools in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems. In the current study, we perform a comparative assessment of these models under distinct typical atmospheric conditions, classified according to the dominant wind flow and cloudiness, over Eastern Iberian Peninsula. This study is focused on the model representation of key physical processes in terms of meteorology and surface variables during a 7-days period in summer 2011. The hourly outputs produced by these two models are compared not only with observed…
Methodological Aspects for the Implementation of the Air Pesticide Control and Surveillance Network (PESTNet) of the Valencian Region (Spain)
2021
A large amount of pesticide, applied mainly during agricultural practice, is released into the atmosphere, decreasing air quality and potentially causing public health problems. The Valencian region, after Andalusia, is the Spanish region with the highest consumption of pesticides owing to its large areas of agricultural land and the existence of crops that require intensive use of pesticides. In this work, we describe the sampling and analytical tools developed in the last decade and their transference to the Regional Department for Environment, where the main objective of the research was the creation and implementation of an Air pesticide control and surveillance network (PESTNet) in the…
Pathway using WUDAPT's Digital Synthetic City tool towards generating urban canopy parameters for multi-scale urban atmospheric modeling
2019
Abstract The WUDAPT (World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools project goal is to capture consistent information on urban form and function for cities worldwide that can support urban weather, climate, hydrology and air quality modeling. These data are provided as urban canopy parameters (UCPs) as used by weather, climate and air quality models to simulate the effects of urban surfaces on the overlying atmosphere. Information is stored with different levels of detail (LOD). With higher LOD greater spatial precision is provided. At the lowest LOD, Local Climate Zones (LCZ) with nominal UCP ranges is provided (order 100 m or more). To describe the spatial heterogeneity present in cities wi…
Including an environmental quality index in a demographic model
2016
This paper presents a new well-being index which allows environmental quality to be measured through CO2 emissions, renewable energies and nuclear power. Its formula derives from a geometric mean used to calculate which things in the human production system warm the planet and which do not. This index has been introduced into a gender-defined stochastic population dynamic mathematical model which measures well-being in a country. The main variables in this model are rates of death, birth, emigration and immigration, as well as three UN indices: Human Development Index, Gender Development Index and Gender Empowerment Index. This model has been extended with variables that allow an environmen…
The Effect of the Covid-19 Lockdown on Air Quality in Three Italian Medium-Sized Cities
2020
Despite the societal and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown measures put in place by the Italian government provided an unprecedented opportunity to increase our knowledge of the effect transportation and industry-related emissions have on the air quality in our cities. This study assessed the effect of reduced emissions during the lockdown period, due to COVID-19, on air quality in three Italian cities, Florence, Pisa, and Lucca. For this study, we compared the concentration of particulate matter PM10, PM2.5, NO2, and O3 measured during the lockdown period, with values obtained in the same period of 2019. Our results show no evidence of a direct relationship between th…
δ13C variations in tree rings as an indication of severe changes in the urban air quality
2002
Abstract Annual growth rings sampled from three free-standing trees (Platanus hybrida sp.), grew in the metropolitan area of Palermo (Italy) and covering a 118 years time span (1880–1998), have been studied for their 13C/12C carbon isotope ratios. It has been found that the 13C/12C tree ring record, during the study time interval, decreased of −3.6‰, from −26.4‰ in 1880 to −30‰ in 1998. Such a progressive depletion has been attributed to the addition of anthropogenic 13C depleted carbon dioxide to the local atmosphere. The observed 13C/12C decrease has been used to infer some possible pathways of atmospheric CO2 change in the study urban area.
Mass levels, crustal component and trace elements in PM10 in Palermo, Italy.
2007
Abstract Results concerning the levels and elemental compositions of daily PM 10 samples collected at four air quality monitoring sites in Palermo (Italy) are presented. The highest mean value of PM 10 concentrations (46 μg m −3 , with a peak value of 158 μg m −3 ) was recorded at the Di Blasi urban station, and the lowest at Boccadifalco station (25 μg m −3 ), considered as a sub-urban background station. Seventeen elements (Al, As, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Sr, U, V, Zn) were measured by ICP-MS. Al and Fe showed the highest concentrations, indicating the significant contribution of soil and resuspended mineral particles to atmospheric PM 10 . Ba, Cr, Cu, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, …