Suchergebnisse

The Caliope project funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment establishes an air quality forecasting system for Spain to increase the knowledge on transport and dynamics of pollutants in Spain, to assure the accomplishment of legislation and to inform the population about the levels of pollutants, topics in which the European Commission has shown a great concern. The present contribution describes the first quantitative verification study performed so far with two chemistry transport models (CMAQ and CHIMERE) for a reference year (2004) at medium spatial resolution (around 20×20 km for the Iberian Peninsula). Both models perform similarly in the case of ground-level ozone. The mean normalised gross error MNGE remains below 15–20% during summertime, when ozone episodes occur, outlining the good skills of the system concerning the forecasting of air quality in Spain. Furthermore, the ongoing developments of the system towards high resolution modelling (4×4 km for Spain, 12×12 km for Europe, 1 h temporal resolution) and the integration with observations within the Caliope umbrella are described.

The Caliope project funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment establishes an air quality forecasting system for Spain to increase the knowledge on transport and dynamics of pollutants in Spain, to assure the accomplishment of legislation and to inform the population about the levels of pollutants, topics in which the European Commission has shown a great concern. The present contribution describes the first quantitative verification study performed so far with two chemistry transport models (CMAQ and CHIMERE) for a reference year (2004) at medium spatial resolution (around 20×20 km for the Iberian Peninsula). Both models perform similarly in the case of ground-level ozone. The mean normalised gross error MNGE remains below 15–20% during summertime, when ozone episodes occur, outlining the good skills of the system concerning the forecasting of air quality in Spain. Furthermore, the ongoing developments of the system towards high resolution modelling (4×4 km for Spain, 12×12 km for Europe, 1 h temporal resolution) and the integration with observations within the Caliope umbrella are described.

10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables.-- Contributed to: 7th EMS Annual Meeting and 8th European Conference on Applications of Meteorology 2007 (San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, Oct 1-5, 2007). ; The Caliope project funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment establishes an air quality forecasting system for Spain to increase the knowledge on transport and dynamics of pollutants in Spain, to assure the accomplishment of legislation and to inform the population about the levels of pollutants, topics in which the European Commission has shown a great concern. The present contribution describes the first quantitative verification study performed so far with two chemistry transport models (CMAQ and CHIMERE) for a reference year (2004) at medium spatial resolution (around 20×20 km for the Iberian Peninsula). Both models perform similarly in the case of ground-level ozone. The mean normalised gross error MNGE remains below 15–20% during summertime, when ozone episodes occur, outlining the good skills of the system concerning the forecasting of air quality in Spain. Furthermore, the ongoing developments of the system towards high resolution modelling (4×4 km for Spain, 12×12 km for Europe, 1 h temporal resolution) and the integration with observations within the Caliope umbrella are described. ; This work is funded by the Caliope project of the Spanish Ministry of the Environment (441/2006/3-12.1 and A357/200/2-12.1). CMAQ and DREAM simulations were performed in the MareNostrum supercomputer hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). ; Peer reviewed

International audience ; The Caliope project funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment establishes an air quality forecasting system for Spain to increase the knowledge on transport and dynamics of pollutants in Spain, to assure the accomplishment of legislation and to inform the population about the levels of pollutants, topics in which the European Commission has shown a great concern. The present contribution describes the first quantitative verification study performed so far with two chemistry transport models (CMAQ and CHIMERE) for a reference year (2004) at medium spatial resolution (around 20×20 km for the Iberian Peninsula). Both models perform similarly in the case of ground-level ozone. The mean normalised gross error MNGE remains below 15?20% during summertime, when ozone episodes occur, outlining the good skills of the system concerning the forecasting of air quality in Spain. Furthermore, the ongoing developments of the system towards high resolution modelling (4×4 km for Spain, 12×12 km for Europe, 1 h temporal resolution) and the integration with observations within the Caliope umbrella are described.

More than 2 years of columnar atmospheric aerosol measurements (2006–2009) at the Tamanrasset site (22.79° N, 5.53° E, 1377 m a.s.l.), in the heart of the Sahara, are analysed. Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) level 2.0 data were used. The KCICLO (K is the name of a constant and ciclo means cycle in Spanish) method was applied to a part of the level 1.5 data series to improve the quality of the results. The annual variability of aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Ångström exponent (AE) has been found to be strongly linked to the convective boundary layer (CBL) thermodynamic features. The dry-cool season (autumn and winter) is characterized by a shallow CBL and very low mean turbidity (AOD ~ 0.09 at 440 nm, AE ~ 0.62). The wet-hot season (spring and summer) is dominated by high turbidity of coarse dust particles (AE ~ 0.28, AOD ~ 0.39 at 440 nm) and a deep CBL. The aerosol-type characterization shows desert mineral dust as the prevailing aerosol. Both pure Saharan dust and very clear sky conditions are observed depending on the season. However, several case studies indicate an anthropogenic fine mode contribution from the industrial areas in Libya and Algeria. The concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) source apportionment method was used to identify potential sources of air masses arriving at Tamanrasset at several heights for each season. Microphysical and optical properties and precipitable water vapour were also investigated. ; The AERONET sun photometer at Tamanrasset has been calibrated within AERONET-EUROPE TNA supported by the PHOTONS and RIMA networks and partially financed by the European Community – Research Infrastructure Action under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) "Capacities" specific programme for Integrating Activities, ACTRIS grant agreement no. 262254.Financial support from the Spanish MINECO (projects CGL2011-23413, CGL2012-33576 and CGL2012-37505). e Supercomputación y eCiencia project (CSD2007-0050) from the Consolider-Ingenio 2010 and Severo Ochoa (SEV-2011-00067) programs of the Spanish Government. ; 5.053 JCR (2014) Q1, 3/77 Meteorology and atmospheric sciences ; UEC