Suchergebnisse

Decision-support tools are increasingly popular for informing policy decisions linked to environmental issues. For example, a number of decision-support tools on transport planning provide information on expected effects of different measures (actions, policies, or interventions) on air quality, often combined with information on noise pollution or mitigation costs. These tools range in complexity and scale of applicability, from city to international, and include one or several polluting sectors. However, evaluation of the need and utility of tools to support decisions on such linked issues is often lacking, especially for tools intended to support local authorities at the city scale. Here we assessed the need for and value of combining air pollution and climate change mitigation measures into one decision-support tool and the existing policy context in which such a tool might be used. We developed a prototype decision-support tool for evaluating measures for coordinated management of air quality and climate change; and administered a survey in which respondents used the prototype to answer questions about demand for such tools and requirements to make them useful. Additionally, the survey asked questions about participants' awareness of linkages between air pollution and climate change that are crucial for considering synergies and trade-offs among mitigation measures. Participants showed a high understanding of the linkages between air pollution and climate change, especially recognizing that emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants come from the same source. Survey participants were: European, predominantly German; employed across a range of governmental, non-governmental and research organizations; and responsible for a diversity of issues, primarily involving climate change, air pollution or environment. Survey results showed a lack of awareness of decision-support tools and little implementation or regular use. However, respondents expressed a general need for such tools while also recognizing ...

Lately, black carbon (BC) has received significant attention due to its climate-warming properties and adverse health effects. Nevertheless, long-term observations in urban areas are scarce, most likely because BC monitoring is not required by environmental legislation. This, however, handicaps the evaluation of air quality models which can be used to assess the effectiveness of policy measures which aim to reduce BC concentrations. Here, we present a new dataset of atmospheric BC measurements from Germany constructed from over six million measurements at over 170 stations. Data covering the period between 1994 and 2014 were collected from twelve German Federal States and the Federal Environment Agency, quality checked and harmonized into a database with comprehensive metadata. The final data in original time resolution are available for download (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.881173). Though assembled in a consistent way, the dataset is characterized by differences in (a) measurement methodologies for determining evolved carbon and optical absorption, (b) covered time periods, and (c) temporal resolutions that ranged from half hourly to measurements every 6th day. Usage and interpretation of this dataset thus requires a careful consideration of these differences. Our analysis focuses on 2009, the year with the largest data coverage with one single methodology, as well as on the relative changes in long-term trends over ten years. For 2009, we find that BC concentrations at traffic sites were at least twice as high as at urban background, industrial and rural sites. Weekly cycles are most prominent at traffic stations, however, the presence of differences in concentrations during the week and on weekends at other station types suggests that traffic plays an important role throughout the full network. Generally higher concentrations and weaker weekly cycles during the winter months point towards the influence of other sources such as domestic heating. Regarding the long-term trends, advanced statistical ...

11 pags., 4 figs.-- Correction: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19533-y ; In the central Arctic Ocean the formation of clouds and their properties are sensitive to the availability of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). The vapors responsible for new particle formation (NPF), potentially leading to CCN, have remained unidentified since the first aerosol measurements in 1991. Here, we report that all the observed NPF events from the Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition are driven by iodic acid with little contribution from sulfuric acid. Iodic acid largely explains the growth of ultrafine particles (UFP) in most events. The iodic acid concentration increases significantly from summer towards autumn, possibly linked to the ocean freeze-up and a seasonal rise in ozone. This leads to a one order of magnitude higher UFP concentration in autumn. Measurements of cloud residuals suggest that particles smaller than 30 nm in diameter can activate as CCN. Therefore, iodine NPF has the potential to influence cloud properties over the Arctic Ocean. ; The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (SPRS) provided access to the I/B Oden and logistical support in collaboration with the U.S. National Science Foundation. This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant no. 200021_169090), the Swiss Polar Institute, the BNP Paribas Swiss Foundation (Polar Access Fund 2018), the Knut-and Alice-Wallenberg Foundation within the ACAS project (Arctic Climate Across Scales, project no. 2016.0024), the Bolin Centre for Climate Research (RA2), the Swedish Research Council (project nos. 2018-05045 and 2016-05100) and by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant no. NE/R009686/1). J.S. holds the Ingvar Kamprad Chair, sponsored by Ferring Pharmaceuticals. A.S.-L. acknowledges the funding from the European Research Council Executive Agency under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program (Project 'ERC-2016-COG 726349 CLIMAHAL'). Funding of the expedition AO2018 was provided to Caroline Leck by the NSF and SPRS's Cost sharing Understanding Arctic Ocean 2018 Reg. no. 2018-113, and by the Swedish Research Council projects nos. 824-2013-222 and 2016-03518. We are grateful to Xu-Cheng He (University of Helsinki, Finland) for the insightful discussions about iodine NPF and for helping with the calibration of the nitrate CIMS. We would like to thank Michael Wheeler and Richard Leaitch (Environment and Climate Change Canada) for lending the CVI inlet and the technical support and Silvia Henning (TROPOS, Germany) for lending and calibrating the cloud condensation nuclei counter. We also thank Heini Wernli (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) for calculating the air mass backtrajectories, Barbara Brooks (National Centre for Atmospheric Science, U.K.) for processing the FSSP data and John Prytherch (Stockholm University, Sweden) for processing temperature and wind speed data. We acknowledge the CABM network for providing the iodine measurement at Alert and CFS Alert for maintaining infrastructure for Alert location.