In:
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Copernicus GmbH, Vol. 18, No. 16 ( 2018-08-24), p. 12269-12288
Abstract:
Abstract. The implementation of European emission abatement
strategies has led to a significant reduction in the emissions of ozone
precursors during the last decade. Ground-level ozone is also influenced by
meteorological factors such as temperature, which exhibit interannual
variability and are expected to change in the future. The impacts of climate
change on air quality are usually investigated through air-quality models
that simulate interactions between emissions, meteorology and chemistry.
Within a multi-model assessment, this study aims to better understand how
air-quality models represent the relationship between meteorological
variables and surface ozone concentrations over Europe. A multiple linear
regression (MLR) approach is applied to observed and modelled time series
across 10 European regions in springtime and summertime for the period of
2000–2010 for both models and observations. Overall, the air-quality models
are in better agreement with observations in summertime than in springtime
and particularly in certain regions, such as France, central Europe or
eastern Europe, where local meteorological variables show a strong influence
on surface ozone concentrations. Larger discrepancies are found for the
southern regions, such as the Balkans, the Iberian Peninsula and the
Mediterranean basin, especially in springtime. We show that the air-quality
models do not properly reproduce the sensitivity of surface ozone to some of
the main meteorological drivers, such as maximum temperature, relative
humidity and surface solar radiation. Specifically, all air-quality models
show more limitations in capturing the strength of the
ozone–relative-humidity relationship detected in the observed time series in
most of the regions, for both seasons. Here, we speculate that dry-deposition
schemes in the air-quality models might play an essential role in capturing
this relationship. We further quantify the relationship between ozone and
maximum temperature (mo3−T, climate penalty) in observations and
air-quality models. In summertime, most of the air-quality models are able to
reproduce the observed climate penalty reasonably well in certain regions
such as France, central Europe and northern Italy. However, larger
discrepancies are found in springtime, where air-quality models tend to
overestimate the magnitude of the observed climate penalty.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1680-7324
DOI:
10.5194/acp-18-12269-2018
DOI:
10.5194/acp-18-12269-2018-supplement
Language:
English
Publisher:
Copernicus GmbH
Publication Date:
2018
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2092549-9
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2069847-1
