The impact of Temperature inversions on Black Carbon and Particle Mass Concentrations from Wood-burning in a Mountainous Area
- 1University of Ljubljana, Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, Slovenia (kristina.glojek@ff.uni-lj.si)
- 2Condensed Matter Physics, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- 3Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany
- 4Aerosol d.o.o., Ljubljana, Slovenia
- 5Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
- 6Milan Vidmar Electric Power Research Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Lately, researchers, policy makers and governments have focused their attention mainly on air quality in urban areas. The issue of quality of air in rural areas remains neglected, although studies (Largeron & Staquet, 2016 and the reference therein) show that especially in hilly/mountainous regions on the countryside, air pollution can be a serious problem.
Our aim is to quantify the influence of ground temperature inversions on spatiotemporal variability of equivalent black carbon (eBC) and Particulate Matter (PM) mass concentrations in mountainous regions, example of which is the model region Loški Potok, Slovenia.
Simultaneous mobile measurements with two instrumented backpacks (AE51, MA200, OPSS 3330, temperature sensor) (Alas et al., 2018) were performed along the woody karst hollow with the village Retje at the bottom. Mobile measurements were performed in winter 2017/18, three times a day (in the morning, at noon, and in the evening) with a 10- and 20-minute intercomparison with the reference instruments (AE-33, TROPOS and TSI MPSS) at the station on top of the hill and in the village. The regression slope between two AE51 microaethalometers was 1. Fixed instruments showed good agreement with the mobile instruments during inter-comparison periods (Alas et al., 2020).
The mean value of eBC and PM2.5 mass concentrations for the whole relief depression during temperature inversion episodes was 4 µg/m3 of eBC and 39.7 µg/m3 of PM2.5. During periods with mixed atmosphere mean eBC and PM2.5 mass concentrations were 0.9 and 11.4 µg/m3. The eBC and PM2.5 mass concentrations between 17:00 and 19:00 CET in the village reached 16–20 µg/m3 of eBC and 170–250 µg/m3 of PM2.5, yet on the top of the hill Tabor concentrations were 2–3.5 µg/m3 of eBC and 10–15 µg/m3 of PM2.5.
As a result of human activities (residential wood burning) and the shallow thickness of an inversion layer temporal and spatial variability of pollutant concentrations in the study area is significant. During stable atmospheric conditions (temperature inversion) concentration levels strongly increase yet rapidly decrease with the temperature inversion break up.
Key words: carbonaceous aerosols, atmospheric stability, residential wood combustion (RWC), mobile measurements, rural areas
The research was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency, the COST Action CA16109 and the Municipality of Loški Potok.
Alas, H. et al. (2018). Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 18, 2301–2317.
Alas, H. et al. (2020). Manuscript in preparation.
Largeron, Y., & Staquet, C. (2016). Atmospheric Environment, 135, 92–108.
How to cite: Glojek, K., Močnik, G., C. Alas, H. D., Cuesta-Mosquera, A., Drinovec, L., Gregorič, A., Ogrin, M., Weinhold, K., Ježek, I., Müller, T., Rigler, M., Remškar, M., van Pinxteren, D., Herrmann, H., Ristorini, M., Merkel, M., Markelj, M., and Wiedensohler, A.: The impact of Temperature inversions on Black Carbon and Particle Mass Concentrations from Wood-burning in a Mountainous Area, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-21310, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-21310, 2020.
