NH3 spatio-temporal variability over Paris, Mexico and Toronto and its link to PM2.5 during pollution events
- 1LATMOS/IPSL, Sorbonne Université, UVSQ, CNRS, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
- 2Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada
- 3Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto ON M5S 1A4, Canada
- 4Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
- 5Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing (SQUARES), Brussels 1050, Belgium
- 6BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels 1180, Belgium
- 7Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M1C 14A, Canada
- 8Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y Cambio Climático, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, 04510, Mexico
Large cities can experience high levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution linked to ammonia (NH3) mainly emitted from agricultural activities. Using a combination of PM2.5 and NH3 measurements from in situ instruments, satellite infrared spectrometers, and atmospheric model simulations, we demonstrate the role of atmospheric NH3 and meteorological conditions in pollution events occurring in Paris, Toronto, and Mexico City.
Ten years of measurements from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) are used to assess the spatio-temporal NH3 variability over and around the three cities. The three regions are subject to long range transport of NH3, as shown using HYSPLIT cluster back-trajectories. The results show that the NH3 variability is mainly driven by meteorology, and interestingly, we can detect the fertilizers application period by looking at the NH3 – temperature relationship. To check how well chemistry transport models perform during pollution events, we evaluate simulations made using the GEOS-Chem model for March 2011. In these simulations we find that NH3 concentrations are overall underestimated, though day-to-day variability is well represented. PM2.5 is generally underestimated over Paris and Mexico, but overestimated over Toronto.
We use complementary information derived from IASI, and ground-based open-path measurements over Paris. We, therefore, assess the NH3 temporal variabilities at different timescales (diurnal, seasonal, and interannual), to unravel NH3 sources (agriculture and traffic) in Paris.
How to cite: Viatte, C., Abeed, R., Yamanouchi, S., Porter, W., Safieddine, S., Van Damme, M., Clarisse, L., Herrera, B., Grutter, M., Coheur, P.-F., Strong, K., and Clerbaux, C.: NH3 spatio-temporal variability over Paris, Mexico and Toronto and its link to PM2.5 during pollution events, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-5209, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-5209, 2023.
