Vertical profiles of the temperature and particulate matter in Cracow and Warsaw cities – measurement campaigns results and the comparison with modelling results.
- 1Institute of Environmental Protection - National Research Institute, Department of Atmospheric and Climate Modelling, Warsaw, Poland (pawel.durka@ios.edu.pl)
- 2Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences, Department of Atmospheric Physics, Warsaw, Poland
- 3AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, , Krakow, Poland
Cities in Poland still suffer from poor air quality during winter. Most intense smog episodes, with very high PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations, occur during calm periods, with temperature inversions when the emission from residential sources with low injection height increases. Modelling results tend to underestimate those episodes, despite the good agreement with measured data during low and mid-concentration periods. While the variability of near-surface concentrations is well-known based on the fixed stations and the low-cost sensors measurements, the information on vertical distribution is limited.
As measurements with drones tend to be problematic and weather balloons measure only meteorological parameters, new approaches are being developed. In Cracow (in the past one of the cities in Poland with the worst air pollution) measurement campaign with the use of sensors installed on sightseeing, hot air balloons have been carried out in 2019 to check the impact of meteorological conditions on the thickness of the atmospheric layer with poor air quality (Sekula et al., 2021). Helium tethered aerostat (Knap et al., 2021) with installed sensors is also used by the Polish Academy of Sciences as a measurement platform for vertical profiles in Warsaw (the capital city of Poland).
These two platforms were used for a short-period measurement campaign in the winter of 2023. The main goal of the project was to assess differences between modelled and observed vertical profiles of temperature, relative humidity, PM10 and PM2.5 in Warsaw and Cracow cities. The national air quality forecast calculated with the GEM-AQ model was evaluated. In addition, the model's capability to reproduce temperature inversion will be examined.
We will present and discuss the results of the measurement campaigns, and the comparison with the model results, in different meteorological and air quality conditions.
How to cite: Durka, P., Struzewska, J., Kaminski, J. W., Posyniak, M., and Sekuła, P.: Vertical profiles of the temperature and particulate matter in Cracow and Warsaw cities – measurement campaigns results and the comparison with modelling results., EMS Annual Meeting 2023, Bratislava, Slovakia, 4–8 Sep 2023, EMS2023-393, https://doi.org/10.5194/ems2023-393, 2023.
