1. The impact of temperature inversions on black carbon and particle mass concentrations in a mountainous areaKristina Glojek, Griša Močnik, Honey Dawn C. Alas, Andrea Cuesta-Mosquera, Luka Drinovec, Asta Gregorič, Matej Ogrin, Kay Weinhold, Irena Ježek, Martin Rigler, Maja Remškar, Miha Markelj, 2022, izvirni znanstveni članek Opis: Residential wood combustion is a widespread practice in Europe with a serious impact on air quality, especially in mountainous areas. While there is a significant number of studies conducted in deep urbanized valleys and basins, little is known about the air pollution processes in rural shallow hollows, where around 30 % of the people in mountainous areas across Europe live. We aim to determine the influence of ground temperature inversions on wood combustion aerosol pollution in hilly, rural areas. The study uses Retje karst hollow (Loški Potok, Slovenia) as a representative site for mountainous and hilly rural areas in central and south-eastern Europe with residential wood combustion. Sampling with a mobile monitoring platform along the hollow was performed in December 2017 and January 2018. The backpack mobile monitoring platform was used for the determination of equivalent black carbon (eBC) and particulate matter (PM) mass concentrations along the hollow. To ensure high quality of mobile measurement data, intercomparisons of mobile instruments with reference instruments were performed at two air quality stations during every run. Our study showed that aerosol pollution events in the relief depression were associated with high local emission intensities originating almost entirely from residential wood burning and shallow temperature inversions (58 m on average). The eBC and PM mass concentrations showed stronger associations with the potential temperature gradient (R2=0.8) than with any other meteorological parameters taken into account (ambient temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and precipitation). The strong association between the potential temperature gradient and pollutant concentrations suggests that even a small number of emission sources (total 243 households in the studied hollow) in similar hilly and mountainous rural areas with frequent temperature inversions can significantly increase the levels of eBC and PM and deteriorate local air quality. During temperature inversions the measured mean eBC and PM2.5 mass concentrations in the whole hollow were as high as 4.5±2.6 and 48.0 ± 27.7 µg m−3, respectively, which is comparable to larger European urban centres. Ključne besede: air pollution, black carbon, sources, temperature inversion, mountainous area Objavljeno v RUNG: 03.05.2022; Ogledov: 2454; Prenosov: 0 Gradivo ima več datotek! Več... |
2. A new optical-based technique for real-time measurements of mineral dust concentration in PM10 using a virtual impactorLuka Drinovec, Jean Sciare, Iasonas Stavroulas, Spiros Bezantakos, Michael Pikridas, FLORIN UNGA, Chrysanthos Savvides, Bojana Višnjić, Maja Remškar, Griša Močnik, 2020, izvirni znanstveni članek Opis: Atmospheric mineral dust influences Earth’s radiative
budget, cloud formation, and lifetime; has adverse
health effects; and affects air quality through the increase of
regulatory PM10 concentrations, making its real-time quantification
in the atmosphere of strategic importance. Only
few near-real-time techniques can discriminate dust aerosol
in PM10 samples and they are based on the dust chemical
composition. The online determination of mineral dust using
aerosol absorption photometers offers an interesting and
competitive alternative but remains a difficult task to achieve.
This is particularly challenging when dust is mixed with
black carbon, which features a much higher mass absorption
cross section. We build on previous work using filter photometers
and present here for the first time a highly timeresolved
online technique for quantification of mineral dust
concentration by coupling a high-flow virtual impactor (VI)
sampler that concentrates coarse particles with an aerosol absorption
photometer (Aethalometer, model AE33). The absorption
of concentrated dust particles is obtained by subtracting
the absorption of the submicron (PM1) aerosol fraction
from the absorption of the virtual impactor sample (VIPM1
method). This real-time method for detecting desert
dust was tested in the field for a period of 2 months (April and
May 2016) at a regional background site of Cyprus, in the
Eastern Mediterranean. Several intense desert mineral dust
events were observed during the field campaign with dust
concentration in PM10 up to 45 μgm Ključne besede: aerosol absorption, mineral dust, on-line detection, air quality Objavljeno v RUNG: 20.07.2020; Ogledov: 3680; Prenosov: 0 Gradivo ima več datotek! Več... |
3. Diurnal cycling of urban aerosols under different weather regimesAsta Gregorič, Luka Drinovec, Griša Močnik, Maja Remškar, Janja Vaupotič, Samo Stanič, 2016, objavljeni povzetek znanstvenega prispevka na konferenci Ključne besede: kakovost zraka, črn ogljik, aerosoli Objavljeno v RUNG: 03.05.2016; Ogledov: 6123; Prenosov: 238 Celotno besedilo (33,73 KB) |