Abstract
The impact of urban emission from Central European cities on the present-day regional air quality is examined using the regional climate model RegCM4.2 coupled with the chemistry transport model CAMx, including two-way interactions. Simulations was carried out for the 2001-2010 period either with all urban emissions included (base case) or without considering urban emissions.
Further, the sensitivity of ozone production to urban emissions was examined by performing reduction experiments with -20% emission perturbation of NOx and/or non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC). The modeling system's air quality related outputs were evaluated using AirBase, and EMEP surface measurements.
European air quality measures were chosen as metrics describing the cities emission impact on regional air pollution. Due to urban emissions, significant ozone titration occurs over cities while over rural areas remote from cities, ozone production is modeled, mainly in terms of number of exceedances and accumulated exceedances.
Urban NOx, SO2 and PM2.5 emissions also significantly contribute to concentrations in the cities themselves (up to 50-70% for NOx and SO2, and up to 60% for PM2.5), but the contribution is large over rural areas as well (10-20 %). Although air pollution over cities is largely determined by the local urban emissions, considerable (often a few tens of %) fraction of the concentration is attributable to other sources from rural areas and minor cities.
It is shown that to achieve significant ozone reduction over cities in central Europe, the emission control strategies have to focus on the reduction of NMVOC, as reducing NOx (due to suppressed titration) often leads to increased O-3. The influence over rural areas is however always in favor of improved air quality, i.e. both NOx and/or NMVOC reduction ends up in decreased ozone pollution, mainly in terms of exceedances.