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To carry out detailed source attribution for air quality assessment it is necessary to distinguish pollutant contributions that arise from local emissions from those attributable to non-local or regional emission sources. Frequently this requires the use of complex models and inversion methods, prior knowledge or assumptions regarding the pollution environment. In this paper we demonstrate how high spatial density and fast response measurements from low-cost sensor networks may facilitate this separation. A purely measurement-based approach to extract underlying pollution levels (baselines) from the measurements is presented exploiting the different relative frequencies of local and background pollution variations. This paper shows that if high spatial and temporal coverage of air quality measurements are available, the different contributions to the total pollution levels, namely the regional signal as well as near and far field local sources, can be quantified. The advantage of using high spatial resolution observations, as can be provided by low-cost sensor networks, lies in the fact that no prior assumptions about pollution levels at individual deployment sites are required. The methodology we present here, utilising measurements of carbon monoxide (CO), has wide applicability, including additional gas phase species and measurements obtained using reference networks. While similar studies have been performed, this is the first study using networks at this density, or using low cost sensor networks.

Steady-state dispersion models recommended by various environmental agencies worldwide have generally been evaluated with traditional stack release databases, including tracer studies. The sources associated with these field data are generally those with isolated stacks or release points under relatively ideal conditions. Many modeling applications, however, involve sources that act to modify the local dispersion environment as well as the conditions associated with plume buoyancy and final plume rise. The source characterizations affecting plume rise that are introduced and discussed in this paper include: 1) sources with large fugitive heat releases that result in a local urbanized effect, 2) stacks on or near individual buildings with large fugitive heat releases that tend to result in buoyant “liftoff” effects counteracting aerodynamic downwash effects, 3) stacks with considerable moisture content, which leads to additional heat of condensation during plume rise – an effect that is not considered by most dispersion models, and 4) stacks in a line that result in at least partial plume merging and buoyancy enhancement under certain conditions. One or more of these effects are appropriate for a given modeling application. We present examples of specific applications for one or more of these procedures in the paper. This paper describes methods to introduce the four source characterization approaches to more accurately simulate plume rise to a variety of dispersion models. The authors have focused upon applying these methods to the AERMOD modeling system, which is the United States Environmental Protection Agency's preferred model in addition to being used internationally, but the techniques are applicable to dispersion models worldwide. While the methods could be installed directly into specific models such as AERMOD, the advantage of implementing them outside the model is to allow them to be applicable to numerous models immediately and also to allow them to remain applicable when the dispersion models themselves are updated. Available evaluation experiences with these techniques, which are discussed in the paper, indicate improved model performance in a variety of application settings.

This paper analyses the influence of the extreme Saharan desert dust (DD) event on shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiation at the EARLINET/AERONET Evora station (Southern Portugal) from 4 up to 7 April 2011. There was also some cloud occurrence in the period. In this context, it is essential to quantify the effect of cloud presence on aerosol radiative forcing. A radiative transfer model was initialized with aerosol optical properties, cloud vertical properties and meteorological atmospheric vertical profiles. The intercomparison between the instantaneous TOA shortwave and longwave fluxes derived using CERES and those calculated using SBDART, which was fed with aerosol extinction coefficients derived from the CALIPSO and lidar-PAOLI observations, varying OPAC dataset parameters, was reasonably acceptable within the standard deviations. The dust aerosol type that yields the best fit was found to be the mineral accumulation mode. Therefore, SBDART model constrained with the CERES observations can be used to reliably determine aerosol radiative forcing and heating rates. Aerosol radiative forcings and heating rates were derived in the SW (ARFSw, AHRSw) and LW (ARFLw, AHRLw) spectral ranges, considering a cloud-aerosol free reference atmosphere. We found that AOD at 440 nm increased by a factor of 5 on 6 April with respect to the lower dust load on 4 April. It was responsible by a strong cooling radiative effect pointed out by the ARFSw value (−99 W/m2 for a solar zenith angle of 60°) offset by a warming radiative effect according to ARFLw value (+21.9 W/m2) at the surface. Overall, about 24% and 12% of the dust solar radiative cooling effect is compensated by its longwave warming effect at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere, respectively. Hence, larger aerosol loads could enhance the response between the absorption and re-emission processes increasing the ARFLw with respect to those associated with moderate and low aerosol loads. The unprecedented results derived from this work complement the findings in other regions on the modifications of radiative energy budget by the dust aerosols, which could have relevant influences on the regional climate and will be topics for future investigations.

Atmospheric emissions of reactive nitrogen have increased significantly on a global scale due to increases of the use of artificial fertilizer and the burning of fossil fuels. The Asian region has been identified as a high-risk area for nitrogen deposition effects on ecosystems. This paper describes a measurement-based assessment of nitrogen deposition carried out in cooperation with the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET). The investigation aimed to understand the status and variability of dry, wet and total deposition of oxidized and reduced nitrogen over a 10-year period (2003–2012) at 8 remote sites in Japan (Rishiri, Tappi, Sado-seki, Happo, Oki, Yusuhara, Ogasawara and Hedo). Dry deposition amounts were estimated by the inferential method. All of the sites except Rishiri and Ogasawara had high mean annual total nitrogen deposition amounts of approximately 10 kg N ha−1 year−1 or more, over the 10-year period. The high contribution of oxidized nitrogen deposition in the central area is mainly caused by domestic emissions, especially for dry deposition processes. An increase in reduced nitrogen deposition originating from regional emissions was found, and is likely to result in a subsequent increase in the total nitrogen deposition in Japan. Since neither a clear increasing nor decreasing trend in total nitrogen deposition was found at any site during the 10-year period, the nitrogen deposition amounts remained high thorough the long period in Japanese remote area. The spatial distribution of nitrogen deposition was found to be significant when uncertainties were accounted for.