Search

Several studies have reported the transport of short-lived climate forcers/pollutants (SLCF/P) from the highly polluted areas in southern Asia (e.g., the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayan foothills) to the Himalayas, with significant implications for the global and regional climate, crop yields, and human health. In this work, we perform a comparison of nearly three years (February 2013–October 2015) of simultaneous black carbon (BC) and surface ozone (O3) measurements at two sites in Nepal, viz., Paknajol (1380 m a.s.l.), in the Kathmandu Valley, and the WMO/GAW global station Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid (NCO-P, 5079 m a.s.l.), near the base camp of Mt. Everest. The two sites are only 150 km apart and are characterized by different situations: While the Kathmandu Valley is one of the regional urban “hot spots” for concerns related to air pollution, NCO-P is representative of the background conditions of the high Himalayas and the free troposphere. Therefore, the possible role played by emissions occurring in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) of the Kathmandu Valley in influencing the variability in SLCF/P at NCO-P was investigated. BC and O3 concentrations at NCO-P showed a linear correlation with the modeled PBL height over the Kathmandu urban area, providing evidence that the anthropogenic emissions occurring within the Kathmandu PBL could affect the variability in BC and O3 at NCO-P. Furthermore, when introducing an additional constraint into the analysis (viz., back-trajectories), we show that on days when air mass transport between the two measurement sites was observed (10% of the period), at least 22% and 16% of BC and O3 variability at NCO-P can be explained by concurrent variability in SLCF/P over the Kathmandu Valley.

The Kathmandu Valley in the Himalayan foothills, considered as one of the global "hot spots" for what concerns air pollution, is currently facing severe air quality problems due to rapid urbanization processes, dramatic land use changes, socioeconomic transformation and high population growth. In this work, we present the first full year (February 2013 - February 2014) analysis of simultaneous measurements of two short-lived climate forcers/pollutants (SLCF/P), i.e. ozone (O3) and equivalent black carbon (BC), and aerosol number concentration at Paknajol (27°43'4'' N, 85°18'32'' E, 1380 m a.s.l.), in the city center of Kathmandu. These observations were carried out in the framework of the SusKat-ABC (A Sustainable Atmosphere for the Kathmandu Valley - Atmospheric Brown Cloud) campaign in Nepal. The diurnal behavior of BC and aerosol number concentration indicated that local pollution sources represent the major contribution to air pollution in this city. In addition to photochemistry, the planetary boundary layer (PBL) dynamic plays an important role in determining O3 variability, as suggested by the analysis of seasonal changes of the diurnal cycles and the correlation with meteorological parameters and aerosol properties. Especially during pre-monsoon, high values of O3 were observed during the afternoon/evening. This could be related to mixing and entrainment processes between upper residual layers and the PBL. During this season, the high O3 appeared well related to the impact of major open vegetation fires occurring in Nepal. On a synoptic-scale perspective, westerly and regional atmospheric circulations appeared to be especially conducive for the occurrence of the high BC and O3 values. The very high values of the SLCF/P, detected during the whole measurement period, indicated persisting adverse air quality conditions, dangerous for the health of over 3 million residents of the Kathmandu Valley, and the environment. Consequently, all of this information may be useful for implementing control measures to mitigate the occurrence of acute pollution levels in the Kathmandu Valley and the surrounding area.

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is an atmospheric key compound. It is recognised as a powerful short-lived greenhouse gas, it influences the oxidative capacity of the troposphere, and it affects population health as well as the ecosystem integrity and crop yields. Levels of tropospheric O3 at regional scale are strongly affected by anthropogenic emissions but production from lightning and Stratosphere Troposphere Exchange (STE) still represent not-negligible natural sources. South Asia and the Himalayas are hot-spot regions in terms of current surface O3 levels. For this reason, since March 2006, continuous surface O3 observations are carried out at the Nepal Climate Observatory - Pyramid (NCO-P; 27.95 N, 86.82 E), located at 5079 m a.s.l. in the Nepali Himalayas. As reported in previous investigations dealing with NCO-P observations, surface O3 variability in the Himalayas is strongly affected by upward transport of air-masses from the Indo-Gangetic Plain and Himalayan foothills, as well as stratospheric intrusion events. In this work, episodes of stratospheric air-mass intrusions at NCO-P are studied over the period 2006 - 2013, when continuous O3 measurements are available at the measurement site. The aim is to assess the influence of STE on the surface O3 variability. The analysis will be based on the global STE climatology produced at ETH Zurich for the ERA-Interim reanalysis data set from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). This dataset, relying on a Lagrangian methodology to diagnose STE, will be used to understand the interannual O3 variations at NCO-P in relation to the corresponding STE variability.

In the framework of the National Project of Interest NextData, we developed automatic procedures for the flagging and formatting of trace gases, atmospheric aerosols and meteorological data to be submitted to the World Data Centers (WDCs) of the Global Atmosphere Watch program of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO/GAW). In particular, the atmospheric Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) covered in this work are observations of near-surface trace gas concentrations, aerosol properties and meteorological variables, which are under the umbrella of the World Data Center for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG), the World Data Center for Reactive Gases, and the World Data Center for Aerosol (WDCRG and WDCA). We developed an overarching processing chain to create a number of data products (data files and reports) starting from the raw data, finally contributing to increase the maturity of these measurements. To this aim, we implemented specific routines for data filtering, flagging, format harmonization, and creation of data products, useful for detecting instrumental problems, particular atmospheric events and quick data dissemination towards stakeholders or citizens. Currently, the automatic data processing is active for a subset of ECVs at 5 measurement sites in Italy. The system represents a valuable tool to facilitate data originators towards a more efficient data production. Our effort is expected to accelerate the process of data submission to WMO/GAW or to other reference data centers or repositories. Moreover, the adoption of automatic procedures for data flagging and data correction allows to keep track of the process that led to the final validated data, and makes data evaluation and revisions more efficient by improving the traceability of the data production process.

In this work we provide an overview of short lived climate forcers (SLCFs) and carbon dioxide variability in the Karakorum, by presenting results deriving from a field campaign carried out at Askole (3015 m a.s.l., Pakistan Northern Areas), by Baltoro glacier. By using an innovative embedded and transportable system, continuous measurements of aerosol particle number concentration (Np, 1571 ± 2670 cm−3), surface ozone (O3, 31.7 ± 10.4 nmol/mol), carbon dioxide (CO2, 394.3 ± 6.9 μmol/mol) and meteorological parameters have been performed from August 20th to November 10th 2012. The domestic combustion from the Askole village emerged as a possible systematic source of contamination in the valley, with short-lasting pollution events probably related to domestic cooking activities characterized by high values of Np (6066 ± 5903 cm−3). By excluding these local contamination events, mountain thermal wind regime dominated the diurnal variability of Np, O3 and CO2. In comparison to night-time, we observed higher Np (+354 cm−3) and O3 (+7 nmol/mol) but lower CO2 (−8 μmol/mol) in air-masses coming from the lower valley during the central part of the day. Part of the day-to-day atmospheric composition variability can be also ascribed to synoptic circulation variability, as observed by using HYSPLIT 5-day back-trajectories.

We analysed the variability of equivalent black carbon (BC) and ozone (O3) at the global WMO/GAW station Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid (NCO-P, 5079 m a.s.l.) in the southern Himalayas, for evaluating the possible contribution of open vegetation fires to the variability of these short-lived climate forcers/pollutants (SLCF/SLCP) in the Himalayan region. We found that 162 days (9% of the data-set) were characterised by acute pollution events with enhanced BC and O3 in respect to the climatological values. By using satellite observations (MODIS fire products and the USGS Land Use Cover Characterization) and air mass back-trajectories, we deduced that 56% of these events were likely to be affected by emissions from open fires along the Himalayas foothills, the Indian Subcontinent and the Northern Indo-Gangetic Plain. These results suggest that open fire emissions are likely to play an important role in modulating seasonal and inter-annual BC and O3 variability over south Himalayas.© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Kathmandu Valley in South Asia is considered as one of the global "hot spots" in terms of urban air pollution. It is facing severe air quality problems as a result of rapid urbanization and land use change, socioeconomic transformation and high population growth. In this paper, we present the first full year (February 2013–January 2014) analysis of simultaneous measurements of two short-lived climate forcers/pollutants (SLCF/P), i.e. ozone (O3) and equivalent black carbon (hereinafter noted as BC) and aerosol number concentration at Paknajol, in the center of the Kathmandu metropolitan city. The diurnal behavior of equivalent black carbon (BC) and aerosol number concentration indicated that local pollution sources represent the major contributions to air pollution in this city. In addition to photochemistry, the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and wind play important roles in determining O3 variability, as suggested by the analysis of seasonal diurnal cycle and correlation with meteorological parameters and aerosol properties. Especially during pre-monsoon, high values of O3 were found during the afternoon/evening; this could be related to mixing and entrainment processes between upper residual layers and the PBL. The high O3 concentrations, in particular during pre-monsoon, appeared well related to the impact of major open vegetation fires occurring at regional scale. On a synoptic-scale perspective, westerly and regional atmospheric circulations appeared to be especially conducive for the occurrence of the high BC and O3 values. The very high values of SLCF/P, detected during the whole measurement period, indicated persisting adverse air quality conditions, dangerous for the health of over 3 million residents of the Kathmandu Valley, and the environment. Consequently, all of this information may be useful for implementing control measures to mitigate the occurrence of acute pollution levels in the Kathmandu Valley and surrounding area.

To study the influence of polluted air-mass transport carrying ozone (O3) and black carbon (BC) in the high Himalayas, since March 2006 the Nepal Climate Observatory at Pyramid (NCO-P) GAW-WMO global station (Nepal, 5079 m a.s.l.) is operative. During the first 5-year measurements, the O3 and BC concentrations have shown a mean value of 48 ± 12 ppb (± standard deviation) and 208 ± 374 ng/m3, respectively. Both O3 and BC showed well defined seasonal cycles with maxima during pre-monsoon (O3: 61.3 ± 7.7 ppbV; BC: 444 ± 433 ng/m3) and minima during the summer monsoon (O3: 40.1 ± 12.4 ppbV; BC: 64 ± 101 ng/m3). The analysis of the days characterised by the presence of a significant BC increase with respect to the typical seasonal cycle identified 156 days affected by "acute" pollution events, corresponding to 9.1% of the entire data-set. Such events mostly occur in the pre-monsoon period, when the O3 diurnal variability is strongly related to the transport of polluted air-mass rich on BC. On average, these "acute" pollution events were characterised by dramatic increases of BC (352%) and O3 (29%) levels compared with the remaining days. © 2013 The Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Over the course of six years (2006-2011), equivalent black carbon (eqBC), coarse aerosol mass (PM1-10), and surface ozone (O3), observed during the monsoon onset period at the Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid WMO/GAW Global Station (NCO-P, 5079 m a.s.l.), were analyzed to investigate events characterized by a significant increase in these short-lived climate forcers/pollutants (SLCF/P). These events occurred during periods characterized by low (or nearly absent) rain precipitation in the central Himalayas, and they appeared to be related to weakening stages (or 'breaking') of the South Asian summer monsoon system. As revealed by the combined analysis of atmospheric circulation, air-mass three-dimensional back trajectories, and satellite measurements of atmospheric aerosol loading, surface open fire, and tropospheric NOx , the large amount of SLCF/P reaching the NCO-P appeared to be related to natural (mineral dust) and anthropogenic emissions occurring within the PBL of central Pakistan (i.e., Thar Desert), the Northwestern Indo-Gangetic plain, and the Himalayan foothills. The systematic occurrence of these events appeared to represent the most important source of SLCF/P inputs into the central Himalayas during the summer monsoon onset period, with possible important implications for the regional climate and for hydrological cycles.