Seasonal variation in atmospheric pollutants transport in central Chile: dynamics and consequences

Author:

Lapere Rémy,Menut LaurentORCID,Mailler Sylvain,Huneeus Nicolás

Abstract

Abstract. Central Chile faces atmospheric pollution issues all year long as a result of elevated concentrations of fine particulate matter during the cold months and tropospheric ozone during the warm season. In addition to public health issues, environmental problems regarding vegetation growth and water supply, as well as meteorological feedback, are at stake. Sharp spatial gradients in regional emissions, along with a complex geographical situation, make for variable and heterogeneous dynamics in the localization and long-range transport of pollutants, with seasonal differences. Based on chemistry–transport modeling with Weather Research Forecasting (WRF)–CHIMERE, this work studies the following for one winter period and one summer period: (i) the contribution of emissions from the city of Santiago to air pollution in central Chile, and (ii) the reciprocal contribution of regional pollutants transported into the Santiago basin. The underlying 3-dimensional advection patterns are investigated. We find that, on average for the winter period, 5 to 10 µg m−3 of fine particulate matter in Santiago come from regional transport, corresponding to between 13 % and 15 % of average concentrations. In turn, emissions from Santiago contribute between 5 % and 10 % of fine particulate matter pollution as far as 500 km to the north and 500 km to the south. Wintertime transport occurs mostly close to the surface. In summertime, exported precursors from Santiago, in combination with mountain–valley circulation dynamics, are found to account for most of the ozone formation in the adjacent Andes cordillera and to create a persistent plume of ozone of more than 50 ppb (parts per billion), extending along 80 km horizontally and 1.5 km vertically, and located slightly north of Santiago, several hundred meters above the ground. This work constitutes the first description of the mechanism underlying the latter phenomenon. Emissions of precursors from the capital city also affect daily maxima of surface ozone hundreds of kilometers away. In parallel, cutting emissions of precursors in the Santiago basin results in an increase in surface ozone mixing ratios in its western area.

Publisher

Copernicus GmbH

Subject

Atmospheric Science

Reference66 articles.

1. Barraza, F., Lambert, F., Jorquera, H., Villalobos, A. M., and Gallardo, L.: Temporal evolution of main ambient PM2.5 sources in Santiago, Chile, from 1998 to 2012, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 10093–10107, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10093-2017, 2017. a, b, c, d, e

2. Chung, S. H. and Seinfeld, J. H.: Climate response of direct radiative forcing of anthropogenic black carbon, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D11102, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JD005441, 2005. a

3. de la Barrera, F., Barraza, F., Favier, P., Ruiz, V., and Quense, J.: Megafires in Chile 2017: Monitoring multiscale environmental impacts of burned ecosystems, Sci. Total Environ., 637–638, 1526–1536, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.119, 2018. a

4. Dominutti, P., Nogueira, T., Fornaro, A., and Borbon, A.: One decade of VOCs measurements in São Paulo megacity: Composition, variability, and emission evaluation in a biofuel usage context, Sci. Total Environ., 738, 139790, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139790, 2020. a

5. Ehhalt, D., Prather, M., Dentener, F., Derwent, R., Dlugokencky, E., Holland, E., Isaksen, I., Katima, J., Kirchhoff, V., Matson, P., Midgley, P., and Wang, M.: Climate Change 2001: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, chap. Atmospheric Chemistry and Greenhouse Gases, edited by: Houghton, J. T., Ding, Y., Griggs, D. J., Noguer, M., van der Linden, P. J., Dai, X., Maskell, K., and Johnson, C. A., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, 2001. a

Cited by 11 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3