Ozone and carbon monoxide budgets over the Eastern Mediterranean

S. Myriokefalitakis (1) , Nikolaos Daskalakis (1, 2, 3) , G.S. Fanourgakis (1) , A. Voulgarakis (4) , M.C. Krol (5, 6, 7) , J.M.J. Aan de Brugh (7) , M. Kanakidou (1)

1 ECPL - Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory [Heraklion]
2 TROPO - LATMOS
3 ICE-HT - Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences - Hellas [Crete]
4 Department of Physics [Imperial College London]
5 MAQ - Meteorology and Air Quality Department [Wageningen]
6 IMAU - Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research [Utrecht]
7 SRON - SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research

The importance of the long-range transport (LRT) on O₃ and CO budgets over the Eastern Mediterranean has been investigated using the state-of-the-art 3-dimensional global chemistry-transport model TM4-ECPL. A 3-D budget analysis has been performed separating the Eastern from the Western basins and the boundary layer (BL) from the free troposphere (FT). The FT of the Eastern Mediterranean is shown to be a strong receptor of polluted air masses from the Western Mediterranean, and the most important source of polluted air masses for the Eastern Mediterranean BL, with about 40% of O₃ and of CO in the BL to be transported from the FT aloft. Regional anthropogenic sources are found to have relatively small impact on regional air quality in the area, contributing by about 8% and 18% to surface levels of O₃ and CO, respectively. Projections using anthropogenic emissions for the year 2050 but neglecting climate change calculate a surface O₃ decrease of about 11% together with a surface CO increase of roughly 10% in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Keywords: Free Troposphere (FT); Long-range transport (LRT); Ozone (O3); Carbon monoxide (CO); Eastern Mediterranean (EM); Ozone (O 3 ); Free Troposphere (FT)

Domains: Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; Environmental Sciences

S. Myriokefalitakis, Nikolaos Daskalakis, G.S. Fanourgakis, A. Voulgarakis, M.C. Krol, et al.. Ozone and carbon monoxide budgets over the Eastern Mediterranean. Science of the Total Environment, 2016, 563-564, pp.40-52. ⟨10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.061⟩. ⟨insu-01330364⟩