Climate change is inherently linked to long-term non-stationary changes in the characteristics and frequency of weather patterns. The present study attempts to identify the statistical changes of ...weather patterns in Athens Greece, from the comparative assessment of 96-h backward trajectories between historic (1980–2009) and future (2020–2049) climatology derived from the IPCC RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. Arrival heights at 750 m, 1500 m, and 3000 m above sea level are considered to account for the impact of the planetary boundary layer and the lower free troposphere. The analysis of the historic period yields 7 dominant patterns for all heights determined independently, with similar spatial characteristics but varying frequency of occurrence. The classification of backward trajectories under future climate using the same historic clusters reveals percentage changes from locally short-distance travelling patterns to longer-distance ones with a predominant northbound direction. As a second experiment, backward trajectories are re-clustered independently reaching again the same type of clusters but with observable changes in the cluster origins and trajectory lengths.
Abstract
In the new era of job market in the EU zone and abroad, novel Occupational Profiles dictate the development and the update of Learning Outcome-based Curricula. This stands for all ...disciplines and specialties and for various Qualification Levels (QL), from after-school education up to the highest QL. The pertaining Curricula should allude to specific knowledge, skills, and behaviours, that are being mandated from the respective Occupational Profiles. For intermediate QL, namely in between secondary school and University, there is an utmost need for new, updated, attractive Curricula covering current and new market needs. Such Curricula should be supported from Course Units that are technologically updated, thus providing the trainees the skills and knowledge to cover the current and novel Learning Outcomes and Performance Criteria for the specified QL. We herein present a newly developed Course Unit, part of the Green Special Processes course that can be offered in the context of a continuing Vocational Education Training (cVET) Program targeting a QL equivalent to the European QL 5. This Course Unit covers the case of drag-out, which has significant environmental and economic impacts on the engineering of wet chemical processes entailing multiple process baths and requiring rinsing. Such processes are widely used also in Aircraft manufacturing and the related environmental impacts have become very important. Part of the basic theory, as well as part of the practical training are presented herein.
The present work attempts to provide more accurate estimate of HDD and CDD and investigates the suitability of high resolution downscaled seasonal climatic forecasting models for assessing and ...accurately estimating the energy demands of buildings. The analysis has been established through a series of indices for estimating heating (HDD) and cooling degree days (CDD) using interpolated hourly data which were produced from the model output. The work has considerable potential to provide refined inputs for assessing building sector-specific vulnerability to climate change: energy supply and demand.
In this work the application of the above mentioned methodological approach in the assessment of the energy performance and requirements of buildings on Greece are presented, for a period and with a forecast horizon of 6 months. The ARW-WRF model has been set up and validated to produce downscaled climatological fields for Greece, forced by the output of the CFSv2 model, with a horizontal spatial resolution of 5km×5km. The data, that covered all Greek regions and climatology zones according to the existing building regulations code and the region elevation present a very reasonable correlation with data published in previous studies.
Air quality over Europe using Models-3 (i.e., CMAQ, MM5, SMOKE) modelling system is performed for winter (i.e., January 2006) and summer (i.e., July 2006) months with the 2006 TNO gridded ...anthropogenic emissions database. Higher ozone mixing ratios are predicted in southern Europe while higher NO2 levels are simulated over western Europe. Elevated SO2 values are simulated over eastern Europe and higher PM2.5 concentrations over eastern and western Europe. Regional average results suggest that NO2 and PM2.5 are underpredicted, SO2 is overpredicted, while Max8hrO3 is overpredicted for low mixing ratios and is underpredicted for the higher mixing ratios. However, in a number of countries observed and predicted values are in good agreement for the pollutants examined here. Speciated PM2.5 components suggest that NO3 is dominant during winter over western Europe and in a few eastern countries due to the high NO2 mixing ratios. During summer NO3 is dominant only in regions with elevated NH3 emissions. For the rest of the domain SO4 is dominant. Low OC concentrations are simulated mainly due to the uncertain representation of SOA formation.
The impact of biogenic emissions on ozone and PM2.5 levels over Europe is assessed using CMAQ. Biogenic emissions are predicted to increase Max8hrO3 mixing ratios by 5.7% and to decrease PM2.5 ...concentrations by 1.9%, increasing PM2.5_OC by 13.6% and decreasing PM2.5_SO4, PM2.5_NO3 and PM2.5_NH4 by 5.6%, 3.7% and 5.6%, respectively, on average over Europe due to their interactions with anthropogenic emissions. A suite of perturbations in temperature is imposed individually on the base case conditions in order to determine the sensitivities to air temperature changes. Temperature increases of 1, 2 or 3° K suggest an average increase in Max8hrO3 mixing ratios of 0.9%, 1.8% or 2.9%, respectively, and an average decrease in daily average PM2.5 concentrations of 2.5%, 4.2% and 5.8%, respectively, increasing PM2.5_OC and decreasing PM2.5_SO4, PM2.5_NO3 and PM2.5_NH4 component concentrations on average over Europe. In order to examine if abatement measures for anthropogenic emissions could offset ozone increases in higher temperatures and their effect on PM2.5 concentrations, a simulation with a domain wide reduction in anthropogenic NOx emissions of 10% is performed. This is estimated to reduce Max8hrO3 mixing ratios by 1.3% on average over Europe. However, NOx reduction is estimated to increase Max8hrO3 in VOCs limited areas. The reduction in anthropogenic NOx emissions is predicted to reduce PM2.5 concentrations by 1.0% enhancing the reduction simulated, here, with temperature increase but further modifying PM2.5 component concentrations.
•Biogenic emissions are simulated to increase O3, locally, while reduce PM2.5 levels.•Sensitivity to temperature increase is positive for O3 and negative for PM2.5 levels.•NOx emissions reduction lowers O3, in general, but leads to some local increases.•NOx emissions reduction lowers PM2.5 and modifies PM2.5 composition.
In previous work Kovalets, I., Andronopoulos, S., Bartzis, J.G., Gounaris, N., Kushchan, A., 2004. Introduction of data assimilation procedures in the meteorological pre-processor of atmospheric ...dispersion models used in emergency response systems. Atmospheric Environment 38, 457–467. the authors have developed data assimilation (DA) procedures and implemented them in the frames of a diagnostic meteorological pre-processor (MPP) to enable simultaneous use of meteorological measurements with numerical weather prediction (NWP) data. The DA techniques were directly validated showing a clear improvement of the MPP output quality in comparison with meteorological measurement data. In the current paper it is demonstrated that the application of DA procedures in the MPP, to combine meteorological measurements with NWP data, has a noticeable positive effect on the performance of an atmospheric dispersion model (ADM) driven by the MPP output. This result is particularly important for emergency response systems used for accidental releases of pollutants, because it provides the possibility to combine meteorological measurements with NWP data in order to achieve more reliable dispersion predictions. This is also an indirect way to validate the DA procedures applied in the MPP. The above goal is achieved by applying the Lagrangian ADM DIPCOT driven by meteorological data calculated by the MPP code both with and without the use of DA procedures to simulate the first European tracer experiment (ETEX I). The performance of the ADM in each case was evaluated by comparing the predicted and the experimental concentrations with the use of statistical indices and concentration plots. The comparison of resulting concentrations using the different sets of meteorological data showed that the activation of DA in the MPP code clearly improves the performance of dispersion calculations in terms of plume shape and dimensions, location of maximum concentrations, statistical indices and time variation of concentration at the detectors locations.
The cultivation of bioenergy plants in fertile, arable lands
increasingly results in new land use conflicts with food production and cannot be
considered as sustainable. Marginal lands have been ...frequently considered as potential
alternatives for producing bioenergy from biomass. However, clear definitions and
assessment methods for selecting marginal lands and for calculating potentials are still
widely missing. The project “SEEMLA” aims at triggering the exploitation of currently underused
marginal lands for biomass production for energy purposes. Study sites have been selected
in different European countries: Germany, Greece, and Ukraine. The selected sites
represent a wide variety of different types of marginal lands. Based on a soil assessment
set given by the Muencheberg Soil Quality Rating (SQR) system potentially “marginal”
sites have been investigated. The SQR system allows for clearly distinguishing between
soils of higher and lower quality. Soils with SQR scores below 40 are regarded as
“marginal”. They can be classified into different groups with regard to the importance
of soil hazard indicators as evaluated by the SQR approach. The calculated SQR scores
correlate significantly with biomass yields of bioenergy plants. Further, the SQR method was adapted for use in a GIS study on marginal-land potentials in
Europe. Thus, 46 % of the investigated European area could be classified as
“marginal” with SQR scores below 40. From that area 22.6 % can be considered as
potentially suitable for producing renewable resources after eliminating protected sites
or other places not suitable for any kind of land use. Taking the ecological demands of
selected bioenergy plants into account it is possible to give first preliminary
recommendations for regional crop cultivation. It can be concluded that Europe offers a large potential for renewable resources from
marginal sites. However, the implementation into practice is often impeded by missing or
varying policies and regulations. A proper implementation needs clear regulations and
also incentives for farmers at the European level.
Measurements of both mass (PM sub(10), PM sub(2.5), PM sub(1)) and number concentration of particles (diameter between 0.30 and 20 mu m), were employed at a coastal background area of Athens during ...the summer period July-August 2008. The daily concentrations of PM sub(10), PM sub(2.5) and PM sub(1) did not exceed 74.7 mu g/m super(3), 47.3 mu g/m super(3) and 32.0 mu g/m super(3), respectively while the maximum value for the number concentration of particles was recorded for those with diameter varying between 0.30 and 0.40 mu m (236294 number concentration/l). The acquired data underline the determinant role of transportation to the configuration of the particulate pollution of an area, clearly suggesting the non local role of the emissions. The dependence of the aerosols behavior on the prevailing meteorological conditions (temperature, relative humidity, wind, atmospheric circulation) was also evaluated. The very few associations between the particles (number and mass) and the meteorological parameters fluctuations confirm the hypothesis of the complicity of the PM character. Taking into account the experimental data and the trajectory analysis results, the obtained picture was characterized by high concentrations during the domination of North flow (days with the combination of high-low pressure systems and/or the strong north wind regime), with intrusions of polluted air masses from both regional and large scale distances. Being registered only during the specific wind regime, the exceedances of both E.U. and E.P.A. daily PM sub(10) and PM sub(2.5) limit values support further the previous assumption.
The impact of biogenic emissions on ozone and PM2.5 levels over Europe is assessed using CMAQ. Biogenic emissions are predicted to increase Max8hrO3 mixing ratios by 5.7% and to decrease PM2.5 ...concentrations by 1.9%, increasing PM2.5_OC by 13.6% and decreasing , and by 5.6%, 3.7% and 5.6%, respectively, on average over Europe due to their interactions with anthropogenic emissions. A suite of perturbations in temperature is imposed individually on the base case conditions in order to determine the sensitivities to air temperature changes. Temperature increases of 1, 2 or 3 degree K suggest an average increase in Max8hrO3 mixing ratios of 0.9%, 1.8% or 2.9%, respectively, and an average decrease in daily average PM2.5 concentrations of 2.5%, 4.2% and 5.8%, respectively, increasing PM2.5_OC and decreasing , and component concentrations on average over Europe. In order to examine if abatement measures for anthropogenic emissions could offset ozone increases in higher temperatures and their effect on PM2.5 concentrations, a simulation with a domain wide reduction in anthropogenic NO x emissions of 10% is performed. This is estimated to reduce Max8hrO3 mixing ratios by 1.3% on average over Europe. However, NO x reduction is estimated to increase Max8hrO3 in VOCs limited areas. The reduction in anthropogenic NO x emissions is predicted to reduce PM2.5 concentrations by 1.0% enhancing the reduction simulated, here, with temperature increase but further modifying PM2.5 component concentrations.
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