Page 65 - Roadmap

8.2. ENVIRONMENT
Development of an air pollution forecasting system which takes into account water-aerosol interactions in
Project code:
GINOP-2.3.2-15-2016-00055
Project leader institution:
University of Pannonia
Project leader:
András Gelencsér:
Project leader’s contacts:
gelencs@almos.uni-pannon.hu
Project partners:
PTE; Hungarian Meteorological
Service
Amount of funding:
HUF 819,120,657
Website:
https://levegokemia.uni-
pannon.hu/
the atmosphere
University of Pannonia
Project description:
The better understanding and integration with atmospheric models of the interactions
between air pollution and atmospheric water are one of the greatest challenges of at-
mospheric sciences. The hygroscopic growth of aerosol, its role in fog formation, the
change in the radiation balance, and the effect of multiphase chemical reactions un-
folding in fog and cloud water are still unclear in many details. The project employs a
novel microphysical model for studying fog formation. The detailed microphysical
model, which has been successfully used for other cloud types, takes into account how
the size and chemical composition of aerosol particles influence the formation of fog
water droplets, and models collisions between aerosol particles and water droplets.
Cloud physical and chemical processes are modelled with the LES (Large Eddy Sim-
ulation) model which includes 1) interaction between aerosol particles and fog for-
mation (nucleation, scavenging); 2) the effect of radiative processes on fog formation
and inversion layer; and 3) the role of water droplets in scavenging atmospheric gases
and the chemical reactions occurring in water droplets.
Technical description/parameters of the research infrastructure:
The project uses the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather) anal-
yses to provide a numerical, dynamic, synoptic-scale description of weather conditions.
These analyses provide initial and boundary conditions for the modelling of mesoscale
processes, which relies on the internationally widely used WRF (Weather Research
and Forecast) model. The soil model attached to the WRF provides information on
soil structure, temperature and humidity, land use (e.g. arable land, forest, built-up
area etc.), the albedo, and the percentage of vegetation cover. Data assimilation is per-
formed by “nudging”, a procedure developed by NCAR (National Centre for Atmo-
spheric Research) and also used in the WRF. It defines the rate of concentration
increase of air pollutants (mainly PM10) caused by stagnant cold air masses. PM10
forecast is performed with a chemical transport model (CTM), using a 0.1° × 0.1°
spatial resolution grid point database for the model calculations. During the tests, we
try to determine the group of meteorological parameters which are required for the
accurate forecasting of high PM10 concentration caused by stagnant cold air masses.
The project examines how the standard measurement of PM10 concentration is in-
fluenced by high humidity and fog occurring when large-scale temperature inversion
occurs. For the more precise modelling of fog droplet formation, we also measure the
chemical composition and size distribution of the droplets and the aerosol particles
as well as the size distribution of fog particles and interstitial aerosol particles, and the
result is used to model the effect of the inhaled air on human health.
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