Regional Model for Formation, Dynamics and Long-range Transport of Atmospheric Aerosol: Study of Atmospheric Aerosol Properties in Europe

S. G. Tsyro

This paper provides performance evaluation of the EMEP (Cooperative Programme for the Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe) model, formulated in [1], and presents model calculation results. A satisfactory agreement is found between calculated and observed PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations (i.e., particulate matter with diameters smaller than 10 and 2.5 μm) and their chemical composition for different parts of Europe for the years 2001–2004. The model manages to reproduce observed regional gradients of background PM10 and PM2.5, with spatial correlations being 0.70 and 0.80, respectively, while the temporal correlation coefficients between modeled and measured daily PM vary mostly between 0.4 and 0.8 at EMEP sites. The agreement between calculated and observed aerosol number concentrations is worse than for mass concentrations. Model calculated PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations and chemical composition in Europe for the year 2004 are presented, as well as their interannual variations in the period 2000–2004. Further, contributions of different sources to PM10 and PM2.5 are estimated. Model results show that in 2004, background PM10 and PM2.5 exceeded EU critical levels and WHO recommended guidelines in a number of European regions. They also show that the transboundary transport contributes considerably to PM pollution in the European countries.