Analysis of Long-range Air Pollutant Transport Using Trajectory Residence Time Statistics

Abstract

There is a wealth of experience with trajectories and their application for various studies mostly dealing with air pollution problems. Trajectories have been applied to define air pollution source regions and calculate the dispersion of pollutants (Stohl, 1996 and 1998; Stohl and Trickl, 1999; Kaiser et al., 2000 and Kaiser et al., 2001). In this paper, results of trajectory residence time statistics are presented for the alpine background measurement site Zöbelboden, 899 masl, with special respect to the results for Sonnblick, 3105 masl, with the aim to study long-range air pollutant transport. Both stations are involved in international research programmes: Sonnblick contributes to the Global Atmosphere Watch Programme (GAW) of the WMO with the aim to study changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Zöbelboden is Austria´s contribution to the International Cooperative Programme “Integrated Monitoring of Air Pollutant Effects on Ecosystems” of the Geneve Clean Air Convention within UN-ECE. The trajectory residence time statistics shows the importance of the Po basin as an ozone source, but during summer, regional ozone production also plays an important role; nitrogen oxide originates from the pre-alpine region north of the Alps, sulfur dioxide also from more distant sources (Czech Republic, southern Poland and Slovenia).