Summary
Results from an intensive field campaign of meteorological and air quality measurements performed within the project ALPNAP are addressed and discussed. Three target areas were investigated between January and March 2006 in order to collect a detailed picture of the specific atmospheric processes affecting the fate of pollutants in one of the main Alpine transit corridors, leading to the Brenner Pass. This paper highlights the peculiarities of a typical “valley environment”, namely that referred to the Adige Valley (Northern Italy) in its lower 120-km part from Salorno/Salurn towards Verona. Thanks to a carefully designed instrumental setup, the intensive field measurements successively performed at each target area clearly displayed the interaction of meteorological phenomena at both regional and local scale. The former may be identified as the responsible for the day by day variation of pollutant concentrations and especially for the strong decreases due to Foehn episodes or perturbations. The latter are locally affected by topographic factors and in turn determine the spatial distribution of air pollutants across the valley section. Some remarkable examples of typical features during specific high-concentration episodes typical of the winter season are presented and discussed. In particular the diurnal cycles of pollutant concentrations are compared to the local circulations and to the thermal stratification in the lower layers, displaying a clear correlation which explains both the daily variability as well as the progressive increase in the background values.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
OA Alexandrova DL Boyer JR Anderson HJS Fernando (2003) ArticleTitleThe influence of thermally driven circulation on PM10 concentration in the Salt Lake Valley Atmos Environ 37 421–437 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S1352-2310(02)00803-8
DC Bader CD Whiteman (1989) ArticleTitleNumerical simulation of cross-valley plume dispersion during the morning transition period J Appl Meteor 28 652–664 Occurrence Handle10.1175/1520-0450(1989)028<0652:NSOCVP>2.0.CO;2
RG Barry (1992) Mountain weather and climate Routledge London 402
E Dreiseitl (1988) ArticleTitleSlope and free air temperature in the Inn Valley Meteorol Atmos Phys 39 25–41 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF01029895
M de Franceschi D Zardi (2003) ArticleTitleEvaluation of cut-off frequency and correction of filter-induced phase lag and attenuation in eddy covariance analysis of turbulence data Bound Layer Meteorol 108 289–303 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1024157310388
de Franceschi M, Rampanelli G, Zardi, D (2002) Further investigations of the Ora del Garda valley wind. Proc. 10th Conf. on Mountain Meteorology and Mesoscale Alpine Programme MAP-Meeting 2002, Park City, UT, pp. 30–33
de Franceschi M, Zardi D, Tagliazucca M, Tampieri F (2008) Analysis of second-order moments in the surface layer turbulence in an Alpine valley. Quart J Roy Meteor Soc (submitted)
Egger J (1990) Thermally forced flows theory. In: Blumen W (ed) Atmospheric Processes over Complex Terrain. Amer Meteor Soc Monographs, Vol. 45(23), pp. 43–57
Heimann D, de Franceschi M, Emeis S, Lercher P, Seibert P (eds.) (2007) Air pollution, traffic noise and related health effects in the Alpine Space – a guide for authorities and consulters. ALPNAP comprehensive report. Università degli Studi di Trento, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale, Trento, Italy, 335 pp (http://www.alpnap.org/results.html)
Rampanelli G, Zardi D (2002) Identification of thermal structure from airborne measurements in an Alpine valley with Kriging technique. Proc. 10th AMS Conf. on Mountain Meteorology, 17–21 June 2002, Park City, Utah, pp. 93–6
G Rampanelli D Zardi R Rotunno (2004) ArticleTitleMechanisms of Up-Valley Winds J Atmos Sci 61 3097–3111 Occurrence Handle10.1175/JAS-3354.1
M Rotach D Zardi (2007) ArticleTitleOn the boundary layer structure over highly complex terrain: key findings from MAP Qurat J Roy Meteor Soc 133 937–948 Occurrence Handle10.1002/qj.71
R Steinacker (1984) ArticleTitleArea-height distribution of a valley and its relation to the valley wind Beitr Phys Atmos 57 64–71
RB Stull (1988) An introduction to boundary layer meteorology Kluwer Dordrecht 680
Vergeiner J, Emeis S, Griesser E, Obleitner F, Staszewski M, Schäfer K (2007) Distribution of air pollutants in an Alpine boundary layer during winter. ICAM 2007
Whiteman CD (1990) Observations of thermally developed wind systems in mountainous Terrain. In: Blumen W (ed) Atmospheric Processes over Complex Terrain. Amer Meteor Soc Monographs, Vol. 45(23), pp. 5–42
CD Whiteman JM Hubbe WJ Shaw (2000) ArticleTitleEvaluation of an inexpensive temperature datalogger for meteorological applications J Atmos Ocean Tech 17 76–81
CD Whiteman S Eisenbach B Pospichal R Steinacker (2004) ArticleTitleComparison of vertical soundings and sidewall air temperature measurements in a small alpine basin J Appl Meteorol 43 1635–1647 Occurrence Handle10.1175/JAM2168.1
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Correspondence: Massimiliano de Franceschi, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Trento, via Mesiano 77, 38050 Trento, Italy
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Franceschi, M., Zardi, D. Study of wintertime high pollution episodes during the Brenner-South ALPNAP measurement campaign. Meteorol Atmos Phys 103, 237–250 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-008-0327-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-008-0327-2