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Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change on European Ozone Levels

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Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the potential impact of future climate change on ozone air quality in Europe. To provide a full assessment, simulations with the global chemical transport model GEOS-CHEM driven by the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies general circulation model (NASA/GISS GCM) are conducted. To isolate the effects from changes in climate and anthropogenic emissions four types of simulations are performed: (1) present-day climate and emissions (2) future climate following the IPCC Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) A1B scenario and present-day anthropogenic emissions of ozone precursors (3) present-day climate and future emissions and (4) future climate and future emissions. Results indicate that climate change impact on its own leads to an increase of less than 3 ppb in western and central Europe whereas decreases are evident for the rest of the areas with the highest (about 2.5 ppb) in southeastern Europe (Italy, Greece). Increases are attributed to the increases of isoprene biogenic emissions due to increasing temperatures whereas decreases are associated with the increase of water vapor over sea which tends to decrease the lifetime of ozone as well as the increased wind speeds in the 2050 climate. When future emissions are implemented in the future climate simulations, the greatest increases are seen in the southwest and southeast Mediterranean (about 16 ppb) due to the increased isoprene biogenic emissions under higher levels of NO x in the model. Decreases up to 2 ppb of ozone are shown for France, Switzerland, Northern Italy and northern Europe.

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Acknowledgments

This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund [ESF]) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) — Research Funding Program: Heracleitus II. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Environmental Physics and Meteorology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    K. V. Varotsos & M. Tombrou

  2. Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece

    C. Giannakopoulos

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  1. K. V. Varotsos
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  2. C. Giannakopoulos
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  3. M. Tombrou
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Correspondence to C. Giannakopoulos.

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Varotsos, K.V., Giannakopoulos, C. & Tombrou, M. Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change on European Ozone Levels. Water Air Soil Pollut 224, 1596 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1596-z

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