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The Covid-19 pandemic and environmental stressors in Europe: synergies and interplays
This report provides an overview of the potential impacts of Covid-19 restrictions, in particular, focusing on review and assessment of Covid-19 impacts on air quality, for the year 2020. Complementary analyses address compliance with the National Emission reductions Commitments (NEC) Directive and noise. This expands the initial analysis of impacts of the pandemic-related restrictions on air quality based on data for the first months of 2020, presented in the EEA Air quality report for 2020. The results show a clear decline in NO2 short-term levels and annual average throughout Europe. Results for other pollutants are less uniform, and mostly do not show significant changes in annual average or other relevant metrics . The results regarding air quality are robust, obtained by a wealth of methods and consistent also with literature findings. The noise analysis shows a general decline in noise levels related to road traffic, though some areas show an increase. An analysis of policies and measures reported by Member States in 2021 for base year 2019 shows that additional measures related to emissions of NH3 are expected to be negatively impacted to the greatest extent by the Covid-19 related restrictions.
ETC/ATNI
2022
2022
Atmospheric composition in the European Arctic and 30 years of the Zeppelin Observatory, Ny-Ålesund
The Zeppelin Observatory (78.90∘ N, 11.88∘ E) is located on Zeppelin Mountain at 472 m a.s.l. on Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago. Established in 1989, the observatory is part of Ny-Ålesund Research Station and an important atmospheric measurement site, one of only a few in the high Arctic, and a part of several European and global monitoring programmes and research infrastructures, notably the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP); the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP); the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW); the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS); the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) network; and the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS). The observatory is jointly operated by the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), Stockholm University, and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU). Here we detail the establishment of the Zeppelin Observatory including historical measurements of atmospheric composition in the European Arctic leading to its construction. We present a history of the measurements at the observatory and review the current state of the European Arctic atmosphere, including results from trends in greenhouse gases, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), other traces gases, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and heavy metals, aerosols and Arctic haze, and atmospheric transport phenomena, and provide an outline of future research directions.
2022
2022
Earth system and environmental impact studies need high quality and up-to-date estimates of atmospheric deposition. This study demonstrates the methodological benefits of multimodel ensemble and measurement-model fusion mapping approaches for atmospheric deposition focusing on 2010, a year for which several studies were conducted. Global model-only deposition assessment can be further improved by integrating new model-measurement techniques, including expanded capabilities of satellite observations of atmospheric composition. We identify research and implementation priorities for timely estimates of deposition globally as implemented by the World Meteorological Organization.
2022
2022
Do Carbon Nanotubes and Asbestos Fibers Exhibit Common Toxicity Mechanisms?
During the last two decades several nanoscale materials were engineered for industrial and medical applications. Among them carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are the most exploited nanomaterials with global production of around 1000 tons/year. Besides several commercial benefits of CNTs, the fiber-like structures and their bio-persistency in lung tissues raise serious concerns about the possible adverse human health effects resembling those of asbestos fibers. In this review, we present a comparative analysis between CNTs and asbestos fibers using the following four parameters: (1) fibrous needle-like shape, (2) bio-persistent nature, (3) high surface to volume ratio and (4) capacity to adsorb toxicants/pollutants on the surface. We also compare mechanisms underlying the toxicity caused by certain diameters and lengths of CNTs and asbestos fibers using downstream pathways associated with altered gene expression data from both asbestos and CNT exposure. Our results suggest that indeed certain types of CNTs are emulating asbestos fiber as far as associated toxicity is concerned.
2022
2022
Denne rapporten sammenstiller kunnskap om forurensningstilstanden i forvaltningsplanområdene Barentshavet, Norskehavet og Nordsjøen/Skagerrak, med hovedvekt på miljøgifter og radioaktiv forurensning. Rapporten oppsummerer resultater fra overvåkning av Overvåkingsgruppens indikatorsett, som publiseres på miljostatus.no, det vil si 43 indikatorer for forurensning og fire indikatorer for potensielt forurensende menneskelig aktivitet i havområdene. Rapporten inneholder også annen relevant kunnskap. Det er også gjort en evaluering av indikatorsettet og de ulike indikatorenes egnethet til å vurdere tilstand, utvikling og effekter på mattrygghet og miljøkvalitet.
Havforskningsinstituttet
2022
Monitoring atmospheric composition and deposition in Norway
The Norwegian monitoring programme is set up to meet national and international obligations and needs for measurement data with a long-term commitment. The data are important for compliance monitoring as well as input for effect studies. The monitoring of atmospheric composition and deposition are organised under national programmes mainly funded by the Norwegian Environment Agency in addition to some direct support from the Ministry of Climate and Environment. NILU – Norwegian Institute for Air Research is responsible for the daily operation and reporting of the results from this monitoring. The monitoring aim to fulfil several inter-connected purposes and is divided in four main programmes: transboundary fluxes, contaminants, climate change and the ozone layer. In addition, regularly moss surveys are conducted to assess atmospheric deposition of pollutants such as heavy metals.
NILU
2022
Air pollution involves multiple health and economic challenges. Its accurate and low-cost monitoring is important for developing services dedicated to reduce the exposure of living beings to the pollution. Particulate matter (PM) measurement sensors belong to the key components that support operation of these systems. In this work, a modular, mobile Internet of Things sensor for PM measurements has been proposed. Due to a limited accuracy of the PM detector, the measurement data are refined using a two-stage procedure that involves elimination of the non-physical signal spikes followed by a non-linear correction of the responses using a multiplicative surrogate model. The correction layer is derived from the sparse and non-uniform calibration data, i.e., a combination of the measurements from the PM monitoring station and the sensor obtained in the same location over a specified (relatively short) interval. The device and the method have been both demonstrated based on the data obtained during three measurement campaigns. The proposed correction scheme improves the fidelity of PM measurements by around two orders of magnitude w.r.t. the responses for which the post-processing has not been considered. Performance of the proposed surrogate-assisted technique has been favorably compared against the benchmark approaches from the literature.
2022
Impacts of snow assimilation on seasonal snow and meteorological forecasts for the Tibetan Plateau
The Tibetan Plateau (TP) contains the largest amount of snow outside the polar regions and is the source of many major rivers in Asia. An accurate long-range (i.e. seasonal) meteorological forecast is of great importance for this region. The fifth-generation seasonal forecast system of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (SEAS5) provides global long-range meteorological forecasts including over the TP. However, SEAS5 uses land initial conditions produced by assimilating Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) snow data only below 1500 m altitude, which may affect the forecast skill of SEAS5 over mountainous regions like the TP. To investigate the impacts of snow assimilation on the forecasts of snow, temperature and precipitation, twin ensemble reforecasts are initialized with and without snow assimilation above 1500 m altitude over the TP for spring and summer 2018. Significant changes occur in the springtime. Without snow assimilation, the reforecasts overestimate snow cover and snow depth while underestimating daily temperature over the TP. Compared to satellite-based estimates, precipitation reforecasts perform better in the west TP (WTP) than in the east TP (ETP). With snow assimilation, the reforecasts of snow cover, snow depth and temperature are consistently improved in the TP in the spring. However, the positive bias between the precipitation reforecasts and satellite observations worsens in the ETP. Compared to the experiment with no snow assimilation, the snow assimilation experiment significantly increases temperature and precipitation for the ETP and around the longitude 95∘ E. The higher temperature after snow assimilation, in particular the cold bias reduction after initialization, can be attributed to the effects of a more realistic, decreased snowpack, providing favourable conditions for generating more precipitation. Overall, snow assimilation can improve seasonal forecasts through the interaction between land and atmosphere.
2022
2022
Integrated assessment of noise and air quality in European cities. Methodology.
The resulting index provides spatial information on the areas most affected combining noise and air pollution across European urban areas. This information can build on and contribute to the EEA’s integrated assessments and it is going to be used to disseminate information on the European environment to policy makers and to European citizens.
ETC/ATNI
2022
2022
2022