Atmospheric Dispersion modelling
I am interested in linking air mass transport and pollution sources with air quality and greenhouse gas monitoring stations and have worked with many research groups on producing air mass footprints that show the surrounding influences.
The Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modelling Environment (NAME) model was developed after the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, in order to be able to predict and model atmospheric incidents.
I use it to characterise the influence of different type of air masses on trace gas measurements at a fixed site. Some of the changing chemistry can be explained by the pathway over which it travels, such as whether the air is marine or continental or whether it has passed over a known emissions zone or whether the air mass has moved quickly or been slow and stagnant.
Click on the links on the papers to download some selected papers using this technique.
Check out this review paper for closer look at previous studies linking air mass origin and wind types with atmospheric chemistry measurements:
Fleming, Z.L, Monks, P.S., Manning, A.J.: Review: Untangling the influence of air-mass history in interpreting observed atmospheric composition, Atmospheric Research, 104-105, 1-39, 2012
The Weybourne observatory receives a variety of air mass types. Here I classify it into 7 main types and then look at on a monthly basis, how frequently these air mass types occur by assessing which geographical areas the air masses pass over
Other case studies
Monitoring the origin of CO in Beijing, China:
Panagi, M., Fleming, Z.L., Monks, P.S., Ashfold, M.J., Wild, O., Hollaway, M., Zhang, O., Squires, F.A., Vande Hey, J.D.: Investigating the regional contributions to air pollution in Beijing: A dispersion modelling study using CO as a tracer, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2825–2838, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2825-2020, 2020
Greenhouse gas sources or black carbon in London:
Lowry, D., Lanoisellé, M., Fisher, R.E. Martin, M., Fowler, C.M.R., France, J.L. Hernandez- Paniagua, I.Y., Novelli, P. Sriskantharajah, S. O'Brien, P., Rata, N.D., Holmes, C.W., Fleming, Z.L. Clemitshaw, K., Zazzeri, G., Pommier, M., McLinden, C.A., Nisbet, E.G,: Marked long-term decline in ambient CO mixing ratio in SE England, 1997-2014: evidence of policy success in improving air quality, Scientific Reports, 6, 25661, doi: 10.1038/srep25661, 2016
Liu, S., Aiken, A.C., Gorkowski, K., Dubey, M.K., Cappa, C.D., Williams, L.R., Herndon, S.C., Massoli, P., Fortner, E.C., Chhabra, P.S., Brooks, W.A., Onasch, T.B., Jayne, J.T., Worsnop, D. R., China, S., Sharma, N., Mazzoleni, C., Xu, L., Ng, N.L., Liu, D., Allan, J.D., Lee, J.D., Fleming, Z.L., Mohr, C., Peter Zotter, P., Szidat, S., Prévôt, A.: Enhanced light absorption by mixed source black and brown carbon particles in UK winter, Nature communications, 6, 8435, doi: 10.1038/ncomms9435, 2015
The Cape Verde observatory:
Carpenter, L.J., Fleming, Z.L., Read, K.A., Lee, J.D., Moller, S.J., Hopkins, J. Purvis, R., Lewis, A.C., Müller, K., Heinold, B., Herrmann, H., Wadinga Fomba, K., van Pinxteren, D. Müller, C., Tegen, I., Wiedensohler, A., Müller, T., Niedermeier, N., Achterberg, E.P., Patey, M.D., Kozlova, E.A., Heimann, M., Heard, D.E., Plane, J.M.C., Mahajan, A.S., Oetjen, H., Vaughan, S., Arnold, S.R., Ingham, T., Stone, D., Whalley, L., Evans, M., Pilling, M.J., Leigh, R.J., Monks, P.S., Karunaharan, A., Tschritter, J., Pöhler, D., Frieß, U., Holla, R., Mendes, L., Lopez, H., Faria, B., Manning, A.J., Wallace, D.W.R.: Seasonal characteristics of tropical marine boundary layer air measured at the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory. Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry, 67 (2-3), 87-140, 2010
The different regions around the Cape Verde observatory and the % of time each 10 day back air mass arriving at the station spends in each region. CO and O3 are higher when there is more Saharan air