Soot particles from oil and wood heating systems as well as road traffic can pollute the air in Europe on a much larger scale than previously assumed.
Soot particles from oil and wood heating systems as well as road traffic can pollute the air in Europe on a much larger scale than previously assumed. This is what researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) conclude from a measurement campaign in the Thuringian Forest in Germany. The evaluation of the sources showed that about half of the soot particles came from the surrounding area and the other half from long distances. From the researchers' point of view, this underlines the need to further reduce emissions of soot that is harmful to health and the climate, as the carbon-containing particles still contribute to health hazards and climate warming even over distances of several hundred kilometres.
The results were published in the journal "Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics" (ACP), an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).
Aerosol particles in the atmosphere affect global climate, human health and ecosystems. The chemical composition of atmospheric particles at a given location depends not only on the local environment and sources, but is also influenced by the history of the particles reaching the sampling location. During transport, so-called ageing processes not only change the chemical composition of the particles, but also influence their physical properties (e.g. size distribution, volatility, hygroscopicity, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity and optical properties). The load at a given location is therefore a complex mixture of different sources in combination with a complex transformation process. Carbonaceous aerosol particles predominate in the total mass of particles, consisting of a large number of chemical species and can be divided into organic aerosol (OA) and black carbon (BC). Black carbon is associated with primary emissions from combustion processes from anthropogenic sources (car, domestic heating and industry) or biogenic sources (e.g. forest fires). Not only local sources influence the chemical composition of aerosol particles. Long-distance transport also affects the chemical composition of aerosol particles through the origin of the air masses.
Read more at Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS)
Image: Soot particles from oil and wood heating systems and road traffic can pollute the air in Europe on a much larger scale than previously assumed. This is what researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) conclude from a measurement campaign in the Thuringian Forest. (Credit: Tilo Arnhold, TROPOS)
