Chapter 1
Establishing the Origin of Particulate
Matter in Eastern Germany Using
an Improved Regional Modelling
Framework
R. Timmermans, R. Kranenburg, C. Hendriks, M. Thürkow, I. Kirchner,
D. van Pinxteren and M. Schaap
Abstract In Eastern Germany winter episodes with PM10 exceedances of EU limit
values are often connected to continental air masses, combining polluted air from
Eastern Europe with air pollution from local urban sources. The EU air quality legislation requires the analysis of the contribution of such cross-boundary transport
to exceedances for development of effective policy measures. To this end we have
performed a source apportionment study to establish the main sources of particulate
matter during high PM episodes in Eastern Germany. We have run the LOTOSEUROS model with its labelling based source apportionment tool and found that
the contribution from cross boundary transport becomes more dominant during the
episodes. The results from the model are currently compared to a measurement based
source attribution (PMF) and a more detailed evaluation of episodes with exceedances
is being performed. The modelled concentrations have been evaluated against PM
composition observations which revealed that especially the modelling of carbonaceous aerosol is challenging and lead to a large underestimation of modelled PM10
levels in winter. The use of an updated bottom-up inventory in combination with temperature dependent temporal variability for residential combustion emissions leads to
an increase of carbonaceous aerosols and reduction of PM biases. Another improvement was realised through an update of the deposition routine over snow that leads
to a strong reduction of the underestimation during cold PM episodes with snow
conditions.
R. Timmermans (B) · R. Kranenburg · C. Hendriks · M. Schaap
Department Climate, Air and Sustainability, TNO, Utrecht, The Netherlands
e-mail: renske.timmermans@tno.nl
M. Thürkow · I. Kirchner · M. Schaap
Freie Universität Berlin (FUB), Berlin, Germany
D. van Pinxteren
Leibniz-Institut Für Troposphärenforschung (TROPOS), Leipzig, Germany
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_1
3
Establishing the Origin of Particulate
Matter in Eastern Germany Using
an Improved Regional Modelling
Framework
R. Timmermans, R. Kranenburg, C. Hendriks, M. Thürkow, I. Kirchner,
D. van Pinxteren and M. Schaap
Abstract In Eastern Germany winter episodes with PM10 exceedances of EU limit
values are often connected to continental air masses, combining polluted air from
Eastern Europe with air pollution from local urban sources. The EU air quality legislation requires the analysis of the contribution of such cross-boundary transport
to exceedances for development of effective policy measures. To this end we have
performed a source apportionment study to establish the main sources of particulate
matter during high PM episodes in Eastern Germany. We have run the LOTOSEUROS model with its labelling based source apportionment tool and found that
the contribution from cross boundary transport becomes more dominant during the
episodes. The results from the model are currently compared to a measurement based
source attribution (PMF) and a more detailed evaluation of episodes with exceedances
is being performed. The modelled concentrations have been evaluated against PM
composition observations which revealed that especially the modelling of carbonaceous aerosol is challenging and lead to a large underestimation of modelled PM10
levels in winter. The use of an updated bottom-up inventory in combination with temperature dependent temporal variability for residential combustion emissions leads to
an increase of carbonaceous aerosols and reduction of PM biases. Another improvement was realised through an update of the deposition routine over snow that leads
to a strong reduction of the underestimation during cold PM episodes with snow
conditions.
R. Timmermans (B) · R. Kranenburg · C. Hendriks · M. Schaap
Department Climate, Air and Sustainability, TNO, Utrecht, The Netherlands
e-mail: renske.timmermans@tno.nl
M. Thürkow · I. Kirchner · M. Schaap
Freie Universität Berlin (FUB), Berlin, Germany
D. van Pinxteren
Leibniz-Institut Für Troposphärenforschung (TROPOS), Leipzig, Germany
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_1
3