An Air Quality Modeling Study Comparing Two Possible Sites for the New International Airport for Mexico City

Abstract

Using an air quality model, two future urban scenarios induced by the construction of the new international airport for Mexico City are compared at a regional level. The air quality model couples the meteorology model MM5 and state-of-the-art photochemistry. The air quality comparison is made using metrics for the criterion gases selected for the study. From the two urban scenarios compared, the option for Tizayuca is moderately better than the option for Texcoco, because relative reductions in O₃ and other photochemical pollutants are achieved over highly populated areas. Regardless of the site, the air quality for the central region of Mexico in the future will deteriorate. In the region of central Mexico, SO₂ and NO₂ will become important pollutants.     

MnxCe1-xO2／γ-Al2O3催化剂的制备及其催化甲苯的燃烧性能

以γ-Al2O3为载体,以MnxCe1-xO2为催化活性组分,采用浸渍法制备了一系列负载型MnxCe1-xO2／γ-Al2O3催化剂（x=0、0．2、0．4、0．6、0．8、0．9、1）,在固定床反应器中评价了催化剂对甲苯的催化燃烧性能。结果表明,MnxCe1-xO2／γ-Al2O3催化剂的催化活性与催化剂的焙烧温度、活性组分MnxCe1-xO2的负载量以及Mn、Ce摩尔比有显著关系,其中焙烧温度550℃、负载量为20％、Mn、Ce摩尔比为4：1时,即MnxCe1-xO2／γ-Al2O3催化剂对甲苯的催化性能最佳,反应温度为180℃时,甲苯的转化率达到95％。并在连续100h的稳定性操作后,催化剂的活性基本无变化。采用XRD、BET以及SEM等分析测试手段对催化剂的结构以及表面进行了表征。     

Gender,age and subject matter: impact on teachers’ ecological values

By means of environmental education, teachers are supposed to intervene in pupils’ awareness and concern of environmental issues. Teachers’ environmental attitudes, however, have rarely been studied. We analysed 367 German pre- and in-service teachers’ environmental attitudes for their structure and socio-economic correlates within the frame of a European project. Thus, we retrieved for adults the two-dimensional model of ecological values (2-MEV) presented for adolescents by Bogner and Wiseman (Sci Educ Int 15(1):27–48, 2004). For the two domains, Preservation and Utilisation, the psychometric structure was confirmed and discriminative correlations with age, gender and teaching subject were unveiled. Further research is needed to deduce the implications for teaching practice.     

环渤海及其邻近地区引种常绿杜鹃花气候相似性研究——兼论加权欧几里得距离法在杜鹃花引种栽培区域预测中的应用

通过模糊数学方法,对环渤海及其邻近地区引种栽培"华西雨屏带"中山区常绿杜鹃的气候相似性进行了初步探讨和预测。研究提取了11项气象指标,其中5项作为"门槛指标",6项作为"有效样本集"考察指标,并根据专家经验对考察指标赋予了不同的权重和可控系数。在此基础上,通过数学建模对22个城市的有关气象要素进行了考察和计算。结果表明,8个城市进入上述"有效样本集",可分为3个适宜性等级,其中环渤海地区的日照、威海、青岛进入次高适宜等级,大连进入最低适宜等级。围绕研究结果,对被考察城市引种特定区域常绿杜鹃的适应性问题进行了分析,并对有关研究方法进行了探索性修订。     

微波协同活性炭处理偶氮染料废水的研究

以粉末活性炭为催化剂,采用微波协同活性炭工艺,对偶氮染料(酸性芷青GGR和酸性嫩黄G)废水进行处理。考察了活性炭用量、微波功率、辐射时间、偶氮染料初始浓度对2种偶氮染料去除率的影响。实验结果表明,酸性芷青GGR初始质量浓度为100mg/L、活性炭用量为12.5g/L、微波辐射时间为10min、微波功率为500W条件下,酸性芷青GGR的去除率可达90.28%;酸性嫩黄G初始质量浓度为100mg/L、活性炭用量为10.0g/L、微波辐射时间为8min、微波功率为500W条件下,酸性嫩黄G的去除率可达95.87%;微波协同活性炭处理2种偶氮染料的反应均呈现一级反应动力学特征。     

WRF-Chem simulation of East Asian air quality: Sensitivity to temporal and vertical emissions distributions

This study develops fine temporal (seasonal, day-of-week, diurnal) and vertical allocations of anthropogenic emissions for the TRACE-P inventory and evaluates their impacts on the East Asian air quality prediction using WRF-Chem simulations in July 2001 at 30-km grid spacing against available surface measurements from EANET and NEMCC. For NO₂ and SO₂, the diurnal and vertical redistributions of emissions play essential roles, while the day-of-week variation is less important. When all incorporated, WRF-Chem best simulates observations of surface NO₂ and SO₂ concentrations, while using the default emissions produces the worst result. The sensitivity is especially large over major cities and industrial areas, where surface NO₂ and SO₂ concentrations are reduced by respectively 3–7 and 6–12 ppbv when using the scaled emissions. The incorporation of all the three redistributions of emissions simulates surface O₃ concentrations higher by 4–8 ppbv at night and 2–4 ppbv in daytime over broad areas of northern, eastern and central China. To this sensitivity, the diurnal redistribution contributes more than the other two.     

Ambient TSP concentration and dustfall in major cities of China: Spatial distribution and temporal variability

Based on environmental monitoring data in 93 major cities and meteorological records at 398 weather stations in China from 1981 to 2007, total suspended particle (TSP) concentration, the intensity of dustfall, and sand and dust storm frequency (F_d) were analysed. During the past 27 years, the annual average TSP concentration (C_TSP) in 93 cities was 402 μg m^?3. Annual average C_TSP decreased from the north to the south and from inland to the coast areas with a peak value of 628.8 μg m^?3 in Lanzhou. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, annual average C_TSP was 628.7, 319.2, and 250.1 μg m^?3, respectively. Annual average intensity of dustfall (I_d) was 240.5 t km^?2 a^?1, decreased from northern to southern China and from inland to the coast areas with the maximum value of 717.2 t km^?2 a^?1 in Baotou. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, annual average I_d was 334.8, 220.9, 146 t km^?2 a^?1 respectively. Annual average I_d in the Loess Plateau region was commonly higher than 200 t km^?2 a^?1. The annual average F_d decreased from arid regions in northwestern China to humid areas in southeastern China with two sand and sand storm centers existing in Xinjiang Taklamakan Desert and western Inner Mongolia. The annual average F_d in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s was 16, 8, 6 days respectively, decreased steadily from 18 days in 1981–5 days in 2007. Annual average I_d had a positive linear relation to annual average C_TSP (R² = 0.96). Annual average F_d had a positive relation with annual average C_TSP (R² = 0.97) as well as annual average I_d (R² = 0.94). TSP was the chief pollutant influencing Air Pollution Index (API) in northern China in spring and winter seasons. Sand and dust storm might be a major factor affecting the temporal variability and spatial distribution of TSP and dustfall in China.     

Sea salt concentrations across the European continent

The oceans are a major source for particles that play an important role in many atmospheric processes. In Europe sea salt may contribute significantly to particulate matter concentrations. We have compiled sodium concentration data as a tracer for sea salt for 89 sites in Europe to provide more insight in the distribution of sea salt across Europe. The annual average sea salt concentrations above land were estimated to range between 0.3 and almost 13 μg m^?3. Maximum concentrations are found at the Irish coast. At coastal sites along the Atlantic and North Sea coast concentrations tend to be around 5 μg m^?3. More inland locations up to about 300 km away from the coast tend to show concentrations between 2 and 5 μg m^?3, whereas sites further away from the coast are characterized by lower concentrations. An analysis of the representativity of the data with respect to a long term average showed that the long average is associated with a standard deviation of around 15%. The compilation of observations provides an improved overview of sea salt concentrations in Europe as well as an improved basis for model validation. Verification of the results of the LOTOS-EUROS model learned that the model represents well the spatial variability of the observed sea salt concentrations very well. However, the absolute concentrations are significantly overestimated due to large uncertainties in the emission and dry deposition parameterizations. Using the high explained variability in the gradients across Europe, the bias-corrected modelled distribution serves as a best estimate of the sea salt distribution across Europe for 2005.     

Simulating chemistry–aerosol–cloud–radiation–climate feedbacks over the continental U.S. using the online-coupled Weather Research Forecasting Model with chemistry (WRF/Chem)

The chemistry–aerosol–cloud–radiation–climate feedbacks are simulated using WRF/Chem over the continental U.S. in January and July 2001. Aerosols can reduce incoming solar radiation by up to ?9% in January and ?16% in July and 2-m temperatures by up to 0.16 °C in January and 0.37 °C in July over most of the continental U.S. The NO₂ photolysis rates decrease in July by up to ?8% over the central and eastern U.S. where aerosol concentrations are high but increase by up to 7% over the western U.S. in July and up to 13% over the entire domain in January. Planetary boundary layer (PBL) height reduces by up to ?23% in January and ?24% in July. Temperatures and wind speeds in July in big cities such as Atlanta and New York City reduce at/near surface but increase at higher altitudes. The changes in PBL height, temperatures, and wind speed indicate a more stable atmospheric stability of the PBL and further exacerbate air pollution over areas where air pollution is already severe. Aerosols can increase cloud optical depths in big cities in July, and can lead to 500–5000 cm^?3 cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) at a supersaturation of 1% over most land areas and 10–500 cm^?3 CCN over ocean in both months with higher values over most areas in July than in January, particularly in the eastern U.S. The total column cloud droplet number concentrations are up to 4.9 × 10⁶ cm^?2 in January and up to 11.8 × 10⁶ cm^?2 in July, with higher values over regions with high CCN concentrations and sufficient cloud coverage. Aerosols can reduce daily precipitation by up to 1.1 mm day^?1 in January and 19.4 mm day^?1 in July thus the wet removal rates over most of the land areas due to the formation of small CCNs, but they can increase precipitation over regions with the formation of large/giant CCN. These results indicate potential importance of the aerosol feedbacks and an urgent need for their accurate representations in current atmospheric models to reduce uncertainties associated with climate change predictions.