Impact of different sources of precursors on an ozone pollution outbreak over Europe analysed with IASI+GOME2 multispectral satellite observations and model simulations

Abstract

We examine the impact of different sources of ozone precursors on the daily evolution of successive ozone pollution outbreaks across Europe in July 2017 by using a multispectral satellite approach called IASI+GOME2 and a tropospheric chemistry reanalysis named TCR-2. IASI+GOME2, combining IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) and GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2) measurements respectively in the infrared and the ultraviolet, allows the observation of the daily horizontal distribution of ozone in the lowermost troposphere (defined here as the atmospheric layer between the surface and 3 km above sea level). IASI+GOME2 observations show a fair capacity to depict near-surface ozone evolution as compared to surface measurements from 188 European stations for the period 15–27 July 2017. At the beginning of this event (on 16 July), an ozone outbreak is initially formed over the Iberian Peninsula likely linked with high temperature-induced enhancements of biogenic volatile organic compound concentrations and collocated anthropogenic emissions. In the following days, the ozone plume splits into two branches, one being transported eastward across the western Mediterranean and Italy and the other one over western and Central Europe. The southern branch encounters ozone precursors emitted over the Balkan Peninsula by wildfires along the coast of the Adriatic Sea and biogenic sources in the inland region of the peninsula. Ozone concentrations of the northern plume are enhanced by photochemical production associated with anthropogenic sources of ozone precursors over Central Europe and by mixing with an ozone plume arriving from the North Sea that was originally produced over North America. Finally, both ozone branches are transported eastwards and mix gradually as they reach the northern coast of the Black Sea. There, emissions from agricultural fires after harvesting clearly favour photochemical production of ozone within the pollution plume, which is advected eastwards in the following days. Based on satellite analysis, this paper shows the interplay of various ozone precursor sources to sustain a 2-week-long ozone pollution event over different parts of Europe.