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Content archived on 2024-05-24

Tropospheric ozone and precursors - trends, budgets and policy

Objective

Problems to be solved
One of the fundamental questions at the heart of the air quality problem is "how much has ozone changed by abatement measures in the past and how much more will it change under the current and future emission reduction plans?” In recent years the European Union has put forward and implemented a number of different policies and legislation aimed at improving air quality. It is clear that the chemical composition of the atmosphere over Europe is changing and it is vital to regulate, monitor and understand these changes. Many different factors affect the composition of the troposphere of Europe and these factors act on a range of scales. It is widely recognised that photochemical oxidant production is a problem on the local, regional and global scale. The research within the TROTREP project provides a vital insight into the complex processes leading to ozone formation over Europe and consequently to the contribution of emissions to ozone concentrations. The prime objective of TROTREP is to evaluate, validate and predict the effectiveness of past and future EU air quality legislation with respect to ozone and its precursors. The project increases our knowledge on the extent to which abatement strategies implemented on European emissions will have an effect on ozone concentrations in Europe. TROTREP provides an integrated and strategic study of pollution abatement strategies and their effectiveness based on both measurements and models. TROTREP has a clear scientific and policy orientated role. The main outcome of the project is an analysis of the proportion of ozone in Europe controllable by further emission reductions and the development of a policy instrument to evaluate the success of emission reduction measures taken in the framework of national and EU policy.
Scientific objectives and approach
In order to evaluate, validate and predict the effectiveness of past and future EU air quality legislation with respect to ozone and its precursors an integrated measurement and modelling approach is being used. Particular areas being investigated include the trend analyses of ozone and precursor concentrations (chemical species associated with the formation and control of ozone) over the last 100 years in relation to changes in emissions. The shape, form and variability of seasonal cycles of ozone and its precursors, a proxy for changing atmospheric composition will be determined. The interrelationships of photochemistry, emissions, atmospheric circulation and land-use in controlling ozone and precursor trends/seasonal cycles will also be evaluated. The role and sensitivity of photochemistry to changing atmospheric composition will be addressed. In order to investigate the aspects of the controllable ozone problem, data taken from national and European monitoring networks are being coupled to intensive field data and models to build an integrated picture of the factors affecting the control of ozone and its precursors over Europe. Detailed and focussed analysis of the data is leading to a clear picture of the effectiveness of EU and national pollution abatement strategies and could lead to more effective monitoring strategies for atmospheric composition over Europe. To date, many of the EU and national abatement strategies have been formulated mainly on the basis of models. TROTREP is providing a careful observational verification of pollution abatement strategies to verify and supplement this approach in a holistic manner.
Expected impacts
The major impacts of this work will be a quantitative analysis of the proportion of ozone in Europe controllable by further emission reductions coupled to the development of a policy instrument to evaluate the success of emission reduction measures taken in the framework of EU policy.

Call for proposal

Data not available

Coordinator

UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER
EU contribution
No data
Total cost
No data

Participants (6)