Special Issue "Air Quality in Greece"

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 24 November 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Aikaterini Bougiatioti
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Environmental Research & Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, I. Metaxa & Vas. Pavlou, GR-15236 Palea Penteli, Greece
Interests: air quality; particulate matter; aerosol-cloud-climate interactions; cloud condensation nuclei; source apportionment; aerosol impact on climate & health
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Despina Paraskevopoulou
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Environmental Research & Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, I. Metaxa & Vas. Pavlou, P. Penteli (Lofos Koufou), 15236 Athens, Greece
Interests: atmospheric pollution; air quality; aerosol sources; aerosol chemical composition; oxidative potential; aerosol toxicity; aerosol impact on health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The atmospheric environment in which we live in, and in particular airborne particulate matter and atmospheric pollutants, are often related to a diverse range of environmental, health and climate impacts. While according to UN, world’s population life expectancy at birth has increased by 5.2 yr between 1990-95 and 2010-15, air pollution is responsible for large reductions in life expectancy as high as 5.5 yr, as recently estimated for China. In lieu to the above, during the recent decades Europe has made significant efforts to reduce the emissions of several air pollutants. Nevertheless, air quality remains an important issue, with high levels of particulate matter, ozone and other gaseous pollutants from local sources, further increased by long-range transport of pollution, and thus posing a supplementary challenge. For several European countries, observations show that less than 50% of the measured fine PM concentrations (PM2.5) come from the countries’ own emissions. Especially for Greece,various studies have shown that the atmosphere over the Aegean Sea in summer is mainly affected by the northern part of the Black Sea and Istanbul.

Especially during the last decade, due to the economic recession in Greece, primary and secondary precursor emissions have become altered and intensified, as residents have switched from fossil fuel combustion to the uncontrolled burning of wood and biomass for heating purposes, impacting gravely air quality all over Greece during wintertime. On the other hand, during summertime, extensive forest fires impact large areas in the mainland and the islands.

For this Special Issue we aim to compile publications presenting high-quality studies of in-situ, remote sensing, as well as modelling studies of ambient aerosol in Greece. Solicited contributions include, but are not limited, to studies on long-term variability in ambient air pollutants, specific pollution episodes, emissions and/or emission sources, transboundary, long-range transport of air pollutants impacting Greece, and behaviour of atmospheric pollutants in particular in the context of human health and exposure.

Dr. Aikaterini Bougiatioti
Dr. Despina Paraskevopoulou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • air quality
  • aerosol sources
  • seasonal variability
  • atmospheric observations
  • impacts on climate
  • impacts on health
  • atmospheric composition
  • aerosol acidity/toxicity

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Article
Changes in Power Plant NOx Emissions over Northwest Greece Using a Data Assimilation Technique
Atmosphere 2021, 12(7), 900; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12070900 - 13 Jul 2021
Viewed by 475
Abstract
In this work, we investigate the ability of a data assimilation technique and space-borne observations to quantify and monitor changes in nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions over Northwestern Greece for the summers of 2018 and 2019. In this region, four lignite-burning power [...] Read more.
In this work, we investigate the ability of a data assimilation technique and space-borne observations to quantify and monitor changes in nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions over Northwestern Greece for the summers of 2018 and 2019. In this region, four lignite-burning power plants are located. The data assimilation technique, based on the Ensemble Kalman Filter method, is employed to combine space-borne atmospheric observations from the high spatial resolution Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and simulations using the LOTOS-EUROS Chemical Transport model. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service-Regional European emissions (CAMS-REG, version 4.2) inventory based on the year 2015 is used as the a priori emissions in the simulations. Surface measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from air quality stations operating in the region are compared with the model surface NO2 output using either the a priori (base run) or the a posteriori (assimilated run) NOx emissions. Relative to the a priori emissions, the assimilation suggests a strong decrease in concentrations for the station located near the largest power plant, by 80% in 2019 and by 67% in 2018. Concerning the estimated annual a posteriori NOx emissions, it was found that, for the pixels hosting the two largest power plants, the assimilated run results in emissions decreased by ~40–50% for 2018 compared to 2015, whereas a larger decrease, of ~70% for both power plants, was found for 2019, after assimilating the space-born observations. For the same power plants, the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (E-PRTR) reports decreased emissions in 2018 and 2019 compared to 2015 (−35% and −38% in 2018, −62% and −72% in 2019), in good agreement with the estimated emissions. We further compare the a posteriori emissions to the reported energy production of the power plants during the summer of 2018 and 2019. Mean decreases of about −35% and−63% in NOx emissions are estimated for the two larger power plants in summer of 2018 and 2019, respectively, which are supported by similar decreases in the reported energy production of the power plants (~−30% and −70%, respectively). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Air Quality in Greece)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Changes in power plant NOx emissions over Northwest Greece using a data assimilation technique
Abstract: In this work, we investigate the ability of a data assimilation technique and space-borne observations to quantify and monitor changes in nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions over North-Western Greece for the summers of 2018 and 2019. In this region, four lignite-burning power plants are located. The data assimilation technique, based on the Ensemble Kalman Filter method, is employed to combine space-borne atmospheric observations from the high spatial resolution Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and simulations using the LOTOS-EUROS Chemical Transport model. Surface measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from air quality stations operating in the region are compared with the model output.

RESIDENTIAL HEATING IN GREECE: A detailed inventory of Energy Consumption and Emissions based on an extensive survey

Fameli Kyriaki - Maria, Papagiannaki Katerina and Kotroni Vassiliki

Abstract: The main use of energy in households is for space heating. Greece relies mainly on oil and biomass and secondarily on gas and electricity. It is very interesting though that the energy consumption profile for residential heating purposes has changed significantly the last decade in Greece in favour of biomass and gas consumption while oil consumption dropped significantly from 118.9 PJ in 2006 to 47.7 PJ in 2017.The main aim of the present work is to propose a methodology for the collection of detailed energy consumption data in local scale, with the help of an online survey, and the calculation of emissions from space heating. From the responses to the survey, local coefficients were developed for the spatial allocation of annual emissions in gridded form and in hourly scale in order to be used for applications with photochemical models. Survey's results revealed that the use of biomass burning as a main heating fuel is quite high at the colder areas, while it is popular as a secondary heating fuel at the urban areas. It was also found that the residential heating period in Greece lasts from October to April and it is even shorter at the southern Greece. In terms of emissions, CO and PM10 had the highest values since they are related to biomass burning from fireplaces. NOx emissions are mainly emitted by the oil burned in boilers.

Back to TopTop