Cleaner air brings better views, more sunshine and warmer summer days in the Netherlands

Beelen, A. J. van; Delden, A.J. van

doi:10.1002/wea.854

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…11). Recovering visibility is also found at other Greek areas around the 1990s (Lianou et al, unpublished data), which is in line with visibility improvement in other European areas related to emissions reduction (Vautard et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2009). This last feature suggests that, during this period, local emissions might have a dominant role in the determination of visibility in Athens.…”

Section: Air Pollution and Urbanization Relations To Visibilitysupporting

confidence: 74%

“…A significant decrease in visibility was observed over Asia, South America, Australia andAfrica (1973-2007), while over Europe visibility increased after the 1980s as a result of air pollution mitigation measures. Vautard et al (2009) found a significant decrease in the frequency of low-visibility days in Europe after the 1980s, which is spatially and temporally correlated with SO 2 emissions. Stjern et al (2011) reported that emissions reduction from 1983 to 2008 in the heavily industrialized area of central Europe (the formerly called Black Triangle, named after the triangle of the meeting borders of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic) caused an increase in the horizontal visibility by 15 km, in contrast to the clean area where visibility increased by only 2.5 km.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

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Long-term visibility variation in Athens (1931–2013): a proxy for local and regional atmospheric aerosol loads

et al. 2016

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Abstract. This study explores the interdecadal variability and trends of surface horizontal visibility at the urban area of Athens from 1931 to 2013, using the historical archives of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA). A prominent deterioration of visibility in the city was detected, with the long-term linear trend amounting to −2.8 km decade−1 (p < 0.001), over the entire study period. This was not accompanied by any significant trend in relative humidity or precipitation over the same period. A slight recovery of visibility levels seems to be established in the recent decade (2004–2013). It was found that very good visibility (>  20 km) occurred at a frequency of 34 % before the 1950s, while this percentage drops to just 2 % during the decade 2004–2013. The rapid impairment of the visual air quality in Athens around the 1950s points to the increased levels of air pollution on a local and/or regional scale, related to high urbanization rates and/or increased anthropogenic emissions on a global scale at that period. Visibility was found to be negatively/positively correlated with relative humidity/wind speed, the correlation being statistically valid at certain periods. Wind regime and mainly wind direction and corresponding air mass origin were found to highly control visibility levels in Athens. The comparison of visibility variation in Athens and at a non-urban reference site on Crete island revealed similar negative trends over the common period of observations. This suggests that apart local sources, visibility in Athens is highly determined by aerosol load of regional origin. AVHRR and MODIS satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals over Athens and surface measurements of PM10 confirmed the relation of visibility to aerosol load.

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Section: Air Pollution and Urbanization Relations To Visibilitysupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Long-term visibility variation in Athens (1931–2013): a proxy for local and regional atmospheric aerosol loads

et al. 2016

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“…Second, atmospheric water vapor absorbs solar radiation in some bands and thus can affect SD, as I could fall below the threshold level [ Oguz et al ., ; Yang et al ., ; You et al ., ]. For example, Van Beelen and Van Delden [] found an increase in SD and a decrease in relative humidity (which can be related to the columnar water vapor content in the atmosphere) in Netherlands. Thus, the decline in humidity might have contributed to the clearing of the atmosphere, causing an increase in SD.…”

Section: Evidence Of Aerosol/turbidity Effects On Sunshine Duration Mmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SD is affected by atmospheric conditions, and consequently, it could serve as a proxy for atmospheric turbidity. Another proxy of atmospheric turbidity that has often been employed is visibility [ Wang et al ., ; Zheng et al ., ; Van Beelen and Van Delden , ]. The problem with visibility is, apart from being a magnitude even more subjective than SD, that few available long‐term series exist.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The signal of aerosol‐induced changes in sunshine duration records: A review of the evidence

et al. 2014

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Aerosols play a significant yet complex and central role in the Earth's radiation budget, and knowledge of long-term changes in the atmospheric turbidity induced by aerosols is therefore fundamental for a better understanding of climate change. However, there is little available information on changes in aerosol concentration in the atmosphere, especially prior to the 1980s. The present paper reviews publications reporting the suitability of sunshine duration records with regard to detecting changes in atmospheric aerosols. Some of the studies reviewed propose methods for estimating aerosol-related magnitudes, such as turbidity, from sunshine deficit at approximately sunrise and sunset, when the impact of aerosols on the solar beam is more easily observed. In addition, there is abundant evidence that one cause of the decadal changes observed in sunshine duration records involves variations in atmospheric aerosol loading. Possible directions for future research are also suggested: in particular, detailed studies of the burn (not only its length but also its width) registered by means of Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorders may provide a way of creating time series of atmospheric aerosol loading metrics dating back to over 120 years from the present.

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“…Consequently, visibility tends to decrease when air pollutant emissions increase, whereas it is the highest within nonpolluted, pristine atmospheres (Sloane, 1982). Visibility is also influenced by meteorological conditions, both in terms of local weather conditions and synoptic weather patterns (Davis, 1991;Sloane, 1983;Van Beelen and Van Delden, 2012), as they can limit or enhance the transport and dispersion of atmospheric aerosols (Founda et al, 2016). Moreover, they influence the aerosol sources and sinks: for example, wind speed promotes the re-suspension of dust particles, temperature and solar radiation trigger photochemistry and favour the production of secondary aerosols, while relative humidity influences aerosols size distribution (Van Beelen and Van Delden, 2012) through hygroscopic growth (Singh et al, 2017) and thus particle ability to diffuse visible light.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

1951–2017 changes in the frequency of days with visibility higher than 10 km and 20 km in Italy

Manara

Brunetti

Gilardoni

et al. 2019

Atmospheric Environment

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Daily visibility records of the Italian Air Force synoptic stations over the 1951-2017 period have been used to set up a monthly quality/homogeneity checked dataset of fraction of days with visibility higher than or equal to 10 km (fVV10) and 20 km (fVV20) at 12 UTC. This dataset has then been used to calculate regional average fVV10 and fVV20 records for 5 Italian climatic regions. The fVV10 and fVV20 averages show a strong spatial variability with the lowest values in the Po plain, one of the most polluted areas of Europe. In agreement with the results reported in literature for Europe, fVV10 and fVV20 show a positive trend over the whole considered period due to a strong increase starting in the 1980s. Differently, in the previous period, visibility decreases. Moreover, moving from low level areas to mid and high level ones the trends become much weaker, highlighting how the signal decreases with elevation. The analyses performed removing the days with high relative humidity or considering only the clear-sky days show that relative humidity and cloudiness do not have any effect on the observed trends, suggesting that the main driving factor is aerosol load. This hypothesis is supported by the comparison of visibility records with modelled aerosol concentrations, atmospheric optical depth values and emission records. Finally, the trends of fVV10 and fVV20 are in very good agreement with Italian regional records of other variables linked to atmospheric turbidity, like sunshine duration and surface solar radiation.

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Cleaner air brings better views, more sunshine and warmer summer days in the Netherlands

Cited by 9 publications

References 14 publications

Long-term visibility variation in Athens (1931–2013): a proxy for local and regional atmospheric aerosol loads

Long-term visibility variation in Athens (1931–2013): a proxy for local and regional atmospheric aerosol loads

The signal of aerosol‐induced changes in sunshine duration records: A review of the evidence

1951–2017 changes in the frequency of days with visibility higher than 10 km and 20 km in Italy

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Cleaner air brings better views, more sunshine and warmer summer days in the Netherlands

Cited by 9 publications

References 14 publications

Long-term visibility variation in Athens (1931–2013): a proxy for local and regional atmospheric aerosol loads

Long-term visibility variation in Athens (1931–2013): a proxy for local and regional atmospheric aerosol loads

The signal of aerosol‐induced changes in sunshine duration records: A review of the evidence

1951–2017 changes in the frequency of days with visibility higher than 10 km and 20 km in Italy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

1951–2017 changes in the frequency of days with visibility higher than 10 km and 20 km in Italy