Comparison of ammonia air concentration before and during the spread of COVID-19 in Lombardy (Italy) using ground-based and satellite data

Lovarelli, Daniela; Fugazza, Davide; Costantini, Michele; Conti, Cecilia; Diolaiuti, Guglielmina; Guarino, Marcella

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118534

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…These comparison results indicate correlation slopes between 0.74 and 1.47 for ammonia levels below 10 ppb and slopes between 0.64 and 1.37 for ammonia levels up to 100 ppb [4]. The observations of this paper are therefore consistent with the usual concentration gradients according to the type of site: rural under agricultural influence > urban > clean/remote [24,25]. The urban concentrations are more than four times higher compared to the annual limit for the protection of sensitive vegetation defined as 1 µg/m 3 and higher compared to the annual limit for the protection of total vegetation (3 µg/m 3 ), illustrating another environmental issue [34].…”

Section: Variations Of Ammonia Concentrationssupporting

confidence: 85%

“…The annual ammonia averages at the background site and the average concentrations measured during the campaign at the two studied urban sites are like the levels usually found in the literature for urban sites (1-10 µg/m 3 ) [23][24][25][26][27], particularly levels found in other French studies [28][29][30]. These levels are two to three times higher than the ubiquitous concentrations (0.4-2.1 µg/m 3 ) [31][32][33] or the "clean" sites defined as sites far from known sources (below 1 µg/m 3 ) [24,29], confirming the influence of ammonia sources in urban areas.…”

Section: Variations Of Ammonia Concentrationsmentioning

confidence: 54%

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Road Traffic and Its Influence on Urban Ammonia Concentrations (France)

Chatain

Chretien

Crunaire³

et al. 2022

Atmosphere

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Ammonia (NH3) is an unregulated atmospheric gaseous pollutant in ambient air, involved in the formation of fine particles. Ammonia is therefore a major precursor of particulate matter (PM), the health effects of which have been widely demonstrated. NH3 emissions are clearly dominated by the agricultural sector (livestock and fertilizers), but other sources may also be important and less studied, such as road traffic with the increased use of catalytic converters in vehicles. This study is based on a long-term real-time measurements campaign (December 2019–September 2021) on two urban sites: a background site and a roadside site in the same agglomeration in France. The study of historical measurements at the background site clearly demonstrated the dominance of agriculture on the ammonia concentrations. This influence was also observed at both sites during the measurement campaign. The annual and monthly averages obtained in the study were similar to previous ones, with concentrations between 1–10 µg/m3 at both sites, indicating lower levels than previous studies for the roadside site. The ammonia levels measured during the campaign at the traffic site were significantly higher than those measured at the background site, highlighting the road traffic influence on ammonia in urban area. The biomass burning influence also seemed to be observed during this long measurement campaign at the agglomeration scale. The influences of road traffic and biomass burning on ammonia concentration remain small compared to agriculture.

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Section: Variations Of Ammonia Concentrationssupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Variations Of Ammonia Concentrationsmentioning

confidence: 54%

Road Traffic and Its Influence on Urban Ammonia Concentrations (France)

Chatain

Chretien

Crunaire³

et al. 2022

Atmosphere

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“…For example, Lovarelli et al 53 concluded that contrary to other air pollutants, ammonia was not reduced when the anti-COVID-19 measures were introduced in North Italy, as agricultural activity, which is the main emissive source of this pollutant, was not interrupted. They further report that urban and rural ammonia was the highest compared to previous years during the same months for which the strictest lockdown took place (i.e., spring 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the lockdown period over Europe, transport and industrial activities mostly stopped, and consequently the related emissions also decreased. The consequent reduction of other air pollutants, such as sulfuric acid and nitric acid, with which ammonia combines to form secondary inorganic aerosol, likely contributed to binding less ammonia and probably led to nd more ammonia in its free form 53 (see also Fig. 1 and Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

NH3 emissions over Europe during COVID-19 were modulated by changes in atmospheric chemistry.

Tichý

Otervik

Eckhardt

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The coronavirus outbreak in 2020 had devastating impact on human life, albeit a positive effect for the environment reducing primary atmospheric constituents and improving air quality. Here we present for the first-time inverse modelling estimates of ammonia emissions during the European lockdowns based on satellite observations. Ammonia that originates mainly from agriculture is not projected to be strongly influenced by restrictions, as practically agricultural activity never ceased. The key result is a -1.5% decrease in emissions in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2016–2019 attributed to changes in ammonia’s atmospheric levels and an abrupt − 11.7% decrease due to reductions in the traffic-related precursors of atmospheric acids, with which ammonia reacts to form secondary aerosols. The same was found when comparing emissions before, during and after lockdowns, namely a -1.2% and − 13.5% decrease, and a rebound of + 5.9% when restrictions were relaxed. Despite the drop in emissions, satellite levels of ammonia increased. On one hand, this was due to the reduction of atmospheric acids that caused binding less ammonia; on the other, the reduction of traffic emissions in Europe increased the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere resulting in nitrate abatement that favored accumulation of free ammonia.

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“…In fact, this event constituted a natural experiment of historical magnitude that enabled researchers to quantify on a global scale the effects of potential reductions or minimization of human activities on the air pollution. The literature on the subject is very wide, but consider for example the reports of ARPA Lombardia [52] or scientific contributions such as [8,11,[53][54][55][56].…”

Section: Emission Inventory For Lombardymentioning

confidence: 99%

Air Quality in Lombardy, Italy: An Overview of the Environmental Monitoring System of ARPA Lombardia

Maranzano

2022

Earth

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In this paper, we describe the structure and the features of the air quality and meteorological monitoring system adopted in the Lombardy region in Northern Italy. We are interested in describing which data the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (ARPA Lombardia) must collect, how this process takes place and how they are disseminated to the public for institutional communication and research purposes. ARPA monitors the atmospheric conditions through a dense ground monitoring network composed mainly by permanent stations, but also by mobile samplers. We describe in a detailed fashion the structure of the network: how many stations the network consists of, their locations, which pollutants and weather events are monitored and with what frequency. Our main objective is to present to an international audience the case study of ARPA Lombardia and the main available public data, explicitly stating the sources of information and how to find them, and encouraging international researchers to deal with the subject. In spite of the significant and extensive efforts made to counteract the phenomenon of air pollution, the air quality recorded in the region is very poor, and the local authorities are struggling to comply with international regulations on the concentration of pollutants in the air, making Lombardy a relevant international case. In addition, we present in a synthetic and descriptive way, without any modeling ambition, some data observed in the last years in Lombardy regarding meteorology and the main pollutants (oxides and particulate matters). The empirical descriptive results have been obtained by analyzing sample data provided by ARPA Lombardia through the same sources described in the sections dedicated to the Agency. From the graphical analysis, it is noticeable that at aggregate (regional) level, the concentrations are affected by significant decreasing trends, but at a rather contained speed. This is particularly true for the concentrations of oxides (NO2 and NOX) in urban and industrial areas. However, particulate matters and ozone show a high persistence in the average concentrations, interrupted only by the alternation of climatic seasons. The data also show that the meteorology of the region does not seem favorable for the improvement of air quality, as the region is characterized by low precipitation, and wind almost everywhere is not very intense. This situation could be induced by the unfavorable geography of the area, which prevents adequate air recycling and facilitates the stagnation of pollutants. We suggest that any public policy intervention aimed at improving the air quality situation in the region should take into account this empirical evidence in the impact assessment phase.

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Comparison of ammonia air concentration before and during the spread of COVID-19 in Lombardy (Italy) using ground-based and satellite data

Cited by 15 publications

References 36 publications

Road Traffic and Its Influence on Urban Ammonia Concentrations (France)

Road Traffic and Its Influence on Urban Ammonia Concentrations (France)

NH3 emissions over Europe during COVID-19 were modulated by changes in atmospheric chemistry.

Air Quality in Lombardy, Italy: An Overview of the Environmental Monitoring System of ARPA Lombardia

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