Radon as an atmospheric tracer in urban environments
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Date
2016-11-16
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Climate Science Centre, Melbourne
Abstract
We demonstrate the multiple uses of radon as a tracer to explain observed diurnal characteristics of air pollution levels in a small inland European city (Bern, Switzerland), and to separate the influences of: local emissions within the city area; vertical dilution by boundary layer mixing; and horizontal advection of cleaner air from outside the city. This is accomplished by: (i) characterising the temporal variability in traffic density, radon, benzene and CO emissions at Bern city centre on diurnal and seasonal timescales; (ii) adapting a radon‐based stability technique developed by Chambers et al. (2015) to make it independent of seasonal changes in day length and radon source function; (iii) characterising the combined influence of traffic density and meteorological conditions on benzene and CO concentrations in Bern; and (iv) utilising the diurnal radon signal, together with an idealised box model incorporating a simple advection term, to remove the combined effects of local horizontal advection and atmospheric dilution. This allows us to seek an accurate relationship between traffic density and pollutant emissions in this compact inland city. © 2016 The Authors
Description
Keywords
Radon, Tracer techniques, Air pollution, Switzerland, Air pollution monitoring, Benzene, Carbon dioxide
Citation
Williams, A. G., Chambers, S. D. Griffiths, A. D., Crawford, J., Conen, F., Reimann, S., & Hill, M. (2016). Radon as an atmospheric tracer in urban environments. Paper presented at the Atmospheric Composition & Chemistry Observations & Modelling Conference incorporating the Cape Grim Annual Science Meeting 2016 [abstracts], 16‐18 November 2016, Stanley, Tasmania.