Ozone episodes: latest news on the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme’s (EMEP) Intensive Measurement Period (IMP)

Update on the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme’s (EMEP) Intensive Measurement Period (IMP) on ozone episodes 

There is an identified need for a better understanding when it comes to tropospheric ozone. That is why the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme’s (EMEP) Intensive Measurement Period (IMP) is focusing on ozone episodes. Questions to be addressed by this campaign are:

  • Why are ozone episode levels typically underpredicted by atmospheric transport models?
  • How the reductions in NMVOC and NOx emissions impact on the summer episodes.
  • Better utilisation of EMEP VOC monitoring data
  • What is the effect of a warmer climate?
  • What is the level of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), especially from biogenic VOCs, during high O3 event?

The measurements took place from 12-19 July.  In total, 22 EMEP sites participated. 4 centralised labs then analysed the samples. Different substances and techniques are used:

  • Canister air sampler: non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJV) GmbH, Germany
  • DNPH cartridge: O-VOCs at the Institut Mines Télécom (IMT) Nord Europe, France
  • Tenax tubes: monoterpenes at Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Finland
  • SOA tracer analyses from part of EC/OC filters at the Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), CNRS, Grenoble, France

In autumn, the results will be compared. A new measurement period is planned for 2023 to collect additional data and further address identified gaps during the summer 2022 campaign.

ESIG, European Solvents Industry Group, is proud to sponsor part of this activity. This is a valuable contribution to the work of the Air Convention next to our solvents NMVOC inventories.

Learn more about ESIG’s contribution to improving air quality 

The main objective of the EMEP programme (Co-operative Programme for Monitoring and Evaluation of the Long-range Transmission of Air Pollutants in Europe) is to regularly provide governments and subsidiary bodies under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP) with qualified scientific information to support the development and further evaluation of the international protocols on emission reductions negotiated within the Convention.

The LRTAP Convention, signed in 1979, is one of the central means for protection of our environment. It establishes a broad framework for cooperative action on reducing the impact of air pollution and sets up a process for negotiating concrete measures to control emissions of air pollutants through legally binding protocols.

Initially, the EMEP programme focused on assessing the transboundary transport of acidification and eutrophication. Later, the scope of the programme widened to address the formation of ground-level ozone and, more recently, of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), heavy metals and particulate matter.

The EMEP programme relies on three main elements:

– collection of emission data

– measurements of air and precipitation quality

– modelling of atmospheric transport and deposition of air pollutions.

Through the combination of these three elements, EMEP fulfils its required assessment and regularly reports on emissions, concentrations and depositions of air pollutants, the quantity and significance of transboundary fluxes and related exceedances to critical loads and threshold levels. The combination of these components also provides a good basis for the evaluation and qualification of the EMEP estimates.

For more information https://www.emep.int/