GENEMIS: Generation of European Emission Data for Episodes

Summary

For the analysis of atmospheric processes and the application and evaluation of atmospheric models, reliable emission data with high temporal and spatial resolution are needed. Within the GENEMIS subproject, such data have been generated. To achieve a high temporal resolution, the processes that cause the emissions have been analysed, and parameters which can be used to describe the temporal variation of the underlying activities have been identified and used to describe the temporal course of the emissions. It was shown that strong variations of emissions with time occur. For example. emissions are approximately 30 % lower on weekend days than during working days. Also. the ratio between anthropogenic VOC and NO_x emissions is higher during the day than in the night. furthermore it is much higher in urban than in rural areas. Progress was also achieved in estimating NH₃ emissions and their temporal distribution. Another achievement is the development of methods for updating annual inventories. Know-how from national experts of several countries contributed to improve the database, especially for central and eastern Europe. In an experiment at the Gubrist tunnel in Switzerland, measurements of the concentrations of pollutants at the entrance and the exit of the tunnel were made to derive the emissions in the tunnel. The resulting emissions were compared to the calculated emissions. A good agreement between measurements and calculated emissions could be shown for gasoline cars.