Multiannual assessment of the desert dust impact on air quality in Italy combining PM10 data with physics-based and geostatistical models.

Desert dust storms pose real threats to air quality and health of millions of people in source regions, with associated impacts extending to downwind areas. Europe (EU) is frequently affected by atmospheric transport of desert dust from the Northern Africa and Middle East drylands. This investigation aims at quantifying the role of desert dust transport events on air quality (AQ) over Italy, which is among the EU countries most impacted by this phenomenon.

Impact of port emissions on EU-regulated and non-regulated air quality indicators: The case of Civitavecchia (Italy).

Current shipping activities employ about 3% of the world-delivered energy. Most of this energy is conveyed by diesel engines. In Europe, release of NO and particulate matter (PM) from shipping is expected to equal the road-transport one by the year 2020.

Satellite-based view of the aerosol spatial and temporal variability in the Córdoba region (Argentina) using over ten years of high-resolution data.

Space-based observations offer a unique opportunity to investigate the atmosphere and its changes over decadal time scales, particularly in regions lacking in situ and/or ground based observations. In this study, we investigate temporal and spatial variability of atmospheric particulate matter (aerosol) over the urban area of Córdoba (central Argentina) using over ten years (2003-2015) of high-resolution (1 km) satellite-based retrievals of aerosol optical depth (AOD). This fine resolution is achieved exploiting the capabilities of a recently developed inversion algorithm (Multiangle implementation of atmospheric correction, MAIAC) applied to the MODIS sensor datasets of the NASA-Terra and -Aqua platforms.

[Air pollution in an urban area nearby the Rome-Ciampino city airport].

Objectives: to assess air pollution spatial and temporal variability in the urban area nearby the Ciampino International Airport (Rome) and to investigate the airport-related emissions contribute.

Design And Setting: the study domain was a 64 km2 area around the airport. Two fifteen-day monitoring campaigns (late spring, winter) were carried out.

Study of atmospheric aerosols and mixing layer by LIDAR.

The LIDAR (laser radar) is an active remote sensing technique, which allows for the altitude-resolved observation of several atmospheric constituents. A typical application is the measurement of the vertically resolved aerosol optical properties. By using aerosol particles as a marker, continuous determination of the mixing layer height (MLH) can also be obtained by LIDAR.

Imaginary refractive-index effects on desert-aerosol extinction versus backscatter relationships at 351 nm: numerical computations and comparison with Raman lidar measurements.

A numerical model is used to investigate the dependence at 351 nm of desert-aerosol extinction and backscatter coefficients on particle imaginary refractive index (mi). Three ranges (-0.005 < or = mi < or = -0.