Papers by P. Jiménez-guerrero
Science of The Total Environment, 2009
The mitigation of the effects of on-road traffic emissions on urban air pollution is currently an... more The mitigation of the effects of on-road traffic emissions on urban air pollution is currently an environmental challenge. Air quality modeling has become a powerful tool to design environment-related strategies. A wide range of options is being proposed; such as the introduction of natural gas vehicles (NGV), biofuels or hydrogen vehicles. The impacts on air quality of introducing specific NGV fleets in Barcelona and Madrid (Spain) are assessed by means of the WRF-ARW/HERMES/CMAQ modeling system with high spatial-temporal resolution (1 km(2), 1 h). Seven emissions scenarios are defined taking into account the year 2004 vehicle fleet composition of the study areas and groups of vehicles susceptible of change under a realistic perspective. O(3) average concentration rises up to 1.3% in Barcelona and up to 2.5% in Madrid when introducing the emissions scenarios, due to the NO(x) reduction in VOC-controlled areas. Nevertheless, NO(2), PM10 and SO(2) average concentrations decrease, up to 6.1%, 1.5% and 6.6% in Barcelona and up to 20.6%, 8.7% and 14.9% in Madrid, respectively. Concerning SO(2) and PM10 reductions the most effective single scenario is the introduction of 50% of NGV instead of the oldest commercial vehicles; it also reduces NO(2) concentrations in Barcelona, however in Madrid lower levels are attained when substituting 10% of the private cars. This work introduces the WRF-ARW/HERMES/CMAQ modeling system as a useful management tool and proves that the air quality improvement plans must be designed considering the local characteristics.
Atmospheric Environment, 2012
Environmental Technology, 2011
Pesticides have been responsible for strong environmental impacts, mainly due to their persistenc... more Pesticides have been responsible for strong environmental impacts, mainly due to their persistence in the environment. Removal technologies are usually combined, because degradation of organic matter is needed prior to a tertiary treatment to guarantee pesticides elimination to levels below legal limits (normally 0.1 microg L(-1)). Pine bark was studied as an alternative to activated carbon, for organochlorine pesticides removal. A combination of technologies based on biodegradation with activated sludge followed by pine bark adsorption treatment was used for lindane (LIN) and heptachlor (HEP) removal from contaminated waters. Pesticides were quantified throughout the process by GC-ECD preceded by solid-phase microextraction (SPME). An experimental set-up was maintained for 4 months, by feeding a standard solution with pesticides concentration of 1 microg L(-1) each and known organic matter (Chemical Oxygen Demand, COD, -563 mg O2 L(-1)) on a daily basis. COD suffered a reduction of about 81% in the biological step and no increase was detected in the subsequent adsorption treatment. Overall removal efficiency was 76.6% and above 77.7% for LIN and HEP, respectively.
Atmospheric Environment, 2011
Emissions of resuspensed particles from paved roads (RPR) have received an increasing attention i... more Emissions of resuspensed particles from paved roads (RPR) have received an increasing attention in air quality modeling, since chemistry transport models are generally unable to reproduce particulate levels near road traffic. However, among the models operated in the forecasting mode in Europe, there is a lack of systems including the contribution of RPR on an hourly basis. Therefore, this contribution describes the inclusion of the resuspension of particulate matter within HERMES emission model (operationally implemented in the CALIOPE forecasting system) and the improvements obtained in the simulations of the PM10 mass over a domain covering Spain for a whole year of simulation (2004). The results indicate a remarkable improvement of the PM10 predictions, reducing the biases and errors around 15-18% and 2.6 µg m-3 for the average bias in all Spain. The RPR emission have strong local effects on the modeled particle concentration in or near the largest urban zones (up to 7 µg m-3 as the annual average), albeit those positive effects are more limited in background areas, since the deposition mechanism was found to be a significant sink for RPR in the chemistry transport model. This approach is accurate and effective in order to improve the prediction of the PM10 mass and becomes essential to achieve the standards set in the regulations for modelling applications.
Contribution of atmospheric processes affecting the dynamics of air pollution in South-Western Eu... more Contribution of atmospheric processes affecting the dynamics of air pollution in South-Western Europe during a typical summertime photochemical episode
Caliope: an operational air quality forecasting system for
Geophysical Research Letters, 2017
This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been th... more This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as
Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2015
This study aimed to contribute to the enhancement of the knowledge of levels, trends and behaviou... more This study aimed to contribute to the enhancement of the knowledge of levels, trends and behaviour of eight siloxanes (four linear and four cyclic) in the environment. Adding to the prioritised scrutiny of the incidence in the atmosphere through passive samplers (sorbentimpregnated polyurethane foam disks-SIPs), the sampling of pine needles and soil was also performed, thus closing the circle of atmospheric exposure in the areas of study. Two sampling campaigns (one in summer and one in winter) were done in a total of eight sampling points in the Portuguese territory, which covered a wide range of human presence and land uses (urban, industrial, remote and beach areas). By adopting a "green" approach in terms of analytical methods, namely reducing the clean-up steps for the passive air samples and using the quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe (QuEChERS) technology for soils and pine needles, the results showed total concentration of siloxanes between 5 and 70 ng g −1 (dry weight) for soils and from 2 to 118 ng g −1 (dry weight (dw)) for pine needles, with no clear seasonal trend. For SIPs, the levels varied from 0.6 to 7.8 ng m −3 and were higher in summer than in winter in all sites. Overall, the cyclic siloxanes were found in much higher concentrations, with D5 and D6 being the most predominant in a great majority of cases. Also, the urban and industrial areas had the highest incidence, suggesting a strong anthropogenic fingerprint, in line with their main uses.
Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2015
This paper proposes a method that allows the detection of trends in the frequency of extreme even... more This paper proposes a method that allows the detection of trends in the frequency of extreme events and its attribution to changes in atmospheric dynamics characterized through Circulation Types (CTs). The method is applied to summer Extremely Hot Days (EHD) in Spain during the period 1958–2008. For carrying out this exercise, regional series of daily maximum temperature are derived from the regional dataset Spain02. Eight regions with different daily maximum temperature variability are identified. All of them exhibit important trends in the occurrence of EHDs, especially in inner regions. Links between the probability of EHD occurrence in the regions and CTs have been calculated. Furthermore, the consistency of the results to the atmospheric variables used in defining the CTs is analyzed. Sea Level Pressure (SLP), Temperature at 850 hPa Level (T850) and Geopotential Height at 500 hPa Level (Z500) from the ERA40 dataset have been used for the six CT classifications obtained using th...
ABSTRACT Para comprender el clima del futuro debemos antes estudiar y comprender el del pasado. E... more ABSTRACT Para comprender el clima del futuro debemos antes estudiar y comprender el del pasado. Esa es la misión de la ciencia paleoclimática. Utilizando modelos de simulación paleoclimática regionales nos hemos centrado en estudiar el parámetro del viento simulado en la Península Ibérica durante prácticamente todo el último milenio (1002-1989) para hallar si existe alguna relación con el forzamiento radiativo, habiendo obtenido una relación indirecta a través de la temperatura, más marcada en verano. Igualmente, se compararon los vientos medios en el periodo de estudio con los patrones de viento real actuales, obteniendo una adecuada representación de la climatología del viento. Se hallaron las correlaciones temporales entre el módulo y las componentes u y v del viento para dos experimentos (ERIK1 y ERIK2) durante el periodo a estudiar, empezando cada uno de ellos desde un estado del clima diferente (más frío en ERIK2). Finalmente, para atribuir distintas causas en virtud de la relación de ambos experimentos a través del forzamiento radiativo, se halló la diferencia de medias de viento entre un periodo cálido (1100-1200) y otro frío (1700-1800), obteniendo un reforzamiento de los fenómenos de depresión térmica peninsular y depresión térmica norteafricana.
NATO Science for Peace and Security Series
Air quality modelling involves a strategy to manage air pollution in large cities, where air qual... more Air quality modelling involves a strategy to manage air pollution in large cities, where air quality problems presently are mainly related to on-road traffic. Nowadays, one of the strategies to reduce emissions is based on the substitution of vehicles by introducing new technologies (e.g. cleaner fuels, hybrid vehicles, fuel cells, etc.). This work assesses the variation on air quality due
This paper proposes a method that allows the detection of trends in the frequency of extreme even... more This paper proposes a method that allows the detection of trends in the frequency of extreme events and its attribution to changes in atmospheric dynamics characterized through Circulation Types (CTs). The method is applied to summer Extremely Hot Days (EHD) in Spain during the period 1958-2008. For carrying out this exercise, regional series of daily maximum temperature are derived from the regional dataset Spain02. Eight regions with different daily maximum temperature variability are identified. All of them exhibit important trends in the occurrence of EHDs, especially in inner regions. Links between the probability of EHD occurrence in the regions and CTs have been calculated. Furthermore, the consistency of the results to the atmospheric variables used in defining the CTs is analyzed. Sea Level Pressure (SLP), Temperature at 850 hPa Level (T850) and Geopotential Height at 500 hPa Level (Z500) from the ERA40 dataset have been used for the six CT classifications obtained using the variables separately and in different combinations of pairs. The optimum choice of large scale variables depends on the region under consideration, being the combination SLP-T850 the one giving the most suitable characterization for most of them. Finally, an attribution exercise of the regional EHD trends to the dynamics is proposed. Results show that the maximum of attributable EHD trends to changes in dynamics in every region is always below 50 %, being even lower than 20 % in those regions with the largest EHD trends, mainly located in the center of the Iberian Peninsula (IP).
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Papers by P. Jiménez-guerrero