Exploring the seasonal NMHC distribution in an urban area of the Middle East during ECOCEM campaigns: very high loadings dominated by local emissions and dynamics
Thérèse Salameh A B F , Stéphane Sauvage A , Charbel Afif B , Agnès Borbon C , Thierry Léonardis A , Jérôme Brioude D E , Antoine Waked B and Nadine Locoge A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Mines Douai, Sciences de l’Atmosphère et Génie de l’Environnement (SAGE), 941 rue Charles Bourseul, F-59508 Douai Cedex, France.
B Unité Environnement, Génomique Fonctionnelle et Études Mathématiques, Centre d’Analyses et de Recherche, Faculty of Sciences, Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon.
C Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA), Institute Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), UMR 7583, University of Paris Est Créteil (UPEC) and Paris Diderot (UPD), 61 avenue du Général de Gaulle, F-94000 Créteil, France.
D Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
E National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO 80305, USA.
F Corresponding author. Present address: LISA, IPSL, CNRS, UMR 7583, UPEC and UPD, 61 avenue du Général de Gaulle, F-94000 Créteil, France. Email: therese.salameh@lisa.u-pec.fr
Environmental Chemistry 12(3) 316-328 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN14154
Submitted: 18 August 2014 Accepted: 23 December 2014 Published: 1 April 2015
Environmental context. Non-methane hydrocarbons play an important role in the formation of photochemical oxidants such as ozone. We investigate factors controlling the distribution of non-methane hydrocarbons in an urban area of the Middle East. The study highlights the importance of local emissions and atmospheric dynamics, and the limited effect of photochemistry at the measurement site.
Abstract. Measurements of over 70 C2-C16 non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) were conducted in suburban Beirut (1.3 million inhabitants) in summer 2011 and winter 2012 during the Emission and Chemistry of Organic Carbon in the East Mediterranean (ECOCEM) field campaign. The levels of NMHCs observed exceeded by a factor of two in total volume the levels found in northern mid-latitude megacities (Paris and Los Angeles), especially for the unburned fossil fuel fraction. Regardless of the season, the major compounds, explaining 50 % of the concentrations, were toluene, isopentane, butane, m,p-xylenes, propane and ethylene, emitted by mobile traffic and gasoline evaporation sources. Most NMHCs show a distinct seasonal cycle, with a summer maximum and a winter minimum, unlike seasonal cycles usually observed in the northern mid-latitude urban areas. We show that NMHC distribution is mainly driven by strong local emissions and local atmospheric dynamics, with no clear evidence of photochemical removal in summer or influence from long-range transport.
Additional keywords: C2–C16 NMHCs, gasoline evaporation, vehicle exhaust, VOC urban emissions.
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