Emissions

Emission inventories

Annual NO_x emissions across Europe

Emissions are a key input for any air quality/chemistry transport model. At TNO, a dedicated team of experts is working on quantification and spatial/temporal distribution of emissions, as input to air quality and climate modelling, but also as input to policy related studies at national or EU scale.

TNO's emissions team has developed its own spatially resolved emission inventory at high-resolution for the regional (European) scale which is widely used by modelers throughout Europe and beyond. The inventory is based to a large extent on the official country emissions as the European countries report these to the EU, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), and the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.

The standard emission inventory contains emissions for key air pollutants such as NO_x, SO₂, NMVOC, NH₃, CO and primary particulate matter (PM_2.5 and PM₁₀), and greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4). For details see Kuenen et al. (2014). TNO is the official supplier of the regional emission inventory in CAMS. For this purpose the standard inventory is currently developed further in and made available to CAMS at a resolution of 1/8^o x 1/16^o lon-lat (equivalent to around 7x7km over Europe).

Annual particulate organic carbon emissions from wood combustion across Europe including condensable material (Denier van der Gon et al., 2015).

TNO improves upon the standard inventory through scientific development of dedicated emission inventories or descriptions, e.g. for wood burning and road resuspension. Within TOPAS we use these scientific extensions. The most important one is without a doubt the update of the residential woodcombustion emissions including condensable material as presented by Denier van der Gon et al. (2015).

Current efforts focus (amongst others) on improving temporal resolution of emissions by developing improved time profiles and coupling with actual meteorology (e.g. for emissions from agriculture and from residential combustion).

Natural emissions

Emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds, sea salt and soil dust are modelled in LOTOS-EUROS using source parametrizations depending on meteorology, vegetation maps, salinity and soil conditions.

Emission estimates emissions of aerosols, chemical species, and greenhouse gases from wild fires are taken on a daily basis from CAMS.