GAW Report No. 205 - IGAC Project

CHAPTER 6 - EUROPEconcentrations have remained stable at 0.037-0.036 mg/m 3 in areas away from highways, wherethe major sources of pollution are due to long-range atmospheric transport and soil dust fromneighbourhoods. Close to major highways a slight (within 6%) but steady annual increase in themaximum observed annual average concentrations of PM 10 (0.045 mg/m 3 in 2004, 0.046 mg/m 3 in2005, and 0.049 mg/m 3 in 2006) is observed. Since 2006 a trend of slow but steady decrease inNO 2 pollution has been observed, but the average concentration is still very high (1.1 national TLVfor the central part and 0.8 TLV – for peripheral residential areas). The average concentration ofground-level O 3 , which is linked strongly to meteorological conditions, varies substantially over theyears, from a minimum of 0.6 mg/m 3 (2004) up to a maximum of 1.5 mg/m 3 (2002).The CO 2 concentration in Moscow is measured at 3 stations situated within residentialareas as well as on the TV tower Ostankino. The mean annual CO 2 mixing ratio in the surface airvaries from 423 to 451 ppm and does not exceed the EC norms. Vertical profiles CO 2 measured atthe TV tower give the following average values: at 130 m – 390 ppm; at 250 m – 400 ppm; and at350 m – 370 ppm. The main cause of maximum at 250 m could be hot air (with CO 2 ) emissionsfrom smokestacks of the city’s power plants.6.4.4 Field campaigns in MoscowThe Moscow air quality monitoring system started in 1996 by the decision of theGovernment of Moscow. Over the years the system is continually evolving and improving. At thepresent time it includes a network of 28 automatic stations and 2 mobile laboratories that measure18 priority pollutants. Near real time monitoring data is transferred to a joint information-analyticalcentre of «Mosekomonitoring».In March of 1998, the Moscow government, the Fund Programme Management Branch ofUNEP, the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), and the Centre for International Projects(CIP) signed an agreement to carry out the Moscow sustainable cities project in the framework ofthe world Sustainable Cities Programme (SCP). The Moscow sustainable cities project was aimedat conducting municipal, national, and international activities in the framework of the SCP andpreparing and publishing the local options of the Habitat agenda for Moscow [Ginzburg, 2000].The Moscow government initiated in 2000 a WMO GURME Pilot Project on “MeteorologicalServicing for Sustainable Development of the Moscow Megalopolis” [Vasiliev and Liakhov, 2000].The project focused on atmospheric pollution and urban meteorology and in particular the urbanheat island (UHI) effect measured by microwave remote sensing data [Kuznetsova et al., 2004].Continuous temperature observations in the PBL provided unique data to investigate spatial andtemporal features of temperature fields over the Moscow megalopolis. The results showed that overthe Moscow megalopolis, meteorological conditions are more favourable for self-cleaning of air thenin suburban areas. Temperature inversions block vertical exchange of air in the Moscowmegalopolis less often then in suburban areas and they are less powerful. There are twoseasonally-varying types of UHI over the megalopolis: (i) the high dome (up to 600 m) and (ii) lowdome (up to 200-300 m).One of the most interesting field campaigns was on the long-term transport of megacityplumes and observations of the atmospheric composition over Russia. This field campaign beganin 1995 and is called “TROICA” (TRans-Siberian Observations Into the Chemistry of theAtmosphere). Long-range transport is monitored using the TROICA mobile observatory, which isimplemented in a wagon in the trans-siberian railway train [Elansky, 2006]. Scientists from acrossthe world joined forces in a number of TROICA measurement field campaigns to gather thenecessary information for better understanding the chemistry of the atmosphere [Crutzen et al.,1998]. The TROICA campaigns have been carried out over different regions of Russia, includingsampling urban atmospheric pollution in Moscow and in other large Russian cities. In addition toprimary pollutants, greenhouse gases, and volatile organic compounds, the chemical compositionand characteristics of different aerosols in size bins ranging from 0.4 to 1000 nm were alsomeasured. The results will help understand the scale of possible urban pollution effects fromRussian megacities like Moscow, Novosibirsk, and Omsk. Several further research organizationsare also doing field research and studies of Moscow air pollution, including IFA RAS, Geographical213