An experimental study focused on the urban-breeze circulation observed in Toulouse, South-West of France, during the Intensive Observation Period number 5 (IOP5, 3rd and 4th July 2004) of the CAPITOUL experiment (Feb. 2004 to Feb. 2005) is presented. The influence of the urban breeze circulation on the structure and the dynamics of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer is analysed by using ground stations, wind profilers (UHF radar), radio soundings and aircraft data. The IOP5 is a summertime anticyclonic situation with low wind, strong insulation and a deep boundary layer with a sheared wind profile.

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Urban-breeze circulation during the CAPITOUL experiment: observational data analysis approach

In-situ sodar and lidar measurements were coupled with numerical simulations for studying a sea-breeze event in a flat coastal area of the North Sea. The study's aims included the recognition of the dynamics of a sea-breeze structure, and its effects on the lower troposphere stratification and the three-dimensional (3D) pollutant distribution. A sea breeze was observed with ground-based remote sensing instruments and analysed by means of numerical simulations using the 3D non-hydrostatic atmospheric model Meso-NH. The vertical structure of the lower troposphere was experimentally determined from the lidar and sodar measurements, while numerical simulations focused on the propagation of the sea breeze inland. The sea-breeze front, the headwind, the thermal internal boundary layer, the gravity current and the sea-breeze circulation were observed and analysed. The development of a late stratification was also observed by the lidar and simulated by the model, suggesting the formation of a stable multilayered structure. The transport of passive tracers inside the sea breeze and their redistribution above the gravity current was simulated too. Numerical modelling showed that local pollutants may travel backward to the sea above the gravity current at relatively low speed due to the shearing between the landward gravity current and the seaward synoptic wind. Such dynamic conditions may enhance an accumulation of pollutants above coastal industrial areas.

Impact of a sea breeze on the boundary-layer dynamics and the atmospheric stratification in a coastal area of the North Sea

In the French Mediterranean basin the large city of Marseille and its industrialized suburbs (oil plants in the Fos-Berre area) are major pollutant sources that cause frequent and hazardous pollution episodes, especially in summer when intense solar heating enhances the photochemical activity and when the sea breeze circulation redistributes pollutants farther north in the countryside. This paper summarizes the findings of 5 years of research on the sea breeze in southern France and related mesoscale transport and dilution of pollutants within the Field Experiment to Constraint Models of Atmospheric Pollution and Emissions Transport (ESCOMPTE) program held in June and July 2001. This paper provides an overview of the experimental and numerical challenges identified before the ESCOMPTE field experiment and summarizes the key findings made in observation, simulation, and theory. We specifically address the role of large-scale atmospheric circulation to local ozone vertical distribution and the mesoscale processes driving horizontal advection of pollutants and vertical transport and mixing via entrainment at the top of the sea breeze or at the front and venting along the sloped terrain. The crucial importance of the interactions between processes of various spatial and temporal scales is thus highlighted. The advances in numerical modeling and forecasting of sea breeze events and ozone pollution episodes in southern France are also underlined. Finally, we conclude and point out some open research questions needing further investigation.

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Regional transport and dilution during high-pollution episodes in southern France: Summary of findings from the Field Experiment to Constraint Models of Atmospheric Pollution and Emissions Transport (ESCOMPTE)

PM10 air quality variations in an urbanized and industrialized harbor

Elemental and organic carbon in aerosols over urbanized coastal region (southern Baltic Sea, Gdynia).

. The international ESCOMPTE campaign, which took place in summer 2001 in the most highly polluted French region, was devoted to validate air pollution prediction models. Surface and remote sensing instruments (Lidar, Radar and Sodar) were deployed over the Marseille area, along the Mediterranean coast, in order to investigate the fine structure of the sea-breeze circulation and its relationship with the pollutant concentrations. The geographical situation of the Marseille region combines a complex coastline and relief which both lead to a peculiar behaviour of the sea-breeze circulation. Several local sea breezes, perpendicular to the nearest coastline, settled in during the morning. In the afternoons, when the thermal gradient between the continental and marine surface grows up, a southerly or a westerly sea breeze may dominate. Their respective importance is then a function of time, space and altitude. Furthermore, an oscillation of the westerly sea breeze with a period of about 3 h is also highlighted. We show that these dynamical characteristics have profound influences on the atmospheric boundary-layer (ABL) development and on pollutant concentrations. In fact, the direction and intensity of the sea-breeze determine the route and the transit time of the stable marine air flow over the continental surface. Thus, the ABL depth may exhibit several collapses correlated with the westerly sea-breeze pulsation. The ozone and aerosol concentrations are also related to the dynamical features. In the suburbs and parts of the city under pulsed sea breezes, a higher ABL depth and higher ozone concentrations are observed. In the city centre, this relationship between pulsed sea-breeze intensity and ozone concentration is different, emphasising the importance of the transit time and also the build-up of pollutants in the marine air mass along the route. Finally, the variations of aerosol concentration are also described according to the breeze direction.

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T. Lombardo

Papers

Investigation of local meteorological events and their relationship with ozone and aerosols during an ESCOMPTE photochemical episode