A suggested correction to the EMEP database, regarding the location of a major industrial air pollution source in Kola Peninsula

Abstract

For tracing the sources of aerosol fractions measured in the campaign at Värriö, Finnish Lapland, spring 2003, the SILAM model was applied in two modes: (1) inverse (adjoint) run, with measured aerosol concentrations as the sensitivity source function; and (2) forward run with EMEP database of sulphur dioxide and particulate matter emissions. One of coarse aerosol (0.1–10 µm) peaks resulted in total aerosol concentration exceeding 20 µg/m3 that is very high for polar latitudes. The inverse model for that peak points at the border area between Russia and Norway, but forward run failed to reproduce it. It was found that the well-known metal industries of Apatity-Kirovsk and Monchegorsk, Kola Peninsula, Russia, are represented adequately in EMEP database, but no significant emissions were found at the site of Nikel (a major metal smelting industry), 7 km from the border with Norway. Very high emissions were originated from about 100 km to the east instead. Then the database used to run SILAM was corrected on the basis of satellite images of the region. When running the SILAM model using the revised database, the agreement of measured and modelled peak concentrations was substantially better. A proposal for database correction is made to EMEP. The correction is supposed to improve the quality of air pollution transport calculations.