The EU, national, regional and local air quality policies from the last decades succeeded in the abatement of PM levels all across Europe.
This was due mostly to abatement of SOx, NOx and primary PM emissions, and accordingly the secondary organic (SOA) relative load of PM might have (and it is expected to) increase. This might also be enhanced by the .O3 urban levels increase undergone in the last two decades, the high SOA formation potential of the new SUV gasoline cars, and the increase of domestic biomass burning (BB) and the large agricultural NH3 and BB emissions. This is a complex scenario where approaching current PM2.5 and PM10 levels to the WHO Air Quality Guidelines and to properly addressing the climate effects of PM are difficult. CAIAC intends providing scientific evidences on the 2002-2018 compositional PM trends (with major focus on SOA, but also other PM components), on the origin of the different PM components, the reactions and processes involved in the generation of secondary PM constituents, especially SOA, on their potential
health effects, and on understanding the origin of black carbon (BC), brown carbon (BrC) and SOA having a major effect on optical properties of PM and how these might change as a function of their size, composition, origin and mixing state. To reach these objectives we will focus in NE Spain, where trends of PMx are kept constant in the last decade. Accordingly, the specific objectives of the present proposal:
i) Estimating the effect of the air pollution policies on 2002-2018 PM levels and composition, including BC, organic aerosols (OA), SOA, and OA/other components. To be achieved by studying the compositional trends of PM2.5 at a regional and an urban background monitoring sites in NE Spain, the current origin (sources and processes) and source apportionment to OA, SOA, primary OA (POA), BC and other PM2.5 and PM1 components, using conventional off line organic and inorganic analysis, 14C analysis, and ACSMs and aethalometres.
ii) To investigate the SOA-VOC-NOy-O3 system in NE Spain, an area characterised by frequent exceedances of O3.
iii) To determine the health effects of the PM sources, including OA sources and types, and metals. This implies to determine the oxidative stress of the SOA, hydrogenated OA (H-OA), BB-OA and any other potential OA sources/types identified, and metals; and their associations with daily mortality.
iv) To determine the scattering and absorption efficiencies of OA (SOA and POA) with special focus on BrC from different sources and processes; as well as the contributions to absorption by BC and BrC.
v) To investigate the capability of different sources to form coating on BC (lensing effect) using combined absorption and ACSM measurements and the BC mass size distribution.
vi) To determine the refractive index (RI) of aerosol components emitted from different sources/processes.
Funding: Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)
