Modeling and evaluation of urban pollution events of atmospheric heavy metals from a large Cu-smelter.
Metal smelting and processing are highly polluting activities that have a strong influence on the levels of heavy metals in air, soil, and crops. We employ an atmospheric transport and dispersion model to predict the pollution levels originated from the second largest Cu-smelter in Europe. The model predicts that the concentrations of copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and arsenic (As) in an urban area close to the Cu-smelter can reach 170, 70, and 30 ng m−3, respectively. The model captures all the observed urban pollution events, but the magnitude of the elemental concentrations is predicted to be lower than that of the observed values; ~300, ~500, and ~100 ng m−3 for Cu, Zn, and As, respectively. The comparison between model and observations showed an average correlation coefficient of 0.62 ± 0.13. The simulation shows that the transport of heavy metals reaches a peak in the afternoon over the urban area. The under-prediction in the peak is explained by the simulated stronger winds compared with monitoring data. The stronger simulated winds enhance the transport and dispersion of heavy metals to the regional area, diminishing the impact of pollution events in the urban area. This model, driven by high resolution meteorology (2 km in horizontal), predicts the hourly-interval evolutions of atmospheric heavy metal pollutions in the close by urban area of industrial hotspot.
Environmental Research Institute, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China; Associate Unit CSIC-University of Huelva "Atmospheric Pollution", University of Huelva, E21071 Huelva, Spain.
Bing
B
Chen
NOAA's Air Resources Laboratory, College Park, Maryland, USA. Electronic address: ariel.stein@noaa.gov.
Ariel F
AF
Stein
Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Instituttveien 18, 2007 Kjeller, Norway.
Nuria
N
Castell
Associate Unit CSIC-University of Huelva "Atmospheric Pollution", University of Huelva, E21071 Huelva, Spain.
Yolanda
Y
Gonzalez-Castanedo
Associate Unit CSIC-University of Huelva "Atmospheric Pollution", University of Huelva, E21071 Huelva, Spain; Department of Mining, Mechanic and Energetic Engineering, ETSI, University of Huelva, E21819 La Rábida, Spain.
A M
AM
Sanchez de la Campa
Associate Unit CSIC-University of Huelva "Atmospheric Pollution", University of Huelva, E21071 Huelva, Spain; Agrifood Campus of International Excellence CEIA3, Spain; Campus of International Excellence of the Sea CEIMAR, Spain.
J D
JD
de la Rosa
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002947:Cities; D003300:Copper; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005060:Europe; D008669:Metallurgy; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis*; D008956:Models, Chemical
D000393:Air Pollutants; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D003300:Copper
Atmospheric model; HYSPLIT; Heavy metal; Industrial emission; Particulate matter