Long range transport of air pollution during summer fair weather episodes in West and Central Europe:a meteorological contribution to the Shell LAPSE-project

Currently SHELL International Petroleum Company is carrying out a study on the acid deposition phenomenon in Europe. This study, the Long Range Air Pollution Study Exercise (LAPSE), has an orientational character and attempts to quantify the impact of some of the major air pollution components at some sensitive receptor locations in Europe.

The most suspect air pollution components in the Buropean acid rain problem are sulphur and nitrogen oxides, but also ozone is presumably playing a role. With respect to the last component damage to forests and crops are thought to occur mainly during short lasting episodes, with unusually high ozone concentrations. These episodes occur predominantly in summer during spells of warm, dry and sunny weather, which may last for a number of days.

This report is a separate investigation of the occurrence of these episodes and their meteorological properties during the years 1976-1983.

KNMI (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) was asked to carry out this analysis.