Modelling the fine and coarse fraction of Pb, Cd, As and Ni air concentration in Spain

Abstract

Lead, cadmium, arsenic and nickel are present in the air due to natural and anthropogenic emissions, normally joined to particles. Human health and ecosystems can be damaged by high atmospheric levels of these metals, since they can be introduced in organisms via inhalation or ingestion. Small particles are inhaled and embebed in lungs and alveolus more easily than coarse particles. The CHIMERE model is a eulerian air quality model extensively used in air quality modelling. Metals have been recently included in this model in a special version developed in the CIEMAT modelling group (Madrid, Spain). Vivanco et al. (2011) and González et al. (2012) showed an evaluation of the model performance for some metals in Spain and Europe. In these studies, metals were considered as fine particles. Nevertheless there is some observational evidence of the presence of some metals also in the coarse fraction. For this reason, a new attempt of modelling metals considering a fine (<2.5 μm) and coarse (2.5-10 μm) fraction has been done. Measurements of metal concentration in PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 recorded in Spain were used to obtain the new metal particle distribution size. On the other hand, natural emissions, not considered in the above mentioned studies, were implemented in the model, by considering metal emissions associated to dust resuspensiont. An evaluation of the new version is presented and discussed for two domains in Spain, centered on Barcelona and Huelva respectively.