Abstract
Abstract. Emissions originating from ship traffic in European sea areas were modelled using the Ship Traffic Emission Assessment Model (STEAM), which uses Automatic Identification System data to describe ship traffic activity. We have estimated the emissions from ship traffic in the whole of Europe in 2011. We report the emission totals, the seasonal variation, the geographical distribution of emissions, and their disaggregation between various ship types and flag states. The total ship emissions of CO2, NOx, SOx, CO, and PM2.5 in Europe for year 2011 were estimated to be 121, 3.0, 1.2, 0.2, and 0.2 million tons, respectively. The emissions of CO2 from the Baltic Sea were evaluated to be more than a half (55 %) of the emissions of the North Sea shipping; the combined contribution of these two sea regions was almost as high (88 %) as the total emissions from ships in the Mediterranean. As expected, the shipping emissions of SOx were significantly lower in the SOx Emission Control Areas, compared with the corresponding values in the Mediterranean. Shipping in the Mediterranean Sea is responsible for 40 and 49 % of the European ship emitted CO2 and SOx emissions, respectively. In particular, this study reported significantly smaller emissions of NOx, SOx, and CO for shipping in the Mediterranean than the EMEP inventory; however, the reported PM2.5 emissions were in a fairly good agreement with the corresponding values reported by EMEP. The vessels registered to all EU member states are responsible for 55 % of the total CO2 emitted by ships in the study area. The vessels under the flags of convenience were responsible for 25 % of the total CO2 emissions.
Highlights
The cornerstone of air quality modelling research is an up-to-date description of emissions from all sectors of anthropogenic and nonanthropogenic (i.e biogenic, desert dust, wildland fires) activities
Emissions originating from ship traffic in European sea areas were modelled using the Ship Traffic Emission Assessment Model (STEAM), which uses Automatic Identification System data to describe ship traffic activity
The aim of this study is to present a comprehensive inventory of ship traffic exhaust emissions for a number of contaminants (CO2, NOx, SOx, PM2.5, CO) in European sea areas, utilizing the STEAM ship emission model (Jalkanen et al, 2009, 2012; Johansson, 2013)
Summary
The cornerstone of air quality modelling research is an up-to-date description of emissions from all sectors of anthropogenic (i.e. industry, agriculture, transport) and nonanthropogenic (i.e biogenic, desert dust, wildland fires) activities. The introduction of automatic vessel position reporting systems, such as the Automatic Identification System (AIS), have significantly reduced the uncertainty concerning ship activities and their geographical distribution. All vessels larger than the 300 t size limit globally report their position with a few second intervals; this has resulted in an availability of information on ship activities at an unprecedented level of detail. The ship emission inventories, which are based on such automated identification systems, have several significant advantages over the previously developed approaches. Such inventories are based on time-dependent, high-resolution dynamic traffic patterns, which can allow for the effects of changing conditions, such as, e.g. marine and meteorological conditions (e.g. harsh winter conditions and sea ice cover) or weather routing
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