Comparative study of seasonal air pollutant behavior in a Mediterranean coastal site: Castellón (Spain)

Abstract

Abstract During January, July and August 1988, two experimental campaigns were carried out in the surroundings of the Castellon industrial area located on the Spanish east coast. The main objective was to study the dispersion of the power plant plume located on this site. This work also forms part of a larger program intended to compose a mosaic of atmospheric mesoscale flows related to air pollution cycles for the whole of the Iberian peninsula. In this program, air pollutants have also been considered as tracers of opportunity of the atmospheric circulations, and the study of ground-level concentration cycles has been used to provide evidence for the meso-meteorological processes. On the Castellon coast, and for most of the year, surface atmospheric dynamics are dominated by local cycles of north-west nocturnal drainage winds and east to south-south-east daytime sea-breeze flows. This regime is particularly marked during the summer, while the effect of large scale synoptic conditions is more noticeable in winter and spring. A mobile laboratory was used to collect 10 min averaged values of O3, NO, NO2, and SO2. This unit was placed in the expected zone of influence of the coastal industries during the sea-breeze regime. Data obtained under summer and winter conditions have been compared and, while the temporal evolution of the concentrations of the compounds studied have similar structures, high ozone values have been detected in association with the onset of the sea-breeze during the summer.