The Representative Day Technique in the Study of Photochemical Smog Pollution in Falconara Industrial Area

Abstract

The issue of increasing tropospheric Ozone and, more in general, of photochemical smog is of growing in importance. It is, however, a problem of extreme complexity, involving both atmospheric diffusion processes and complex chemical reactions. We present a study carried out to examine the evolution of the Ozone concentration fields and the effects of meteorological conditions on atmospheric pollutant concentrations in an industrial zone, namely Falconara, located on the central Adriatic coast of Italy. The aim of our study was to evaluate the possibility of assessing the diurnal evolution of air pollutants by introducing the Representative Day technique in order to obtain information on chemical reactions and air pollution in poorly monitored areas. The use of the Representative Day allows the compilation of large amounts of data in a compact format that will supply meaningful information on the whole data set.