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Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4202
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4202
24 Jan 2025
 | 24 Jan 2025

Ozone (O3) observations in Saxony, Germany for 1997–2020: Trends, modelling and implications for O3 control

Yaru Wang, Dominik van Pinxteren, Andreas Tilgner, Erik Hans Hoffmann, Max Hell, Susanne Bastian, and Hartmut Herrmann

Abstract. Given its importance for human health, vegetation, and the climate, the trends of ground-level ozone (O3) concentrations in eastern Germany were systematically analysed making use of the long-term O3 data from 16 measurement stations. The findings indicate that despite reductions in NOx concentrations across all sites, O3 pollution in Saxony has in fact worsened over the past 10 years, especially in densely populated urban areas. The strongest O3 trend is observed at a traffic-dominated station, with an annual ozone increase of 1.2 µg m-3 year-1 (or 3.5 % year-1), while urban and rural background stations show more moderate rises, of, on average, 0.5 µg m-3 year-1 (or 1.1 % year-1) over the last decade.

To diagnose O3 formation and the controlling effects of NOx and VOCs over the past decades in this target region, for the first time, detailed photochemical box modelling was performed by means of the complex MCM (Master Chemical Mechanism). Analysis of isopleth diagrams for two seasons indicates that O3 formation was predominantly VOC-limited at traffic and urban sites from 2000 to 2019. The observed rise in O3 levels suggests that current efforts to reduce total non-methane volatile organic compound (TNMVOC, including NMVOCs and oxygenated VOCs) emissions and NOx from various sources unfortunately remain insufficient. Based on anthropogenic and biogenic emission data, we recommend that continued NOx abatement and further additional VOCs controls, with a focus on solvent use, be implemented in densely populated areas to mitigate O3 pollution in the coming years.

Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this preprint. The responsibility to include appropriate place names lies with the authors.
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Short summary
Tropospheric ground-level ozone (O3) is a global air-quality pollutant and greenhouse gas....
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