Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Investigating ozone episodes in Portugal: a wavelet-based approach

  • Published:
Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

During the summer season, ozone concentrations regularly exceed the legislation limits in the North of Portugal, namely at Douro Norte monitoring station. The origin of such ozone episodes has been widely reported in several studies although uncertainties regarding its origin still remain. This work intends to investigate how the ozone concentrations measured at the Douro Norte nearest stations, located at west and east directions, are related to those measured at Douro Norte by means of coherence and phase transformations methods. The episodes were selected according to the magnitude of the hourly ozone peaks and the occurrence of exceedances of the threshold value at least in two sites. The results point out that 60 % of the selected episodes highlight significant dependence between Douro Norte station and the other two monitoring sites, with different phase signal and a delay range from 2 to 4 h.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Borrego C, Miranda AI, Coutinho M, Ferreira J, Carvalho AC (2002) Air quality management in Portugal: example of needs and available tools. Environ Pollut 120:115–123. doi:10.1016/S0269-7491(02)00134-3

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Borrego C, Tchepel O, Costa AM, Amorim JH, Miranda AI (2003) Emission and dispersion modelling of Lisbon air quality at local scale. Atmos Environ 37:5197–5205. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2003.09.004

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Borrego C, Monteiro A, Martins H, Ferreira J, Fernandes AP, Rafael S, Miranda AI, Guevara M, Baldasano JM (2015) Air quality plan for ozone: an urgent need for North Portugal. Air Qual Atmos Health. doi:10.1007/s11869-015-0352-5. in press

    Google Scholar 

  • Brauer M, Brook JR (1997) Ozone personal exposure and health effect for selected groups residing in the Fraser Valley. Atmos Environ 31:113–121. doi:10.1016/S1352-2310(96)00129-X

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carvalho A, Monteiro A, Ribeiro I, Tchepel O, Miranda AI, Borrego C, Saavedra S, Souto JA, Casares JJ (2010) High ozone levels in the Northeast of Portugal: analysis and characterization. Atmos Environ 44:1020–1031. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.12.020

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chevalier A, Gheusi F, Delmas R, Ordoñez C, Sarrat C, Zbinden R, Thouret V, Athier G, Cousin JM (2007) Influence of altitude on ozone levels and variability in the lower troposphere: a ground-based study for Western Europe over the period 2001–2004. Atmos Chem Phys 7:4311–4326. doi:10.5194/acp-7-4311-2007

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Donev E, Zeller K, Avramov A (2002) Preliminary background ozone concentrations in the mountain and coastal areas of Bulgaria. Environ Pollut 117:281–286. doi:10.1016/S0269-7491(01)00192-0

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Draxler RR, Hess GD (2004) Description of the HYSPLIT 4 modelling system. Techinal Memorandum ERL ARL-224. NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, Silver Spring, MD

    Google Scholar 

  • Dueñas C, Fernández CM, Cañete S, Carretero J, Liger E (2004) Analyses of ozone in urban and rural sites in Málaga (Spain). Chemosphere 56:631–639. doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2004.04.013

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evtyugina MG, Nunes T, Alves C, Marques MC (2009) Photochemical pollution in a rural mountainous area in the Northeast of Portugal. Atmos Res 92:151–158. doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2008.09.006

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gama C, Nunes T, Marques MC, Ferreira F (2009) Contribution of long-range transport to the ozone levels recorded in the Northeast of Portugal. Geophys Res Abstr 11, EGU2009-11256-1, Vienna, Austria

  • Gouveia C, Liberato MLR (2008) Local circulations over complex terrain in the Northeast of Portugal - Modelling O3 transport. Geophys Res Abstr 10, EGU2008-A-09628, Vienna, Austria

  • Grinsted A, Moore JC, Jevrejeva S (2004) Application of the cross wavelet transform and wavelet coherence to geophysical time series. Nonlin Processes Geophys 11:561–566. doi:10.5194/npg-11-561-2004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hogsett WE, Weber JE, Tingey D, Herstrom A, Lee EH, Laurence JA (1997) Environmental auditing: an approach for characterizing tropospheric ozone risk to forests. Environ Manage 21:105–120. doi:10.1007/s002679900010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lefhon AS (1992) Surface level ozone exposures and their effects on vegetation. Lewis Publishers, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Monks P (2000) A review of the observations and origins of the spring ozone maximum. Atmos Environ 34:3545–3561. doi:10.1016/S1352-2310(00)00129-1

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Monteiro A, Vautard R, Borrego C, Miranda AI (2005) Long-term simulations of photo oxidant pollution over Portugal using the CHIMERE model. Atmos. Environ 39:3089–3101. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.01.045

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Monteiro A, Strunk A, Carvalho A, Tchepel O, Miranda AI, Borrego C, Saavedra S, Rodríguez A, Souto J, Casares J, Friese E, Elbern H (2012) Investigating a high ozone episode in a rural mountain site. Environ Pollut 162:176–189. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2011.11.008

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ozen BF, Mauer LJ, Floros ID (2002) Effects of ozone exposure on the structural, mechanical and barrier properties of select plastic packaging film. Packag Technol Sci 15:301–311. doi:10.1002/pts.602

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Percival DB, Walden AT (2006) Wavelet methods for time series analysis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid N, Yap D, Bloxam R (2008) The potential role of background ozone on current and emerging air issues: an overview. Air Qual Atmos Health 1:19–29. doi:10.1007/s11869-008-0005-z

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Roger DP, Samoli E, Pham L, Dominici F, Touloumi G, Ramsay T, Burnett RT, Krewski D, Tertre AL et al (2013) Acute effects of ambient ozone on mortality in Europe and North America: results from the APHENA study. Air Qual Atmos Health 6:445–453. doi:10.1007/s11869-012-0180-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saavedra S, Rodríguez A, Taboada JJ, Souto JA, Casares JJ (2012) Synoptic patterns and air mass transport during ozone episodes. Sci Total Environ 441:97–110. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.09.014

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sanz MJ, Millán MM (2000) Ozone in the Mediterranean region: evidence of injury to vegetation. In: Innes JL, Oleksyn J (eds) Proceedings of the Forest Dynamics in Heavily Polluted Regions. CAB International, pp 165–192

  • Szyszkowicz M, Porada E, Searles G, Rowe BH (2010) Ambient ozone and emergency department visits for skin conditions. Air Qual Atmos Health 5:303–309. doi:10.1007/s11869-010-0092-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torrence C, Compo GP (1998) A practical guide to wavelet analysis. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 79:61–78. doi:10.1175/1520-0477(1998)079<0061:APGTWA>2.0.CO;2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vingarzan R (2004) A review of surface ozone background levels and trends. Atmos Environ 38:3431–3442. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2004.03.030

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the financial support of the Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Norte (CCDR-N). Thanks are extended to the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for the financial support through the Project MAPLIA (PTDC/AAG-MAA/4077/2012), and the PhD grant of Carla Gama (SFRH/BD/87468/2012) and the Pos-Doc grant of S. Gouveia (SFRH/-BPD/87037/2012), and CIDMA/UA project PEst-OE/MAT/UI4106/2014 (Centro de Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Matemática e Aplicações, CIDMA/UA, Aveiro, www.cidma.mat.ua.pt), and IEETA/UA project PEst-OE/EEI/-UI0127/2014 (Instituto de Engenharia Electrónica e Telemática de Aveiro, IEETA/UA, Aveiro, www.ieeta.pt).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CESAM, Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    A. Monteiro, J. Lopes, C. Gama & A. I. Miranda

  2. Institute of Electronics and Telematics Engineering of Aveiro (IEETA) and CIDMA, University of Aveiro, Averio, Portugal

    S. Gouveia

  3. CEMAT and Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal

    M. G. Scotto

  4. CIMO Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Bragança, Portugal

    M. Feliciano

Authors
  1. A. Monteiro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. Gouveia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. G. Scotto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. J. Lopes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. C. Gama
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. M. Feliciano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. A. I. Miranda
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Monteiro.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Monteiro, A., Gouveia, S., Scotto, M.G. et al. Investigating ozone episodes in Portugal: a wavelet-based approach. Air Qual Atmos Health 9, 775–783 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-015-0379-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-015-0379-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation