EMEP Monitoring

programme
Wenche Aas
EMEP/CCC (NILU)

Outline

EMEP monitoring programme

Why, where, what
Monitoring strategy

Quality assurance

EMEP Manual for sampling and analysis

Nationally
Centrally by EMEP/CCC

How to organize the work nationally

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

UN-ECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (50 Parties)

- 8 Specific protocols, where the first is
European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) (41 Parties)

EMEP Topics

Kara Sea

Barents Sea

Acidification and Eutrophication

Artic Ocean

Canada

Photochemical oxidants

Iceland
Pacific Ocean
of America

Finland
North Sea

Atlantic Ocean
Norway

Sweden
Russian Federation

Estonia
Latvia

Ireland
United
Kingdom

Poland

Ukraine
Czech Rep.
Luxembourg
Slovakia
Austria
Moldova
France Switzerland Liechtenstein Hungary
Slovenia
Romania
Croatia
Bosnia and
Monaco
Herzegovina Yugoslavia
Black Sea
Bulgaria
F.Y.R.of
Italy
Albania Macedonia

Atlantic Ocean

Persistent Organic Pollutants

Belarus
Netherlands
Germany
Belgium

Heavy metals

Lithuania

Denmark

Kazakhstan

Aral
Sea

Georgia

Spain
Greece

Portugal

Turkey

Caspian
Sea

ArmeniaAzerbaijan

Uzbekistan

Turkmenistan

Kyrgyzstan

Tajikistan

Particulate matter

Malta
Mediterranean Sea

Cyprus

The EMEP vision;

To be the main science based and policy-driven instrument for international
cooperation in atmospheric monitoring and modelling activities, emission inventories
and projections, and integrated assessment to help solve transboundary air
pollution problems in Europe
Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Objectives of the EMEP measurement

programme
Establish pollutant concentrations, deposition, emissions and
transboundary fluxes on the regional scale, including intercontinental
transport and boundary conditions for urban air quality
Identify the trends with time as well as their sensitivity to European
emission reductions
Assess the success of international abatement strategies for
atmospheric pollutants
Improve the understanding of atmospheric chemical and physical
processes
Provide data for the validation of models
Provide data which, in conjunction with models, are the basis for the
assessment of environmental problems related to air pollution including
comparison with effect thresholds and exposure levels
Provide measurements required to assess the effects of atmospheric
pollutants
Serve to explore the environmental concentrations of new substances
and support the development of cost-effective abatement strategies.
Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Environmental problems in 2020

Light blue = no risk

Health - PM

Health+vegetation - ozone

Vegetation N dep.

Forests acid dep.

Semi-natural acid dep.

Freshwater acid dep.

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Intercontinental transport of Hg

120

61%

Natural
Anthropogenic

100
80
60
40

15%

12%
5%

3%
Northern
Africa

20

Americas

Total Hg deposition, t/y

Mercury deposition to Europe:

contribution of continents of NH

4%
South
Hemis.

Oceans

Asia

Europe

Total annual Hg deposition in

the Northern Hemisphere

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Monitoring Strategy 2004-2009

Adopted in December 2004

Three levels approach

Level 1 Basic (1.st priority for new Parties)
Level 2 Supersites (added to level 1 sites)
Level 3 Research driven supersites

Parties responsibility to implement the

Strategy

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Monitoring programme:
Level 1
Main ions in precipitation and in air
heavy metals in precipitations
ozone
PM10 and PM2.5 mass
meteorology
at ca 125 sites
Level 2, supersite (joint EMEP/GAW)
POPs
Heavy metals in air and aerosols
VOC
EC/OC, OC speciation
Mineral Dust
PM speciation incl. gas particle ratio
+ all level 1 activities
15-20 sites

Both levels are mandatory by all Parties

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Monitoring programme, Level 3

Minimum time
resolution
Level-3 sites (monitoring at these sites do not require all level-1 and level-2 parameters)
Dry deposition flux of Nand S
SO2, NH3, HNO3 (SO4--, NH4+, NO3-)
Hourly/Daily
Dry deposition flux of O3
O3
Hourly/Daily
Programme

Parameters

Hydrocarbons
NOy chemistry

C6-C12
NO, NO2, PAN, organic nitrates

Hourly/Daily
Hourly/Daily

Black carbon
Size/number distribution
Light
scattering
Optical
properties

Both water soluble and water insoluble

OC
BC
dN/dlogDp
Aerosol optical
depth
Scattering
and absorption
coefficients

Vertical profiles

O3 soundings, PM lidar,

Hourly/Daily

Mercury speciation
Congener-specific
Multi-compartment (air, soil,
water)

TGM, RGM and TPM

POPs PCBs, PAHs, PCDDs and PCDFs

Daily/Weekly
Daily/Weekly

POPs and Hg

Daily/Weekly

OC speciation

Research driven and voluntary,

Hourly/Daily
Hourly/Daily
Hourly/Daily
Hourly/Daily

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Positive consequences

Many countries have initiated national revision plans, the

general impression is that most Parties intend to comply
with requirements.

The strategy is used as an important instrument towards

the funding authorities. CCC may assist when needed.

Generally large interest from research groups to get

involved in EMEP measurements.

A better link between the traditional monitoring

community and the research groups has been established

Particulate matter observations are in very good progress

Support to establish EMEP level 1 sites in some EECCA

countries

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Challenges
Level 1
Some Parties have given little response. Probably due to
large difficulties to find national resources, most
problems in Eastern Europe
Many sites lack a few parameters to get a complete
measurement program of level 1

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

New EMEP sites in the EECCA region

KZ: Borovoye

MD: Leovo
UA:
Danube
delta

GE: Abastumani

AR: In process
Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

New sites that will be establish:

Georgia: Abastumani

Support from:
CAPACT http://www.unece.org/ie/capact
Norwegian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs
Moldova: Leovo

Kazakhstan: Borovoye

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Expectations, EECCA countries

A very important region

High emissions
Strategic area for hemispheric transport issues
Little monitoring today

Expected that most countries will sign the EMEP

protocol soon.

Need to establish EMEP level 1 sites in each country.

Support can be found, i.e from foreign aid money, EU,
UNECE. Training and capacity building is necessary.

Beeing part of an international monitoring programme,

as on transboundary air pollution, will in addition, give
competence and awarness on other envirionmental issues
Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Challenges
Level 1
Some Parties have given little response. Probably due to
large difficulties to find national resources, most
problems in Eastern Europe
Many sites lack a few parameters to get a complete
measurement program of level 1
Level 2
POPs and Hg monitoring receives little attention
Photooxidats receives little attention (but EU directive
addressing PAHs offers assistance)
Full chemical speciation of particles is difficult. Its costly
and there are problems to harmonise methodology (i.e for
EC/OC)
Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Purpose

Comparable measurements needed to make

regional and global assessments
Need methods that are easy to use, cheap and
long lasting for trend analysis (changing
methodology may affect the trend
A harmonisation of methodology has been
developed during the last 30 years and are still
developing close cooperation between CCC and
international experts
Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Necessary national commitments

Proper siting for representative measurements
Use recommended field methods for
precipitation, gas and aerosols (main comp, HM,
POP, PM, VOC)
Use recommended lab methods
Follow QA/QC procedures in field and lab
Reporting of data in proper format incl
information of methods, detection limits,
precisions, siting information etc (so called
meta data)

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

QA activities in EMEP
Site characterization
Documentation of methods and material

-detection limits, precision, accuracy,

-instructions for maintenance and
calibration

Manual and standard operating procedures

(SOPs)
Lab intercalibration
Co-located experiments (field comparison)
Training courses
Data checking and validation

-e.g calculate ion balance and time trends

Flagging data
Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Field intercomparisons,
SO4 in air
Estonia

Spain
Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Lab intercomparisons annually

Rel bias %

Rel standard dev %

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

QA flags based on lab and field intercomp.

AT
CH
CZ
DE
DK
EE
ES
FI
FR
GB
HU
IE
LT
LV
NL
NO
PL
PL05
SE
SI
SK
TR
YU

SO2
qa flagg field
22-- B
3200 B
12-- B
0100 A
0000 A
1200 B
32-- B
1010 A
2003 B
1010 B
-00-- A
1000 B
5010 B
11-- B
0000 A
0010 A
2000 B
0000 A
0031 A
--10 0010 A
--

NO2
lab qa flagg field
-A
33-- B
0300 A
--00 A
--00 A
6210 B
-30-- B
A
-C
-A
5300 B
1310 B
5000 B
A
3200 B
A
0200 B
03-- A
0020 A
A
4340 B
A
5200 B
A
1010 B
B
--00 A
5300 B
A
--00 53-- B

SO4
lab qa flagg field
--A
-A
00-- A
A
00-- A
A
--00-- A
00-- A
20-- B
A
00-- A
A
-A
-A
10-- B
A
22-- B
00-- A
A
00-- A
B
01-- A
A
32-- B
A
00-- A
A
20-- B
A
-A
---

SNO3
qa flagg field
--00 --00 --00 ----00 1010
1030
--20
--00
--10
--00
--00
--00
--10
-

B
B
-

SNH4
lab qa flagg field lab
--A
--00 A
A
--30 B
A
--00 A
---20 A
A
--00 A

A
B
A
A
A
A
A
A
A

--40
--00
0210
--00
--01
--00
--00
--00
--20
-

A
-

B
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

National organisation of
EMEP monitoring

Signing the EMEP protocol gives a national

responsibility usually charged by the Ministry of
Environment

The daily work are usually being done my

hydrometeorological institutes or similar by
contract of the Ministry

A close contact with universities and other

research communities needed to interpret data and
co-benefits the infrastructures both in lab an field

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Data flow (a typical example)

Continuously
Measurements are
evaluated in the labs
after accredited
procedures or similar

Often
different
databases
and formats

Monthly or annually
Project leader
usually at the
same institute
QA/QC the
data

Annually
International
bodies like
EMEP/CCC

Annually
Approval by
the national
government

Annually
Approval by
the
international
bodies (EMEP:
Steering Body)

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Data reporting, the site NN story

Site "NN"

Main Comp. in Precip.

Main Comp. in Air

HM (air or prec.)

POPs (air or prec.)

Ozone

National db.

National db.

National db.

National db.

National db.

EMEP

EMEP

EMEP

EMEP

EMEP

ICP Forest

ICP Forest

ICP IM

ICP IM

ICP Forest

ICP IM

ICP IM

OSPAR

OSPAR

ICP IM

OSPAR

OSPAR

Helcom

Helcom

EIONET

Helcom

Helcom

AMAP

AMAP

WMO-GAW

AMAP

AMAP

EIONET

EIONET

WMO-GAW

WMO-GAW

Need to have instruments to avoid

duplication of data in the different
programmes and define where the
official data are.

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Summary

EECCA region of high importance and relevance

EMEP is a long lasting programme that need long

commitments from the national authorities

Quality assurance is an essential part of the

monitoring programme

EMEP/CCC assists

when support letter etc is needed or

training of QA/QC procedures
Reporting of data
etc

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006

Wenche Aas, EMEP/CCC. CAPACT meeting Almaty 16-18 Oct 2006