APCG had strong and active presence in the 2nd Science Meeting of the RI-URBANS project, which took place in Delft on 18 and 19 October, 2023. Our researchers have substantial contribution to both the experimental and modeling activities of the project, with the ultimate goal of facilitating progress towards 'clean urban air'.
Athens is one of the pilot cities to demonstrate such activities and outcomes. In particular, the in-situ measurement component of APCG presented progress and results from its one-year filter sampling of both PM2.5 and PM10 for which subsequent chemical analysis will provide insights on the different aerosol sources. The group has undertaken the performance of brown carbon, ionic composition and soluble metals analyses, for 4 city pilots, including Athens, and it also participates in the NRT pilot with on-line measurements of organics, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium and chloride (measured with the ACSM), plus black carbon components (measured by the AE33), to contribute to source apportionment monthly reporting and inter-comparisons. In the long run APCG also provides longterm aerosol chemical composition, number size distribution and gaseous species data from the Thissio station for epidemiological and trend-analysis studies.
In parallel, the modeling compenent of APCG has already provided high-resolution anthropogenic emissions for 13 European cities, in collaboration with TNO and BSC, following the UrbEm methodology to spatially disaggregate CAMS regional emissions, the latter co-developed with Hereon. City-scale numerical simulations over Athens are performed by APCG researchers and are provided to several modeling tasks of the project, supporting the urban mapping of health-related pollutants and the assessment of subgrid variability of air pollution.
During the Science Meeting, APCG had the chance to showcase its progress and discuss further collaborations within the scope of the project implementation.