The exposure by fine atmospheric particles in the urban centers of Dresden and Leipzig
Project of the pact for research and innovation of the Leibniz Association
Period of funding: January 2009– December 2011
Epidemiological studies of the ambient particulate air pollution and its effect on human health afford knowledge of the complex causal paths of the pollutants between the traffic emission sources and the urban immission distribution. This research project develops the methodical basis for the area and scale covering numerical description of the exposure by fine particles in urban areas. The major task consists in the advanced application of a microscale transport model to extensive urban areas and, vice versa, the urbanization of a mesoscale atmospheric model providing for urban subgrid structures and self-nesting. In addition to the chemical and photolytic reactions, the models have explicitly to consider the dynamical transformations of the particle radius in the nano- and micrometer range. Key aspects of the project are also the exploitation of existing and the acquisition of new experimental data sets. These data concerning the temporal, spatial and size-resolved distribution of the fine particles serve for the initialization of the model system as well as for its quantitative validation. The cooperation with the Technical University of Dresden and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig ensures the modeling of the traffic emissions and the supply of the urban topological data.