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The AAMG’s December 2013 meeting focussed on a number challenges faced by efforts to reduce air pollution in Europe. Air quality issues do not stand still. As regulations across Europe lower vehicle emissions and improve fuel specifications, the pollutant mix has changed. These changes are being supplemented by new sources such as biomass burning.
The effect of these changes in emissions on concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter, for example, proved hard to predict because of the complexity of the atmospheric processes involved, and substantial health effects remain. At the same time, new instrumentation provided the possibility of greatly enhanced information, especially about spatial and temporal variations in concentration, and about the composition and size of particulate matter. Also, methods for integrating monitoring data with other sources of information such as inventories and models continually improve, together with methods for visualisation and interpretation.
Most measurements are made by regulatory monitoring networks, focusing on determining Limit Value compliance, rather than making measurements that clarify the relative impact of different sources and allow the refinement of models. Helping regulations and strategies evolve to make the best use of resources, as knowledge and technologies change, is a challenging task.
The conference booklet with the programme and a full set of abstracts together with selected presentations are available to view/download using the link below.