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Denna rapport presenterar ett projekt som syftar till att skapa en applikation med tillhörande hårdvara för att styra en vakuumpump i ett analyslaboratorie som ligger i anslutning till Bolidenägda Aitikgruvan i Gällivare. Vakuumpumpen används för att generera sugkraft till dragskåp, slangar och robotutrustning där giftiga ångor sugs bort när analyseringen av gråberg inträffar. Innan implementeringen av applikationen var pumphaverier ett faktum på grund av för lång tomgångskörning och Boliden beslutade därför att starta pump efter behov istället. Först skrevs en funktionsbeskrivning som vidare applicerades programmeringsmässigt i styrsystemet 800xA tillsammans med nödvändig hårdvara som exempelvis PAC, FRO och I/O-enheter. När applikationen innehöll samtliga funktioner testades den med en simulationscontroller som även kopplade samman applikation och konstruerad processbild. Efter felfri testkörning implementerades den essentiella hårdvaran för att genomföra ett slutgiltigt test på site med alla komponenter inkopplade. Detta test var framgångsrikt och en applikation enligt funktionsbeskrivning hade således konstruerats. Slutsatsen av arbetet är att det går att bygga en applikation för att styra en vakuumpump enligt kravspecifikationen med de applikationskomponenter som använts.

Long-term measurements of atmospheric mass concentrations of black carbon (BC) are needed to investigate changes in its emission, transport, and deposition. However, depending on instrumentation, parameters related to BC such as aerosol absorption coefficient (babs) have been measured instead. Most ground-based measurements of babs in the Arctic have been made by filter-based absorption photometers, including particle soot absorption photometers (PSAPs), continuous light absorption photometers (CLAPs), Aethalometers, and multi-angle absorption photometers (MAAPs). The measured babs can be converted to mass concentrations of BC (MBC) by assuming the value of the mass absorption cross section (MAC; MBC= babs/ MAC). However, the accuracy of conversion of babs to MBC has not been adequately assessed. Here, we introduce a systematic method for deriving MAC values from babs measured by these instruments and independently measured MBC. In this method, MBC was measured with a filter-based absorption photometer with a heated inlet (COSMOS). COSMOS-derived MBC (MBC (COSMOS)) is traceable to a rigorously calibrated single particle soot photometer (SP2), and the absolute accuracy of MBC (COSMOS) has been demonstrated previously to be about 15 % in Asia and the Arctic. The necessary conditions for application of this method are a high correlation of the measured babs with independently measured MBC and long-term stability of the regression slope, which is denoted as MACcor (MAC derived from the correlation). In general, babs–MBC (COSMOS) correlations were high (r2= 0.76–0.95 for hourly data) at Alert in Canada, Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard, Barrow (NOAA Barrow Observatory) in Alaska, Pallastunturi in Finland, and Fukue in Japan and stable for up to 10 years. We successfully estimated MACcor values (10.8–15.1 m2 g−1 at a wavelength of 550 nm for hourly data) for these instruments, and these MACcor values can be used to obtain error-constrained estimates of MBC from babs measured at the

Following the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for COVID-19 in December 2019 in Wuhan (China) and its spread to the rest of the world, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in March 2020. Without effective treatment in the initial pandemic phase, social distancing and mandatory quarantines were introduced as the only available preventative measure. In contrast to the detrimental societal impacts, air quality improved in all countries in which strict lockdowns were applied, due to lower pollutant emissions. Here we investigate the effects of the COVID-19 lockdowns in Europe on ambient black carbon (BC), which affects climate and damages health, using in situ observations from 17 European stations in a Bayesian inversion framework. BC emissions declined by 23 kt in Europe (20 % in Italy, 40 % in Germany, 34 % in Spain, 22 % in France) during lockdowns compared to the same period in the previous 5 years, which is partially attributed to COVID-19 measures. BC temporal variation in the countries enduring the most drastic restrictions showed the most distinct lockdown impacts. Increased particle light absorption in the beginning of the lockdown, confirmed by assimilated satellite and remote sensing data, suggests residential combustion was the dominant BC source. Accordingly, in central and Eastern Europe, which experienced lower than average temperatures, BC was elevated compared to the previous 5 years. Nevertheless, an average decrease of 11 % was seen for the whole of Europe compared to the start of the lockdown period, with the highest peaks in France (42 %), Germany (21 %), UK (13 %), Spain (11 %) and Italy (8 %). Such a decrease was not seen in the previous years, which also confirms the impact of COVID-19 on the European emissions of BC.

Aerosol particles are essential constituents of the Earth's atmosphere, impacting the earth radiation balance directly by scattering and absorbing solar radiation, and indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. In contrast to most greenhouse gases, aerosol particles have short atmospheric residence times, resulting in a highly heterogeneous distribution in space and time. There is a clear need to document this variability at regional scale through observations involving, in particular, the in situ near-surface segment of the atmospheric observation system. This paper will provide the widest effort so far to document variability of climate-relevant in situ aerosol properties (namely wavelength dependent particle light scattering and absorption coefficients, particle number concentration and particle number size distribution) from all sites connected to the Global Atmosphere Watch network. High-quality data from almost 90 stations worldwide have been collected and controlled for quality and are reported for a reference year in 2017, providing a very extended and robust view of the variability of these variables worldwide. The range of variability observed worldwide for light scattering and absorption coefficients, single-scattering albedo, and particle number concentration are presented together with preliminary information on their long-term trends and comparison with model simulation for the different stations. The scope of the present paper is also to provide the necessary suite of information, including data provision procedures, quality control and analysis, data policy, and usage of the ground-based aerosol measurement network. It delivers to users of the World Data Centre on Aerosol, the required confidence in data products in the form of a fully characterized value chain, including uncertainty estimation and requirements for contributing to the global climate monitoring system.

In order to assess the evolution of aerosol parameters affecting climate change, a long-term trend analysis of aerosol optical properties was performed on time series from 52 stations situated across five continents. The time series of measured scattering, backscattering and absorption coefficients as well as the derived single scattering albedo, backscattering fraction, scattering and absorption Angstrom exponents covered at least 10 years and up to 40 years for some stations. The non-parametric seasonal Mann-Kendall (MK) statistical test associated with several pre-whitening methods and with Sen's slope was used as the main trend analysis method. Comparisons with general least mean square associated with autoregressive bootstrap (GLS/ARB) and with standard least mean square analysis (LMS) enabled confirmation of the detected MK statistically significant trends and the assessment of advantages and limitations of each method. Currently, scattering and backscattering coefficient trends are mostly decreasing in Europe and North America and are not statistically significant in Asia, while polar stations exhibit a mix of increasing and decreasing trends. A few increasing trends are also found at some stations in North America and Australia. Absorption coefficient time series also exhibit primarily decreasing trends. For single scattering albedo, 52 % of the sites exhibit statistically significant positive trends, mostly in Asia, eastern/northern Europe and the Arctic, 22 % of sites exhibit statistically significant negative trends, mostly in central Europe and central North America, while the remaining 26 % of sites have trends which are not statistically significant. In addition to evaluating trends for the overall time series, the evolution of the trends in sequential 10-year segments was also analyzed. For scattering and backscattering, statistically significant increasing 10-year trends are primarily found for earlier periods (10-year trends ending in 2010-2015) for

Aerosol emissions in South Asia are large. The emitted aerosols can travel significant distances and, during the Asian southwest monsoon especially, are prone to modification through cloud processing and wet scavenging while being transported. The scale of emissions and transport means that the global climate impact of these aerosols are sensitive to modification en route, but the process-level understanding is still largely lacking. In this study, we analyse long-term aerosol data measured at an observatory established in Hanimaadhoo, Republic of Maldives, to investigate the long-term properties of aerosols over the Indian Ocean as well as to understand the effect of precipitation on the aerosol particle size distribution during long-range transport. The observatory location is ideal because it is a receptor site with little local influence, and, depending on the season, receives either polluted air masses coming from the Indian subcontinent or clean marine air masses from the Indian Ocean. We analysed the sub-micron particle number size distribution measured during the years 2004-2008, and 2014-2017, and this is the first inter-seasonal long-term study of the sub-micron aerosol features in the region. The aerosol origin and its relative exposure to wet scavenging during long-range transport were analysed using back-trajectory analysis from HYSPLIT. By comparing aerosol measurements to precipitation along its transport, this study shows that there is a substantial change in particle number size distributions and concentrations depending on the amount of rainfall during transport. During the southwest monsoon season, the aerosol size distribution was notably bimodal and total particle concentrations clearly reduced in comparison with the prevailing aerosol size distribution during the northeast monsoon season. Precipitation during transport usually corresponded with a greater reduction in accumulation mode concentrations than for smaller sizes, and the shape of the

In order to assess the global evolution of aerosol parameters affecting climate change, a long-term trend analyses of aerosol optical properties were performed on time series from 52 stations situated across five continents. The time series of measured scattering, backscattering and absorption coefficients as well as the derived single scattering albedo, backscattering fraction, scattering and absorption Ångström exponents covered at least 10 years and up to 40 years for some stations. The non-parametric seasonal Mann-Kendall (MK) statistical test associated with several prewhitening methods and with the Sen’s slope were used as main trend analysis methods. Comparisons with General Least Mean Square associated with Autoregressive Bootstrap (GLS/ARB) and with standard Least Mean Square analysis (LMS) enabled confirmation of the detected MK statistically significant trends and the assessment of advantages and limitations of each method. Currently, scattering and backscattering coefficients trends are mostly decreasing in Europe and North America and are not statistically significant in Asia, while polar stations exhibit a mix of increasing and decreasing trends. A few increasing trends are also found at some stations in North America and Australia. Absorption coefficients time series also exhibit primarily decreasing trends. For single scattering albedo, 52% of the sites exhibit statistically significant positive trends, mostly in Asia, Eastern/Northern Europe and Arctic, 18% of sites exhibit statistically significant negative trends, mostly in central Europe and central North America, while the remaining 30% of sites have trends, which are not statistically significant. In addition to evaluating trends for the overall time series, the evolution of the trends in sequential 10 year segments was also analyzed. For scattering and backscattering, statistically significant increasing 10 year trends are primarily found for earlier periods (10 year trends ending in 2010-2015

We investigated atmospheric new particle formation (NPF) in the Amazon rainforest using direct measurement methods. To our knowledge this is the first direct observation of NPF events in the Amazon region. However, previous observations elsewhere in Brazil showed the occurrence of nucleation-mode particles. Our measurements covered two field sites and both the wet and dry season. We measured the variability of air ion concentrations (0.8-12 nm) with an ion spectrometer between September 2011 and January 2014 at a rainforest site (T0t). Between February and October 2014, the same measurements were performed at a grassland pasture site (T3) as part of the GoAmazon 2014/5 experiment, with two intensive operating periods (IOP1 and IOP2 during the wet and the dry season, respectively). The GoAmazon 2014/5 experiment was designed to study the influence of anthropogenic emissions on the changing climate in the Amazon region. The experiment included basic aerosol and trace gas measurements at the ground, remote sensing instrumentation, and two aircraft-based measurements. The results presented in this work are from measurements performed at ground level at both sites. The site inside the rainforest (T0t) is located 60 km NNW of Manaus and influenced by pollution about once per week. The pasture (T3) site is located 70 km downwind from Manaus and influenced by the Manaus pollution plume typically once per day or every second day, especially in the afternoon. No NPF events were observed inside the rainforest (site T0t) at ground level during the measurement period. However, rain-induced ion and particle bursts (hereafter, rain events) occurred frequently (643 of 1031 days) at both sites during the wet and dry season, being most frequent during the wet season. During the rain events, the ion concentrations in three size ranges (0.8-2, 2-4, and 4-12 nm) increased up to about 10(4)-10(5) cm(-3). This effect was most pronounced in the intermediate and large size ranges, for which

Given the sensitivity of the Arctic climate to short-lived climate forcers, long-term in situ surface measurements of aerosol parameters are useful in gaining insight into the magnitude and variability of these climate forcings. Seasonality of aerosol optical properties - including the aerosol light-scattering coefficient, absorption coefficient, single-scattering albedo, scattering Angstrom exponent, and asymmetry parameter - are presented for six monitoring sites throughout the Arctic: Alert, Canada; Barrow, USA; Pallas, Finland; Summit, Greenland; Tiksi, Russia; and Zeppelin Mountain, Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, Norway. Results show annual variability in all parameters, though the seasonality of each aerosol optical property varies from site to site. There is a large diversity in magnitude and variability of scattering coefficient at all sites, reflecting differences in aerosol source, transport, and removal at different locations throughout the Arctic. Of the Arctic sites, the highest annual mean scattering coefficient is measured at Tiksi (12.47 Mm(-1)), and the lowest annual mean scattering coefficient is measured at Summit (1.74 Mm(-1)). At most sites, aerosol absorption peaks in the winter and spring, and has a minimum throughout the Arctic in the summer, indicative of the Arctic haze phenomenon; however, nuanced variations in seasonalities suggest that this phenomenon is not identically observed in all regions of the Arctic. The highest annual mean absorption coefficient is measured at Pallas (0.48 Mm(-1)), and Summit has the lowest annual mean absorption coefficient (0.12 Mm(-1)). At the Arctic monitoring stations analyzed here, mean annual single-scattering albedo ranges from 0.909 (at Pallas) to 0.960 (at Barrow), the mean annual scattering Angstrom exponent ranges from 1.04 (at Barrow) to 1.80 (at Summit), and the mean asymmetry parameter ranges from 0.57 (at Alert) to 0.75 (at Summit). Systematic variability of aerosol optical properties in the Arctic suppor

The Amazon Basin is a unique region to study atmospheric aerosols, given their relevance for the regional hydrological cycle and the large uncertainty of their sources. Multi-year datasets are crucial when contrasting periods of natural conditions and periods influenced by anthropogenic emissions. In the wet season, biogenic sources and processes prevail, and the Amazonian atmospheric composition resembles preindustrial conditions. In the dry season, the basin is influenced by widespread biomass burning emissions. This work reports multi-year observations of high time resolution submicrometer (10-600 nm) particle number size distributions at a rain forest site in Amazonia (TT34 tower, 60 km NW from Manaus city), between 2008 and 2010 and 2012 and 2014. The median particle number concentration was 403 cm(-3) in the wet season and 1254 cm(-3) in the dry season. The Aitken mode (similar to 30-100 nm in diameter) was prominent during the wet season, while the accumulation mode (similar to 100-600 nm in diameter) dominated the particle size spectra during the dry season. Cluster analysis identified groups of aerosol number size distributions influenced by convective downdrafts, nucleation events and fresh biomass burning emissions. New particle formation and subsequent growth was rarely observed during the 749 days of observations, similar to previous observations in the Amazon Basin. A stationary 1-D column model (ADCHEM Aerosol Dynamics, gas and particle phase CHEMistry and radiative transfer model) was used to assess the importance of the processes behind the observed diurnal particle size distribution trends. Three major particle source types are required in the model to reproduce the observations: (i) a surface source of particles in the evening, possibly related to primary biological emissions; (ii) entrainment of accumulation mode aerosols in the morning; and (iii) convective downdrafts transporting Aitken mode particles into the boundary layer mostly during the a

This paper presents the light-scattering properties of atmospheric aerosol particles measured over the past decade at 28 ACTRIS observatories, which are located mainly in Europe. The data include particle light scattering (sigma(sp)) and hemispheric backscattering (sigma(bsp)) coefficients, scattering Angstrom exponent (SAE), backscatter fraction (BF) and asymmetry parameter (g). An increasing gradient of sigma(sp) is observed when moving from remote environments (arctic/mountain) to regional and to urban environments. At a regional level in Europe, sigma(sp) also increases when moving from Nordic and Baltic countries and from western Europe to central/eastern Europe, whereas no clear spatial gradient is observed for other station environments. The SAE does not show a clear gradient as a function of the placement of the station. However, a west-to-east-increasing gradient is observed for both regional and mountain placements, suggesting a lower fraction of fine-mode particle in western/south-western Europe compared to central and eastern Europe, where the fine-mode particles dominate the scattering. The g does not show any clear gradient by station placement or geographical location reflecting the complex relationship of this parameter with the physical properties of the aerosol particles. Both the station placement and the geographical location are important factors affecting the intraannual variability. At mountain sites, higher sigma(sp) and SAE values are measured in the summer due to the enhanced boundary layer influence and/or new particle-formation episodes. Conversely, the lower horizontal and vertical dispersion during winter leads to higher sigma(sp) values at all low-altitude sites in central and eastern Europe compared to summer. These sites also show SAE maxima in the summer (with corresponding g minima). At all sites, both SAE and g show a strong variation with aerosol particle loading. The lowest values of g are always observed together with low sigma

This study presents and evaluates the most comprehensive set to date of chemical, physical and optical properties of aerosols in the outflow from South Asia covering a full winter (Nov. 2014 - March 2015), here intercepted at the Indian Ocean receptor site of the Maldives Climate Observatory in Hanimaadhoo (MCOH). Cluster analysis of air-mass back trajectories for MCOH, combined with AOD and meteorological data, demonstrate that the wintertime northern Indian Ocean is strongly influenced by aerosols transported from source regions with three major wind regimes, originating from the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), the Bay of Bengal (BoB) and the Arabian Sea (AS). As much as 97 +/- 3% of elemental carbon (EC) in the PM10 was also found in the fine mode (PM2.5). Other mainly anthropogenic constituents such as organic carbon (OC), non-sea-salt (nss) -K+, nss-SO42- and NH4+ were also predominantly in the fine mode (70-95%), particularly in the air masses from IGP. The combination at this large-footprint receptor observatory of consistently low OC/EC ratio (2.0 +/- 0.5), strong linear relationships between EC and OC as well as between nss-K+ and both OC and EC, suggest a predominance of primary sources, with a large biomass burning contribution. The particle number-size distributions for the air masses from IGP and BoB exhibited clear bimodal shapes within the fine fraction with distinct accumulation (0.1m0.03. Taken together, the aerosol pollution over the northern Indian Ocean in the dry season is dominated by a well-mixed long-range transported regime of the fine-mode aerosols largely from primary combustion origin.

Light-absorbing impurities (LAIs) deposited in snow have the potential to substantially affect the snow radiation budget, with subsequent implications for snow melt. To more accurately quantify the snow albedo, the contribution from different LAIs needs to be assessed. Here we estimate the main LAI components, elemental carbon (EC) (as a proxy for black carbon) and mineral dust in snow from the Indian Himalayas and paired the results with snow samples from Arctic Finland. The impurities are collected onto quartz filters and are analyzed thermal-optically for EC, as well as with an additional optical measurement to estimate the light-absorption of dust separately on the filters. Laboratory tests were conducted using substrates containing soot and mineral particles, especially prepared to test the experimental setup. Analyzed ambient snow samples show EC concentrations that are in the same range as presented by previous research, for each respective region. In terms of the mass absorption cross section (MAC) our ambient EC surprisingly had about half of the MAC value compared to our laboratory standard EC (chimney soot), suggesting a less light absorptive EC in the snow, which has consequences for the snow albedo reduction caused by EC. In the Himalayan samples, larger contributions by dust (in the range of 50% or greater for the light absorption caused by the LAI) highlighted the importance of dust acting as a light absorber in the snow. Moreover, EC concentrations in the Indian samples, acquired from a 120 cm deep snow pit (possibly covering the last five years of snow fall), suggest an increase in both EC and dust deposition. This work emphasizes the complexity in determining the snow albedo, showing that LAI concentrations alone might not be sufficient, but additional transient effects on the light-absorbing properties of the EC need to be considered and studied in the snow. Equally as imperative is the confirmation of the spatial and temporal representativeness o

Several types of filter-based instruments are used to estimate aerosol light absorption coefficients. Two significant results are presented based on Aethalometer measurements at six Arctic stations from 2012 to 2014. First, an alternative method of post-processing the Aethalometer data is presented, which reduces measurement noise and lowers the detection limit of the instrument more effectively than box-car averaging. The biggest benefit of this approach can be achieved if instrument drift is minimised. Moreover, by using an attenuation threshold criterion for data post-processing, the relative uncertainty from the electronic noise of the instrument is kept constant. This approach results in a time series with a variable collection time (Delta t) but with a constant relative uncertainty with regard to electronic noise in the instrument. An additional advantage of this method is that the detection limit of the instrument will be lowered at small aerosol concentrations at the expense of temporal resolution, whereas there is little to no loss in temporal resolution at high aerosol concentrations (>2.1-6.7Mm(-1) as measured by the Aethalometers). At high aerosol concentrations, minimising the detection limit of the instrument is less critical. Additionally, utilising co-located filter-based absorption photometers, a correction factor is presented for the Arctic that can be used in Aethalometer corrections available in literature. The correction factor of 3.45 was calculated for low-elevation Arctic stations. This correction factor harmonises Aethalometer attenuation coefficients with light absorption coefficients as measured by the co-located light absorption photometers. Using one correction factor for Arctic Aethalometers has the advantage that measurements between stations become more inter-comparable.

This investigation presents the variability of near-surface in-situ aerosol particle light scattering measurements obtained over the past decade at 28 measuring atmospheric observatories which are part of the ACTRIS Research Infrastructure and most of them belong to the GAW network. This manuscript provides a comprehensive picture of the spatial and temporal variability of aerosol particles optical properties in Europe.