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The decarbonisation of carbon-intensive sectors is a fundamental task for the achievement of future environmental goals. Within the challenge of industrial decarbonisation, oil refining represents a hard-to-abate sector, considering that it is characterised by CO2 emissions deriving from multiple units and at different levels of concentration and flow rate. Therefore, pathways for the separation and conversion of such CO2 into products (e.g., synthetic fuels) may cover an important role in the reduction of CO2 emissions from refineries. The objective of this study is the technical design and economic evaluation of a conversion pathway for the production of CO2 and green H2-based e-Fuel methanol (i.e., based on conventional electrolysis), as juxtaposed to an alternative process concept based on electrified reforming er-Fuel methanol. Such plants are modelled in terms of mass and energy balances in Aspen Plus® software to produce methanol. Then, an economic assessment is carried out to highlight the best design configurations and compare the production costs. Optimal plants configurations are determined by fine-tuning the level of light products recycles, to minimise the feed of green H2 and maximise the performance indicators. Results demonstrate how the er-Fuel configuration allows better conversion efficiencies and lower production costs, in the order of 30-40 % reduction with respect to the e-Fuel design.

A parameterization for secondary organic aerosol (SOA) production based on the volatility basis set (VBS) approach has been coupled with microphysics and radiative schemes in the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model. The new chemistry option called "RACM-MADE-VBS-AQCHEM" was evaluated on a cloud resolving scale against ground-based and aircraft measurements collected during the IMPACT-EUCAARI (Intensive Cloud Aerosol Measurement Campaign – European Integrated project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air quality interaction) campaign, and complemented with satellite data from MODIS. The day-to-day variability and the diurnal cycle of ozone (O3) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) at the surface are captured by the model. Surface aerosol mass concentrations of sulfate (SO4), nitrate (NO3), ammonium (NH4), and organic matter (OM) are simulated with correlations larger than 0.55. WRF-Chem captures the vertical profile of the aerosol mass concentration in both the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and free troposphere (FT) as a function of the synoptic condition, but the model does not capture the full range of the measured concentrations. Predicted OM concentration is at the lower end of the observed mass concentrations. The bias may be attributable to the missing aqueous chemistry processes of organic compounds and to uncertainties in meteorological fields. A key role could be played by assumptions on the VBS approach such as the SOA formation pathways, oxidation rate, and dry deposition velocity of organic condensable vapours. Another source of error in simulating SOA is the uncertainties in the anthropogenic emissions of primary organic carbon. Aerosol particle number concentration (condensation nuclei, CN) is overestimated by a factor of 1.4 and 1.7 within the PBL and FT, respectively. Model bias is most likely attributable to the uncertainties of primary particle emissions (mostly in the PBL) and to the nucleation rate. Simulated cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are also overestimated, but the bias is more contained with respect to that of CN. The CCN efficiency, which is a characterization of the ability of aerosol particles to nucleate cloud droplets, is underestimated by a factor of 1.5 and 3.8 in the PBL and FT, respectively. The comparison with MODIS data shows that the model overestimates the aerosol optical thickness (AOT). The domain averages (for 1 day) are 0.38 ± 0.12 and 0.42 ± 0.10 for MODIS and WRF-Chem data, respectively. The droplet effective radius (Re) in liquid-phase clouds is underestimated by a factor of 1.5; the cloud liquid water path (LWP) is overestimated by a factor of 1.1–1.6. The consequence is the overestimation of average liquid cloud optical thickness (COT) from a few percent up to 42 %. The predicted cloud water path (CWP) in all phases displays a bias in the range +41–80 %, whereas the bias of COT is about 15 %. In sensitivity tests where we excluded SOA, the skills of the model in reproducing the observed patterns and average values of the microphysical and optical properties of liquid and all phase clouds decreases. Moreover, the run without SOA (NOSOA) shows convective clouds with an enhanced content of liquid and frozen hydrometers, and stronger updrafts and downdrafts. Considering that the previous version of WRF-Chem coupled with a modal aerosol module predicted very low SOA content (secondary organic aerosol model (SORGAM) mechanism) the new proposed option may lead to a better characterization of aerosol–cloud feedbacks.

Global DEMs are fundamental for global applications and are necessary also at the local scale, in regions where local models are not available. Local DEMs are preferred when they are available and if are characterized by better accuracies and resolutions. In general, two problems arise. Firstly, an interest region could be patched by several partly overlapping DEMs that present similar accuracies and spatial resolutions: they should be merged in a unified model. Moreover, even when the interest region is covered by one unified DEM, local DEMs with better accuracy could be available and should be used to locally improve it. All these problems have been addressed within HELI-DEM project. HELI-DEM (HELvetia-Italy Digital Elevation Model) is a project that has been funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the Italy-Switzerland cooperation program. It started in 2010 and finished at the end of 2013. The involved institutions in the project were Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, Regione Lombardia, Regione Piemonte and Scuola Universitaria della Svizzera Italiana. One specific aim of the project was the creation and the publication of a unified Digital Elevation Model for the part of the Alps between Italy and Switzerland. The interest area is prevalently mountainous, with heights that range from about 200 m to 4600 m. Three low Resolution DTMs (20–25–50 m of resolution) are available that partly overlap and patch the whole project area: they are characterized by accuracies of some meters. Also High Resolution DTMs (1–5 m) are available: they have accuracies of some decimeters but cover limited areas of the project. The various models are available in different reference frames (the European ETRF89 and the Italian Roma40) and are gridded either in cartographic or geographic coordinates. Before merging them, a validation of the input data has been performed in three steps: cross validation of LR DTMs, validation of LR DTMs by HR DTMs and final check by geodetic techniques. The comparisons confirm the accuracy of HR data and the presence of few local anomalies in LR DTMs. Considering the goal of the project and the previous results, two different DTMs have been produced. Both of them cover the whole project area (boundaries: λ = 7.80° East and λ = 10.70° East, φ = 45.10° North e φ = 46.70° North). They are gridded in ETRF2000 geographical coordinates and their spatial resolution is 2 × 10−4 degrees. The former has been obtained by interpolating and merging all the input LR DTMs on a new common grid. This DTM has been called HD-1. HD-1 presents the same local anomalies of the LR DTMs used as input for the interpolation: therefore, at least in areas where better data (HR DTMs) are available, its correction was needed. In order to avoid sharp discontinuities, corrections obtained by HR DTMs have been filtered by a numerical FFT approach before applying them. The result of this correction has been called HD-2. HD-1 and HD-2 have already been published by an open access geoservice.

A four-channel thermal dissociation laser induced fluorescence (TD-LIF) instrument has been developed for simultaneous measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), total peroxy nitrate (∑PNs), total alkyl nitrate (∑ANs) and nitric acid (HNO3). NO2 is measured directly by LIF at 532 nm, whereas organic nitrates and nitric acid are thermally dissociated at distinct temperatures in the inlet to form NO2, which is then measured by LIF. The concentrations of each dissociated species are derived by the differences in measured NO2 relative to the reference colder inlet channel. The TD-LIF was adapted to fly on board the UK Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) BAe 146-301 atmospheric research aircraft in summer 2010, and to date has successfully flown in five field campaigns. This paper reports novel improvements in the TD-LIF instrumentations, including (1) the use of a single wavelength laser, which makes the system compact and relatively cheap; (2) the use of a single beam laser that allows easy alignment and optical stability against the vibrational aircraft environment; and (3) the optical assembly of four detection cells that allow simultaneous and fast (time resolution up to 0.1 s) measurements of NO2, ∑PNs, ∑ANs and HNO3. Laboratory-generated mixtures of PNs, ANs and HNO3 in zero air are converted into NO2 and used to fix the dissociation temperatures of each heated inlet to test the selectivity of the instrument and potential interferences due to recombination reactions of the dissociated products. The effectiveness of the TD-LIF was demonstrated during the RONOCO aircraft campaign (summer 2010). A chemiluminescence system that was measuring NO2 and a broadband cavity enhanced absorption spectrometer (BBCEAS) that was measuring one of the PNs (N2O5) were installed on the same aircraft during the campaign. The in-flight intercomparison of the new TD-LIF with the chemiluminescence system for NO2 measurements and the intercomparison between ∑PNs measured by the TD-LIF and N2O5 by the BBCEAS are used to assess the performance of the TD-LIF.

Emission of non-methane Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) to the atmosphere stems from biogenic and human activities, and their estimation is difficult because of the many and not fully understood processes involved. In order to narrow down the uncertainty related to VOC emissions, which negatively reflects on our ability to simulate the atmospheric composition, we exploit satellite observations of formaldehyde (HCHO), an ubiquitous oxidation product of most VOCs, focusing on Europe. HCHO column observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) reveal a marked seasonal cycle with a summer maximum and winter minimum. In summer, the oxidation of methane and other long-lived VOCs supply a slowly varying background HCHO column, while HCHO variability is dominated by most reactive VOC, primarily biogenic isoprene followed in importance by biogenic terpenes and anthropogenic VOCs. The chemistry-transport model CHIMERE qualitatively reproduces the temporal and spatial features of the observed HCHO column, but display regional biases which are attributed mainly to incorrect biogenic VOC emissions, calculated with the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosol from Nature (MEGAN) algorithm. These "bottom-up" or a-priori emissions are corrected through a Bayesian inversion of the OMI HCHO observations. Resulting "top-down" or a-posteriori isoprene emissions are lower than "bottom-up" by 40% over the Balkans and by 20% over Southern Germany, and higher by 20% over Iberian Peninsula, Greece and Italy. We conclude that OMI satellite observations of HCHO can provide a quantitative "top-down" constraint on the European "bottom-up" VOC inventories.

The diurnal variation of regional wind patterns in the complex terrain of Central Italy was investigated for summer fair-weather conditions and winter time periods using a radar wind profiler. The profiler is located on a site where interaction between the complex topography and land-surface produces a variety of thermally and dynamically driven wind systems. The observational data set, collected for a period of one year, was used first to describe the diurnal evolution of thermal driven winds, second to validate the Mesoscale Model 5 (MM5) that is a three-dimensional numerical model. This type of analysis was focused on the near-surface wind observation, since thermally driven winds occur in the lower atmosphere. According to the valley wind theory expectations, the site – located on the left sidewall of the valley (looking up valley) – experiences a clockwise turning with time. Same characteristics in the behavior were established in both the experimental and numerical results. Because the thermally driven flows can have some depth and may be influenced mainly by model errors, as a third step the analysis focuses on a subset of cases to explore four different MM5 Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) parameterizations. The reason is to test how the results are sensitive to the selected PBL parameterization, and to identify the better parameterization if it is possible. For this purpose we analysed the MM5 output for the whole PBL levels. The chosen PBL parameterizations are: 1) Gayno-Seaman; 2) Medium-Range Forecast; 3) Mellor-Yamada scheme as used in the ETA model; and 4) Blackadar.

The increased number of extreme rainfall events seems to be one of the common feature of climate change signal all over the world (Easterlin et al., 2000; Meehl et al., 2000). In the last few years a large number of floods caused by extreme meteorological events has been observed over the river basins of Mediterranean area and they mainly affected small basins (few hundreds until few thousands of square kilometres of drainage area) . A strategic goal of applied meteorology is now to try to predict with high spatial resolution the segments of drainage network where floods may occur. A possible way to reach this aim is the coupling of meteorological mesoscale model with high resolution hydrological model. In this work few case studies of observed floods in the Italian Mediterranean area will be presented. It is shown how a distributed hydrological model, using the precipitation fields predicted by MM5 meteorological model, is able to highlight the area where the major floods may occur.

We describe a sequential assimilation approach useful for assimilating tracer measurements into a three-dimensional chemical transport model (CTM) of the stratosphere. The numerical code, developed largely according to Kha00, uses parameterizations and simplifications allowing assimilation of sparse observations and the simultaneous evaluation of analysis errors, with reasonable computational requirements. Assimilation parameters are set by using χ2 and OmF (Observation minus Forecast) statistics. The CTM used here is a high resolution three-dimensional model. It includes a detailed chemical package and is driven by UKMO (United Kingdom Meteorological Office) analyses. We illustrate the method using assimilation of Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite/Microwave Limb Sounder (UARS/MLS) ozone observations for three weeks during the 1996 antarctic spring. The comparison of results from the simulations with TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) measurements shows improved total ozone fields due to assimilation of MLS observations. Moreover, the assimilation gives indications on a possible model weakness in reproducing polar ozone values during springtime.

The drainage of the Fucino Lake of central Italy was completed in 1873, and this possibly caused significant climatic changes over the Fucino basin. In this paper we discuss a set of short-term triple-nested regional model simulations of the meteorological effects of the Fucino Lake on the surrounding region. We find that the model simulates realistic lake-breeze circulations and their response to background winds. The simulations indicate that the lake affects the temperature of the surrounding basin in all seasons and precipitation in the cold season, when cyclonic perturbations move across the region. Some effects of the lake also extend over areas quite far from the Fucino basin. Our results support the hypothesis that the drainage of the lake might have significantly affected the climate of the lake basin. However, longer simulations and further development in some aspects of the model are needed, in order to provide a more statistically robust evaluation of the simulated lake-effects.Key words. Hydrology (anthropogenic effects) – Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics (climatology; mesoscale meteorology)

A three-dimensional (3-D) Chemical Transport Model (CTM) of the stratosphere has been developed and used for a test study of the evolution of chemical species in the arctic lower stratosphere during winter 1996/97. This particular winter has been chosen for testing the model’s capabilities for its remarkable dynamical situation (very cold and strong polar vortex) along with the availability of sparse chlorine, HNO3 and O3 data, showing also very low O3 values in late March/April. Due to those unusual features, the winter 1996/97 can be considered an excellent example of the impact of both dynamics and heterogeneous reactions on the chemistry of the stratosphere. Model integration has been performed from January to March 1997 and the resulting long-lived and short-lived tracer fields compared with available measurements. The model includes a detailed gas phase chemical scheme and a parameterization of the heterogeneous reactions occurring on liquid aerosol and polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) surfaces. The transport is calculated using a semi-lagrangian flux scheme, forced by meteorological analyses. In such form, the STRATAQ CTM model is suitable for short-term integrations to study transport and chemical evolution related to "real" meteorological situations. Model simulation during the chosen winter shows intense PSC formation, with noticeable local HNO3 capture by PSCs, and the activation of vortex air leading to chlorine production and subsequent O3 destruction. The resulting model fields show generally good agreement with satellite data (MLS and TOMS), although the available observations, due to their limited number and time/space sparse nature, are not enough to effectively constraint the model. In particular, the model seems to perform well in reproducing the rapid processing of air inside the polar vortex on PSC converting reservoir species in active chlorine. In addition, it satisfactorily reproduces the morphology of the continuous O3 decline as shown by the satellite during the investigated period, with a tendency, however, to underestimate the total column values inside the polar vortex during late winter. As possible causes of this model/observation difference we suggest an incorrect estimation of the vertical transport and of the tropospheric contribution.Key words. Atmospheric composition and structure (Middle atmosphere-composition and chemistry) Meterology and atmospheric dynamics (middle atmosphere dynamics)

Se describe la asociación de marsupiales sudamericanos fósiles de edad Huayqueriense (Mioceno tardío) más completa hasta ahora conocida. Los ejemplares fueron exhumados de varias localidades fosilíferas nuevas del centro y norte de la provincia de La Pampa (Argentina central), en sedimentos asignables a la Formación Cerro Azul: Bajo Giuliani, Quehué, Telén, El Guanaco y Laguna Chillhué. El conjunto de las sedimentitas loessoides analizadas en los diferentes afloramientos de esta formación indica la existencia de depósitos lacustres en la base, a los que suprayacen niveles eólicos, ambos con evidencias pedogenéticas. El análisis de estas sedimentitas en cada una de las localidades estudiadas, permitió correlacionarlas en un perfil integrado de la Formación Cerro Azul. Esta formación es correlacionable con la «Formación Epecuén», al menos en la localidad Salinas Grandes de Hidalgo y, probablemente, con los términos superiores de la Formación Arroyo Chasicó. Los marsupiales fósiles exhumados representan la casi totalidad de los grandes linajes (órdenes) de este grupo existentes en América del Sur durante el Neógeno. El didélfido marmosino Zygolestes tatei sp. nov. se distingue de la especie tipo del género por su tamaño algo mayor, el tercer premolar inferior no reducido y por la menor reducción del metacónido en el último molar inferior. Otro marmosino, Thylamys pinei sp. nov., se diferencia del resto de los Marmosini conocidos por la gran proximidad entre el paracónido y el metacónido en los molares inferiores y la gran anchura del talónido en el m4. Los marmosinos Monodelphini Thylatheridium hudsoni y T. dolgopolae están abundantemente representados en varias localidades de esta formación y su análisis confirme las estrechas afinidades existentes entre este género y Monodelphis. Unos pocos ejemplares permiten reconocer la presencia de los didelfinos Hyperdidelphys pattersoni y una especie indeterminada de Lutreolina en esta fauna. Un fragmento mandibular incluyendo parte del último molar, podría constituir el registro más antiguo de un Sparassocynidae para el centro de Argentina. Los Borhyaenidae y Thylacosmilidae (Sparassodonta) también están representados por unos pocos restos sumamente fragmentarios. Pliolestes venetus sp. nov. (Paucituberculata, Caenolestidae) se distingue de la especie tipo del género por su menor tamaño y el mayor desarrollo y menor desplazamiento del metacónido en el primer molar inferior. Microtragulus rusconii (Argirolagida, Argirolagidae) es generalizada con respecto a las otras especies del género por la menor reducción del talónido del m4, y mantiene más afinidades con M. catamarcensis que con M. reigi. Hyperdidelphys, Lutreolina, Thylatheridium, Achlysictis y, tal vez, Microtragulus constituyen géneros comunes con aquellos procedentes de los niveles superiores del Valle de Santa María y Puerta de Corral Quemado en la provincia de Catamarca (noroeste de Argentina). Pliolestes y Zygolestes constituyen por el contrario taxones exclusivos de la Formación Cerro Azul para el centro de Argentina durante la edad Huayqueriense. La asociación de marsupiales exhumada en la Formación Cerro Azul es la más abundante del Mioceno tardío de América del Sur. Su composición taxonómica confirma hipótesis previas sobre el importante recambio faunístico ocurrido en este continente como consecuencia de los cambios climático-ambientales que allí se produjeron a partir de mediados del Mioceno.

A photochemical-transport two-dimensional model has been used to assess the impact of a projected fleet of high-speed stratospheric aircraft using different emissions scenarios. It is shown that the presence in the background atmosphere of nitric acid trihydrate aerosols is responsible for a lower stratospheric denoxification in addition to that caused by the sulfate aerosol layer. This has the effect of further decreasing the relative role of the odd nitrogen catalytic cycle for ozone destruction, so that the lower stratosphere is primarily controlled by chlorine species. The effect of aircraft injection of nitric oxides is that of decreasing the level of ClO, so that the lower stratospheric ozone (below about 20-25 km altitude) increases. The net effect on global ozone is that of a small increase even at Mach 2.4, and is enhanced by adopting emission scenarios including altitude restriction at 15 or 18 km. Reductions of the emission index (EI) of nitric oxides below relatively small values (about 15) are shown to reduce the aircraft-induced ozone increase, because of the associated smaller decrease of ClO. This conclusion is no more valid when the emission index is raised at the present values (about 45).

Recent and repeated episodes of severe weather in Italy have stressed the need to have a suffi ciently accurate forecast to give adequate warning to the involved areas. The impact of the precipitation, however, is also a function of the characteristics of the hydrological basin. From this point of view, a rather startling example is the disaster which hit the Campania region on 5th May, 1998 in which a moderate precipitation (about 100 mm in 24 h) produced a huge landslide which killed or injured several tens of people and produced serious damage to the area. Such localized events require among other things the use of a high resolution weather forecast. In this paper, a forecast of the Campania event using a limited area model at 3 km grid resolution is presented. The forecast rainfall at several grid resolution is used to initialize a simple hydrological model to estimate the run-off. The numerical experiments suggest that high resolution may be a key factor in predicting the run-off.

Para estudiar la dispersión global de la nube volcánica de la erupción de El Chichón utilizarnos el modelo tridimensional de circulación de la estratosfera desarrollado en el MIT-GIT. El modelo dependiente del tiempo se corrió para cuatro meses hasta fines de octubre de 1982. El inicio se proporcionó mediante las mediciones de la distribución del aerosol en latitud y altitud. La comparación de los resultados con los datos experimentales hecha los días 105 y 120 a partir del comienzo de la simulación muestra una concordancia razonable, si bien la concentración resultante del modelo está recorrida hacia arriba debido a que no se toma en cuenta la velocidad de sedimentación de las partículas. Se presentan también las medias mensuales de la sección latitud-longitud de la tasa de extinción, que muestran considerable heterogeneidad. Se utilizó un cÓdigo de dispersión radiativa múltiple para valorar las tasas de calentamiento introducidas por un 75 % de aerosol de ácido sulfúrico. En el primer mes se predijo un aumento de hasta 2° en la temperatura. doi: https://doi.org/10.22201/igeof.00167169p.1984.23.3.1161

Reportamos mediciones lidar de la perturbación en la carga de polvo atmosférico producida por la erupción volcánica de El Chichón. Las mediciones abarcan un período de 19 meses y se toman en una estación de latitud media. El análisis de la tasa de dispersión de fondo y la dispersión de fondo integrada como una función de la altitud muestra que hasta fines del verano de 1982, contribuían a la densidad óptica principalmente las capas de elevada altitud (≥ 25 km). Desde el otoño de 1982 la llegada de la nube principal a latitud media formó una sola capa amplia que se extendía de 15 a 30 km. La lenta disminución en la altitud de esta capa, 7 - 8 km en 12 meses, se atribuye en parte a la circulación general y a las velocidades de asentamiento de las partículas de polvo. Se muestra que nuestros datos de densidad óptica son compatibles con otras mediciones similares independientes. doi: https://doi.org/10.22201/igeof.00167169p.1984.23.2.839

A photochemical-transport two-dimensional model has been used to assess the impact of a projected fleet of high-speed stratospheric aircraft using different emissions scenarios. It is shown that the presence in the background atmosphere of nitric acid trihydrate aerosols is responsible for a lower stratospheric denoxification in addition to that caused by the sulfate aerosol layer. This has the effect of further decreasing the relative role of the odd nitrogen catalytic cycle for ozone destruction, so that the lower stratosphere is primarily controlled by chlorine species. The effect of aircraft injection of nitric oxides is that of decreasing the level of ClO, so that the lower stratospheric ozone (below about 20-25 km altitude) increases. The net effect on global ozone is that of a small increase even at Mach 2.4, and is enhanced by adopting emission scenarios including altitude restriction at 15 or 18 km. Reductions of the emission index (EI) of nitric oxides below relatively small values (about 15) are shown to reduce the aircraft-induced ozone increase, because of the associated smaller decrease of ClO. This conclusion is no more valid when the emission index is raised at the present values (about 45).