Title: The influence of vehicle emission characteristics and meteorological conditions on urban N02 concentrations

Authors: Jari Harkonen, Jaakko Kukkonen, Esko Valkonen, An Karppinen

Addresses: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Air Quality Research, Sahaajankatu, 20 E, FIN-00810 Helsinki, Finland. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Air Quality Research, Sahaajankatu, 20 E, FIN-00810 Helsinki, Finland. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Air Quality Research, Sahaajankatu, 20 E, FIN-00810 Helsinki, Finland. Finnish Meteorological Institute, Air Quality Research, Sahaajankatu, 20 E, FIN-00810 Helsinki, Finland

Abstract: A major fraction of nitrogen oxides released from traffic is commonly nitrogen monoxide (NO); however, the proportion of NO2 in exhaust emissions can range from less than 1% to more than 50%. The released NO is chemically transformed into the more harmful nitrogen dioxide (NO2); the reaction time-scale is typically a few minutes in urban daylight conditions. This paper presents numerical results concerning the influence of the tailpipe NO2/NOx fraction and meteorological conditions on the ambient air NO2 concentrations. We have applied the road network dispersion model CAR-FMI in the computations.

Keywords: dispersion of air pollutants; nitrogen dioxide; vehicle emissions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.1998.001823

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 1998 Vol.20 No.1/2/3/4, pp.125-130

Published online: 18 Aug 2003 *

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