SENSITIVITY OF AMMONIA EMISSIONS TO SPATIAL-TEMPORAL
VARIATIONS IN CLIMATE AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Sensitivity of ammonia emissions to spatial-temporal variations in climate and climate change
C. Geels (1) and C. A. Skjøth (2)
1
Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, P. O. Box.
358
DK-4000, Roskilde, Denmark. cag@dmu.dk
2
National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit, University of Worcester, Henwick Grove,
Worcester , WR2 6AJ, United Kingdom.
Ammonia plays an important role in many atmospheric processes and the amount that is
emitted is causing a cascade of effects in relation to human health and ecosystems. The
geographical distribution of ammonia emission has been highly studied, while the temporal
variations have been somewhat neglected. Climate and daily meteorology affects the temporal
distribution and the amount of ammonia emissions. This forms an important feed-back
mechanism e.g. by changing ammonia emissions thus affecting aerosol composition and the
sensitive ecosystems through associated nitrogen depositions. This feed-back mechanism has
so far been overlooked in climate change and earth system science studies. As part of the EU
project ECLAIRE the sensitivity of ammonia emissions to driving parameters are studied.
In this presentation we give an overview of a dynamical method for modelling temporal and
geographical variations in ammonia emissions developed in Denmark. Within ECLAIRE, the
method is extended to European scale for use in Chemistry Transport Models (CTM) and
Chemistry Climate Models (CCM). Here we investigate the spatio-temporal variability of the
ammonia emissions related to geographical and year-to-year variations in temperature alone.
For simplicity we study the processes on the emission from a storage associated to a standard
storage facility that is deployed in Central and Northern Europe. This study has recently been
published in Atmos. Chem. Phys.
The model results show for example that emissions can vary with 20% by changing
geographical location within a country or due to annual variations in overall climate.
Projected changes in climate towards year 2100 can lead to an increase of up to 40% in the
ammonia emissions across Central and Northern Europe.
In relation to ozone and future air quality, the term “climate penalty” is often used, which
means that stronger emission controls will be needed to meet a given future air quality
standard . Our results indicate that the same term can be used for ammonia as the projected
change in climate alone will lead to increased emission of ammonia.