Emissions and emission modelling

Emissions are a key input for any air quality/chemistry transport model. At TNO, a dedicated team of experts is working on quantification and spatial/temporal distribution of emissions, as input to air quality and climate modelling, but also as input to policy related studies at national or EU scale.

TNO’s emissions team has developed its own spatially resolved emission inventory at high-resolution for the regional (European) scale which is widely used by modellers throughout Europe and beyond. The TNO_MACC/CAMS emission inventories are available at high resolution (1/8° x 1/16°, lon-lat, equivalent to around 7x7km over Europe). The inventory is based to a large extent on the official country emissions as the European countries report these to the EU, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, applying. The standard emission inventory contains emissions for key air pollutants such as NOx, SO2, NMVOC, NH3, CO and primary particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), and greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4). For details please refer to Kuenen et al. (2014).

The latest available emission data have been developed as part of CAMS (Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service). For access to emission data, please refer to the Product Catalogue.

Dedicated emission inventories or descriptions, e.g. for wood burning, soil NOx and road resuspension, have also been developed and used in LOTOS-EUROS. In addition, emission inventories for other pollutants such as heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants have been developed by TNO’s emissions team.

Current efforts focus (amongst others) on improving temporal resolution of emissions by developing improved time profiles and coupling with actual meteorology (e.g. for emissions from agriculture and from residential combustion).