EMeRGe: Effect of Megacities on the Transport and Transformation of Pollutants on the Regional to Global Scales

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The number and size of major population centers (MPCs) is increasing worldwide. The investigation of the impact of transport and transformation of plumes from MPC has lately received much attention in the scientific community but our knowledge is still quite limited and inadequate. EMeRGe exploits the unique capabilities of the new HALO aircraft research platform to investigate the impact of MPC emissions on air pollution at local, regional and hemispheric scales by making airborne campaigns, coupled with interpretation and modelling of primarily the short lived climate pollutants, i.e. reactive gases, temporary reservoirs, and aerosol. A secondary objective is to infer the changes in radiative forcing resulting from MPC emissions. One focus is the study of the transport and transformation of plumes from selected European and Asian MPC with special focus on the rate of formation of ozone and aerosols. Data from the satellite fleet operated by ESA and EUMETSAT, which in comparison to that from HALO, has low spatial resolution but regional and global coverage, will also be used to complement and enhance the interpretation of the unique snapshot of key atmospheric parameters and trace constituents provided by the EMeRGe measurement payload on HALO. Two campaigns using an optimized payload of measurements on HALO based in Europe and Asia are planned. The combined set of data from HALO, ground based and satellite instrumentation will be used to synergistically constrain our knowledge and test our understanding. In addition the EMeRGe airborne measurements will provide a unique opportunity for validation and upscaling of satellite data products. In EMeRGe the composition of the plumes entering and leaving Europe and leaving Asia will be measured by performing optimized transects and vertical profiling. This strategy enables the outflow from a variety of MPCs to be studied in quasi-Lagrangian approach and therefore to identify differences and commonalities in the transport, and transformation of the outflow. Key scientific questions of the analysis will be the dispersion and transport patterns, the factors dominating the chemical transformation of MPCs emissions, the regional and hemispheric effects of European and Asian MPCs of atmospheric composition, the relevance of emission from European and Asian MPCs for radiative forcing and climate change and the adequacy of chemical models for the simulation of transport and transformation processes of European and Asian MPC plumes. An overarching objective of EMeRGe is to stimulate measurements and modelling studies, within an international EMeRGe research partnership with the European, Asian, and American science community. This will facilitate a much more comprehensive integrated analysis of all set of observational data products (i.e. aircraft, ground and satellite based data), making EMeRGe a milestone in the study of the transport and transformation of plumes from MPCs.