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Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common geography, historical, social, and cultural identity. The concept of "Central Europe" appeared in the 19th century. Central Europe comprises most of the former territories of the Holy Roman Empire and those of the two neighboring kingdoms of Poland and Hungary. Hungary and parts of Poland were later part of the Habsburg monarchy. Unlike their counterparts in the rest of Europe, Central European powers historically had very few colonies or territories. After World War II, Central Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain (as agreed by the Big Three at the Yalta Conference and the Potsdam Conference) into two parts, the capitalist Western Bloc and the communist Eastern Bloc, although Switzerland, Yugoslavia, and Austria declared neutrality. The Berlin Wall was one of the most visible symbols of this division. Central Europe began a "strategic awakening" in the late 20th and early 21st century

A global model study of ozone enhancement during the August 2003 heat wave in Europe

The European summer of 2003 was characterised by intense heat, prolonged isolation and suppressed ventilation of the boundary layer which, combined with large anthropogenic emissions and strong fires, resulted in a build up of an unprecedentedly high and long-lasting photochemical smog over large parts of the continent. In this work, a global chemistry and transport model GEOS-Chern is compared with surface O-3 concentrations observed in 2003 in order to examine the extent to which the model is capable of reproducing such an extreme event. The GEOS-Chem reproduces the temporal variation of O-3 at the Jungfraujoch mountain site, Switzerland, including the enhanced concentrations associated with the August 2003 heat wave (r = 0.84). The spatial distribution of the enhanced surface O-3 over Spain, France, Germany and Italy is also captured to some extent (r = 0.63), although the largest concentrations appear to be located over the Italian Peninsula in the model rather than over Central Europe as suggested by the surface O-3 observations. In general, the observed differences between the European averaged O-3 concentrations in the summer of 2003 to those in 2004 are larger in the observations than in the model, as the model reproduces relatively well the enhanced levels in 2003 but overestimates those observed in 2004. Preliminary contributions of various sources to the O-3 surface concentrations over Europe during the heat wave indicate that anthropogenic emissions from Europe contribute the most to the O-3 build up near the surface (40 to 50%, i.e. 30 ppb). The contribution from anthropogenic emissions from the other major source regions of the northern hemisphere, in particular North America, tends to be smaller than those of other years. The model indicates that the large fires that occurred in that year contributed up to 5% (3 ppb) to surface O-3 in close proximity to the fire regions and less elsewhere in Europe. Biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by grass and forest areas contributed up to 10% (5-6 ppb) of surface O-3 over France, Germany and northern Italy, which represents a contribution that is twice as large than that found in 2004. These results in terms of contributions from various sources, particularly biogenic emissions, should be seen as preliminary, as the response of vegetation to such extreme events may not be well represented in the model.

2007

Four-dimensional distribution of the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull volcanic cloud over Europe observed by EARLINET

Ivan Videnov Grigorov, Valentin Mitev, Ilya Serikov, Valentin Simeonov, Frank Rüdiger Wagner, Xiao Wang

The eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull in April-May 2010 represents a "natural experiment" to study the impact of volcanic emissions on a continental scale. For the first time, quantitative data about the presence, altitude, and layering of the volcanic cloud, in conjunction with optical information, are available for most parts of Europe derived from the observations by the European Aerosol Research Lidar NETwork (EARLINET). Based on multi-wavelength Raman lidar systems, EARLINET is the only instrument worldwide that is able to provide dense time series of high-quality optical data to be used for aerosol typing and for the retrieval of particle microphysical properties as a function of altitude. In this work we show the four-dimensional (4-D) distribution of the Eyjafjallajokull volcanic cloud in the troposphere over Europe as observed by EARLINET during the entire volcanic event (15 April-26 May 2010). All optical properties directly measured (backscatter, extinction, and particle linear depolarization ratio) are stored in the EARLINET database available at www.earlinet.org. A specific relational database providing the volcanic mask over Europe, realized ad hoc for this specific event, has been developed and is available on request at www.earlinet.org. During the first days after the eruption, volcanic particles were detected over Central Europe within a wide range of altitudes, from the upper troposphere down to the local planetary boundary layer (PBL). After 19 April 2010, volcanic particles were detected over southern and south-eastern Europe. During the first half of May (5-15 May), material emitted by the Eyjafjallajokull volcano was detected over Spain and Portugal and then over the Mediterranean and the Balkans. The last observations of the event were recorded until 25 May in Central Europe and in the Eastern Mediterranean area. The 4-D distribution of volcanic aerosol layering and optical properties on European scale reported here provides an unprecedented data set for evaluating satellite data and aerosol dispersion models for this kind of volcanic events.

Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh2013

Impact of transatlantic transport episodes on summertime ozone in Europe

Isabelle Bey

This paper reports on the transport of ozone

{O}_{3}

and related species over the North Atlantic ocean and its impact on Europe. Measurements of nitrogen dioxide (

{NO}_{2}

)and carbon monoxide (CO) columns from the GOME and MOPITT satellite instruments, respectively, are used in conjunction with the GEOS-CHEM global model of transport and tropospheric chemistry to identify the major events of long range transport that reach Europe over the course of summer 2000. Sensitivity model simulations are used to analyse observed

{O}_{3}

distributions with respect to the impact of long range transport events. For that purpose, we used in-situ

{O}_{3}

observations taken at the mountain site of Jungfraujoch as well as O3 vertical profiles taken in the vicinity of central European cities. Over the course of summer 2000, we identified 9 major episodes of transatlantic pollution transport; 7 events are associated with transient cyclones while 2 events occur through zonal transport (e.g. by advection in the strong low-level westerly winds established in summer between the Azores anticyclone and transient cyclones). We find that on average three episodes occur per month with the strongest ones being in June. The number and frequency of long range transport events that reach Europe are driven by the position and strength of the Azores anticyclone. Model sensitivity simulations indicate that the summer mean North American

{O}_{3}

contribution ranges from 3 to 5 ppb (7–11%) in the planetary boundary layer and 10 to 13 ppb (18–23%) in the middle and upper troposphere. During particular episodes, North American sources can result in

{O}_{3}

enhancements up to 25–28 ppb in the layer between 800–600 hPa and 10–12 ppb in the boundary layer. The impact of the zonal transport events on

{O}_{3}

distribution over Europe is more clearly seen below 700 hPa as they tend to transport pollution at lower levels while the events associated with transient cyclones are more likely to have an impact on the middle and upper troposphere (i.e. above 600 hPa). The air mass origins found in the GEOS-CHEM model are clearly confirmed by back trajectory analyses. During most of the 9 events, a strong contribution in North American

{O}_{3}

is in general associated with only little European

{O}_{3}

and viceversa (in particular at the Jungfraujoch). A substantial North American contribution (e.g., 30% or higher) to

{O}_{3}

over Europe does not always result in pronounced

{O}_{3}

enhancements in the observations during our period of study.

2006