A dataset of tracer concentrations and meteorological observations from the Bolzano Tracer EXperiment (BTEX) to characterize pollutant dispersion processes in an Alpine valley

Marco Falocchi, Werner Tirler, Lorenzo Giovannini, Elena Tomasi, Gianluca Antonacci, Dino Zardi
2019 Earth System Dynamics Discussions  
<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The paper describes the dataset of concentrations and related meteorological measurements collected during the field campaign of the Bolzano Tracer Experiment (BTEX). The experiment was performed to characterize the dispersion of pollutants emitted from a waste incinerator in the basin of the city of Bolzano, in the Italian Alps. As part of the experiment two controlled releases of a passive gas tracer (sulfure exafluoride, SF<sub>6</sub>) were performed through
more » ... stack of the incinerator on 14 February 2017 for two different time-lags, starting respectively at 07:00 LST and 12:45 LST. Samples of ambient air were collected at target sites with vacuum-filled glass bottles and polyvinyl fluoride bags, and later analyzed by means of a mass spectrometer (detectability limit 30&amp;thinsp;ppt<sub>v</sub>). Meteorological conditions were monitored by a network of 15 ground weather stations, 1 microwave temperature profiler, 1 SODAR and 1 Doppler Wind-LIDAR. The dataset represents one of the few examples available in the literature concerning dispersion processes in a typical mountain valley environment and provides a useful benchmark for testing atmospheric dispersion models in complex terrain. The dataset described in this paper is available at <a href="https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.898761"target="_blank">https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.898761</a> (Falocchi et al., 2019).</p>
doi:10.5194/essd-2019-120 fatcat:yqzoe6nhyngohfhtoz4dtgbiay