Katerina Sindelarova

• PhD
• Researcher at Charles University in Prague

The paper evaluates the long-term (2007–2016) impact of biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions on urban ozone patterns over central Europe, specifically focusing on the contribution of urban vegetation using a regional climate model coupled offline to a chemistry transport model. BVOCs are emitted by terrestrial ecosystems, and their i...

The paper evaluates the long-term (2007–2016) impact of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (BVOC) emissions on urban ozone patterns over central Europe, specifically focusing on the contribution of urban vegetation using a regional climate model offline coupled to chemistry transport model. BVOCs are emitted by terrestrial ecosystems, with the pro...

In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines were revised for six key air pollutants. The new guideline levels for PM 2.5 and O 3 may be unattainable for many countries due to natural sources and background levels. Reductions in NO 2 may increase O 3 due to atmospheric chemistry. Regional-specific scientific expertise is nece...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) influence atmospheric composition and climate, and their emissions are affected by changes in land use and land cover (LULC). Current Earth system models calculate BVOC emissions using parameterisations involving surface temperature, photosynthetic activity, CO2 and vegetation type and use emission factor...

Emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) influence atmospheric composition and climate and will be influenced by future changes in land use and land cover (LULC) and change. Climate and Earth System Models typically calculate emissions using parameterisations involving surface temperature, photosynthetic activity, CO2 and the type o...

Urbanization or rural–urban transformation (RUT) represents one of the most important anthropogenic modifications of land use. To account for the impact of such process on air quality, multiple aspects of how this transformation impacts the air have to be accounted for. Here we present a regional-scale numerical model (regional climate models RegCM...

Urbanization or rural-urban transformation (RUT) represents one of the most important transformations of land-use. To account for the impact of such process on air-quality, multiple aspects of how this transformation impacts the air has to be accounted for. Here we present a numerical model (regional climate models RegCM and WRF coupled to chemistr...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) emitted from the terrestrial vegetation into the Earth's atmosphere play an important role in atmospheric chemical processes. Gridded information of their temporal and spatial distribution is therefore needed for proper representation of the atmospheric composition by the air quality models. Here we prese...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) emitted from the terrestrial vegetation into the Earth’s atmosphere play an important role in atmospheric chemical processes. A gridded information of their temporal and spatial distribution is therefore needed for proper representation of the atmospheric composition by the air quality models. Here we pre...

Among the biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) emitted by plant foliage, isoprene is by far the most important in terms of both global emission and atmospheric impact. It is highly reactive in the air, and its degradation favours the generation of ozone (in the presence of NOx) and secondary organic aerosols. A critical aspect of BVOC emissi...

Among the biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) emitted by plant foliage, isoprene is by far the most important in terms of both global emission and atmospheric impact. It is highly reactive in the air, and its degradation favours the generation of ozone (in presence of NOx) and secondary organic aerosols. A critical aspect of BVOC emission m...

This paper deals with the urban land-surface impact (i.e., the urban canopy meteorological forcing; UCMF) on extreme air pollution for selected central European cities for present-day climate conditions (2015–2016) using three regional climate-chemistry models: the regional climate models RegCM and WRF-Chem (its meteorological part), the chemistry...

This paper deals with the urban land-surface impact (i.e. the urban canopy meteorological forcing; UCMF) on extreme air pollution for selected central European cities for present-day climate conditions (2015–2016) using three regional climate-chemistry models: the regional climate models RegCM and WRF-Chem (its meteorological part), the chemistry t...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) play important roles at cellular, foliar, ecosystem, and atmospheric levels. The Amazonian rainforest represents one of the major global sources of BVOCs, so its study is essential for understanding BVOC dynamics. It also provides insights into the role of such large and biodiverse forest ecosystem in reg...

It is well known that the urban canopy (UC) layer, i.e., the layer of air corresponding to the assemblage of the buildings, roads, park, trees and other objects typical to cities, is characterized by specific meteorological conditions at city scales generally differing from those over rural surroundings. We refer to the forcing that acts on the met...

Urban surfaces due to specific geometry and physical properties bring modified transport of momentum, moisture and heat between them and the air above and perturb the radiative, thermal and mechanical balance resulting in changed meteorological condition (e.g. the UHI – urban heat island phenomenon). From an air quality perspective, many studies ar...

Emissions of biogenic VOC emissions are closely linked to vegetation distribution and vegetation biomass. These factors have been changing in the past due to natural processes in the Earth’s system. But significant changes can be observed as a result of human activities, such as deforestation in the tropical forest and its replacement with agricult...

The formation of new atmospheric particles involves an initial step forming stable clusters less than a nanometre in size (<~1 nm), followed by growth into quasi-stable aerosol particles a few nanometres (~1-10 nm) and larger (>~10 nm). Although at times, the same species can be responsible for both processes, it is thought that more generally each...

In the fall of 2011, iodine-131 (131I) was detected at several radionuclide monitoring stations in central Europe. After investigation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed by Hungarian authorities that 131I was released from the Institute of Isotopes Ltd. in Budapest, Hungary. It was reported that a total activity of 342 GBq...

The EURODELTA-Trends multi-model chemistry-transport experiment has been designed to facilitate a better understanding of the evolution of air pollution and its drivers for the period 1990–2010 in Europe. The main objective of the experiment is to assess the efficiency of air pollutant emissions mitigation measures in improving regional-scale air q...

Accurate information on surface emissions is critical for understanding the current chemical composition of the atmosphere and for forecast simulations. Many research teams worked during the past years to better quantify emissions in different parts of the world, and to develop inventories of anthropogenic emissions for different periods. An evalua...

In the fall of 2011, iodine-131 (I-131) was detected at several radionuclide monitoring stations in Central Europe. After investigation, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was informed by Hungarian authorities that I-131 was released from the Institute of Isotopes Ltd in Budapest, Hungary. It was reported that a total activity of 342 GBq...

The Eurodelta-Trends multi-model chemistry-transport experiment has been designed to facilitate a better understanding of the evolution of air pollution and its drivers for the period 1990–2010 in Europe. The main objective of the experiment is to assess the efficiency of air pollutant emissions mitigation measures in improving regional scale air q...

A new version of the biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) emission scheme has been developed in the global vegetation model ORCHIDEE (Organizing Carbon and Hydrology in Dynamic EcosystEm), which includes an extended list of biogenic emitted compounds, updated emission factors (EFs), a dependency on light for almost all compounds and a multi-...

As a contribution to the Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) project of IGAC, we have analyzed the long-term changes of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by comparing simulations with different remote sensing satellite and ground-based observations. The work focuses on selected regions, Europe, USA and China. We also focused on...

As formaldehyde (HCHO) is a high-yield product in the oxidation of most volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by fires, vegetation, and anthropogenic activities, satellite observations of HCHO are well-suited to inform us on the spatial and temporal variability of the underlying VOC sources. The long record of space-based HCHO column observatio...

Lecture at the Second PANDA Summer School on Air Pollution Monitoring and Forecast: Space observations and Air Quality.

Formaldehyde (HCHO) being a high-yield product in the oxidation of most volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by fires, vegetation and anthropogenic activities, satellite observations of HCHO are well-suited to inform us on the spatial and temporal variability of the underlying VOC sources. The long-record of space-based HCHO column observation...

The EDGARv4.3.1 (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research) global anthropogenic emissions inventory of gaseous (SO2, NOx, CO, non-methane volatile organic compounds and NH3) and particulate (PM10, PM2.5, black and organic carbon) air pollutants for the period 1970–2010 is used to develop retrospective air pollution emissions scenarios to...

A new version of the BVOC emission scheme has been developed in the global vegetation model ORCHIDEE (Organizing Carbon and Hydrology in Dynamic EcosystEm), including an extended list of biogenic emitted compounds, updated emission factors (EFs), a dependency on light for almost all compounds and a multi-layer radiation scheme. For the 2000–2009 pe...

The EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research) v4.3 global anthropogenic emissions inventory of several gaseous (SO2, NOx, CO, non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) and NH3) and particulate (PM10, PM2.5, black and organic carbon (BC and OC)) air pollutants for the period 1970–2010 is used to develop retrospective air pollu...

Climate change and air pollution are critical environmental issues both in the here and now and for the coming decades. Many mitigation options offer the possibility to both improve air quality and mitigate climate change, such as improvements in energy efficiency, or a switch to wind or solar power, all of which reduce emissions across the board....

Accurate, timely, and accessible emissions information is critical for understanding and forecasting atmospheric composition at the global and regional scale. Over the past few years, several inventories providing the distributions of surface emissions of different chemical compounds were developed at both global and regional scales. We will review...

For the purpose of qualifying and quantifying the climate impact of cities and urban surfaces in general on climate of central Europe, the surface parameterization in regional climate model RegCM4 has been extended with the Single-layer Urban Canopy Model (SLUCM). A set of experiments was performed over the period of 2005-2009 for central Europe, e...

For the purpose of qualifying and quantifying the climate impact of cities and urban surfaces in general on climate of central Europe, the surface parameterization in regional climate model RegCM4 has been extended with the Single-layer Urban Canopy Model (SLUCM). A set of experiments was performed over the period of 2005–2009 for central Europe, e...

The Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGANv2.1) together with the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) meteorological fields were used to create a global emission dataset of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) available on a monthly basis for the time period of 1980–2010. This dataset i...

The Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGANv2.1) together with the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) meteorological fields were used to create a global emission dataset of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) available on a monthly basis for the time period of 1980–2010. This dataset i...

During the past few years, the ECCAD (Emissions of atmospheric Compounds & Compilation of Ancillary Data) database was developed in order to provide a user-friendly access to surface emissions and ancillary data, i.e. data on land use, active fires, burned areas, population, etc. This database and the emissions portal of the GEIA (Global Emissions...

Global spatial distribution of oscillations in the period bands linked to the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) and to the 11-year sunspot cycle (SSC) was investigated using the pseudo-2D wavelet transform. The results were obtained for the ERA-40, NCEP-DOE 2, NCEP/NCAR, and Twentieth Century Reanalysis V2 datasets. Those included time series of air...

This article describes the latest research achievements in the field of modelling of radioactivity propagation through the living environment. Systematic development of the code HAVAR aimed to improved description of uncertainty propagation through the mathematical model has resulted into probabilistic version HAVAR-RP (Reliability Predictions) [5]...

The article mentions tendencies in modelling in connection with research progress, substantial improvement of input data quality and increasing demands of practice reflecting the new scenarios or possible threats. An overview of dispersion models is focused on mesoscale modelling for purposes of consequence assessment of harmful substance propagati...

Coupling of regional climate model RegCM (Pal et al., 2007) and atmospheric chemistry/aerosols model CAMx (Environ, 2006) is being developed at our department under the CECILIA project (EC 6th FP) with the aim to study climate forcing due to atmospheric chemistry/aerosols on regional scale. Regional climate model RegCM with the resolution of 10 km...

This paper describes a method of estimating emission fluxes of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) based on the approach proposed by Guenther et al. (1995) and the high-resolution Corine land-cover 2000 database (1x1km resolution). The computed emission fluxes for the Czech Republic (selected for analysis as being representative of a heavil...

Terms of formation, amount, spatial distribution of tropospheric ozone and the contribution of biogenic sources of VOC to ozone precursors were studied using numerical model for summer photochemical smog simulation (SMOG model). Biogenic emissions of VOC were estimated using semi-empirical model proposed by Guenther et al. (1995). North-eastern pa...

We analyze daily precipitation and temperature extremes over the Czech Republic in a regional climate simulation for the 40-year period of 1961–2000 carried out with the RegCM3 regional climate model. The model is run at 45 km grid interval and is driven by NCEP/NCAR reanalysis lateral boundary conditions. Comparison with station data shows that th...