The GMOS cyber(e)-infrastructure: advanced services for supporting science and policy.

The need for coordinated, systematized and catalogued databases on mercury in the environment is of paramount importance as improved information can help the assessment of the effectiveness of measures established to phase out and ban mercury. Long-term monitoring sites have been established in a number of regions and countries for the measurement of mercury in ambient air and wet deposition. Long term measurements of mercury concentration in biota also produced a huge amount of information, but such initiatives are far from being within a global, systematic and interoperable approach. To address these weaknesses the on-going Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project ( www.gmos.eu ) established a coordinated global observation system for mercury as well it retrieved historical data ( www.gmos.eu/sdi ). To manage such large amount of information a technological infrastructure was planned. This high-performance back-end resource associated with sophisticated client applications enables data storage, computing services, telecommunications networks and all services necessary to support the activity. This paper reports the architecture definition of the GMOS Cyber(e)-Infrastructure and the services developed to support science and policy, including the United Nation Environmental Program. It finally describes new possibilities in data analysis and data management through client applications.

Chemical composition of aerosol size fractions at a coastal site in southwestern Italy: seasonal variability and transport influence.

The present study focuses on the elemental characterization of fine and coarse particles collected at a coastal site of southwestern Italy, in a suburban area of the Calabria region. A chemical tracer analysis was carried out to identify the major emission sources influencing on the atmospheric aerosol levels. Size-resolved particulate samples were collected during three 2-week seasonal sampling campaigns: autumn (19 October to 2 November 2003), winter (19 January to 2 February 2004) and spring (26 April to 10 May 2004). Ambient concentrations of selected elements (Fe, Mn, Mg, Ca, V, Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, Pb, and Cd) associated to fine and coarse size fractions were determined using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The enrichment factor method was applied, suggesting a prevailing anthropogenic component for all the detected elements, with Fe, Mg, Mn, and Ca as exceptions. Trajectory sector analysis was used in order to discriminate the influence of different air mass origins and paths. Long-range transport from both the continental Europe and the Saharan region proved to be the main influencing factors. African dust outbreaks, whose occurrence frequency was greater during the autumn and spring seasonal monitoring periods, gave rise to a total of eight exceedances of the European Commission (EC) PM10 daily limit value as well as an increase in values of the crustal-derived elements (Fe, Mg, and Ca). Long-range transport from the heavily industrialized area of Central/Eastern Europe contributed to the high levels of Zn, Cd, and Pb that were recorded during the winter sampling campaign. Seasonal trend and comparison with measurements previously performed across the Mediterranean basin were also presented and discussed.

Variability of atmospheric aerosol and ozone concentrations at marine, urban, and high-altitude monitoring stations in southern Italy during the 2007 summer Saharan dust outbreaks and wildfire episodes.

In order to evaluate the spatial variation of aerosol (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < or = 10 microm [PM10]) and ozone (03) concentrations and characterize the atmospheric conditions that lead to 03 and PM10-rich episodes in southern Italy during summer 2007, an intensive sampling campaign was simultaneously performed, from middle of July to the end of August, at three ground-based sites (marine, urban, and high-altitude monitoring stations) in Calabria region. A cluster analysis, based on the prevailing air mass backward trajectories, was performed, allowing to discriminate the contribution of different air masses origin and paths. Results showed that both PM10 and 03 levels reached similar high values when air masses originated from the industrialized continental Europe as well as under the influence of wildfire emissions. Among natural sources, dust intrusion and wildfire events seem to involve a marked impact on the recorded data. Typical fair weather of Mediterranean summer and persisting anticyclone system at synoptic scale were indeed favorable conditions to the arrival of heavily dust-loaded air masses over three periods of consecutive days and more than half of the observed PM10 daily exceedances have been attributed to Saharan dust events. During the identified dust outbreaks, a consistent increase in PM10 levels with a concurrent decrease in 03 values was also observed and discussed.