Cruise Ship "Costa Fortuna"

An agreement between the JRC and an Italian cruise liner "Costa Crociera" has given the CCU an opportunity to monitor Air Pollution (Ozone, Black Carbon -BC- and Aerosol size distribution levels).

Scientists from the CCU installed in October 2005 an air pollution monitoring station on deck 14 of the cruise ship "Costa Fortuna" which follows regular cruise tracks in the Mediterranean Sea.

Measurement stations are already in place in Northern and Central Europe, however measurements in the Mediterranean Area have a poorer spatial cover and observations over the sea are particularly scarce.

What is the purpose of this monitoring station?

In order to obtain some useful data to identify the source of Air Pollution and assess if ship emissions really contribute to Climate Change in the open sea of the Mediterranean Area.

How is this achieved?

Measurements are taken every ten minutes on board the ship. The scientists from the CCU...

• Obtain accurate measurements of Air Pollution.

• Analyse these measurements.

• Compare these measurements against a global chemistry-transport model (TM5) run on a computer.

• Monitor the Pollutants over the sea, and identify how much pollution is due to ship emissions or coming from land sources.

• Provide feedback and give recommendations to the policy makers in European Commission.

Why is it so difficult to get accurate results from this monitoring station?

Many factors interfer with the measurements taken from this monitoring station. For example, if another ship passes through this cruise track a few hours earlier, it is difficult to assess if the high emissions are due to this passing ship or to the air pollution in the open sea.

Preliminary Results on Climate Change:

Results confirm that during the summer months, high levels of Ozone over the open sea can be significantly larger than those measured in polluted urban areas (as TM5). Black Carbon, on the other hand, is more difficult to assess as it is more variable than Ozone. Some observations give evidence of slightly increased concentrations of BC where ship traffic is intense.

What is the impact on Health?

Epidemiological studies have shown that Air Pollution produces an increase in respiratory symptoms and a decrease in lung function.

Preliminary Conclusions:

The concentration of ozone levels over the Mediterranean Basin are increased due to a combination of local sources (nearby towns, harbours, etc) and long range transport (emissions from ships travelling long distances). Air pollutants in the Western Mediterranean Basin appear to accumulate due to sea-breeze circulation. The frequent occurrence of sea Breeze circulation favors air pollution by ozone in the harbors area.

On the other hand, black carbon levels are not that high, in fact they are lower in the Mediterranean Basin than in urban areas.

Measurements are planned to continue for several years and to be enhanced by the addition of other measurement devices.

Cruises are repeated every week or two weeks in the Western Mediterranean during Spring, Summer and Autumn, and in the Eastern Mediterranean during winter. These measurements on the Costa Fortuna can also complement the observations in Southern Europe and North Africa.

And new measurements continue...

From autumn 2007 onwards Nitrous Oxides (NOx) will also be measured. NOx is a major pollutant from ships and promotes Ozone formation under certain weather ideal conditions - Mediterranean climate (sunny and low wind).

Contacts

[Hjorth, Jens]; [Velchev, Krum]; [Vignati, Elisabetta]; [Marmer, Elina].