An observational study of sulphur dioxide transport across the Erzgebirge Mountains

The paper presents selected results from a field experiment which has been carried out in the Erzgebirge Mountains at the frontier between Saxony (Germany) and the Czech Republic in February and March, 1995. This campaign was aimed to investigate certain aspects of the transport of sulphur dioxide (SO2) from industrial sources in Northern Bohemia across the Erzgebirge under conditions of prevailing southeasterly flow. The regional distribution of SO2 in the Upper Erzgebirge is shown, and the influence of meteorological conditions on observed ground-level concentrations is discussed. DOAS measurements are used to assess the representativeness of ground-level concentration measurements carried out at some valley sites within the Saxonian air quality monitoring network. Estimation of the magnitude of the SO2-flux is attempted based on aircraft concentration measurements