Ozone in the Mediterranean Atmosphere
Résumé
The Mediterranean basin is one of many regions worldwide where elevated concentrations of air pollutants have been frequently reported. It is also one of the global tropospheric ozone hot spots, especially during the summer months. A short overview on Mediterranean ozone, based mainly on surface ozone data, is presented. Furthermore, aspects of atmospheric chemistry research with emphasis on tropospheric and surface ozone in Greece, the Aegean Sea, and the eastern Mediterranean as well as in the western Mediterranean, are discussed. The relevant research started in the mid-1970s, and it was mainly focused on surface ozone due to photochemical smog events at large urban agglomerations such as Athens, Greece. The ozone research in the 1990s gradually expanded from the urban scale to the regional scale with the establishment of baseline and rural monitoring stations to better understand the role of ozone precursors as well as the associated physical and chemical processes in the Mediterranean. The atmospheric processes associated with ozone in the eastern and western Mediterranean have been further investigated during the last couple of decades through many observational studies based on surface, profile, satellite, and aircraft measurements carried out within the framework of continuous monitoring activities or international field campaigns.