Impact of the North Atlantic Oscillation on the variations of aerosol ground levels through local processes over Europe

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Abstract
This contribution assesses non-antropogenic variations in ground-level aerosol concentrations over Europe associated to changes in the phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The NAO controls a large amount of the European climate variability with asymmetric impacts in both time and space. Based on simulated data and focusing on how the local atmospheric processes (without considering large-scale mechanisms) governed by the NAO affect the levels of various aerosol species, this study highlights that positive NAO phases favor increased aerosols levels in southern (northern) regions in winter (summer), while negative NAO phases enhance them in northern (southern) regions in winter (summer). Variations are up to and over 100% for most aerosols, being clearly related to the NAO-impact on precipitation and wind, as they act to clean the atmosphere through removal and dispersion processes, and to the NAO-impact on the radiation balance (i.e. cloudiness) as it rebounds on the biogenic emitting activity and on the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere. Beyond deepening on the understanding of fundamental interactions between climate and air quality, these results provide a basis for improving the potential predictability of this later since much work is being done in order to gain accuracy in the NAO predictions.
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