Vertical emission profiles for Europe based on plume rise calculations

The vertical allocation of emissions has a major impact on results of Chemistry Transport Models. However, in Europe it is still common to use fixed vertical profiles based on rough estimates to determine the emission height of point sources. This publication introduces a set of new vertical profiles for the use in chemistry transport modeling that were created from hourly gridded emissions calculated by the SMOKE for Europe emission model. SMOKE uses plume rise calculations to determine effective emission heights. Out of more than 40 000 different vertical emission profiles 73 have been chosen by means of hierarchical cluster analysis. These profiles show large differences to those currently used in many emission models. Emissions from combustion processes are released in much lower altitudes while those from production processes are allocated to higher altitudes. The profiles have a high temporal and spatial variability which is not represented by currently used profiles.