Emissions from maritime activities play a substantial role in environmental pollution, presenting considerable risks to human health. These emissions comprise a complex blend of compounds originating from diverse sources including ship exhaust and atmospheric photooxidation processes. In coastal areas, where shipping lanes are densely occupied by a variety of vessel types, the impact of shipping emissions is particularly pronounced. However, understanding the intricate composition of ship exhaust, compounded by factors like weather conditions, poses significant challenges in assessing its physical and chemical characteristics and their potential health implications. To address these challenges, recent advancements have turned to technologies such as single-particle mass spectrometry (SPMS) enabling real-time measurement of both organic and inorganic compounds on particles (Schade et al. 2019). Furthermore, studies on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) provide insights into post-emission photooxidation processes. Analysis of oxidized PAHs and identification of alkylated PAHs such as phenanthrene can help pinpoint emission sources, confirmed through comparisons with model-based distributions of ship emissions under varying weather conditions and positions obtained from automatic identification system (AIS) data. An ambient particle measurement system, equipped with an SPMS, Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS), and Optical Particle Counter (OPC), was installed at Darsser Ort ~50 km northeast of Rostock, Germany. Real-time measurements revealed ship emissions characterized by an increase in particle number/mass concentration and variations in transition metals (vanadium, nickel and iron) in combination with sulfate for HFO usage and carbon clusters and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for MGO. Particle emissions from ships were also identified by significantly elevated levels of alkylated phenanthrenes, recognized as typical markers for ship fuel combustion particles (Czech et al. 2017). In this contribution, it is shown how sources of emission events can be determined and characterized based on significant markers in the measured mass spectra of single aerosol particles, aligned with modelled distributions of ship emissions. The SPMS measurements are complemented with numerical modelling results utilizing chemistry transport model EPISODE-CityChem (Karl et al. 2019). With the therein implemented moving point source algorithm (Pan et al. 2021), it is possible to tract the trajectory of primary particles in real-time or as up to 1 hour forecast, thus, facilitating efficient monitoring of their impacts in near-coastal areas. This study is funded by dtec.bw - Digitalization and Technology Research Center of the Bundeswehr (project “LUKAS”). Dtec.bw is funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.    «

Emissions from maritime activities play a substantial role in environmental pollution, presenting considerable risks to human health. These emissions comprise a complex blend of compounds originating from diverse sources including ship exhaust and atmospheric photooxidation processes. In coastal areas, where shipping lanes are densely occupied by a variety of vessel types, the impact of shipping emissions is particularly pronounced. However, understanding the intricate composition of ship exha...    »