Monitoring shipping emissions in the German Bight using MAX-DOAS measurements

Seyler, André; Wittrock, Folkard; Kattner, Lisa; Mathieu-Üffing, Barbara; Peters, Enno; Richter, Andreas; Schmolke, Stefan; Burrows, John P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10997-2017

Articles | Volume 17, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10997-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10997-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 18

Research article

|

15 Sep 2017

Research article |

| 15 Sep 2017

Monitoring shipping emissions in the German Bight using MAX-DOAS measurements

André Seyler, Folkard Wittrock, Lisa Kattner, Barbara Mathieu-Üffing, Enno Peters, Andreas Richter, Stefan Schmolke, and John P. Burrows

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Final revised paper (published on 15 Sep 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 09 Jan 2017)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review of Seyler et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 23 Feb 2017
- AC1: 'Author's response to Referee #1, André Seyler, 06 June 2017', André Seyler, 06 Jun 2017
RC2: 'Review of Seyler et al., Monitoring of ship emissions...', Anonymous Referee #2, 11 Apr 2017
- AC2: 'Author's response to Referee #2, André Seyler, 06 June 2017', André Seyler, 06 Jun 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by André Seyler on behalf of the Authors (26 Jun 2017) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (27 Jun 2017) by Robert Harley

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (17 Jul 2017)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The authors have spent an impressive amount of effort to improve the manuscript, and the study represents an important contribution to the assessment of pollutant emissions from ship traffic. I feel that the paper is ready for publication, except for the improper usage of variable names in equations, which I have already commented in my first review. The usage of variable names needs to be revised according to the IUPAC guidelines prior to the publication in ACP.
I appreciate very much that the authors have done a survey, where they find that multi-letter variables are used in numerous publications. The usage of mathematical symbols is not a democratic decision, and this survey rather indicates that general rules for the usage of symbols and quantities in mathematical equations seem to be ignored by a growing number of scientists.
According to the AMT manuscript preparation guidelines, the IUPAC recommendations need to be followed, which state that “A clear distinction should be drawn between the names and symbols for physical quantities, and the names and symbols for units. […] The symbol for a physical quantity should be a single letter of the Latin or Greek alphabet. Capital or lower case letters may both be used. The letter should be printed in italic (sloping) type. When necessary the symbol may be modified by subscripts and superscripts of specified meaning. Subscripts and superscripts that are themselves symbols for physical quantities or for numbers should be printed in italic type; other subscripts and superscripts should be printed in Roman (upright) type.”
The naming of variables is thus not a “matter of personal taste”, as the authors state in their reply to my comments, but follows strict conventions. It needs to be clearly distinguished between the name of a physical quantity (“slant column density”), its abbreviation (“SCD”) and the according mathematical symbol (e.g., “S”). The term “SCD” in an equation thus represents the product of three quantities, namely S times C times D. Certainly, variable names such as “RESIDUAL” used in the manuscript are inappropriate.

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ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (17 Jul 2017) by Robert Harley

AR by André Seyler on behalf of the Authors (25 Jul 2017) Manuscript

Short summary

Shipping accounts for a significant part of the emissions from the transportation sector. We have analyzed 3 years of MAX-DOAS measurements of NO₂ and SO₂ from a small island in the German Bight, showing that despite the vicinity to the shipping lane, the contribution of shipping sources to air pollution is only about 40 %. The implementation of stricter fuel sulfur limits led to a significant reduction in SO₂-to-NO₂ ratios in shipping emissions and ambient SO₂ levels at the German coast.