Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest
PhD degree – Research on fog generation and dissipation
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Earth and Planetary Sciences, Atmospheric Science
21
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
How Does the Location of Power Plants Impact Air Quality in the Urban Area of Bucharest? Doina Nicolae, Camelia Talianu, Jeni Vasilescu, Alexandru Marius Dandocsi, Livio Belegante, Anca Nemuc, Florica Toanca, Alexandru Ilie, Andrei Valentin Dandocsi, Stefan Marius Nicolae, Gabriela Ciocan, Viorel Vulturescu, Ovidiu Gelu Tudose Atmosphere, 2025 This study investigates the impact of a thermal power plant site on air quality in Bucharest, Romania. It emphasizes the importance of accurate air pollutant inmission measurements in urban areas by utilizing mobile measurements of low-cost sensors, Copernicus’ Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) and Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS), and satellite retrieval to better understand climate change drivers and their potential impact on near- surface concentrations and column densities of NO2, CO, and PM (particulate matter). It focuses the attention on the need of considering the placement of power plants in relation to metropolitan areas while making this assessment. The research highlights the limits of typical mesoscale air quality models in effectively capturing pollution dispersion and distribution using LUR (Land Use Regressions) retrievals. The authors investigate a variety of ways to better understand air pollution in metropolitan areas, including satellite observations, mobile measurements, and land use regression models. The study focuses largely on Bucharest, the capital of Romania, which has air pollution issues caused by vehicle traffic, industrial activity, heating systems, and power plants. The results indicate how the placement of a power plant may affects air quality in the nearby residential areas.
Remote Sensing of Clouds: A Multisensor Synergy for Cloud Profiling Răzvan Pîrloagă, Anca Nemuc, Daniel Constantin, Andrei Radovici, Cătălin Negoiță, Florica Țoancă Proceedings 18th International Conference on Developments in Esystems Engineering Dese 2025, 2025 Clouds are complicated phenomena that have an essential impact on climate system due to their interaction with electromagnetic radiation and their spatial and temporal variability. A comprehensive understanding of cloud particles and their effects on weather and climate is essential to eliminate uncertainties and improve local, regional and global atmospheric models. This study presents the techniques and principles of measurements and the role of each cloud remote-sensing instrument along with a one-year analysis of cloud target classification at RADO-Bucharest station using continuous, high-resolution data from a synergy of ground remote sensing instruments. A complex algorithm that uses data from these instruments is used to accurately separate all targets into <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathbf{1 0}$</tex> distinct classes and their annual and seasonal behaviour is shown. The study shows a distinct pattern for every class with respect to the rest of classes and seasonal behaviour for every class is present. A comprehensive understanding of classes and height distribution of particles in the atmosphere is essential for enhancing our understanding of atmospheric processes.
VARIABILITY AND TRENDS OF PM CONCENTRATIONS NEAR BUCHAREST IN RELATION TO EUROPEAN AIR QUALITY STANDARDS UPB Scientific Bulletin Series A Applied Mathematics and Physics, 2025
Lessons learnt during the first Quality Assurance exercise of the ACTRIS high-power lidars Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, 2024
Spatio-temporal evolution of long-range transported mineral desert dust properties over rural and urban sites in Central Europe Dominika M. Szczepanik, Patryk Poczta, Camelia Talianu, Christine Böckmann, Christoph Ritter, Horatiu Stefanie, Florica Toanca, Bogdan H. Chojnicki, Dirk Schüttemeyer, Iwona S. Stachlewska Science of the Total Environment, 2023 An exceptionally strong and very fast (120h) mineral dust inflow from North Africa to Poland was predicted by NMMB/BSC-Dust and NAAPS models on 10-11 June 2019. Simultaneous measurements with two complex lidar systems at the EARLINET-ACTRIS urban site in Warsaw (Central Poland) and the PolWET peatland site in Rzecin (Western Poland) captured the evolution of this dust event. The advected air masses had different source areas in North Africa, they were reaching each station via independent pathways, and thus, were unlikely mixed with each other. The excellent capabilities of the next generation PollyXT lidar and the mobile EMORAL lidar allowed for the derivation of full datasets of aerosol optical properties profiles that enabled comparative study of the advected dust properties evolution. Within a mere 350 km distance between Warsaw and Rzecin, distinctly different dust properties were measured, respectively: dry mineral dust composed mainly of coarse mode dust particles (50 ± 5 % of the total particle backscattering profile) versus the wet mineral dust dominated by fine dust particles (58 ± 4 %). A new parameter fine-to-coarse dust ratio (FCDR) is proposed to describe more intuitively mineral dust composition.
A multi-year analysis of aerosol properties using the calibrated multi-wavelength polarisation lidar in Măgurele Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, 2023
SUPPORT CENTER FOR MANAGEMENT AND PROMOTION IN SERVICE OF EUROPEAN RESEARCH PROJECTS Florica Toanca, Doina Nicolae, Georgeta Jeni Vasilescu, Simona Cornelia Andrei, Cristian Radu, Alin Alexandru Tilea International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference Surveying Geology and Mining Ecology Management Sgem, 2022 The Remote Sensing department from National Institute of R&D for Optoelectronics INOE, Romania, operates a complex research infrastructure and has multidisciplinary expertise spanning from laboratory/in-situ chemical analysis to Earth Observation (EO) techniques and applications. Infrastructure and personnel are mostly supported from projects financed by European Commission through FP7/Horizon 2020 (ended programs) and Horizon Europe (current programme) and other international calls (e.g., European Space Agency). In order to facilitate support of R&D projects submission/execution/reporting to Horizon Europe framework program competitions and other international calls, INOE is building a dedicated center until mid-2023, through PREPARE project - -Support Center for European Project Management and European Promotion-, funded under the Competitiveness Operational Program (2014- 2020), the action 1.1.3 "Creating synergies with the RDI actions of the European Union's HORIZON 2020 framework program and other international RDI programs". This work presents the results of our journey of drawing the main components of the management and promotion center that will mainly support large projects related to ACTRIS - Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS). The center is intended to guide and support scientists- approach from idea to grant negotiation stages and also to project implementation and reporting.
Wintertime variations of gaseous atmospheric constituents in Bucharest peri-urban area Cristina Antonia Marin, Luminiţa Mărmureanu, Cristian Radu, Alexandru Dandocsi, Cristina Stan, Flori Ţoancă, Liliana Preda, Bogdan Antonescu Atmosphere, 2019 An intensive winter campaign was organized for measuring the surface air pollutants in southeastern Europe. For a three months period, the gas concentrations of NO x , SO 2 , CO, O 3 , and CH 4 as well as meteorological parameters were simultaneously sampled to evaluate the variations and characteristic reactions between the gases during winter at the measuring site. The photochemical production of the ozone was observed through the diurnal variation of ozone and the solar radiation, the maximum concentration for ozone being reached one hour after the maximum value for solar radiation. A non-parametric wind regression method was used to highlight the sources of the air pollutants. The long-range transport of SO 2 and two hotspots for CO from traffic and from residential heating emissions were emphasized. The traffic hotspot situated north of the measuring site, close to the city ring road, is also a hotspot for NO x . The air quality during the cold season was evaluated by comparing the measured gas concentration with the European limits. During the measuring period, the values for NO 2 , CO, and SO 2 concentration were at least two times lower than the European Union pollution limits. Only twice during the study period was the concentration of O 3 higher than the established limits.
Analysis of different cloud signatures using multiwavelength raman lidar retrievals Simona Andrei, Flori Ţoancă, Anca Nemuc, Alex Dandocsi, Livio Belegante, Doina Nicolae EPJ Web of Conferences, 2018 The present study is focused on microphysics analysis of different cloud types observed by a multi-wavelength Raman lidar. Particle’s content from a wide variety of cloud types, produced in various atmospheric environments, were investigated using data provided by lidar and validated using ECMWF’s ERA Interim reanalysis. The results emphasized the capability of lidar instruments to detect multiple cloud layers, and to discriminate between ice particles and water droplets found within the studied clouds.
Studies of saharan dust intrusions over bucharest using ceilometer's measurements and satellite data Denisa Urlea, Andreea Boscornea, Sorin Nicolae Vâjâiac, Florica Ţoancă, Nicu Barbu, Sabina Ştefan, Ionuț Bunescu EPJ Web of Conferences, 2018 Three case studies of Saharan dust intrusions over southern Romania were performed. For these studies the database from the ceilometers located at Magurele and Strejnic was used. In addition, the meteorological conditions were analyzed using the WLK Catalogue based on the Objektive Wetterlagenklassifikation classification of the weather types [1]. This catalogue uses information from three basic tropospheric levels: 925, 700 and 500 hPa, and information on the precipitable water content over the entire atmosphere column. Geopotential fields at 925hPa and 500hPa are used for establishing the cyclonicity or anticyclonicity, while the U and V components of wind at 700hPa for establishing the dominant direction of the wind flow. For better understanding of the atmospheric parameters we performed HYSPLIT dispersion and trajectories analysis in conjunction with DREAM model output data.
Assessment of cloud particle types in a deep convective environment using active remote sensing – a case study Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials, 2017
Study of fog events using remote sensing data Romanian Reports in Physics, 2017
Writing techniques and frequent errors in research projects proposals International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference Surveying Geology and Mining Ecology Management Sgem, 2015
Science centers network International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference Surveying Geology and Mining Ecology Management Sgem, 2015
Analysis of fog events at Măgurele – Romania using ground based equipments and air circulation International Multidisciplinary Scientific Geoconference Surveying Geology and Mining Ecology Management Sgem, 2015
Determination of saharan dust properties over bucharest, Romania part 1: Procedures and algorithms Romanian Journal of Physics, 2014
Determination of saharan dust properties over bucharest, Romania part 2: Study cases analysis Romanian Journal of Physics, 2014
