The new study entitled “Methane record at Plateau Rosa confirms its role as background station with episodic sensitivity to European emissions” is now online in Communications Earth & Environment. The article is authored by Giulia Zazzeri, Francesco Apadula and Andrea Lanza from RSE’s Sustainable Development and Energy Sources Department, and Stephan Henne from Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology.

Mountain sites offer an ideal spot for long-term monitoring of greenhouse gases, thanks to their altitude and distance from local anthropogenic emissions that enable measurements of well-mixed troposphere.

At Plateau Rosa (PRS), continuous CH₄ mole fraction measurements reveal a persistent increase in atmospheric methane. Using the high-resolution FLEXPART-COSMO model, we simulated CH₄ background values and produced the station footprints, identifying the main European source regions affecting mole fractions at PRS.

The Po Valley, just below the Alps and with major urban and industrial activities, is the region affecting most pollution events, mainly from agriculture, while contributions from fuel exploitation increased when air originated from Germany, Poland, Czechia, the Netherlands and the UK.