Cooking activities are a source of urban air pollution that has been often ignored. The corresponding particulate matter (PM) emissions are not included or are seriously underestimated in urban emission inventories. However, several field studies suggest that cooking organic aerosol (COA) can be an important component of the organic PM in urban areas. In this study we propose and evaluate a methodology for the simulation of the COA concentration and its variability in space and time in an urban area. The city of Patras, the third biggest in Greece, is used for this first application during a typical late summer period.

The spatial distribution of COA emissions was based on the exact location of restaurants and grills, while the emission rates on the per person meat consumption in Greece. We estimated COA emissions of 0.6 g d⁻¹ per person that corresponds to 150 kg d⁻¹ for Patras. The temporal distribution of COA emissions was based on the known cooking times and the results of past field studies in the area. We estimated that half of the daily COA is emitted during dinner time (21:00–0:00 LT), while approximately 25% during lunch time (13:00–16:00 LT). The COA is simulated using the Volatility Basis Set approach and is treated as semivolatile and reactive. Its volatility distribution is based on laboratory measurements of COA from meat grilling.

The chemical transport model PMCAMx predicts that the COA concentration reaches values up to 15 μg m⁻³ during the nights of the simulated summertime period in an area with high restaurant density. The average predicted COA concentration is around 1.2 μg m⁻³ in the center and 0.1–0.2 μg m⁻³ in the suburbs of the city. COA has a distinct daily profile that peaks during lunch (13:00–15:00 LT) and dinner (21:00–23:00 LT) periods. The local production of secondary COA is predicted to be slow and it represents just a few percent of the total COA. The model reproduces well the average PM_2.5 concentrations at the outskirts of Patras and its overall performance for hourly PM_2.5 values is rated as good. A 50% uncertainty of the reported COA emissions is estimated based on the results of the sensitivity tests and the observations in the city core. The emissions can be further constrained and the corresponding uncertainty can be further reduced with measurements focusing on COA and not on total PM_2.5 as was the case in this study. These should take place in different areas of the city, selected based on the model predictions, to also improve our estimates of the spatial distribution of the emissions.

烹饪活动是经常被忽视的城市空气污染源。相应的颗粒物（PM）排放量未包含在城市排放清单中或被严重低估。然而，一些实地研究表明，烹饪有机气溶胶 (COA) 可能是城市地区有机 PM 的重要组成部分。在这项研究中，我们提出并评估了一种模拟城市区域 COA 浓度及其空间和时间可变性的方法。帕特雷市是希腊第三大城市，在典型的夏末期间用于首次申请。

COA 排放的空间分布基于餐厅和烤架的确切位置，而希腊人均肉类消费的排放率。我们估计每人0.6 g d ^{-1 的}COA 排放量相当于Patras 的150 kg d ^-1。COA 排放的时间分布基于已知的烹饪时间和该地区过去的实地研究结果。我们估计每天一半的 COA 是在晚餐时间 (21:00–0:00 LT) 排放的，而大约 25% 在午餐时间 (13:00–16:00 LT) 排放。COA 是使用波动率基础集方法模拟的，并被视为半挥发性和反应性的。其挥发性分布基于对肉类烧烤产生的 COA 的实验室测量。

化学传输模型 PMCAMx 预测 COA 浓度在模拟夏季期间夜间在餐厅密度高的地区达到高达 15 μg m ^{-3 的}值。平均预测的 COA 浓度在市中心约为 1.2 μg m ^-3，在城市郊区约为0.1-0.2 μg m ^-3。COA 具有独特的每日特征，在午餐 (13:00–15:00 LT) 和晚餐 (21:00–23:00 LT) 期间达到峰值。预计二次 COA 的本地生产速度会很慢，仅占 COA 总量的百分之几。该模型很好地再现了帕特雷郊区的平均 PM _2.5浓度及其每小时 PM _{2.5 的}整体表现值被评为良好。所报告的 COA 排放的 50% 不确定性是根据敏感性测试的结果和城市核心的观察结果估算的。通过关注 COA 而不是本研究中的PM _2.5总量，可以进一步限制排放，并进一步降低相应的不确定性。这些应该发生在城市的不同区域，根据模型预测进行选择，以改进我们对排放空间分布的估计。