Quantifying isentropic stratosphere-troposphere exchange of ozone

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, Huang; Chen, Gang; Tang, Qi

There is increased evidence that stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) of ozone has a significant impact on tropospheric chemistry and radiation. Traditional diagnostics of STE consider the ozone budget in the lowermost stratosphere (LMS) as a whole. However, this can only render the hemispherically integrated ozone flux and therefore does not distinguish the exchange of ozone into low latitudes from that into high latitudes. The exchange of ozone at different latitudes may have different tropospheric impacts. This present study extends the traditional approach from the entire LMS to individual isentropic layers in the LMS and therefore gives the meridional distribution of STEmore » by the latitudes where each isentropic surface intersects the tropopause. The specified dynamics version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model is used to estimate the STE ozone flux on each isentropic surface. It is found that net troposphere-to-stratosphere ozone transport occurs in low latitudes along the 350–380 K isentropic surfaces and that net stratosphere-to-troposphere ozone transport takes place in the extratropics along the 280–350 K isentropes. Particularly, the seasonal cycle of extratropical STE ozone flux in the Northern Hemisphere displays a maximum in late spring and early summer, following the seasonal migration of the upper tropospheric jet and associated isentropic mixing. Moreover, differential diabatic heating and isentropic mixing tend to induce STE ozone fluxes in opposite directions, but the net effect results in a spatiotemporal pattern similar to the STE ozone flux associated with isentropic mixing.« less

Quantifying isentropic stratosphere-troposphere exchange of ozone

DOE PAGES

Yang, Huang; Chen, Gang; Tang, Qi; ...

2016-03-25

There is increased evidence that stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) of ozone has a significant impact on tropospheric chemistry and radiation. Traditional diagnostics of STE consider the ozone budget in the lowermost stratosphere (LMS) as a whole. However, this can only render the hemispherically integrated ozone flux and therefore does not distinguish the exchange of ozone into low latitudes from that into high latitudes. The exchange of ozone at different latitudes may have different tropospheric impacts. This present study extends the traditional approach from the entire LMS to individual isentropic layers in the LMS and therefore gives the meridional distribution of STEmore » by the latitudes where each isentropic surface intersects the tropopause. The specified dynamics version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model is used to estimate the STE ozone flux on each isentropic surface. It is found that net troposphere-to-stratosphere ozone transport occurs in low latitudes along the 350–380 K isentropic surfaces and that net stratosphere-to-troposphere ozone transport takes place in the extratropics along the 280–350 K isentropes. Particularly, the seasonal cycle of extratropical STE ozone flux in the Northern Hemisphere displays a maximum in late spring and early summer, following the seasonal migration of the upper tropospheric jet and associated isentropic mixing. Moreover, differential diabatic heating and isentropic mixing tend to induce STE ozone fluxes in opposite directions, but the net effect results in a spatiotemporal pattern similar to the STE ozone flux associated with isentropic mixing.« less

Impacts of Ozone-vegetation Interactions and Biogeochemical Feedbacks on Atmospheric Composition and Air Quality Under Climate Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadeke, M.; Tai, A. P. K.; Lombardozzi, D.; Val Martin, M.

2015-12-01

Surface ozone pollution is one of the major environmental concerns due to its damaging effects on human and vegetation. One of the largest uncertainties of future surface ozone prediction comes from its interaction with vegetation under a changing climate. Ozone can be modulated by vegetation through, e.g., biogenic emissions, dry deposition and transpiration. These processes are in turn affected by chronic exposure to ozone via lowered photosynthesis rate and stomatal conductance. Both ozone and vegetation growth are expected to be altered by climate change. To better understand these climate-ozone-vegetation interactions and possible feedbacks on ozone itself via vegetation, we implement an online ozone-vegetation scheme [Lombardozzi et al., 2015] into the Community Earth System Model (CESM) with active atmospheric chemistry, climate and land surface components. Previous overestimation of surface ozone in eastern US, Canada and Europe is shown to be reduced by >8 ppb, reflecting improved model-observation comparison. Simulated surface ozone is lower by 3.7 ppb on average globally. Such reductions (and improvements) in simulated ozone are caused mainly by lower isoprene emission arising from reduced leaf area index in response to chronic ozone exposure. Effects via transpiration are also potentially significant but require better characterization. Such findings suggest that ozone-vegetation interaction may substantially alter future ozone simulations, especially under changing climate and ambient CO2 levels, which would further modulate ozone-vegetation interactions. Inclusion of such interactions in Earth system models is thus necessary to give more realistic estimation and prediction of surface ozone. This is crucial for better policy formulation regarding air quality, land use and climate change mitigation. Reference list: Lombardozzi, D., et al. "The Influence of Chronic Ozone Exposure on Global Carbon and Water Cycles." Journal of Climate 28.1 (2015): 292-305.

Impacts of Interactive Stratospheric Chemistry on Antarctic and Southern Ocean Climate Change in the Goddard Earth Observing System Version 5 (GEOS-5)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Feng; Vikhliaev, Yury V.; Newman, Paul A.; Pawson, Steven; Perlwitz, Judith; Waugh, Darryn W.; Douglass, Anne R.

2016-01-01

Stratospheric ozone depletion plays a major role in driving climate change in the Southern Hemisphere. To date, many climate models prescribe the stratospheric ozone layer's evolution using monthly and zonally averaged ozone fields. However, the prescribed ozone underestimates Antarctic ozone depletion and lacks zonal asymmetries. In this study we investigate the impact of using interactive stratospheric chemistry instead of prescribed ozone on climate change simulations of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean. Two sets of 1960-2010 ensemble transient simulations are conducted with the coupled ocean version of the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, version 5: one with interactive stratospheric chemistry and the other with prescribed ozone derived from the same interactive simulations. The model's climatology is evaluated using observations and reanalysis. Comparison of the 1979-2010 climate trends between these two simulations reveals that interactive chemistry has important effects on climate change not only in the Antarctic stratosphere, troposphere, and surface, but also in the Southern Ocean and Antarctic sea ice. Interactive chemistry causes stronger Antarctic lower stratosphere cooling and circumpolar westerly acceleration during November-December-January. It enhances stratosphere-troposphere coupling and leads to significantly larger tropospheric and surface westerly changes. The significantly stronger surface wind stress trends cause larger increases of the Southern Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation, leading to year-round stronger ocean warming near the surface and enhanced Antarctic sea ice decrease.

Ensemble simulations of the role of the stratosphere in the attribution of northern extratropical tropospheric ozone variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hess, P.; Kinnison, D.; Tang, Q.

2015-03-01

Despite the need to understand the impact of changes in emissions and climate on tropospheric ozone, the attribution of tropospheric interannual ozone variability to specific processes has proven difficult. Here, we analyze the stratospheric contribution to tropospheric ozone variability and trends from 1953 to 2005 in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) mid-latitudes using four ensemble simulations of the free running (FR) Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). The simulations are externally forced with observed time-varying (1) sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), (2) greenhouse gases (GHGs), (3) ozone depleting substances (ODS), (4) quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO), (5) solar variability (SV) and (6) stratospheric sulfate surface area density (SAD). A detailed representation of stratospheric chemistry is simulated, including the ozone loss due to volcanic eruptions and polar stratospheric clouds. In the troposphere, ozone production is represented by CH4-NOx smog chemistry, where surface chemical emissions remain interannually constant. Despite the simplicity of its tropospheric chemistry, at many NH measurement locations, the interannual ozone variability in the FR WACCM simulations is significantly correlated with the measured interannual variability. This suggests the importance of the external forcing applied in these simulations in driving interannual ozone variability. The variability and trend in the simulated 1953-2005 tropospheric ozone from 30 to 90° N at background surface measurement sites, 500 hPa measurement sites and in the area average are largely explained on interannual timescales by changes in the 30-90° N area averaged flux of ozone across the 100 hPa surface and changes in tropospheric methane concentrations. The average sensitivity of tropospheric ozone to methane (percent change in ozone to a percent change in methane) from 30 to 90° N is 0.17 at 500 hPa and 0.21 at the surface; the average sensitivity of tropospheric ozone to the 100 hPa ozone flux (percent change in ozone to a percent change in the ozone flux) from 30 to 90° N is 0.19 at 500 hPa and 0.11 at the surface. The 30-90° N simulated downward residual velocity at 100 hPa increased by 15% between 1953 and 2005. However, the impact of this on the 30-90° N 100 hPa ozone flux is modulated by the long-term changes in stratospheric ozone. The ozone flux decreases from 1965 to 1990 due to stratospheric ozone depletion, but increases again by approximately 7% from 1990 to 2005. The first empirical orthogonal function of interannual ozone variability explains from 40% (at the surface) to over 80% (at 150 hPa) of the simulated ozone interannual variability from 30 to 90° N. This identified mode of ozone variability shows strong stratosphere-troposphere coupling, demonstrating the importance of the stratosphere in an attribution of tropospheric ozone variability. The simulations, with no change in emissions, capture almost 50% of the measured ozone change during the 1990s at a variety of locations. This suggests that a large portion of the measured change is not due to changes in emissions, but can be traced to changes in large-scale modes of ozone variability. This emphasizes the difficulty in the attribution of ozone changes, and the importance of natural variability in understanding the trends and variability of ozone. We find little relation between the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) index and large-scale tropospheric ozone variability over the long-term record.

Surface ozone seasonality under global change: Influence from dry deposition and isoprene emissions at northern mid-latitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clifton, O.; Paulot, F.; Fiore, A. M.; Horowitz, L. W.; Malyshev, S.; Shevliakova, E.; Correa, G. J. P.; Lin, M.

2017-12-01

Identifying the contributions of nonlinear chemistry and transport to observed surface ozone seasonal cycles over land using global models relies on an accurate representation of ozone uptake by vegetation (dry deposition). It is well established that in the absence of ozone precursor emission changes, a warming climate will increase surface ozone in polluted regions, and that a rise in temperature-dependent isoprene emissions would exacerbate this "climate penalty". However, the influence of changes in ozone dry deposition, expected to evolve with climate and land use, is often overlooked in air quality projections. With a new scheme that represents dry deposition within the NOAA GFDL dynamic vegetation land model (LM3) coupled to the NOAA GFDL atmospheric chemistry-climate model (AM3), we simulate the impact of 21st century climate and land use on ozone dry deposition and isoprene emissions. This dry deposition parameterization is a version of the Wesely scheme, but uses parameters explicitly calculated by LM3 that respond to climate and land use (e.g., stomatal conductance, canopy interception of water, leaf area index). The parameterization includes a nonstomatal deposition dependence on humidity. We evaluate climatological present-day seasonal cycles of ozone deposition velocities and abundances with those observed at northern mid-latitude sites. With a set of 2010s and 2090s decadal simulations under a high climate warming scenario (RCP8.5) and a sensitivity simulation with well-mixed greenhouse gases following RCP8.5 but air pollutants held at 2010 levels (RCP8.5_WMGG), we examine changes in surface ozone seasonal cycles. We build on our previous findings, which indicate that strong reductions in anthropogenic NOx emissions under RCP8.5 cause the surface ozone seasonal cycle over the NE USA to reverse, shifting from a summer peak at present to a winter peak by 2100. Under RCP8.5_WMGG, we parse the separate effects of climate and land use on ozone dry deposition vs. isoprene emissions to quantify the impact of each process on surface ozone seasonal cycles and compare to the changes induced by declining anthropogenic NOx emissions (RCP8.5).

Ozone Transport Aloft Drives Surface Ozone Maxima Across the Mojave Desert

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

VanCuren, R. A.

2014-12-01

A persistent layer of polluted air in the lower free troposphere over the Mojave Desert (California and Nevada) drives spring and summer surface ozone maxima as deep afternoon mixing delivers ozone and ozone precursors to surface measurement sites 200 km or more downwind of the mountains that separate the deserts from the heavily populated coastal areas of California. Pollutants in this elevated layer derive from California source regions (the Los Angeles megacity region and the intensive agricultural region of the San Joaquin Valley), and from long-range transport from Asia. Recognition of this poorly studied persistent layer explains and expands the significance of previously published reports of ozone and other pollutants observed in and over the Mojave Desert, resolves an apparent paradox in the timing of ozone peaks due to transport from the upwind basins, and provides a new perspective on the long-range downwind impacts of megacity pollution plumes.

The Effects of Interactive Stratospheric Chemistry on Antarctic and Southern Ocean Climate Change in an AOGCM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Feng; Newman, Paul; Pawson, Steven; Waugh, Darryn

2014-01-01

Stratospheric ozone depletion has played a dominant role in driving Antarctic climate change in the last decades. In order to capture the stratospheric ozone forcing, many coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) prescribe the Antarctic ozone hole using monthly and zonally averaged ozone field. However, the prescribed ozone hole has a high ozone bias and lacks zonal asymmetry. The impacts of these biases on model simulations, particularly on Southern Ocean and the Antarctic sea ice, are not well understood. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of using interactive stratospheric chemistry instead of prescribed ozone on Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate change in an AOGCM. We compare two sets of ensemble simulations for the 1960-2010 period using different versions of the Goddard Earth Observing System 5 - AOGCM: one with interactive stratospheric chemistry, and the other with prescribed monthly and zonally averaged ozone and 6 other stratospheric radiative species calculated from the interactive chemistry simulations. Consistent with previous studies using prescribed sea surface temperatures and sea ice concentrations, the interactive chemistry runs simulate a deeper Antarctic ozone hole and consistently larger changes in surface pressure and winds than the prescribed ozone runs. The use of a coupled atmosphere-ocean model in this study enables us to determine the impact of these surface changes on Southern Ocean circulation and Antarctic sea ice. The larger surface wind trends in the interactive chemistry case lead to larger Southern Ocean circulation trends with stronger changes in northerly and westerly surface flow near the Antarctica continent and stronger upwelling near 60S. Using interactive chemistry also simulates a larger decrease of sea ice concentrations. Our results highlight the importance of using interactive chemistry in order to correctly capture the influences of stratospheric ozone depletion on climate change over Antarctic and the Southern Ocean.

Feedbacks between Climate and Fire Emissions

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-11-29

CH4 2. Direct emission of short-lived climate forcers - Black Carbon - Particulate organic matter 3. Production of tropospheric ozone and secondary... tropospheric ozone and secondary organic particulate matter 4. Changes in land surface properties - Black carbon on snow - Albedo Radiative Forcing of Black...lived  climate forcers:  particles 3.  Ozone   production 4. Change in  surface properties Fires Impacts on the Climate System 1. Emission of long lived

Meteorologically-adjusted trend analysis of surface observed ozone at three monitoring sites in Delhi, India: 2007-2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biswas, J.; Farooqui, Z.; Guttikunda, S. K.

2012-12-01

It is well known that meteorological parameters have significant impact on surface ozone concentrations. Therefore it is important to remove the effects of meteorology on ozone concentrations to correctly estimate long-term trends in ozone levels due to the alterations in precursor emissions. This is important for the development of effectual control strategies. In this study surface observed ozone trends in New Delhi are analyzed using Komogorov-Zurbenko (KZ) filter, US EPA ozone adjustment due to weather approach and the classification and regression tree method. The statistical models are applied to the ozone data at three observational sites in New Delhi metropolitan areas, 1) Income Tax Office (ITO) 2) Sirifort and 3) Delhi College of Engineering (DCE). The ITO site is located adjacent to a traffic crossing, Sirifort is an urban site and the DCE site is located in a residential area. The ITO site is also influenced by local industrial emissions. DCE has higher ozone levels than the other two sites. It was found that ITO has lowest ozone concentrations amongst the three sites due to ozone titrating due to industrial and on-road mobile NOx emissions. The statistical methods employed can assess ozone trends at these sites with a high degree of confidence and the results can be used to gauge the effectiveness of control strategies on surface ozone levels in New Delhi.

Climate Change Impacts on Projections of Excess Mortality at 2030 using Spatially-Varying Ozone-Temperature Risk Surfaces

PubMed Central

Wilson, Ander; Reich, Brian J.; Nolte, Christopher G.; Spero, Tanya L.; Hubbell, Bryan; Rappold, Ana G.

2017-01-01

We project the change in ozone-related mortality burden attributable to changes in climate between a historical (1995–2005) and near-future (2025–2035) time period while incorporating a nonlinear and synergistic effect of ozone and temperature on mortality. We simulate air quality from climate projections varying only biogenic emissions and holding anthropogenic emissions constant, thus attributing changes in ozone only to changes in climate and independent of changes in air pollutant emissions. We estimate nonlinear, spatially-varying, ozone-temperature risk surfaces for 94 US urban areas using observed data. Using the risk surfaces and climate projections we estimate daily mortality attributable to ozone exceeding 40 ppb (moderate level) and 75 ppb (US ozone NAAQS) for each time period. The average increases in city-specific median April-October ozone and temperature between time periods are 1.02 ppb and 1.94°F; however, the results varied by region. Increases in ozone due to climate change result in an increase in ozone-mortality burden. Mortality attributed to ozone exceeding 40 ppb increases by 7.7% (1.6%, 14.2%). Mortality attributed to ozone exceeding 75 ppb increases by 14.2% (1.6%, 28.9%). The absolute increase in excess ozone mortality is larger for changes in moderate ozone levels, reflecting the larger number of days with moderate ozone levels. PMID:27005744

Responses of Surface Ozone Air Quality to Anthropogenic Nitrogen Deposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, L.; Zhao, Y.; Tai, A. P. K.; Chen, Y.; Pan, Y.

2017-12-01

Human activities have substantially increased atmospheric deposition of reactive nitrogen to the Earth's surface, inducing unintentional effects on ecosystems with complex environmental and climate consequences. One consequence remaining unexplored is how surface air quality might respond to the enhanced nitrogen deposition through surface-atmosphere exchange. We combine a chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) and a global land model (Community Land Model) to address this issue with a focus on ozone pollution in the Northern Hemisphere. We consider three processes that are important for surface ozone and can be perturbed by addition of atmospheric deposited nitrogen: emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ozone dry deposition, and soil nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. We find that present-day anthropogenic nitrogen deposition (65 Tg N a-1 to the land), through enhancing plant growth (represented as increases in vegetation leaf area index (LAI) in the model), could increase surface ozone from increased biogenic VOC emissions, but could also decrease ozone due to higher ozone dry deposition velocities. Meanwhile, deposited anthropogenic nitrogen to soil enhances soil NOx emissions. The overall effect on summer mean surface ozone concentrations show general increases over the globe (up to 1.5-2.3 ppbv over the western US and South Asia), except for some regions with high anthropogenic NOx emissions (0.5-1.0 ppbv decreases over the eastern US, Western Europe, and North China). We compare the surface ozone changes with those driven by the past 20-year climate and historical land use changes. We find that the impacts from anthropogenic nitrogen deposition can be comparable to the climate and land use driven surface ozone changes at regional scales, and partly offset the surface ozone reductions due to land use changes reported in previous studies. Our study emphasizes the complexity of biosphere-atmosphere interactions, which can have important implications for future air quality prediction.

Surface ozone in China: present-day distribution and long-term changes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, X.; Lin, W.; Xu, W.

2017-12-01

Reliable knowledge of spatio-temporal variations of surface ozone is highly needed to assess the impacts of ozone on human health, ecosystem and climate. Although regional distributions and trends of surface ozone in European and North American countries have been well characterized, little is known about the variability of surface ozone in many other countries, including China, where emissions of ozone precursors have been changing rapidly in recent decades. Here we present the first comprehensive description of present-day (2013-2017) distribution and long-term changes of surface ozone in mainland China. Recent ozone measurements from China's air quality monitoring network (AQMN) are analyzed to show present-day distributions of a few ozone exposure metrics for urban environment. Long-term measurements of ozone at six background sites, a rural site and an urban are used to study the trends of ozone in background, rural and urban air, respectively. The average levels of ozone at the AQMN sites (mainly urban) are close to those found at many European and North American sites. However, ozone at most of the sites shows very large diurnal and seasonal variations so that ozone nonattainment can occur in many cities, particularly those in the North China Plain (NCP), the south of Northeast China (NEC), the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), the Pearl River Delta (PRD), and the Sichuan Basin-Chongqing region (SCB). In all these regions, particularly in the NCP, the maximum daily 8-h average (MDA8) ozone concentration can significantly exceed the national limit (75 ppb). High annual sum of ozone means over 35 ppb (SOMO35) exist mainly in the NCP, NEC and YRD, with regional averages over 4000 ppb·d. Surface ozone has significantly increased at Waliguan (a baseline site in western China) and Shangdianzi (a background site in the NCP), and decreased in winter and spring at Longfengshan (a background site in Northeast China). No clear trend can be derived from long-term measurements of ozone at other sites. Further attention should be paid to future changes of ozone in populated regions of China. Actions are urgently needed to control ozone pollution in the NCP and YRD.

Impacts of different characterizations of large-scale background on simulated regional-scale ozone over the continental United States

EPA Science Inventory

This study analyzes simulated regional-scale ozone burdens both near the surface and aloft, estimates process contributions to these burdens, and calculates the sensitivity of the simulated regional-scale ozone burden to several key model inputs with a particular emphasis on boun...

Ozone response to enhanced heterogeneous processing after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rodriguez, Jose M.; Ko, M. K. W.; Sze, N. D.; Heisey, C. W.; Yue, G. K.; Mccormick, M. P.

1994-01-01

Increases in aerosol loading after the Pinatubo eruption are expected to cause additional ozone depletion. Even though aerosol loadings were highest in the winter of 1991-1992, recent analyses of satellite and ground-based ozone measurements indicate that ozone levels in the winter of 1992-1993 are the lowest recorded in recent years, raising the question of the mechanisms responsible for such behavior. We have incorporated aerosol surface areas derived from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE-II) measurements into our two-dimensional model. Inclusion of heterogeneous chemsitry on these enhanced aerosol surfaces yields maximum ozone reductions during the winter of 1992-1993 in the Northern Hemisphere, consistent with those derived from observations. This delayed behavior is due to the combination of the non-linear nature of the impact of heterogeneous reactions as a function of aerosol surface area, and the long time constants for ozone in the lower stratosphere. If heterogeneous mechanisms are primarily responsible for the low 1992-1993 ozone levels, we expect ozone concentrations to start recovering in 1994.

Air Quality Impacts of Oil and Gas Operations in the Northern Colorado Front Range

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helmig, D.; Thompson, C. R.; Jacques, H.; Smith, K. R.; Terrell, R. M.

2014-12-01

Exceedences of the US EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for surface ozone have been reported from monitoring sites in the Northern Colorado Front Range (NCFR) for more than fifteen years during summer. Comparison of ozone records from the NCFR clearly show that ozone primarily results from regional photochemical daytime production. Recent trend analyses do not show an improvement of surface ozone despite efforts by the State of Colorado to curb ozone precursor emissions. Our review of atmospheric volatile organic compound (VOC) measurements from historic and recent monitoring shows significant spatial increases of atmospheric VOC towards the oil and gas development area in Weld County, NW of the Denver-Boulder metropolitan region. Secondly, analyses of VOC trends and VOC signatures show an overall increase of oil and gas associated VOC relative to other VOC sources. These analyses suggest that oil and gas emissions are playing and increasing role in ozone production in the NCFR and that reductions of oil and gas emissions would be beneficial for lowering surface ozone and attainment of the ozone NAAQS.

Role of Biomass Burning in the Formation of Tropospheric Ozone Laminae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nair, U. S.; Wu, Y.; Kuang, S.; Newchurch, M.

2016-12-01

Laminar structure in free-tropospheric ozone profiles is a feature that is frequently observed in ozonesonde and lidar observations. Origins of these features are not well understood and have been linked to tropopause folding, stratospheric warming events and biomass burning emissions. Ozone laminae events with maximum ozone exceeding 80 ppb have been observed by the DIfferential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) instrument in Huntsville, Alabama. While many of the events are linked to tropopause folding, a subset of events located in the mid troposphere (2-6km) coincided with a smoke layer are associated with biomass burning. Satellite observations show the smoke originated from northwestern US wildfire events. Several of these ozone laminae associated with smoke have ozone excess of 20 ppb above the background values and have the potential to impact surface air quality if they enter the boundary layer. This presentation will report on process studies of ozone laminae associated with biomass burning plumes using A-Train satellite, ground based DIAL and ozonesonde observations. Fate and transport of the feature is also examined using WRFChem simulations, in specific transport into the boundary layer and impact on air quality at the surface.

Impact of Surface Emissions to the Zonal Variability of Tropical Tropospheric Ozone and Carbon Monoxide for November 2004

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bowman, K. W.; Jones, D.; Logan, J.; Worden, H.; Boersma, F.; Chang, R.; Kulawik, S.; Osterman, G.; Worden, J.

2008-01-01

The chemical and dynamical processes governing the zonal variability of tropical tropospheric ozone and carbon monoxide are investigated for November 2004 using satellite observations, in-situ measurements, and chemical transport models in conjunction with inverse-estimated surface emissions. Vertical ozone profile estimates from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and ozone sonde measurements from the Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ) network show the so called zonal 'wave-one' pattern, which is characterized by peak ozone concentrations (70-80 ppb) centered over the Atlantic, as well as elevated concentrations of ozone over Indonesia and Australia (60-70 ppb) in the lower troposphere. Observational evidence from TES CO vertical profiles and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) NO2 columns point to regional surface emissions as an important contributor to the elevated ozone over Indonesia. This contribution is investigated with the GEOS-Chem chemistry and transport model using surface emission estimates derived from an optimal inverse model, which was constrained by TES and Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) CO profiles (Jones et al., 2007). These a posteriori estimates, which were over a factor of 2 greater than climatological emissions, reduced differences between GEOS-Chem and TES ozone observations by 30-40% and led to changes in GEOS-Chem upper tropospheric ozone of up to 40% over Indonesia. The remaining residual differences can be explained in part by upper tropospheric ozone produced from lightning NOx in the South Atlantic. Furthermore, model simulations from GEOS-Chem indicate that ozone over Indonesian/Australian is more sensitive to changes in surface emissions of NOx than ozone over the tropical Atlantic.

The TOAR database on observations of surface ozone (and more)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, M. G.; Schröder, S.; Cooper, O. R.; Galbally, I. E.; Petropavlovskikh, I. V.; von Schneidemesser, E.; Tanimoto, H.; Elshorbany, Y. F.; Naja, M. K.; Seguel, R. J.

2017-12-01

In support of the first Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) a relational database of global surface ozone observations has been developed and populated with hourly measurement data and enhanced metadata. A comprehensive suite of ozone data products including standard statistics, health and vegetation impact metrics, and trend information, are made available through a common data portal and a web interface. These data form the basis of the TOAR analyses focusing on human health, vegetation, and climate relevant ozone issues. Cooperation among many data centers and individual researchers worldwide made it possible to build the world's largest collection of in-situ hourly surface ozone data covering the period from 1970 to 2015. By combining the data from almost 10,000 measurement sites around the world with global metadata information, new analyses of surface ozone have become possible, such as the first globally consistent characterisations of measurement sites as either urban or rural/remote. Exploitation of these global metadata allows for new insights into the global distribution, and seasonal and long-term changes of tropospheric ozone and they enable TOAR to perform the first, globally consistent analysis of present-day ozone concentrations and recent ozone changes with relevance to health, agriculture, and climate. This presentation will provide a summary of the TOAR surface observations database including recent additions of ozone precursor and meteorological data. We will demonstrate how the database can be accessed and the data can be used, and we will discuss its limitations and the potential for closing some of teh remaining data gaps.

The impact of urban canopy meteorological forcing on summer photochemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huszár, Peter; Karlický, Jan; Belda, Michal; Halenka, Tomáš; Pišoft, Petr

2018-03-01

The regional climate model RegCM4.4, including the surface model CLM4.5, was offline coupled to the chemistry transport model CAMx version 6.30 in order to investigate the impact of the urban canopy induced meteorological changes on the longterm summer photochemistry over central Europe for the 2001-2005 period. First, the urban canopy impact on the meteorological conditions was calculated performing a reference experiment without urban landsurface considered and an experiment with urban surfaces modeled with the urban parameterization within the CLM4.5 model. In accordance with expectations, strong increases of urban surface temperatures (up to 2-3 K), decreases of wind speed (up to -1 ms-1) and increases of vertical turbulent diffusion coefficient (up to 60-70 m2s-1) were found. For the impact on chemistry, these three components were considered. Additionally, we accounted for the effect of temperature enhanced biogenic emission increase. Several experiments were performed by adding these effects one-by-one to the total impact: i.e., first, only the urban temperature impact was considered driving the chemistry model; secondly, the wind impact was added and so on. We found that the impact on biogenic emission account for minor changes in the concentrations of ozone (O3), oxides of nitrogen NOx = NO + NO2 and nitric acid (HNO3). On the other hand, the dominating component acting is the increased vertical mixing, resulting in up to 5 ppbv increase of urban ozone concentrations while causing -2 to -3 ppbv decreases and around 1 ppbv increases of NOx and HNO3 surface concentrations, respectively. The temperature impact alone results in reduction of ozone, increase in NO, decrease in NO2 and increases of HNO3. The wind impact leads, over urban areas, to ozone decreases, increases of NOx and a slight increase in HNO3. The overall impact is similar to the impact of increased vertical mixing alone. The Process Analysis (PA) technique implemented in CAMx was adopted to investigate the causes of the modeled impacts in more details. It showed that the main process contributing to the temperature impact on ozone is a dry-deposition enhancement, while the dominating process controlling the wind impact on ozone over cities is the advection reduction. In case of the impact of enhanced turbulence, PA suggests that ozone increases are, again as assumed, the result of increased downward vertical mixing supported by reduced chemical loss. Comparing the model concentrations with measurements over urban areas, a slight improvement of the model performance was achieved during afternoon hours if urban canopy forcing on chemistry via meteorology was accounted for. The study demonstrates that disregarding the urban canopy induced meteorological effects in air-quality oriented modeling studies can lead to erroneous results in the calculated species concentrations. However, it also shows that the individual components are not equally important: urban canopy induced turbulence effects dominate while the wind-speed and temperature related ones are of considerably smaller magnitude.

Tropospheric and stratospheric ozone from assimilation of Aura data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stajner, I.; Wargan, K.; Chang, L.-P.; Hayashi, H.; Pawwson, S.; Froidevaux, L.; Livesey, N.; Bhartia, P. K.

2006-01-01

Ozone is an atmospheric trace gas with multiple impacts on the environment. Global ozone fields are needed for air quality predictions, estimation of the ultraviolet radiation reaching the surface, climate-radiation studies, and may also have an impact on longer-term weather predictions. We estimate global ozone fields in the stratosphere and troposphere by combining the data from EOS Aura satellite with an ozone model using data assimilation. Ozone exhibits a large temporal variability in the lower stratosphere. Our previous work showed that assimilation of satellite data from limb-sounding geometry helps constrain ozone profiles in that region. We assimilated ozone data from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) into the ozone system at NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO). Ozone is transported within a general circulation model (GCM) which includes parameterizations for stratospheric photochemistry, tropospheric chemistry, and a simple scheme for heterogeneous ozone loss. The focus of this study is on the representation of ozone in the lower stratosphere and tropospheric ozone columns. We plan to extend studies of tropospheric ozone distribution through assimilation of ozone data from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES). Comparisons with ozone sondes and occultation data show that assimilation of Aura data reproduces ozone gradients and variability in the lower stratosphere well. We proceed by separating the contributions to temporal changes in the ozone field into those that are due to the model and those that are due to the assimilation of Aura data. The impacts of Aura data are illustrated and their role in the representation of ozone variability in the lower stratosphere and troposphere is shown.

Is There Evidence that Mid-Latitude Stratospheric Ozone Depletion Occurs in Conjunction with North American Monsoon Convection?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenlof, K. H.; Ray, E. A.; Portmann, R. W.

2017-12-01

A recent study suggests that during the period of the summertime North American Monsoon (NAM), ozone depletion could occur as a result of catalytic ozone destruction associated with the cold and wet conditions caused by overshooting convection. Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) water vapor measurements do show that the NAM region is wetter than other parts of the globe in regards to both the mean and extremes. However, definitive evidence of ozone depletion occurring in that region has not been presented. In this study, we examine coincident measurements of water vapor, ozone, and tropospheric tracers from aircraft data taken during the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) aircraft campaign looking specifically for ozone depletion in regions identified as impacted by overshooting convection. Although we do find evidence of lower ozone values in air impacted by convective overshoots, using tropospheric tracers we attribute those observations to input of tropospheric air rather than catalytic ozone destruction. Additionally, we explore the consequences of these lower ozone values on surface UV, and conclude that there is minimal impact on the UV index.

The Impact of Iodide-Mediated Ozone Deposition and Halogen Chemistry on Surface Ozone Concentrations Across the Continental United States

EPA Science Inventory

The air quality of many large coastal areas in the United States is affected by the confluence of polluted urban and relatively clean marine airmasses, each with distinct atmospheric chemistry. In this context, the role of iodide-mediated ozone (O3) deposition over seawater and m...

The reservoir of ozone in the boundary layer of the eastern United States and its potential impact on the global tropospheric ozone budget

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vukovich, F. M.; Fishman, J.; Browell, E. V.

1985-01-01

An analysis of available ozone data in the eastern two-thirds of the United States indicates that a substantial reservoir of ozone is present in the summertime. Five-year mean concentrations range from 40 to 65 ppbv. The reservoir covered an area of several million square kilometers and extends vertically from the surface to 1 to 2 km. The vertical distribution of ozone in the reservoir during midday supports a transport of additional ozone from the boundary layer to the free troposphere. Data are presented demonstrating the potential effect of transport by convective clouds and by the sea breeze circulation - mechanisms by which ozone may be transported out of the boundary layer into the free troposphere. The potential impact of this reservoir on the tropospheric ozone budget is discussed. It is shown that if less than half of the ozone mass in this reservoir is transported to the free troposphere, then the amount of ozone transported out of the boundary layer approximates the amount of ozone transported downward during a tropopause fold event.

Stage-specific, Nonlinear Surface Ozone Damage to Rice Production in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carter, Colin A.; Cui, Xiaomeng; Ding, Aijun; Ghanem, Dalia; Jiang, Fei; Yi, Fujin; Zhong, Funing

2017-03-01

China is one of the most heavily polluted nations and is also the largest agricultural producer. There are relatively few studies measuring the effects of pollution on crop yields in China, and most are based on experiments or simulation methods. We use observational data to study the impact of increased air pollution (surface ozone) on rice yields in Southeast China. We examine nonlinearities in the relationship between rice yields and ozone concentrations and find that an additional day with a maximum ozone concentration greater than 120 ppb is associated with a yield loss of 1.12% ± 0.83% relative to a day with maximum ozone concentration less than 60 ppb. We find that increases in mean ozone concentrations, SUM60, and AOT40 during panicle formation are associated with statistically significant yield losses, whereas such increases before and after panicle formation are not. We conclude that heightened surface ozone levels will potentially lead to reductions in rice yields that are large enough to have implications for the global rice market.

Impacts of different characterizations of large-scale background on simulated regional-scale ozone over the continental United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hogrefe, Christian; Liu, Peng; Pouliot, George; Mathur, Rohit; Roselle, Shawn; Flemming, Johannes; Lin, Meiyun; Park, Rokjin J.

2018-03-01

This study analyzes simulated regional-scale ozone burdens both near the surface and aloft, estimates process contributions to these burdens, and calculates the sensitivity of the simulated regional-scale ozone burden to several key model inputs with a particular emphasis on boundary conditions derived from hemispheric or global-scale models. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model simulations supporting this analysis were performed over the continental US for the year 2010 within the context of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII) and Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution (TF-HTAP) activities. CMAQ process analysis (PA) results highlight the dominant role of horizontal and vertical advection on the ozone burden in the mid-to-upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Vertical mixing, including mixing by convective clouds, couples fluctuations in free-tropospheric ozone to ozone in lower layers. Hypothetical bounding scenarios were performed to quantify the effects of emissions, boundary conditions, and ozone dry deposition on the simulated ozone burden. Analysis of these simulations confirms that the characterization of ozone outside the regional-scale modeling domain can have a profound impact on simulated regional-scale ozone. This was further investigated by using data from four hemispheric or global modeling systems (Chemistry - Integrated Forecasting Model (C-IFS), CMAQ extended for hemispheric applications (H-CMAQ), the Goddard Earth Observing System model coupled to chemistry (GEOS-Chem), and AM3) to derive alternate boundary conditions for the regional-scale CMAQ simulations. The regional-scale CMAQ simulations using these four different boundary conditions showed that the largest ozone abundance in the upper layers was simulated when using boundary conditions from GEOS-Chem, followed by the simulations using C-IFS, AM3, and H-CMAQ boundary conditions, consistent with the analysis of the ozone fields from the global models along the CMAQ boundaries. Using boundary conditions from AM3 yielded higher springtime ozone columns burdens in the middle and lower troposphere compared to boundary conditions from the other models. For surface ozone, the differences between the AM3-driven CMAQ simulations and the CMAQ simulations driven by other large-scale models are especially pronounced during spring and winter where they can reach more than 10 ppb for seasonal mean ozone mixing ratios and as much as 15 ppb for domain-averaged daily maximum 8 h average ozone on individual days. In contrast, the differences between the C-IFS-, GEOS-Chem-, and H-CMAQ-driven regional-scale CMAQ simulations are typically smaller. Comparing simulated surface ozone mixing ratios to observations and computing seasonal and regional model performance statistics revealed that boundary conditions can have a substantial impact on model performance. Further analysis showed that boundary conditions can affect model performance across the entire range of the observed distribution, although the impacts tend to be lower during summer and for the very highest observed percentiles. The results are discussed in the context of future model development and analysis opportunities.

Application of Satellite and Ozonesonde Data to the Study of Nighttime Tropospheric Ozone Impacts and Relationship to Air Quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osterman, G. B.; Eldering, A.; Neu, J. L.; Tang, Y.; McQueen, J.; Pinder, R. W.

2011-12-01

To help protect human health and ecosystems, regional-scale atmospheric chemistry models are used to forecast high ozone events and to design emission control strategies to decrease the frequency and severity of ozone events. Despite the impact that nighttime aloft ozone can have on surface ozone, regional-scale atmospheric chemistry models often do not simulate the nighttime ozone concentrations well and nor do they sufficiently capture the ozone transport patterns. Fully characterizing the importance of the nighttime ozone has been hampered by limited measurements of the vertical distribution of ozone and ozone-precursors. The main focus of this work is to begin to utilize remote sensing data sets to characterize the impact of nighttime aloft ozone to air quality events. We will describe our plans to use NASA satellite data sets, transport models and air quality models to study ozone transport, focusing primarily on nighttime ozone and provide initial results. We will use satellite and ozonesonde data to help understand how well the air quality models are simulating ozone in the lower free troposphere and attempt to characterize the impact of nighttime ozone to air quality events. Our specific objectives are: 1) Characterize nighttime aloft ozone using remote sensing data and sondes. 2) Evaluate the ability of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and the National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) model to capture the nighttime aloft ozone and its relationship to air quality events. 3) Analyze a set of air quality events and determine the relationship of air quality events to the nighttime aloft ozone. We will achieve our objectives by utilizing the ozone profile data from the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and other sensors, ozonesonde data collected during the Aura mission (IONS), EPA AirNow ground station ozone data, the CMAQ continental-scale air quality model, and the National Air Quality Forecast model.

New AgMIP Scenarios: Impacts of Volcanic Eruptions, Geoengineering, or Nuclear War on Agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robock, A.; Xia, L.

2016-12-01

Climate is one of the most important factors determining crop yields and world food supplies. To be well prepared for possible futures, it is necessary to study yield changes of major crops in response to different climate forcings. Previous studies mainly focus on the impact from global warming. Here we propose that the AgMIP community also study the impacts of stratospheric aerosols on agriculture. While nature can load the stratosphere with sulfate aerosols for several years from large volcanic eruptions, humans could also put sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere on purpose through geoengineering or soot as a result of the fires from a nuclear war. Stratospheric aerosols would change the temperature, precipitation, total insolation, and fraction of diffuse radiation due to their radiative impacts, and could produce more ultraviolet radiation by ozone destruction. Surface ozone concentration could also change by changed transport from the stratosphere as well as changed tropospheric chemistry. As a demonstration of these effects, using the crop model in the NCAR Community Land Model (CLM-crop), we have studied sulfate injection geoengineering and nuclear war impacts on global agriculture in response to temperature, precipitation and radiation changes, and found significant changes in patterns of global food production. With the new ozone module in CLM-crop, we simulated how surface ozone concentration change under sulfate injection geoengineering would change the agriculture response. Agriculture would benefit from less surface ozone concentration associated with the specific geoengineering scenario comparing with the global warming scenario. Here, we would like to encourage more crop modelers to improve crop models in terms of crop responses to ozone, ultraviolet radiation, and diffuse radiation. We also invite more global crop modeling groups to use the climate forcing we would be happy to provide to gain a better understanding of global agriculture responses under different future climate scenarios with stratospheric aerosols.

On the variability of tropospheric ozone in the Tropical Eastern Pacific and its impact on the oxidizing capacity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saiz-Lopez, A.; Gomez Martin, J.; Hay, T.; Mahajan, A.; Ordoñez, C.; Parrondo Sempere, M.; Gil, M. J.; Agama Reyes, M.; Paredes Mora, J.; Voemel, H.

2012-12-01

Observations of surface ozone, NOx and meteorological variables were made during two ground based field campaigns in the Eastern Pacific marine boundary layer (MBL). The first study was PIQUERO (Primera Investigación de la Química, Evolución y Reparto de Ozono), running from September 2000 to July 2001 in parallel to the Southern Hemisphere ADditional OZonesondes (SHADOZ) in the Galápagos Islands. The second study is the Climate and HAlogen Reactivity tropicaL EXperiment (CHARLEX), running from September 2010 to present. These long-term, high frequency, measurements enable a detailed description of the daily, monthly, seasonal and interannual variability of ozone and help to constrain the MBL and lower free troposphere (FT) ozone budget. In the Equatorial Eastern Pacific "cold season" (August - October), net ozone photochemical destruction of ~ 2 ppb day-1 occurs in the MBL (~30% due to halogens, and the rest to HOx). Ozone recovers by entrainment from aloft at night. The monthly baseline is set by the tropical instability waves (TIW), which also impact the ozone concentration in the lower FT. In the cold phase of the TIWs the MBL is stratified and, apart from higher surface ozone, it may also contain an upper drier layer with higher ozone between ~ 500 m and the main inversion at ~1 km. In the warm phase the buoyant MBL expands upwards (as much as 500 m) and poor ozone air reaches the FT. As the system shifts to the warm season (February- April), the TIWs stop and the sea becomes warmer, increasing evaporation and reducing ozone. The inversion is pushed upwards and finally disappears or becomes very weak. Surface ozone is so low that even at the low background NOx levels observed ozone production balances photochemical destruction, so the daily profile is flat (observed local effects in the populated areas of Galapagos are discussed). In February Galapagos is almost in the doldrums because the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) shifts south. In this situation, air convected at the ITZC is advected at different heights in the FT over Galapagos, so the entrainment of air from the FT does not replenish MBL ozone, explaining the low seasonal minimum. An important aspect of the marked ozone seasonal cycle is the impact on OH. levels. The consequences of this for the oxidizing capacity of the lower atmosphere are discussed.

The Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR): A community-wide effort to quantify tropospheric ozone in a rapidly changing world

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cooper, O. R.; Schultz, M.; Paoletti, E.; Galbally, I. E.; Naja, M. K.; Tarasick, D. W.; Evans, M. J.; Thompson, A. M.

2017-12-01

Tropospheric ozone is a greenhouse gas and pollutant detrimental to human health and crop and ecosystem productivity. Since 1990 a large portion of the anthropogenic emissions that react in the atmosphere to produce ozone has shifted from North America and Europe to Asia. This rapid shift, coupled with limited ozone monitoring in developing nations, left scientists unable to answer the most basic questions: Which regions of the world have the greatest human and plant exposure to ozone pollution? Is ozone continuing to decline in nations with strong emissions controls? To what extent is ozone increasing in the developing world? How can the atmospheric sciences community facilitate access to the ozone metrics necessary for quantifying ozone's impact on human health and crop/ecosystem productivity? To answer these questions the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project (IGAC) initiated the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR). With over 220 member scientists and air quality specialists from 36 nations, TOAR's mission is to provide the research community with an up-to-date scientific assessment of tropospheric ozone's global distribution and trends from the surface to the tropopause. TOAR has also built the world's largest database of surface ozone observations and generated ozone exposure and dose metrics at thousands of measurement sites around the world, freely accessible for research on the global-scale impact of ozone on climate, human health and crop/ecosystem productivity. Plots of these metrics show the regions of the world with the greatest ozone exposure for humans and crops/ecosystems, at least in areas where observations are available. The results also highlight regions where air quality is improving and where it has degraded. TOAR has also conducted the first intercomparison of tropospheric column ozone from ozonesondes and multiple satellite instruments, which provide similar estimates of the present-day tropospheric ozone burden.

Responses of surface ozone air quality to anthropogenic nitrogen deposition in the Northern Hemisphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Yuanhong; Zhang, Lin; Tai, Amos P. K.; Chen, Youfan; Pan, Yuepeng

2017-08-01

Human activities have substantially increased atmospheric deposition of reactive nitrogen to the Earth's surface, inducing unintentional effects on ecosystems with complex environmental and climate consequences. One consequence remaining unexplored is how surface air quality might respond to the enhanced nitrogen deposition through surface-atmosphere exchange. Here we combine a chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) and a global land model (Community Land Model, CLM) to address this issue with a focus on ozone pollution in the Northern Hemisphere. We consider three processes that are important for surface ozone and can be perturbed by the addition of atmospheric deposited nitrogen - namely, emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ozone dry deposition, and soil nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. We find that present-day anthropogenic nitrogen deposition (65 Tg N a-1 to the land), through enhancing plant growth (represented as increases in vegetation leaf area index, LAI, in the model), could increase surface ozone from increased biogenic VOC emissions (e.g., a 6.6 Tg increase in isoprene emission), but it could also decrease ozone due to higher ozone dry deposition velocities (up to 0.02-0.04 cm s-1 increases). Meanwhile, deposited anthropogenic nitrogen to soil enhances soil NOx emissions. The overall effect on summer mean surface ozone concentrations shows general increases over the globe (up to 1.5-2.3 ppbv over the western US and South Asia), except for some regions with high anthropogenic NOx emissions (0.5-1.0 ppbv decreases over the eastern US, western Europe, and North China). We compare the surface ozone changes with those driven by the past 20-year climate and historical land use changes. We find that the impacts from anthropogenic nitrogen deposition can be comparable to the climate- and land-use-driven surface ozone changes at regional scales and partly offset the surface ozone reductions due to land use changes reported in previous studies. Our study emphasizes the complexity of biosphere-atmosphere interactions, which can have important implications for future air quality prediction.

Contribution of different PSC types to Arctic ozone depletion caused by chlorine activation and denitrification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirner, Oliver; Khosrawi, Farah; Müller, Rolf; Weimer, Michael; Ruhnke, Roland

2017-04-01

Heterogeneous reactions on the surfaces of PSC particles and denitrification of the stratosphere are the cause for polar ozone depletion in spring. In a former study we investigated the impact of different types of PSCs on Antarctic ozone depletion with the help of the chemistry-climate model ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric chemistry (EMAC). In this study, we investigate the impact of PSCs on Arctic ozone loss. One standard and four sensitivity EMAC simulations (nudged with ERA-Interim) have been performed to evaluate the contribution of liquid, NAT and ice particles to ozone depletion in the Arctic winters 2010/2011 and 2015/2016 due to chlorine activation by heterogeneous chemistry on their surfaces and due to denitrification of the stratosphere. In the first three sensitivity simulations, we changed the heterogeneous chemistry on PSC particles by switching on and off the chemistry on liquid, NAT and ice particles. One further sensitivity simulation without NAT formation (only liquid and ice particles) was performed to evaluate the contribution of NAT to Arctic ozone depletion due to denitrification of the stratosphere. With the help of these different EMAC simulations, we will show the significance of liquid, NAT and ice particles to Arctic ozone depletion caused by chlorine activation and denitrification.

On the role of ozone feedback in the ENSO amplitude response under global warming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowack, P. J.; Braesicke, P.; Abraham, N. L.; Pyle, J. A.

2017-12-01

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the tropical Pacific is of key importance to global climate and weather. However, climate models still disagree on the ENSO's response under climate change. Here we show that typical model representations of ozone can have a first-order impact on ENSO amplitude projections in climate sensitivity simulations (i.e. standard abrupt 4xCO2). We mainly explain this effect by the lapse rate adjustment of the tropical troposphere to ozone changes in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) under 4xCO2. The ozone-induced lapse rate changes modify the Walker circulation response to the CO2 forcing and consequently tropical Pacific surface temperature gradients. Therefore, not including ozone feedbacks increases the number of extreme ENSO events in our model. In addition, we demonstrate that even if ozone changes in the tropical UTLS are included in the simulations, the neglect of the ozone response in the middle-upper stratosphere still leads to significantly larger ENSO amplitudes (compared to simulations run with a fully interactive atmospheric chemistry scheme). Climate modeling studies of the ENSO often neglect changes in ozone. Our results imply that this could affect the inter-model spread found in ENSO projections and, more generally, surface climate change simulations. We discuss the additional complexity in quantifying such ozone-related effects that arises from the apparent model dependency of chemistry-climate feedbacks and, possibly, their range of surface climate impacts. In conclusion, we highlight the need to understand better the coupling between ozone, the tropospheric circulation, and climate variability. Reference: Nowack PJ, Braesicke P, Abraham NL, and Pyle JA (2017), On the role of ozone feedback in the ENSO amplitude response under global warming, Geophys. Res. Lett. 44, 3858-3866, doi:10.1002/2016GL072418.

Understanding global tropospheric ozone and its impacts on human health

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

West, J. J.

2017-12-01

Ozone is an important air pollutant for human health, one that has proven difficult to manage locally, nationally, and globally. Here I will present research on global ozone and its impacts on human health, highlighting several studies from my lab over the past decade. I will discuss the drivers of global tropospheric ozone, and the importance of the equatorward shift of emissions over recent decades. I will review estimates of the global burden of ozone on premature mortality, the contributions of different emission sectors to that burden, estimates of how the ozone health burden will change in the future under the Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios, and estimates of the contribution of projected climate change to ozone-related deaths. I will also discuss the importance of the intercontinental transport of ozone, and of methane as a driver of global ozone, from the human health perspective. I will present estimates of trends in the ozone mortality burden in the United States since 1990. Finally, I will discuss our project currently underway to estimate global ozone concentrations at the surface based on data gathered by the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report, combined statistically with atmospheric modeling results.

Lightning NOx and Impacts on Air Quality

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murray, Lee T.

2016-01-01

Lightning generates relatively large but uncertain quantities of nitrogen oxides, critical precursors for ozone and hydroxyl radical (OH), the primary tropospheric oxidants. Lightning nitrogen oxide strongly influences background ozone and OH due to high ozone production efficiencies in the free troposphere, effecting small but non-negligible contributions to surface pollutant concentrations. Lightning globally contributes 3-4 ppbv of simulated annual-mean policy-relevant background (PRB) surface ozone, comprised of local, regional, and hemispheric components, and up to 18 ppbv during individual events. Feedbacks via methane may counter some of these effects on decadal time scales. Lightning contributes approximately 1 percent to annual-mean surface particulate matter, as a direct precursor and by promoting faster oxidation of other precursors. Lightning also ignites wildfires and contributes to nitrogen deposition. Urban pollution influences lightning itself, with implications for regional lightning-nitrogen oxide production and feedbacks on downwind surface pollution. How lightning emissions will change in a warming world remains uncertain.

Impacts of Central American Fires on Ozone Air Quality along the US Gulf Coast

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, S. C.; Wang, Y.; Estes, M. J.; Lei, R.; Talbot, R. W.

2017-12-01

Biomass burning in Central America is associated with agriculture activities and occurs regularly during April and May every year. Satellite observations have documented frequent transport of wildfire smoke from Mexico and Central America to the southern US, causing haze and exceedance of fine particle matter. However, the impacts of those fires on surface ozone in the US are poorly understood. This study uses both observations and modeling to examine the effects of the springtime Central America fire emissions on surface ozone over the Gulf coastal regions over a long-term time period (2002-2015). Passive tracer simulation in the nested-grid version of the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model over North America is used to identify the days when Central American fire plumes reached the US Gulf Coast. During the identified fire-impact days, Central American fires are estimated to result in an average of 9 ppbv enhancement of regional background ozone over the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) region. Satellite-observed distributions of AOD and CO are used to examine the transport pathways and effects of those fires on atmospheric composition. Finally, we integrate satellite observations, ground measurements, and modeling to quantify the impact of Central American fires on springtime ozone air quality along the US Gulf Coast in terms of both long-term (2002-2015) mean and extreme cases.

Development of KRISS standard reference photometer (SRP) for ambient ozone measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, S.; Lee, J.

2014-12-01

Surface ozone has adverse impacts on human health and ecosystem. Accurate measurement of ambient ozone concentration is essential for developing effective mitigation strategies and understanding atmospheric chemistry. Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has developed new ozone standard reference photometers (SRPs) for the calibration of ambient ozone instruments. The basic principle of the KRISS ozone SRPs is to determine the absorption of ultraviolet radiation at a specific wavelength, 253.7 nm, by ozone in the atmosphere. Ozone concentration is calculated by converting UV transmittance through the Beer-Lambert Law. This study introduces the newly developed ozone SRPs and characterizes their performance through uncertainty analysis and comparison with BIPM (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) SRP.

Tropospheric ozone and its precursors from the urban to the global scale from air quality to short-lived climate forcer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Monks, P. S.; Archibald, A. T.; Colette, A.; Cooper, O.; Coyle, M.; Derwent, R.; Fowler, D.; Granier, C.; Law, K. S.; Mills, G. E.; Stevenson, D. S.; Tarasova, O.; Thouret, V.; von Schneidemesser, E.; Sommariva, R.; Wild, O.; Williams, M. L.

2015-08-01

Ozone holds a certain fascination in atmospheric science. It is ubiquitous in the atmosphere, central to tropospheric oxidation chemistry, yet harmful to human and ecosystem health as well as being an important greenhouse gas. It is not emitted into the atmosphere but is a byproduct of the very oxidation chemistry it largely initiates. Much effort is focused on the reduction of surface levels of ozone owing to its health and vegetation impacts, but recent efforts to achieve reductions in exposure at a country scale have proved difficult to achieve owing to increases in background ozone at the zonal hemispheric scale. There is also a growing realisation that the role of ozone as a short-lived climate pollutant could be important in integrated air quality climate change mitigation. This review examines current understanding of the processes regulating tropospheric ozone at global to local scales from both measurements and models. It takes the view that knowledge across the scales is important for dealing with air quality and climate change in a synergistic manner. The review shows that there remain a number of clear challenges for ozone such as explaining surface trends, incorporating new chemical understanding, ozone-climate coupling, and a better assessment of impacts. There is a clear and present need to treat ozone across the range of scales, a transboundary issue, but with an emphasis on the hemispheric scales. New observational opportunities are offered both by satellites and small sensors that bridge the scales.

GOME-2 Tropospheric Ozone Profile Retrievals from Joint UV/Visible Measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, X.; Zoogman, P.; Chance, K.; Cai, Z.; Nowlan, C. R.; Huang, G.; Gonzalez Abad, G.

2016-12-01

It has been shown from sensitivity studies that adding visible measurements in the Chappuis ozone band to UV measurements in the Hartley/Huggins ozone bands can significantly enhance retrieval sensitivity to lower tropospheric ozone from backscattered solar radiances due to deeper photon penetration in the visible to the surface than in the ultraviolet. The first NASA EVI (Earth Venture Instrument) TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) instrument is being developed to measure backscattered solar radiation in two channels ( 290-490 and 540-740 nm) and make atmospheric pollution measurements over North America from the Geostationary orbit. However, this retrieval enhancement has yet to be demonstrated from existing measurements due to the weak ozone absorption in the visible and strong interferences from surface reflectance and aerosols and the requirement of accurate radiometric calibration across different spectral channels. We present GOME-2 retrievals from joint UV/visible measurements using the SAO ozone profile retrieval algorithm, to directly explore the retrieval improvement in lower tropospheric ozone from additional visible measurements. To reduce the retrieval interference from surface reflectance, we add characterization of surface spectral reflectance in the visible based on combining EOFs (Empirical Orthogonal Functions) derived from ASTER and other surface reflectance spectra with MODIS BRDF climatology into the ozone profile algorithm. The impacts of various types of aerosols and surface BRDF on the retrievals will be investigated. In addition, we will also perform empirical radiometric calibration of the GOME-2 data based on radiative transfer simulations. We will evaluate the retrieval improvement of joint UV/visible retrieval over the UV retrieval based on fitting quality and validation against ozonesonde observations.

Climate impact of idealized winter polar mesospheric and stratospheric ozone losses as caused by energetic particle precipitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meraner, Katharina; Schmidt, Hauke

2018-01-01

Energetic particles enter the polar atmosphere and enhance the production of nitrogen oxides and hydrogen oxides in the winter stratosphere and mesosphere. Both components are powerful ozone destroyers. Recently, it has been inferred from observations that the direct effect of energetic particle precipitation (EPP) causes significant long-term mesospheric ozone variability. Satellites observe a decrease in mesospheric ozone up to 34 % between EPP maximum and EPP minimum. Stratospheric ozone decreases due to the indirect effect of EPP by about 10-15 % observed by satellite instruments. Here, we analyze the climate impact of winter boreal idealized polar mesospheric and polar stratospheric ozone losses as caused by EPP in the coupled Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM). Using radiative transfer modeling, we find that the radiative forcing of mesospheric ozone loss during polar night is small. Hence, climate effects of mesospheric ozone loss due to energetic particles seem unlikely. Stratospheric ozone loss due to energetic particles warms the winter polar stratosphere and subsequently weakens the polar vortex. However, those changes are small, and few statistically significant changes in surface climate are found.

Tropospheric Ozone Source Attribution in Southern California during Summer 2014 Based on Lidar Measurements and Model Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Granados Munoz, Maria Jose; Johnson, Matthew S.; Leblanc, Thierry

2016-01-01

In the past decades, significant efforts have been made to increase tropospheric ozone long-term monitoring. A large number of ground-based, airborne and space-borne instruments are currently providing valuable data to contribute to better understand tropospheric ozone budget and variability. Nonetheless, most of these instruments provide in-situ surface and column-integrated data, whereas vertically resolved measurements are still scarce. Besides ozonesondes and aircraft, lidar measurements have proven to be valuable tropospheric ozone profilers. Using the measurements from the tropospheric ozone differential absorption lidar (DIAL) located at the JPL Table Mountain Facility, California, and the GEOS-Chem and GEOS-5 model outputs, the impact of the North American monsoon on tropospheric ozone during summer 2014 is investigated. The influence of the Monsoon lightning-induced NOx will be evaluated against other sources (e.g. local anthropogenic emissions and the stratosphere) using also complementary data such as backward-trajectories analysis, coincident water vapor lidar measurements, and surface ozone in-situ measurements.

Impact of shipping emissions on ozone levels over Europe: assessing the relative importance of the Standard Nomenclature for Air Pollution (SNAP) categories.

PubMed

Tagaris, Efthimios; Stergiou, Ioannis; Sotiropoulou, Rafaella-Eleni P

2017-06-01

The impact of shipping emissions on ozone mixing ratio over Europe is assessed for July 2006 using the Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research anthropogenic emission inventory. Results suggest that ship-induced ozone contribution to the total surface ozone exceeds 5% over the sea and near the coastline, while an increase up to 5% is simulated over a large portion of the European land. The largest impact (i.e., an increase up to 30%) is simulated over the Mediterranean Sea. In addition, shipping emissions are simulated to increase NO 2 mixing ratio more than 90%, locally, and to modify the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere through hydroxyl radical formation (increase by 20-60% over the sea along the European coasts and near the coastal zone). Therefore, emissions from ships may counteract the benefits derived from the anthropogenic emissions reduction strategies over the continent. Simulations suggest regions where shipping emissions have a major impact on ozone mixing ratio compared to individual anthropogenic emission sector categories. Shipping emissions are estimated to play an important role on ozone levels compared to road transport sector near the coastal zone. The impact of shipping emissions on ozone formation is also profound over a great part of the European land compared to the rest of anthropogenic emission categories.

The Impact of Emission and Climate Change on Ozone in the United States under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gao, Yang; Fu, Joshua S.; Drake, John B.

Dynamical downscaling was applied in this study to link the global climate-chemistry model Community Atmosphere Model (CAM-Chem) with the regional models: Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model and Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ). Two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) were used to evaluate the climate impact on ozone concentrations in 2050s. Ozone concentrations in the lower-mid troposphere (surface to ~300 hPa), from mid- to high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere (NH), show decreasing trends in RCP 4.5 between 2000s and 2050s, with the largest decrease of 4-10 ppbv occurring in the summer and the fall;more » and increasing trends (2-12 ppbv) in RCP 8.5 resulting from the increased methane emissions. In RCP 8.5, methane emissions increase by ~60% by the end of 2050s, accounting for more than 90% of ozone increases in summer and fall, and 60-80% in spring and winter. Under the RCP 4.5 scenario, in the summer when photochemical reactions are the most active, the large ozone precursor emissions reduction leads to the greatest decrease of downscaled surface ozone concentrations, ranging from 6 to 10 ppbv. However, a few major cities show ozone increases of 3 to 7 ppbv due to weakened NO titration. Under the RCP 8.5 scenario, in winter, downscaled ozone concentrations increase across nearly the entire continental US in winter, ranging from 3 to 10 ppbv due to increased methane emissions and enhanced stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE). More intense heat waves are projected to occur by the end of 2050s in RCP 8.5, leading to more than 8 ppbv of the maximum daily 8-hour daily average (MDA8) ozone during the heat wave days than other days; this indicates the dramatic impact heat waves exert on high frequency ozone events.« less

Impacts of ozone-vegetation coupling and feedbacks on global air quality, ecosystems and food security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tai, A. P. K.

2016-12-01

Surface ozone is an air pollutant of significant concerns due to its harmful effects on human health, vegetation and crop productivity. Chronic ozone exposure is shown to reduce photosynthesis and interfere with gas exchange in plants, thereby influencing surface energy balance and biogeochemical fluxes with important ramifications for climate and atmospheric composition, including possible feedbacks onto ozone itself that are not well understood. Ozone damage on crops has been well documented, but a mechanistic understanding is not well established. Here we present several results pertaining to the effects of ozone-vegetation coupling on air quality, ecosystems and agriculture. Using the Community Earth System Model (CESM), we find that inclusion of ozone damage on plants reduces the global land carbon sink by up to 5%, while simulated ozone is enhanced by up to 6 ppbv North America, Europe and East Asia. This strong positive feedback on ozone air quality via ozone-vegetation coupling arises mainly from reduced stomatal conductance, which induces two feedback pathways: 1) reduced dry deposition and ozone uptake; and 2) reduced evapotranspiration that enhances vegetation temperature and thus isoprene emission. Using the same ozone-vegetation scheme in a crop model within CESM, we further examine the impacts of historical ozone exposure on global crop production. We contrast our model results with a separate statistical analysis designed to characterize the spatial variability of crop-ozone-temperature relationships and account for the confounding effect of ozone-temperature covariation, using multidecadal global datasets of crop yields, agroclimatic variables and ozone exposures. We find that several crops (especially C4 crops such as maize) exhibit stronger sensitivities to ozone than found by field studies or in CESM simulations. We also find a strong anticorrelation between crop sensitivities and average ozone levels, reflecting biological adaptive ozone resistance that is not accounted for in current generation of crop models. Our results show that a more complete understanding of ozone-vegetation interactions is necessary to derive more realistic future projections of climate, air quality, ecosystem functions and food security.

Influence of wildfires on the variability and trend of ozone concentrations in the U.S. Intermountain West

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Xiao; Zhang, Lin; Zhao, Yuanhong; Yue, Xu

2016-04-01

Wildfires are important sources of ozone by emitting large amounts of NOx and NMVOC, main ozone precursors at both global and regional scales. Their influences on ozone in the U.S. Intermountain West have recently received much interest because surface ozone concentrations over that region showed an increasing trend in the past two decades likely due to increasing wildfire emissions in a warming climate. Here we use the Lagrangian particle dispersion model (FLEXPART) as well as the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to estimate wildfires' contribution on summer (June, July and August; JJA) ozone concentration variations, trends, and extremely high ozone events over the US Intermountain West for the past 22 years (1989-2010). We combine the resident time estimated from the FLEXPART 5-day backward trajectories and a high-resolution fire inventory to define a fire index representing the impact of wildfires on ozone concentration at a particular site for each day of summers 1989-2010. Over 26,000 FLEXPART back-trajectories are conducted for the whole time period and for 13 CASTNet surface monitoring sites. We build a stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) model of daily ozone concentrations using fire index and other meteorological variables for each site. The SMLR models explain 53% of the ozone variations (ranging from 12% to 68% for each site). We show that ozone produced from wildfires (calculated from SMLR model) are of high variability at daily scale (ranging from 0.1 ppbv to 20.7 ppbv), but are averaged to lower values of about 0.25-3.5 ppbv for summer mean. We estimate that wildfires magnify inter-annual variations of the regional mean summer ozone for about 32%, compared to the result with wildfires impact excluded from the SMLR model. Wildfire ozone enhancements increase at a rate of 0.04 ppbv per year, accouting for about 20% of the regional summer ozone trend during 1989-2010. Removing wildfires' impact would reduce 35% (46%) of the high-ozone days with measured daily ozone concentrations exceeding 65(75) ppbv, indicating their significant influence on ozone exceptional events. We further compare the wildfire ozone enhancements estimated by the statistical and Lagrangian approach with those estimated from a Eulerian model (GEOS-Chem). Despite highly-correlated results, GEOS-Chem largely overestimates wildfire ozone influences near the source regions and fails to capture ozone production from wildfires at long distance, reflecting deficiencies in current Eulerian models to capture small-scale emissions.

Interaction between local and regional pollution during Escompte 2001: impact on surface ozone concentrations (IOP2a and 2b)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cousin, F.; Tulet, P.; Rosset, R.

2005-03-01

Escompte, a European programme which took place in the Marseille region in June-July 2001, has been designed as an exhaustive database to be used for the development and validation of air pollution models. The air quality Mesoscale NonHydrostatic Chemistry model (Meso-NH-C) is used to simulate 2 days of an Intensive Observation Period (IOP) documented during the Escompte campaign, June 23 and 24, 2001. We first study the synoptic and local meteorological situation on June 23 and 24, using surface and aircraft measurements. Then, we focus on the pollution episode of June 24. This study emphasizes the deep impact of synoptic and local dynamics on observed ozone concentrations. It is shown that ozone levels are due both to regional and local factors, with highlights of the importance of ozone layering. More generally this confirms, even in an otherwise predominant local sea-breeze regime, the need to consider larger scale regional pollutant transport.

The Impact of Chemical Mechanism Design on Simulated Surface Ozone in CAM-Chem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwantes, R.; Emmons, L. K.; Orlando, J. J.; Tyndall, G. S.

2017-12-01

Many regions in the United States have poor air quality because of high levels of ozone. Global and regional chemical transport models are important tools for recommending regulatory policy directions to efficiently reduce ozone. Ozone is intrinsically hard to simulate in global and regional models because the amount of ozone present is controlled by large non-linear sources and sinks. Recent field campaigns have concluded that monoterpene chemistry is particularly important for the NOx budget and thereby O3 formation. However, many regional and global models have none or heavily reduced monoterpene chemical schemes. In this study, the chemical mechanism for isoprene and monoterpene oxidation will be significantly improved and updated in CAM-Chem (Community Atmosphere Model with chemistry), which is a component of the Community Earth System Model (CESM). In particular, the updates will focus on accurately portraying organic nitrate formation and fate. The impact of various uncertainties (e.g., nitrate yields, later generation chemistry, loss of organic nitrates to aerosols via hydrolysis, etc.) on ozone formation will be tested. This study will both improve the chemistry in CAM-Chem and reveal lingering uncertainties that have the largest impact on ozone formation.

Impact of Stratospheric Ozone Zonal Asymmetries on the Tropospheric Circulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tweedy, Olga; Waugh, Darryn; Li, Feng; Oman, Luke

2015-01-01

The depletion and recovery of Antarctic ozone plays a major role in changes of Southern Hemisphere (SH) tropospheric climate. Recent studies indicate that the lack of polar ozone asymmetries in chemistry climate models (CCM) leads to a weaker and warmer Antarctic vortex, and smaller trends in the tropospheric mid-latitude jet and the surface pressure. However, the tropospheric response to ozone asymmetries is not well understood. In this study we report on a series of integrations of the Goddard Earth Observing System Chemistry Climate Model (GEOS CCM) to further examine the effect of zonal asymmetries on the state of the stratosphere and troposphere. Integrations with the full, interactive stratospheric chemistry are compared against identical simulations using the same CCM except that (1) the monthly mean zonal mean stratospheric ozone from first simulation is prescribed and (2) ozone is relaxed to the monthly mean zonal mean ozone on a three day time scale. To analyze the tropospheric response to ozone asymmetries, we examine trends and quantify the differences in temperatures, zonal wind and surface pressure among the integrations.

[Observation of ozone dry deposition in the field of winter wheat.

PubMed

Li, Shuo; Zheng, You Fei; Wu, Rong Jun; Yin, Ji Fu; Xu, Jing Xin; Zhao, Hui; Sun, Jian

2016-06-01

Ozone is one of the main atmospheric pollutants over surface layer, and its increasing surface ozone concentration and its impact on main crops have become the focus of the public. In order to explore ozone deposition law and environmental factors influencing ozone deposition process, this study used the micrometeorological methods and carried out the experiment under natural conditions. The results showed that during the observational period (the vigorously growing season of wheat), the mean value of ozone flux was -0.35 μg·m -2 ·s -1 (the negative sign indicated that the deposition direction was toward the ground). The mean rate of ozone deposition was 0.55 cm·s -1 . The mean value of aerodynamic resistance was 30 s·m -1 , the mean value of sub-layer resistance was 257 s·m -1 , and that of the canopy layer stomatic resistance was 163 s·m -1 . All the test parameters presented distinct diurnal fluctuation. The ozone deposition resistance was influenced by friction velocity, solar radiation velocity, temperature, relative humidity and other factors.

Ozone Induced Premature Mortality and Crop Yield Loss in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Y.; Jiang, F.; Wang, H.

2017-12-01

Exposure to ambient ozone is a major risk factor for health impacts such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cause damage to plant and agricultural crops. But these impacts were usually evaluated separately in earlier studies. We apply Community Multi-scale Air Quality model to simulate the ambient O3 concentration at a resolution of 36 km×36 km across China. Then, we follow Global Burden of Diseases approach and AOT40 (i.e., above a threshold of 40 ppb) metric to estimate the premature mortalities and yield losses of major grain crops (i.e., winter wheat, rice and corn) across China due to surface ozone exposure, respectively. Our results show that ozone exposure leads to nearly 67,700 premature mortalities and 145 billion USD losses in 2014. The ozone induced yield losses of all crop production totaled 78 (49.9-112.6)million metric tons, worth 5.3 (3.4-7.6)billion USD, in China. The relative yield losses ranged from 8.5-14% for winter wheat, 3.9-15% for rice, and 2.2-5.5% for maize. We can see that the top four health affected provinces (Sichuan, Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu) are also ranking on the winter wheat and rice crop yield loss. Our results provide further evidence that surface ozone pollution is becoming urgent air pollution in China, and have important policy implications for China to alleviate the impacts of air pollution.

Constraining global dry deposition of ozone: observations and modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, S. J.; Heald, C. L.

2016-12-01

Ozone loss through dry deposition to vegetation is a critically important process for both air quality and ecosystem health. Current estimates are that nearly 25% of all surface ozone is destroyed through dry deposition, and billions of dollars are lost annually due to losses of ecosystem services and agricultural yield associated with ozone damage. However there are still substantial uncertainties regarding the spatial distribution and magnitude of the global depositional flux. As land cover change continues throughout this century, dry deposition of ozone will change in ways that are yet still poorly understood. Nearly every major atmospheric chemistry model uses a variation of the "resistor in series parameterization" for the calculation of dry deposition. By far the most commonly implemented parameterization is of the form presented in Wesely (1989), and is dependent on many variables, including land type look up tables, solar radiation, leaf area index, temperature, and more. The uncertainties contained within the various parts of this parameterization have to date not been fully explored. A lack of understanding of these uncertainties, coupled with a dearth of routine measurements of ozone deposition, ultimately challenges our ability to understand the impacts of land cover change on surface ozone. In this work, we use a suite of globally-distributed observations from the past two decades and the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to constrain global dry deposition, improve our understanding of these uncertainties, and contextualize the impact of land cover change on ozone concentrations.

Decadal trends in tropospheric ozone over East Asian Pacific rim during 1998-2007: Implications for emerging Asian emissions impacts and comparison to European and North American records (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanimoto, H.; Ohara, T.; Uno, I.

2010-12-01

We examine springtime ozone trends at nine remote locations in East Asian Pacific rim during the last decade (1998-2007). The observed decadal ozone trends are relatively small at surface sites but are substantially larger at a mountainous site. The level and increasing rate of ozone at the mountainous site are both higher than those observed at background sites in Europe and North America. We use a regional chemistry-transport model to explore the observed changes and how changes in Asian anthropogenic emissions have contributed to the observed increasing trends. The model with yearly-dependent regional emissions successfully reproduces the levels, variability, and interannual variations of ozone at all the surface sites. It predicts increasing trends at the mountainous site, suggesting that increasing Asian anthropogenic emissions account for about half the observed increase. However, the discrepancy between the observation and model results after 2003 (the time of largest emission increase) suggests significant underestimation of the actual growth of the Asian anthropogenic emissions and/or incompleteness in the modeling of pollution export from continental Asia. These findings imply that improving emissions inventory and transport scheme is needed to better understand rapidly evolving tropospheric ozone in East Asia and its potential climatic and environmental impacts.

Analysis of Ozone in Cloudy Versus Clear Sky Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strode, Sarah; Douglass, Anne; Ziemke, Jerald

2016-01-01

Convection impacts ozone concentrations by transporting ozone vertically and by lofting ozone precursors from the surface, while the clouds and lighting associated with convection affect ozone chemistry. Observations of the above-cloud ozone column (Ziemke et al., 2009) derived from the OMI instrument show geographic variability, and comparison of the above-cloud ozone with all-sky tropospheric ozone columns from OMI indicates important regional differences. We use two global models of atmospheric chemistry, the GMI chemical transport model (CTM) and the GEOS-5 chemistry climate model, to diagnose the contributions of transport and chemistry to observed differences in ozone between areas with and without deep convection, as well as differences in clean versus polluted convective regions. We also investigate how the above-cloud tropospheric ozone from OMI can provide constraints on the relationship between ozone and convection in a free-running climate simulation as well as a CTM.

Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report: Database and Metrics Data of Global Surface Ozone Observations

DOE PAGES

Schultz, Martin G.; Schroder, Sabine; Lyapina, Olga; ...

2017-11-27

In support of the first Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) a relational database of global surface ozone observations has been developed and populated with hourly measurement data and enhanced metadata. A comprehensive suite of ozone data products including standard statistics, health and vegetation impact metrics, and trend information, are made available through a common data portal and a web interface. These data form the basis of the TOAR analyses focusing on human health, vegetation, and climate relevant ozone issues, which are part of this special feature. Cooperation among many data centers and individual researchers worldwide made it possible to buildmore » the world's largest collection of in-situ hourly surface ozone data covering the period from 1970 to 2015. By combining the data from almost 10,000 measurement sites around the world with global metadata information, new analyses of surface ozone have become possible, such as the first globally consistent characterisations of measurement sites as either urban or rural/remote. Exploitation of these global metadata allows for new insights into the global distribution, and seasonal and long-term changes of tropospheric ozone and they enable TOAR to perform the first, globally consistent analysis of present-day ozone concentrations and recent ozone changes with relevance to health, agriculture, and climate. Considerable effort was made to harmonize and synthesize data formats and metadata information from various networks and individual data submissions. Extensive quality control was applied to identify questionable and erroneous data, including changes in apparent instrument offsets or calibrations. Such data were excluded from TOAR data products. Limitations of a posteriori data quality assurance are discussed. As a result of the work presented here, global coverage of surface ozone data for scientific analysis has been significantly extended. Yet, large gaps remain in the surface observation network both in terms of regions without monitoring, and in terms of regions that have monitoring programs but no public access to the data archive. Therefore future improvements to the database will require not only improved data harmonization, but also expanded data sharing and increased monitoring in data-sparse regions.« less

Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report: Database and Metrics Data of Global Surface Ozone Observations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schultz, Martin G.; Schroder, Sabine; Lyapina, Olga

In support of the first Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) a relational database of global surface ozone observations has been developed and populated with hourly measurement data and enhanced metadata. A comprehensive suite of ozone data products including standard statistics, health and vegetation impact metrics, and trend information, are made available through a common data portal and a web interface. These data form the basis of the TOAR analyses focusing on human health, vegetation, and climate relevant ozone issues, which are part of this special feature. Cooperation among many data centers and individual researchers worldwide made it possible to buildmore » the world's largest collection of in-situ hourly surface ozone data covering the period from 1970 to 2015. By combining the data from almost 10,000 measurement sites around the world with global metadata information, new analyses of surface ozone have become possible, such as the first globally consistent characterisations of measurement sites as either urban or rural/remote. Exploitation of these global metadata allows for new insights into the global distribution, and seasonal and long-term changes of tropospheric ozone and they enable TOAR to perform the first, globally consistent analysis of present-day ozone concentrations and recent ozone changes with relevance to health, agriculture, and climate. Considerable effort was made to harmonize and synthesize data formats and metadata information from various networks and individual data submissions. Extensive quality control was applied to identify questionable and erroneous data, including changes in apparent instrument offsets or calibrations. Such data were excluded from TOAR data products. Limitations of a posteriori data quality assurance are discussed. As a result of the work presented here, global coverage of surface ozone data for scientific analysis has been significantly extended. Yet, large gaps remain in the surface observation network both in terms of regions without monitoring, and in terms of regions that have monitoring programs but no public access to the data archive. Therefore future improvements to the database will require not only improved data harmonization, but also expanded data sharing and increased monitoring in data-sparse regions.« less

Impact of Enhanced Ozone Deposition and Halogen Chemistry on Tropospheric Ozone over the Northern Hemisphere.

PubMed

Sarwar, Golam; Gantt, Brett; Schwede, Donna; Foley, Kristen; Mathur, Rohit; Saiz-Lopez, Alfonso

2015-08-04

Fate of ozone in marine environments has been receiving increased attention due to the tightening of ambient air quality standards. The role of deposition and halogen chemistry is examined through incorporation of an enhanced ozone deposition algorithm and inclusion of halogen chemistry in a comprehensive atmospheric modeling system. The enhanced ozone deposition treatment accounts for the interaction of iodide in seawater with ozone and increases deposition velocities by 1 order of magnitude. Halogen chemistry includes detailed chemical reactions of organic and inorganic bromine and iodine species. Two different simulations are completed with the halogen chemistry: without and with photochemical reactions of higher iodine oxides. Enhanced deposition reduces mean summer-time surface ozone by ∼3% over marine regions in the Northern Hemisphere. Halogen chemistry without the photochemical reactions of higher iodine oxides reduces surface ozone by ∼15% whereas simulations with the photochemical reactions of higher iodine oxides indicate ozone reductions of ∼48%. The model without these processes overpredicts ozone compared to observations whereas the inclusion of these processes improves predictions. The inclusion of photochemical reactions for higher iodine oxides leads to ozone predictions that are lower than observations, underscoring the need for further refinement of the halogen emissions and chemistry scheme in the model.

Impact of HVAC filter on indoor air quality in terms of ozone removal and carbonyls generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Chi-Chi; Chen, Hsuan-Yu

2014-06-01

This study aims at detecting ozone removal rates and corresponding carbonyls generated by ozone reaction with HVAC filters from various building, i.e., shopping mall, school, and office building. Studies were conducted in a small-scale environmental chamber. By examining dust properties including organic carbon proportion and specific surface area of dusts adsorbed on filters along with ozone removal rates and carbonyls generation rate, the relationship among dust properties, ozone removal rates, and carbonyls generation was identified. The results indicate a well-defined positive correlation between ozone removal efficiency and carbonyls generation on filters, as well as a positive correlation among the mass of organic carbon on filters, ozone removal efficiency and carbonyls generations.

Membrane fouling by extracellular polymeric substances after ozone pre-treatment: Variation of nano-particles size.

PubMed

Yu, Wenzheng; Zhang, Dizhong; Graham, Nigel J D

2017-09-01

The application of ozone pre-treatment for ultrafiltration (UF) in drinking water treatment has been studied for more than 10 years, but its performance in mitigating or exacerbating membrane fouling has been inconclusive, and sometimes contradictory. To help explain this, our study considers the significance of the influent organic matter and its interaction with ozone on membrane fouling, using solutions of two representative types of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), alginate and bovine serum albumin (BSA), and samples of surface water. The results show that at typical ozone doses there is no measurable mineralization of alginate and BSA, but substantial changes in their structure and an increase in the size of nano-particle aggregates (micro-flocculation). The impact of ozonation on membrane fouling, as indicated by the membrane flux, was markedly different for the two types of EPS and found to be related to the size of the nano-particle aggregates formed in comparison with the UF pore size. Thus, for BSA, ozonation created aggregate sizes similar to the UF pore size (100 k Dalton) which led to an increase in fouling. In contrast, ozonation of alginate created the nano-particle aggregates greater than the UF pore size, giving reduced membrane fouling/greater flux. For solutions containing a mixture of the two species of EPS the overall impact of ozonation on UF performance depends on the relative proportion of each, and the ozone dose, and the variable behaviour has been demonstrated by the surface water. These results provide new information about the role of nano-particle aggregate size in explaining the reported ambiguity over the benefits of applying ozone as pre-treatment for ultrafiltration. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Model Calculations of the Impact of NO(x) from Air Traffic, Lightning and Surface Emissions, Compared with Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meijer, E. W.; vanVelthoven, P. F. J.; Thompson, A. M.; Pfister, L.; Schlager, H.; Schulte, P.; Kelder, H.

1999-01-01

The impact of NO(x) from aircraft emissions, lightning and surface contributions on atmospheric nitrogen oxides and ozone has been investigated with the three-dimensional global chemistry transport model TM3 by partitioning the nitrogen oxides and ozone according to source category. The results have been compared with POLINAT II and SONEX airborne measurements in the North Atlantic flight corridor in 1997. Various cases have been investigated: measurements during a stagnant anti-cyclone and an almost cut-off low, both with expected high aircraft contributions, a southward bound flight with an expected strong flight corridor gradient and lightning contributions in the South, and a transatlantic flight with expected boundary layer pollution near the U.S. coast. The agreement between modeled results and measurements is reasonably good for NO and ozone. Also, the calculated impact of the three defined sources were consistent with the estimated exposure of the sampled air to these sources, obtained by specialized back-trajectory model products.

Foreign and Domestic Contributions to Springtime Ozone Pollution over China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ni, R.; Lin, J.; Yan, Y.; Lin, W.; Chen, H.

2017-12-01

Ozone is a critical air pollutant that damages human health and vegetation. Previous studies for the United States and Europe have shown large influences of foreign emissions on domestic ozone levels, whereas the relative contributions of foreign versus domestic emissions are much less clear for China. Here, we use a global-regional two-way coupled model system based on GEOS-Chem to quantify the contributions to springtime ozone over China from anthropogenic emissions in major source regions across the globe. Our results indicate considerable influences of foreign anthropogenic pollution on China's ozone pollution. Together, foreign anthropogenic emissions enhance springtime surface ozone over China by 3 12 ppb. Of all ozone over China produced by global anthropogenic emissions, foreign emissions contribute 40% near the surface, and the contribution increases with altitude until a value of 80% in the upper troposphere. Impact from Japan and Korea is 1 2 ppb over east coastal regions, and negligible in inland. Anthropogenic emissions of South and South-East Asia increase ozone over Tibet and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau by up to 5 ppb, and their contribution increases with height due to strong vertical transport. Pollution from North America and Europe mainly accompanies strong westerly winds and frequent cyclonic activities that are favorable to long-range transport. European anthropogenic pollution enhances surface ozone by 1 3 ppb over West and North China. Despite a much longer transport distance, the contribution from North America is greater than European contribution due to the nearly doubled amount of anthropogenic NMVOC emissions. The high percentage contribution of foreign anthropogenic emissions to China's ozone pollution can be partly explained by excessive domestic NOx emissions that suppress ozone production efficiency and even destroy ozone. Our study is relevant to Chinese ozone pollution control and global environmental protection collaboration.

Behavior, distribution and variability of surface ozone at an arid region in the south of Iberian Peninsula (Seville, Spain).

PubMed

Adame, José A; Lozano, Antonio; Bolívar, Juan P; De la Morena, Benito A; Contreras, Juan; Godoy, Francisca

2008-01-01

In order to improve our knowledge of the surface ozone in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, annual, monthly, weekly and daily ozone concentrations have been closely monitored in the Seville metropolitan area highlighting those episodes that exceed the European Ozone Directive. A three-year period (2003-2005) and eight ozone stations were used; five of them located in the city's busiest areas and the rest in adjacent zones ( approximately 25km). In addition, the wind regime was also studied in order to understand the main characteristics of the surface atmospheric dynamics. The lowest ozone concentrations 17-33microgm(-3) took place in January while the highest 57-95microgm(-3) occurred in June. The ozone concentration week-weekend differences from May to September indicate that this phenomenon does not affect the ozone stations analysed. Daily cycles show minimum values between 7:00 and 8:00 UTC and maximum at noon, exceeding 90microgm(-3) during summer months. From March to October the ozone concentrations were above the target value for the protection of human health, especially during the summer months, with values up to 30% over the limit. The information threshold has been exceeded at all ozone stations studied but with greater frequency in the stations far from the city centre. In addition, at these latter stations the alert threshold was also exceeded on six occasions. This study in the city of Seville indicates that the high ozone levels are due to local atmospheric effects, mainly since the ozone air masses may undergo recirculation processes. The ozone is transported to the city from the S-SW, having a major impact in the NE areas.

Climate change impacts on projections of excess mortality at ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

We project the change in ozone-related mortality burden attributable to changes in climate between a historical (1995-2005) and near-future (2025-2035) time period while incorporating a non-linear and synergistic effect of ozone and temperature on mortality. We simulate air quality from climate projections varying only biogenic emissions and holding anthropogenic emissions constant, thus attributing changes in ozone only to changes in climate and independent of changes in air pollutant emissions. We estimate non-linear, spatially varying, ozone-temperature risk surfaces for 94 US urban areas using observeddata. Using the risk surfaces and climate projections we estimate daily mortality attributable to ozone exceeding 40 p.p.b. (moderate level) and 75 p.p.b. (US ozone NAAQS) for each time period. The average increases in city-specific median April-October ozone and temperature between time periods are 1.02 p.p.b. and 1.94 °F; however, the results variedby region . Increases in ozone because of climate change result in an increase in ozone mortality burden. Mortality attributed to ozone exceeding 40 p.p.b. increases by 7.7% (1 .6-14.2%). Mortality attributed to ozone exceeding 75 p.p.b. increases by 14.2% (1.628.9%). The absolute increase in excess ozone mortality is larger for changes in moderate ozone levels, reflecting the larger number of days with moderate ozone levels. In this study we evaluate changes in ozone related mortality due to changes in biogenic f

Climate Impacts on Tropospheric Ozone and Hydroxyl

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shindell, Drew T.; Bell, N.; Faluvegi, G.

2003-01-01

Climate change may influence tropospheric ozone and OH via several main pathways: (1) altering chemistry via temperature and humidity changes, (2) changing ozone and precursor sources via surface emissions, stratosphere-troposphere exchange, and light- ning, and (3) affecting trace gas sinks via the hydrological cycle and dry deposition. We report results from a set of coupled chemistry-climate model simulations designed to systematically study these effects. We compare the various effects with one another and with past and projected future changes in anthropogenic and natural emissions of ozone precursors. We find that white the overall impact of climate on ozone is probably small compared to emission changes, some significant seasonal and regional effects are apparent. The global effect on hydroxyl is quite large, however, similar in size to the effect of emission changes. Additionally, we show that many of the chemistry-climate links that are not yet adequately modeled are potentially important.

Evaluating the effects of climate change on summertime ozone using a relative response factor approach for policymakers.

PubMed

Avise, Jeremy; Abraham, Rodrigo Gonzalez; Chung, Serena H; Chen, Jack; Lamb, Brian; Salathé, Eric P; Zhang, Yongxin; Nolte, Christopher G; Loughlin, Daniel H; Guenther, Alex; Wiedinmyer, Christine; Duhl, Tiffany

2012-09-01

The impact of climate change on surface-level ozone is examined through a multiscale modeling effort that linked global and regional climate models to drive air quality model simulations. Results are quantified in terms of the relative response factor (RRF(E)), which estimates the relative change in peak ozone concentration for a given change in pollutant emissions (the subscript E is added to RRF to remind the reader that the RRF is due to emission changes only). A matrix of model simulations was conducted to examine the individual and combined effects offuture anthropogenic emissions, biogenic emissions, and climate on the RRF(E). For each member in the matrix of simulations the warmest and coolest summers were modeled for the present-day (1995-2004) and future (2045-2054) decades. A climate adjustment factor (CAF(C) or CAF(CB) when biogenic emissions are allowed to change with the future climate) was defined as the ratio of the average daily maximum 8-hr ozone simulated under a future climate to that simulated under the present-day climate, and a climate-adjusted RRF(EC) was calculated (RRF(EC) = RRF(E) x CAF(C)). In general, RRF(EC) > RRF(E), which suggests additional emission controls will be required to achieve the same reduction in ozone that would have been achieved in the absence of climate change. Changes in biogenic emissions generally have a smaller impact on the RRF(E) than does future climate change itself The direction of the biogenic effect appears closely linked to organic-nitrate chemistry and whether ozone formation is limited by volatile organic compounds (VOC) or oxides of nitrogen (NO(x) = NO + NO2). Regions that are generally NO(x) limited show a decrease in ozone and RRF(EC), while VOC-limited regions show an increase in ozone and RRF(EC). Comparing results to a previous study using different climate assumptions and models showed large variability in the CAF(CB). We present a methodology for adjusting the RRF to account for the influence of climate change on ozone. The findings of this work suggest that in some geographic regions, climate change has the potential to negate decreases in surface ozone concentrations that would otherwise be achieved through ozone mitigation strategies. In regions of high biogenic VOC emissions relative to anthropogenic NO(x) emissions, the impact of climate change is somewhat reduced, while the opposite is true in regions of high anthropogenic NO(x) emissions relative to biogenic VOC emissions. Further, different future climate realizations are shown to impact ozone in different ways.

Characterization of Wind Patterns over Texas Using Self-Organizing Maps: Impact on Dallas-Fort Worth Long Term Ozone Trends

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kotsakis, A.; Choi, Y.; Souri, A.; Jeon, W.; Flynn, J. H., III

2017-12-01

From the years 2000 to 2014, Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) has seen a decrease in ozone exceedances due to decreased emissions of ozone precursors. In this study, a wind pattern analysis was done to gain a better understanding of the meteorological patterns that have historically contributed to ozone exceedances over the DFW area. Long-term trends in ozone and the seasonal distribution of ozone exceedances were analyzed using surface monitoring data. Using a clustering algorithm called self-organizing maps, characteristic regional wind patterns from 2000-2014 were determined. For each of the wind pattern clusters, the frequency over the last 15 years and average ozone from monitors across DFW was analyzed. Finally, model simulations were performed to determine if pollution transported out of Houston affected incoming background ozone into DFW.

Low modeled ozone production suggests underestimation of precursor emissions (especially NOx) in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oikonomakis, Emmanouil; Aksoyoglu, Sebnem; Ciarelli, Giancarlo; Baltensperger, Urs; Prévôt, André Stephan Henry

2018-02-01

High surface ozone concentrations, which usually occur when photochemical ozone production takes place, pose a great risk to human health and vegetation. Air quality models are often used by policy makers as tools for the development of ozone mitigation strategies. However, the modeled ozone production is often not or not enough evaluated in many ozone modeling studies. The focus of this work is to evaluate the modeled ozone production in Europe indirectly, with the use of the ozone-temperature correlation for the summer of 2010 and to analyze its sensitivity to precursor emissions and meteorology by using the regional air quality model, the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx). The results show that the model significantly underestimates the observed high afternoon surface ozone mixing ratios (≥ 60 ppb) by 10-20 ppb and overestimates the lower ones (< 40 ppb) by 5-15 ppb, resulting in a misleading good agreement with the observations for average ozone. The model also underestimates the ozone-temperature regression slope by about a factor of 2 for most of the measurement stations. To investigate the impact of emissions, four scenarios were tested: (i) increased volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions by a factor of 1.5 and 2 for the anthropogenic and biogenic VOC emissions, respectively, (ii) increased nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by a factor of 2, (iii) a combination of the first two scenarios and (iv) increased traffic-only NOx emissions by a factor of 4. For southern, eastern, and central (except the Benelux area) Europe, doubling NOx emissions seems to be the most efficient scenario to reduce the underestimation of the observed high ozone mixing ratios without significant degradation of the model performance for the lower ozone mixing ratios. The model performance for ozone-temperature correlation is also better when NOx emissions are doubled. In the Benelux area, however, the third scenario (where both NOx and VOC emissions are increased) leads to a better model performance. Although increasing only the traffic NOx emissions by a factor of 4 gave very similar results to the doubling of all NOx emissions, the first scenario is more consistent with the uncertainties reported by other studies than the latter, suggesting that high uncertainties in NOx emissions might originate mainly from the road-transport sector rather than from other sectors. The impact of meteorology was examined with three sensitivity tests: (i) increased surface temperature by 4 °C, (ii) reduced wind speed by 50 % and (iii) doubled wind speed. The first two scenarios led to a consistent increase in all surface ozone mixing ratios, thus improving the model performance for the high ozone values but significantly degrading it for the low ozone values, while the third scenario had exactly the opposite effects. Overall, the modeled ozone is predicted to be more sensitive to its precursor emissions (especially traffic NOx) and therefore their uncertainties, which seem to be responsible for the model underestimation of the observed high ozone mixing ratios and ozone production.

The signs of Antarctic ozone hole recovery.

PubMed

Kuttippurath, Jayanarayanan; Nair, Prijitha J

2017-04-03

Absorption of solar radiation by stratospheric ozone affects atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, and sustains life on Earth by preventing harmful radiation from reaching the surface. Significant ozone losses due to increases in the abundances of ozone depleting substances (ODSs) were first observed in Antarctica in the 1980s. Losses deepened in following years but became nearly flat by around 2000, reflecting changes in global ODS emissions. Here we show robust evidence that Antarctic ozone has started to recover in both spring and summer, with a recovery signal identified in springtime ozone profile and total column measurements at 99% confidence for the first time. Continuing recovery is expected to impact the future climate of that region. Our results demonstrate that the Montreal Protocol has indeed begun to save the Antarctic ozone layer.

When Will the Antarctic Ozone Hole Recover?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newman, Paul A.

2006-01-01

The Antarctic ozone hole demonstrates large-scale, man-made affects on our atmosphere. Surface observations now show that human produced ozone depleting substances (ODSs) are declining. The ozone hole should soon start to diminish because of this decline. In this talk we will demonstrate an ozone hole parametric model. This model is based upon: 1) a new algorithm for estimating 61 and Br levels over Antarctica and 2) late-spring Antarctic stratospheric temperatures. This parametric model explains 95% of the ozone hole area's variance. We use future ODS levels to predict ozone hole recovery. Full recovery to 1980 levels will occur in approximately 2068. The ozone hole area will very slowly decline over the next 2 decades. Detection of a statistically significant decrease of area will not occur until approximately 2024. We further show that nominal Antarctic stratospheric greenhouse gas forced temperature change should have a small impact on the ozone hole.

When Will the Antarctic Ozone Hole Recover?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Newman, Paul A.; Nash, Eric R.; Kawa, S. Randolph; Montzka, Stephen A.; Schauffler, Sue

2006-01-01

The Antarctic ozone hole demonstrates large-scale, man-made affects on our atmosphere. Surface observations now show that human produced ozone depleting substances (ODSs) are declining. The ozone hole should soon start to diminish because of this decline. Herein we demonstrate an ozone hole parametric model. This model is based upon: 1) a new algorithm for estimating C1 and Br levels over Antarctica and 2) late-spring Antarctic stratospheric temperatures. This parametric model explains 95% of the ozone hole area s variance. We use future ODS levels to predict ozone hole recovery. Full recovery to 1980 levels will occur in approximately 2068. The ozone hole area will very slowly decline over the next 2 decades. Detection of a statistically significant decrease of area will not occur until approximately 2024. We further show that nominal Antarctic stratospheric greenhouse gas forced temperature change should have a small impact on the ozone hole.

Understanding and improving global crop response to ozone pollution

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Concentrations of ground-level ozone ([O3]) over much of the Earth’s land surface have more than doubled since pre-industrial times. The air pollutant is highly variable over time and space, which makes it difficult to assess the average agronomic and economic impacts of the pollutant as well as to ...

Evaluating the effects of climate change on summertime ozone using a relative reduction factor approach for policymakers

EPA Science Inventory

The impact of climate change on surface-level ozone is examined through a multiscale modeling effort that linked global and regional climate models to drive air quality model simulations. Results are quantified in terms of the relative response factor (RRFE), which estimates the ...

An overview of the 2013 Las Vegas Ozone Study (LVOS): Impact of stratospheric intrusions and long-range transport on surface air quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langford, A. O.; Senff, C. J.; Alvarez, R. J.; Brioude, J.; Cooper, O. R.; Holloway, J. S.; Lin, M. Y.; Marchbanks, R. D.; Pierce, R. B.; Sandberg, S. P.; Weickmann, A. M.; Williams, E. J.

2015-05-01

The 2013 Las Vegas Ozone Study (LVOS) was conducted in the late spring and early summer of 2013 to assess the seasonal contribution of stratosphere-to-troposphere transport (STT) and long-range transport to surface ozone in Clark County, Nevada and determine if these processes directly contribute to exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) in this area. Secondary goals included the characterization of local ozone production, regional transport from the Los Angeles Basin, and impacts from wildfires. The LVOS measurement campaign took place at a former U.S. Air Force radar station ∼45 km northwest of Las Vegas on Angel Peak (∼2.7 km above mean sea level, asl) in the Spring Mountains. The study consisted of two extended periods (May 19-June 4 and June 22-28, 2013) with near daily 5-min averaged lidar measurements of ozone and backscatter profiles from the surface to ∼2.5 km above ground level (∼5.2 km asl), and continuous in situ measurements (May 20-June 28) of O3, CO, (1-min) and meteorological parameters (5-min) at the surface. These activities were guided by forecasts and analyses from the FLEXPART (FLEXible PARTticle) dispersion model and the Real Time Air Quality Modeling System (RAQMS), and the NOAA Geophysical Research Laboratory (NOAA GFDL) AM3 chemistry-climate model. In this paper, we describe the LVOS measurements and present an overview of the results. The combined measurements and model analyses show that STT directly contributed to each of the three O3 exceedances that occurred in Clark County during LVOS, with contributions to 8-h surface concentrations in excess of 30 ppbv on each of these days. The analyses show that long-range transport from Asia made smaller contributions (<10 ppbv) to surface O3 during two of those exceedances. The contribution of regional wildfires to surface O3 during the three LVOS exceedance events was found to be negligible, but wildfires were found to be a major factor during exceedance events that occurred before and after the LVOS campaign. Our analyses also shows that ozone exceedances would have occurred on more than 50% of the days during the six-week LVOS campaign if the 8-h ozone NAAQS had been 65 ppbv instead of 75 ppbv.

Sensitivity analysis of surface ozone to emission controls in Beijing and its neighboring area during the 2008 Olympic Games.

PubMed

Gao, Yi; Zhang, Meigen

2012-01-01

The regional air quality modeling system RAMS (regional atmospheric modeling system)-CMAQ (community multi-scale air quality modeling system) is applied to analyze temporal and spatial variations in surface ozone concentration over Beijing and its surrounding region from July to October 2008. Comparison of simulated and observed meteorological elements and concentration of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and ozone at one urban site and three rural sites during Olympic Games show that model can generally reproduce the main observed feature of wind, temperature and ozone, but NOx concentration is overestimated. Although ozone concentration decreased during Olympics, high ozone episodes occurred on 24 July and 24 August with concentration of 360 and 245 microg/m3 at Aoyuncun site, respectively. The analysis of sensitive test, with and without emission controls, shows that emission controls could reduce ozone concentration in the afternoon when ozone concentration was highest but increase it at night and in the morning. The evolution of the weather system during the ozone episodes (24 July and 24 August) indicates that hot and dry air and a stable weak pressure field intensified the production of ozone and allowed it to accumulate. Process analysis at the urban site and rural site shows that under favorable weather condition on 24 August, horizontal transport was the main contributor of the rural place and the pollution from the higher layer would be transported to the surface layer. On 24 July, as the wind velocity was smaller, the impact of transport on the rural place was not obvious.

TOPICAL REVIEW: Climate change, ozone depletion and the impact on ultraviolet exposure of human skin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Diffey, Brian

2004-01-01

For 30 years there has been concern that anthropogenic damage to the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer will lead to an increase of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the Earth's surface, with a consequent adverse impact on human health, especially to the skin. More recently, there has been an increased awareness of the interactions between ozone depletion and climate change (global warming), which could also impact on human exposure to terrestrial UV. The most serious effect of changing UV exposure of human skin is the potential rise in incidence of skin cancers. Risk estimates of this disease associated with ozone depletion suggest that an additional peak incidence of 5000 cases of skin cancer per year in the UK would occur around the mid-part of this century. Climate change, which is predicted to lead to an increased frequency of extreme temperature events and high summer temperatures, will become more frequent in the UK. This could impact on human UV exposure by encouraging people to spend more time in the sun. Whilst future social trends remain uncertain, it is likely that over this century behaviour associated with climate change, rather than ozone depletion, will be the largest determinant of sun exposure, and consequent impact on skin cancer, of the UK population.

Impact of parameterization choices on the restitution of ozone deposition over vegetation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Morvan-Quéméner, Aurélie; Coll, Isabelle; Kammer, Julien; Lamaud, Eric; Loubet, Benjamin; Personne, Erwan; Stella, Patrick

2018-04-01

Ozone is a potentially phyto-toxic air pollutant, which can cause leaf damage and drastically alter crop yields, causing serious economic losses around the world. The VULNOZ (VULNerability to OZone in Anthropised Ecosystems) project is a biology and modeling project that aims to understand how plants respond to the stress of high ozone concentrations, then use a set of models to (i) predict the impact of ozone on plant growth, (ii) represent ozone deposition fluxes to vegetation, and finally (iii) estimate the economic consequences of an increasing ozone background the future. In this work, as part of the VULNOZ project, an innovative representation of ozone deposition to vegetation was developed and implemented in the CHIMERE regional chemistry-transport model. This type of model calculates the average amount of ozone deposited on a parcel each hour, as well as the integrated amount of ozone deposited to the surface at the regional or country level. Our new approach was based on a refinement of the representation of crop types in the model and the use of empirical parameters specific to each crop category. The results obtained were compared with a conventional ozone deposition modeling approach, and evaluated against observations from several agricultural areas in France. They showed that a better representation of the distribution between stomatal and non-stomatal ozone fluxes was obtained in the empirical approach, and they allowed us to produce a new estimate of the total amount of ozone deposited on the subtypes of vegetation at the national level.

Is the ozone climate penalty robust in Europe?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colette, Augustin; Andersson, Camilla; Baklanov, Alexander; Bessagnet, Bertrand; Brandt, Jørgen; Christensen, Jesper H.; Doherty, Ruth; Engardt, Magnuz; Geels, Camilla; Giannakopoulos, Christos; Hedegaard, Gitte B.; Katragkou, Eleni; Langner, Joakim; Lei, Hang; Manders, Astrid; Melas, Dimitris; Meleux, Frédérik; Rouïl, Laurence; Sofiev, Mikhail; Soares, Joana; Stevenson, David S.; Tombrou-Tzella, Maria; Varotsos, Konstantinos V.; Young, Paul

2015-08-01

Ozone air pollution is identified as one of the main threats bearing upon human health and ecosystems, with 25 000 deaths in 2005 attributed to surface ozone in Europe (IIASA 2013 TSAP Report #10). In addition, there is a concern that climate change could negate ozone pollution mitigation strategies, making them insufficient over the long run and jeopardising chances to meet the long term objective set by the European Union Directive of 2008 (Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008) (60 ppbv, daily maximum). This effect has been termed the ozone climate penalty. One way of assessing this climate penalty is by driving chemistry-transport models with future climate projections while holding the ozone precursor emissions constant (although the climate penalty may also be influenced by changes in emission of precursors). Here we present an analysis of the robustness of the climate penalty in Europe across time periods and scenarios by analysing the databases underlying 11 articles published on the topic since 2007, i.e. a total of 25 model projections. This substantial body of literature has never been explored to assess the uncertainty and robustness of the climate ozone penalty because of the use of different scenarios, time periods and ozone metrics. Despite the variability of model design and setup in this database of 25 model projection, the present meta-analysis demonstrates the significance and robustness of the impact of climate change on European surface ozone with a latitudinal gradient from a penalty bearing upon large parts of continental Europe and a benefit over the North Atlantic region of the domain. Future climate scenarios present a penalty for summertime (JJA) surface ozone by the end of the century (2071-2100) of at most 5 ppbv. Over European land surfaces, the 95% confidence interval of JJA ozone change is [0.44; 0.64] and [0.99; 1.50] ppbv for the 2041-2070 and 2071-2100 time windows, respectively.

Aviation-attributable ozone as a driver for changes in mortality related to air quality and skin cancer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eastham, Sebastian D.; Barrett, Steven R. H.

2016-11-01

Aviation is a significant source of tropospheric ozone, which is a critical UV blocking agent, an indirect precursor to the formation of particulate matter, and a respiratory health hazard. To date, investigations of human health impacts related to aviation emissions have focused on particulate matter, and no global estimate yet exists of the combined health impact of aviation due to ozone, particulate matter and UV exposure changes. We use a coupled tropospheric-stratospheric chemical-transport model with a global aviation emissions inventory to estimate the total impact of aviation on all three risk factors. We find that surface ozone due to aviation emissions is maximized during hemispheric winter due to the greater wintertime chemical lifetime of ozone, but that a smaller enhancement of 0.5 ppbv occurs during summertime. This summertime increase results in an estimated 6,800 premature mortalities per year due to ozone exposure, over three times greater than previous estimates. During the winter maximum, interaction with high background NOx concentrations results in enhanced production of nitrate aerosol and increased annual average exposure to particulate matter. This ozone perturbation is shown to be the driving mechanism behind an additional 9,200 premature mortalities due to exposure to particulate matter. However, the increase in tropospheric ozone is also found to result in 400 fewer mortalities due to melanoma skin cancer in 2006. This is the first estimate of global melanoma mortality due to aviation, and the first estimate of skin cancer mortality impacts due to aviation using a global chemical transport model.

Influence of climate variability on near-surface ozone depletion events in the Arctic spring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koo, Ja-Ho; Wang, Yuhang; Jiang, Tianyu; Deng, Yi; Oltmans, Samuel J.; Solberg, Sverre

2014-04-01

Near-surface ozone depletion events (ODEs) generally occur in the Arctic spring, and the frequency shows large interannual variations. We use surface ozone measurements at Barrow, Alert, and Zeppelinfjellet to analyze if their variations are due to climate variability. In years with frequent ODEs at Barrow and Alert, the western Pacific (WP) teleconnection pattern is usually in its negative phase, during which the Pacific jet is strengthened but the storm track originated over the western Pacific is weakened. Both factors tend to reduce the transport of ozone-rich air mass from midlatitudes to the Arctic, creating a favorable environment for the ODEs. The correlation of ODE frequencies at Zeppelinfjellet with WP indices is higher in the 2000s, reflecting stronger influence of the WP pattern in recent decade to cover ODEs in broader Arctic regions. We find that the WP pattern can be used to diagnose ODE changes and subsequent environmental impacts in the Arctic spring.

Projections of Future Summertime Ozone over the U.S.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pfister, G. G.; Walters, Stacy; Lamarque, J. F.

This study uses a regional fully coupled chemistry-transport model to assess changes in surface ozone over the summertime U.S. between present and a 2050 future time period at high spatial resolution (12 km grid spacing) under the SRES A2 climate and RCP8.5 anthropogenic pre-cursor emission scenario. The impact of predicted changes in climate and global background ozone is estimated to increase surface ozone over most of the U.S; the 5th - 95th percentile range for daily 8-hour maximum surface ozone increases from 31-79 ppbV to 30-87 ppbV between the present and future time periods. The analysis of a set ofmore » meteorological drivers suggests that these mostly will add to increasing ozone, but the set of simulations conducted does not allow to separate this effect from that through enhanced global background ozone. Statistically the most robust positive feedbacks are through increased temperature, biogenic emissions and solar radiation. Stringent emission controls can counteract these feedbacks and if considered, we estimate large reductions in surface ozone with the 5th-95th percentile reduced to 27-55 ppbV. A comparison of the high-resolution projections to global model projections shows that even though the global model is biased high in surface ozone compared to the regional model and compared to observations, both the global and the regional model predict similar changes in ozone between the present and future time periods. However, on smaller spatial scales, the regional predictions show more pronounced changes between urban and rural regimes that cannot be resolved at the coarse resolution of global model. In addition, the sign of the changes in overall ozone mixing ratios can be different between the global and the regional predictions in certain regions, such as the Western U.S. This study confirms the key role of emission control strategies in future air quality predictions and demonstrates the need for considering degradation of air quality with future climate change in emission policy making. It also illustrates the need for high resolution modeling when the objective is to address regional and local air quality or establish links to human health and society.« less

Quantifying the ozone and ultraviolet benefits already achieved by the Montreal Protocol.

PubMed

Chipperfield, M P; Dhomse, S S; Feng, W; McKenzie, R L; Velders, G J M; Pyle, J A

2015-05-26

Chlorine- and bromine-containing ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) are controlled by the 1987 Montreal Protocol. In consequence, atmospheric equivalent chlorine peaked in 1993 and has been declining slowly since then. Consistent with this, models project a gradual increase in stratospheric ozone with the Antarctic ozone hole expected to disappear by ∼2050. However, we show that by 2013 the Montreal Protocol had already achieved significant benefits for the ozone layer. Using a 3D atmospheric chemistry transport model, we demonstrate that much larger ozone depletion than observed has been avoided by the protocol, with beneficial impacts on surface ultraviolet. A deep Arctic ozone hole, with column values <120 DU, would have occurred given meteorological conditions in 2011. The Antarctic ozone hole would have grown in size by 40% by 2013, with enhanced loss at subpolar latitudes. The decline over northern hemisphere middle latitudes would have continued, more than doubling to ∼15% by 2013.

Quantifying the ozone and ultraviolet benefits already achieved by the Montreal Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chipperfield, M. P.; Dhomse, S. S.; Feng, W.; McKenzie, R. L.; Velders, G. J. M.; Pyle, J. A.

2015-05-01

Chlorine- and bromine-containing ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) are controlled by the 1987 Montreal Protocol. In consequence, atmospheric equivalent chlorine peaked in 1993 and has been declining slowly since then. Consistent with this, models project a gradual increase in stratospheric ozone with the Antarctic ozone hole expected to disappear by ~2050. However, we show that by 2013 the Montreal Protocol had already achieved significant benefits for the ozone layer. Using a 3D atmospheric chemistry transport model, we demonstrate that much larger ozone depletion than observed has been avoided by the protocol, with beneficial impacts on surface ultraviolet. A deep Arctic ozone hole, with column values <120 DU, would have occurred given meteorological conditions in 2011. The Antarctic ozone hole would have grown in size by 40% by 2013, with enhanced loss at subpolar latitudes. The decline over northern hemisphere middle latitudes would have continued, more than doubling to ~15% by 2013.

Evaluating the Effects of Climate Change on Summertime Ozone using a Relative Response Factor approach for Policy Makers

EPA Science Inventory

The impact of climate change on surface level ozone is examined through a multi-scale modeling effort that linked global and regional climate models to drive air quality model simulations. Results are quantified in terms of the Relative Response Factor (RRF_E), which es...

Development of a comprehensive air quality modeling framework for a coastal urban airshed in south Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farooqui, Mohmmed Zuber

Tropospheric ozone is one of the major air pollution problems affecting urban areas of United States as well as other countries in the world. Analysis of surface observed ozone levels in south and central Texas revealed several days exceeding 8-hour average ozone National Ambient of Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) over the past decade. Two major high ozone episodes were identified during September of 1999 and 2002. A photochemical modeling framework for the high ozone episodes in 1999 and 2002 were developed for the Corpus Christi urban airshed. The photochemical model was evaluated as per U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended statistical methods and the models performed within the limits set by EPA. An emission impact assessment of various sources within the urban airshed was conducted using the modeling framework. It was noted that by nudging MM5 with surface observed meteorological parameters and sea-surface temperature, the coastal meteorological predictions improved. Consequently, refined meteorology helped the photochemical model to better predict peak ozone levels in urban airsheds along the coastal margins of Texas including in Corpus Christi. The emissions assessment analysis revealed that Austin and San Antonio areas were significantly affected by on-road mobile emissions from light-duty gasoline and heavy-duty diesel vehicles. The urban areas of San Antonio, Austin, and Victoria areas were estimated to be NOx sensitive. Victoria was heavily influenced by point sources in the region while Corpus Christi was influenced by both point and non-road mobile sources and was identified to be sensitive to VOC emissions. A rise in atmospheric temperature due to climate change potentially increase ozone exceedances and the peak ozone levels within the study region and this will be a major concern for air quality planners. This study noted that any future increase in ambient temperature would result in a significant increase in the urban and regional ozone levels within the modeling domain and it would also enhance the transported levels of ozone across the region. Overall, the photochemical modeling framework helped in evaluating the impact of various parameters affecting ozone air quality; and, it has the potential to be a tool for policy-makers to develop effective emissions control strategies under various regulatory and climate conditions.

High Concentrations of Ozone Air Pollution on Mount Everest: Health Implications for Sherpa Communities and Mountaineers.

PubMed

Semple, John L; Moore, G W Kent; Koutrakis, Petros; Wolfson, Jack M; Cristofanelli, Paolo; Bonasoni, Paolo

2016-12-01

Semple, John L., G.W. Kent Moore, Petros Koutrakis, Jack M. Wolfson, Paolo Cristofanelli, and Paolo Bonasoni. High concentrations of ozone air pollution on Mount Everest: health implications for Sherpa communities and mountaineers. High Alt Med Biol. 17:365-369, 2016.-Introduction: Populations in remote mountain regions are increasingly vulnerable to multiple climate mechanisms that influence levels of air pollution. Few studies have reported on climate-sensitive health outcomes unique to high altitude ecosystems. In this study, we report on the discovery of high-surface ozone concentrations and the potential impact on health outcomes on Mount Everest and the high Himalaya. Surface ozone measurements were collected during ascending transects in the Mount Everest region of Nepal with passive nitrite-coated Ogawa filter samplers to obtain 8-hour personal exposures (2860-5364 m asl). In addition, the Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid, a GAW-WMO Global Station sited in the Khumbu Valley (5079 m asl), collected ozone mixing ratios with photometric gas analyzer. Surface ozone measurements increased with altitude with concentrations that exceed 100 ppb (8-hour exposure). Highest values were during the spring season and the result of diverse contributions: hemispheric background values, the descent of ozone-rich stratospheric air, and the transport of tropospheric pollutants occurring at different spatial scales. Multiple climate factors, including descending stratospheric ozone and imported anthropogenic air masses from the Indo-Gangetic Plain, contribute to ambient ozone exposure levels in the vicinity of Mount Everest that are similar to if not higher than those reported in industrialized cities.

Impacts of Climate Change on Surface Ozone and Intercontinental Ozone Pollution: A Multi-Model Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Doherty, R. M.; Wild, O.; Shindell, D. T.; Zeng, G.; MacKenzie, I. A.; Collins, W. J.; Fiore, A. M.; Stevenson, D. S.; Dentener, F. J.; Schultz, M. G.;

Long-term trends of surface ozone and its influencing factors at the Mt Waliguan GAW station, China - Part 1: Overall trends and characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Wanyun; Lin, Weili; Xu, Xiaobin; Tang, Jie; Huang, Jianqing; Wu, Hao; Zhang, Xiaochun

2016-05-01

Tropospheric ozone is an important atmospheric oxidant, greenhouse gas and atmospheric pollutant at the same time. The oxidation capacity of the atmosphere, climate, human and vegetation health can be impacted by the increase of the ozone level. Therefore, long-term determination of trends of baseline ozone is highly needed information for environmental and climate change assessment. So far, studies on the long-term trends of ozone at representative sites are mainly available for European and North American sites. Similar studies are lacking for China and many other developing countries. Measurements of surface ozone were carried out at a baseline Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) station in the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau region (Mt Waliguan, 36°17' N, 100°54' E, 3816 m a.s.l.) for the period of 1994 to 2013. To uncover the variation characteristics, long-term trends and influencing factors of surface ozone at this remote site in western China, a two-part study has been carried out, with this part focusing on the overall characteristics of diurnal, seasonal and long-term variations and the trends of surface ozone. To obtain reliable ozone trends, we performed the Mann-Kendall trend test and the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT) analysis on the ozone data. Our results confirm that the mountain-valley breeze plays an important role in the diurnal cycle of surface ozone at Waliguan, resulting in higher ozone values during the night and lower ones during the day, as was previously reported. Systematic diurnal and seasonal variations were found in mountain-valley breezes at the site, which were used in defining season-dependent daytime and nighttime periods for trend calculations. Significant positive trends in surface ozone were detected for both daytime (0.24 ± 0.16 ppbv year-1) and nighttime (0.28 ± 0.17 ppbv year-1). The largest nighttime increasing rate occurred in autumn (0.29 ± 0.11 ppbv year-1), followed by spring (0.24 ± 0.12 ppbv year-1), summer (0.22 ± 0.20 ppbv year-1) and winter (0.13 ± 0.10 ppbv year-1), respectively. The HHT spectral analysis identified four different stages with different positive trends, with the largest increase occurring around May 2000 and October 2010. The HHT results suggest that there were 2-4a, 7a and 11a periodicities in the time series of surface ozone at Waliguan. The results of this study can be used for assessments of climate and environment change and in the validation of chemistry-climate models.

Influence of the West Pacific subtropical high on surface ozone daily variability in summertime over eastern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Zijian; Wang, Yuxuan

2017-12-01

The West Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), as one of the most important components of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM), is the key synoptic-scale circulation pattern influencing summertime precipitation and atmospheric conditions in China. Here we investigate the impacts of the WPSH on surface ozone daily variability over eastern China, using observations from recently established network of ozone monitors and meteorology reanalysis data during summer (June, July, August; JJA) 2014-2016 with a focus on 2014. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of daily ozone variations reveals that the dominating eigenvector (EOF1), which contributes a quarter (25.2%) to the total variances, is a marked north-south contrast. This pattern is temporally well correlated (r = -0.66, p < 0.01) with daily anomalies of a normalized WPSH intensity index (WPSH-I). Spatially, the WPSH-I and ozone correlation is positive in North China (NC) but negative in South China (SC), which well correlates with the ozone EOF1 pattern showing the same north-south contrast (r = -0.86, p < 0.01). These associations suggest the dominant component of surface ozone daily variability in eastern China is linked with the variability of the WPSH intensity in that a stronger WPSH leads to a decrease of surface ozone over SC but an increase over NC and vice versa. This is because a stronger WPSH enhances southwesterly transport of moisture into SC, creating such conditions not conducive for ozone formation as higher RH, more cloudiness and precipitation, less UV radiation, and lower temperature. Meanwhile, as most of the rainfall due to the enhanced southwesterly transport of moisture occurs in SC, water vapor is largely depleted in the air masses transported towards NC, creating dry and sunny conditions over NC under a strong WPSH, thereby promoting ozone formation.

Ground-Level Ozone Following Astrophysical Ionizing Radiation Events: An Additional Biological Hazard?

PubMed

Thomas, Brian C; Goracke, Byron D

2016-01-01

Astrophysical ionizing radiation events such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and solar proton events have been recognized as a potential threat to life on Earth, primarily through depletion of stratospheric ozone and subsequent increase in solar UV radiation at Earth's surface and in the upper levels of the ocean. Other work has also considered the potential impact of nitric acid rainout, concluding that no significant threat is likely. Not yet studied to date is the potential impact of ozone produced in the lower atmosphere following an ionizing radiation event. Ozone is a known irritant to organisms on land and in water and therefore may be a significant additional hazard. Using previously completed atmospheric chemistry modeling, we examined the amount of ozone produced in the lower atmosphere for the case of a gamma-ray burst and found that the values are too small to pose a significant additional threat to the biosphere. These results may be extended to other ionizing radiation events, including supernovae and extreme solar proton events.

The impact of historical land use change from 1850 to 2000 on secondary particulate matter and ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heald, Colette L.; Geddes, Jeffrey A.

2016-12-01

Anthropogenic land use change (LUC) since preindustrial (1850) has altered the vegetation distribution and density around the world. We use a global model (GEOS-Chem) to assess the attendant changes in surface air quality and the direct radiative forcing (DRF). We focus our analysis on secondary particulate matter and tropospheric ozone formation. The general trend of expansion of managed ecosystems (croplands and pasturelands) at the expense of natural ecosystems has led to an 11 % decline in global mean biogenic volatile organic compound emissions. Concomitant growth in agricultural activity has more than doubled ammonia emissions and increased emissions of nitrogen oxides from soils by more than 50 %. Conversion to croplands has also led to a widespread increase in ozone dry deposition velocity. Together these changes in biosphere-atmosphere exchange have led to a 14 % global mean increase in biogenic secondary organic aerosol (BSOA) surface concentrations, a doubling of surface aerosol nitrate concentrations, and local changes in surface ozone of up to 8.5 ppb. We assess a global mean LUC-DRF of +0.017, -0.071, and -0.01 W m-2 for BSOA, nitrate, and tropospheric ozone, respectively. We conclude that the DRF and the perturbations in surface air quality associated with LUC (and the associated changes in agricultural emissions) are substantial and should be considered alongside changes in anthropogenic emissions and climate feedbacks in chemistry-climate studies.

Chemical Data Assimilation Estimates of Continental US Ozone and Nitrogen Budgets during INTEX-A

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pierce, Robert B.; Schaack, Todd K.; Al-Saadi, Jassim A.; Fairlie, T. Duncan; Kittaka, Chieko; Lingenfelser, Gretchen; Natarajan, Murali; Olson, Jennifer; Soja, Amber; Zapotocny, Tom;

Atmospheric Impacts of Emissions from Oil and Gas Development in the Uintah Basin, Utah, USA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Helmig, D.; Boylan, P. J.; Hueber, J.; Van Dam, B. A.; Mauldin, L.; Parrish, D. D.

2012-12-01

In the Uintah Basin in northeast Utah, USA, surface ozone levels during winter months have approached and on occasion exceeded the US National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). Emissions from the extensive oil and gas exploration in this region are suspected to be the cause of these ozone episodes; however emission rates and photochemical processes are uncertain. During February 2012 continuous surface measurements and vertical profiling from a tethered balloon platform at the Horsepool site yielded high resolution boundary layer profile data on ozone and ozone precursor compounds, i.e. nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds as well as methane. Findings from this study were: 1. Surface ozone during the study period, which had no snow cover, did not exceed the NAAQS. 2. Nitrogen oxides varied from 1-50 ppbv pointing towards significant emission sources, likely from oil and gas operations. 3. Methane concentrations were elevated, reaching up to ~10 times its Northern Hemisphere (NH) atmospheric background. 3. Light non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) constituted the main fraction of volatile organic compounds. NMHC concentrations were highly elevated, exceeding levels seen in urban areas. 4. Ozone, methane, NOx and VOC showed distinct diurnal cycles, with large concentration increases seen at night, except for ozone, which showed the opposite behavior. 5. During nighttime concentrations of NOx, NMHC, and methane built up near the surface to levels that were much higher than their daytime concentrations. 6. Comparing NMHC to methane concentrations indicates a mass flux ratio of ~30% for total VOC/methane emissions for the Uintah Basin.

Implications of CO Bias for Ozone and Methane Lifetime in a CCM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strode, Sarah; Duncan, Bryan Neal; Yegorova, Elena; Douglass, Anne

2013-01-01

A low bias in carbon monoxide compared to observations at high latitudes is a common feature of chemistry climate models. CO bias can both indicate and contribute to a bias in modeled OH and methane lifetime. This study examines possible causes of CO bias in the ACCMIP simulation of the GEOSCCM, and considers how attributing the CO bias to uncertainty in CO emissions versus biases in other constituents impacts the relationship between CO bias and methane lifetime. We use a simplified model of CO tagged by source with specified OH to quantify the sensitivity of the CO bias to changes in CO emissions or OH concentration, comparing the modeled CO to surface and MOPITT observations. The simplified model shows that decreasing OH in the northern hemisphere removes most of the global mean and inter-hemispheric bias in surface CO. We then use results from this analysis to explore how adjusting CO sources in the CCM impacts the concentrations of ozone, OH and methane. The CCM simulation also exhibits biases in ozone and water vapor compared to observations. We use a parameterized CO-OH-CH4 model that takes ozone and water vapor as inputs to the parameterization to examine whether correcting water and ozone biases can alter OH enough to remove the CO bias. Through this analysis, we aim to better quantify the relationship between CO bias and model biases in ozone concentrations and methane lifetime.

VOC Reactivity and the Ozone Climate Penalty: Modeled Impacts of Updated Aromatic and Monoterpene Chemistry on the Ozone-temperature Connection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Porter, W. C.; Heald, C. L.; Safieddine, S.

2016-12-01

Rising temperatures associated with global warming can increase concentrations of tropospheric ozone (O3) in many regions worldwide, a correlation often described as the "ozone climate penalty". This effect is driven by a variety of underlying chemical, physical, and biological mechanisms, including temperature-dependent reaction rates, emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from trees and other plant life, and correlations with other meteorological variables. While many of the most important O3-producing VOCs, such as isoprene, are represented in typical chemical transport models such as GEOS-Chem, others - including aromatics from fires and human activity and monoterpenes from natural sources - are not always included in gas-phase chemistry. Here we examine the impact of increased VOC reactivity on the ozone climate penalty due to a more comprehensive treatment of aromatics and monoterpenes in the chemical transport model GEOS-Chem, finding regional impacts not only on daily O3 levels themselves, but also on the O3/temperature relationship. While many uncertainties related to the emissions and chemistry of these species remain, the impact of their inclusion on both current simulations and future projections indicates their importance towards the overall goal of more accurately modeled surface O3.

Lower tropospheric ozone and aerosol measurements at a coastal mountain site in Northern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Post, A.; Conley, S. A.; Zhao, Y.; Cliff, S. S.; Faloona, I. C.; Wexler, A. S.; Lighthall, D.

2012-12-01

Increasing concern over the impacts of exogenous air pollution in California's Central Valley have prompted the establishment of a coastal, high altitude monitoring site at the Chews Ridge Observatory (1550 m) approximately 30 km east of Point Sur in Monterey County. Six months of ozone and aerosol measurements are presented in the context of long-range transport and its potential impact on surface air quality in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Moreover, approximately monthly ozone surveys are conducted by aircraft upwind, over the Pacific Ocean, and downwind, over the Central Valley, to characterize horizontal and vertical transport across the coastal mountains. The measurements exhibit no systematic diurnal variations of ozone or water vapor, an indication that the site primarily samples lower free tropospheric air which has not been significantly influenced by either local emissions or convective coupling to the surface. Aerosol size is measured with a scanning mobility particle sizer and composition is analyzed with an 8-stage rotating drum impactor whose substrates are characterized by X-ray fluorescence. Various elemental ratios and back trajectory calculations are used to infer the temporal patterns of influence that long range transport has on California air quality.

Heterogeneous nano-Fe/Ca/CaO catalytic ozonation for selective surface hydrophilization of plastics containing brominated and chlorinated flame retardants (B/CFRs): separation from automobile shredder residue by froth flotation.

PubMed

Mallampati, Srinivasa Reddy; Lee, Byoung Ho; Mitoma, Yoshiharu; Simion, Cristian

2017-02-01

One method of weakening the inherently hydrophobic surface of plastics relevant to flotation separation is heterogeneous nano-Fe/Ca/CaO catalytic ozonation. Nano-Fe/Ca/CaO-catalyzed ozonation for 15 min efficiently decreases the surface hydrophobicity of brominated and chlorinated flame retardant (B/CFR)-containing plastics (such as acrylonitrile-butadienestyrene (ABS), high-impact polystyrene (HIPS), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC)) in automobile shredder residue (ASR) to such an extent that their flotation ability is entirely depressed. Such a hydrophilization treatment also stimulates the ABS, HIPS, and PVC surface roughness, wetting of the surface, and the thermodynamic equilibrium conditions at the surface and ultimately changes surface polarity. SEM-EDS, AFM, and XPS analyses of the PVC and ABS surfaces demonstrated a marked decrease in [Cl/Br] and a significant increase in the number of hydrophilic groups, such as C-O, C=O, and (C=O)-O. Under froth flotation conditions at 50 rpm, about 99.5 % of ABS and 99.5 % of HIPS in ASR samples settled out, resulting in a purity of 98 and 98.5 % for ABS and HIPS in ASR samples, respectively. Furthermore, at 150 rpm, we also obtained 100 % PVC separation in the settled fraction, with 98 % purity in ASR. Total recovery of non-B/CFR-containing plastics reached nearly 100 % in the floating fraction. The amount of nano-Fe/Ca/CaO reagent employed during ozonation is very small, and additional removal of surface contaminants from the recycled ASR plastic surfaces by ozonation makes the developed process simpler, greener, and more effective.

Pulling Results Out of Thin Air: Four Years of Ozone and Greenhouse Gas Measurements by the Alpha Jet Atmospheric Experiment (AJAX)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yates, Emma

2015-01-01

The Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) has been measuring atmospheric ozone, carbon dioxide, methane and meteorological parameters from near the surface to 8000 m since January 2011. The main goals are to study photochemical ozone production and the impacts of extreme events on western US air quality, provide data to support satellite observations and aid in the quantification of emission sources e.g. wildfires, urban outflow, diary and oil and gas. The aircraft is based at Moffett Field and flies multiple times a month to sample vertical profiles at selected sites in California and Nevada, providing long-term data records at these sites. AJAX is also uniquely positioned to launch with short notice sampling flights in rapid response to extreme events e.g. the 2013 Yosemite Rim fire. This talk will focus on the impacts of vertical transport on surface air quality, and investigation of emission sources from diaries and wildfires.

Impact of climate variability on tropospheric ozone.

PubMed

Grewe, Volker

2007-03-01

A simulation with the climate-chemistry model (CCM) E39/C is presented, which covers both the troposphere and stratosphere dynamics and chemistry during the period 1960 to 1999. Although the CCM, by its nature, is not exactly representing observed day-by-day meteorology, there is an overall model's tendency to correctly reproduce the variability pattern due to an inclusion of realistic external forcings, like observed sea surface temperatures (e.g. El Niño), major volcanic eruption, solar cycle, concentrations of greenhouse gases, and Quasi-Biennial Oscillation. Additionally, climate-chemistry interactions are included, like the impact of ozone, methane, and other species on radiation and dynamics, and the impact of dynamics on emissions (lightning). However, a number of important feedbacks are not yet included (e.g. feedbacks related to biogenic emissions and emissions due to biomass burning). The results show a good representation of the evolution of the stratospheric ozone layer, including the ozone hole, which plays an important role for the simulation of natural variability of tropospheric ozone. Anthropogenic NO(x) emissions are included with a step-wise linear trend for each sector, but no interannual variability is included. The application of a number of diagnostics (e.g. marked ozone tracers) allows the separation of the impact of various processes/emissions on tropospheric ozone and shows that the simulated Northern Hemisphere tropospheric ozone budget is not only dominated by nitrogen oxide emissions and other ozone pre-cursors, but also by changes of the stratospheric ozone budget and its flux into the troposphere, which tends to reduce the simulated positive trend in tropospheric ozone due to emissions from industry and traffic during the late 80s and early 90s. For tropical regions the variability in ozone is dominated by variability in lightning (related to ENSO) and stratosphere-troposphere exchange (related to Northern Hemisphere Stratospheric dynamics and solar activity). Since tropospheric background chemistry is regarded only, the results are quantitatively limited with respect to derived trends. However, the main results are regarded to be robust. Although the horizontal resolution is rather coarse in comparison to regional models, such kind of simulations provide useful and necessary information on the impact of large-scale processes and inter-annual/decadal variations on regional air quality.

Transport aloft drives peak ozone in the Mojave Desert

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

VanCuren, Richard

2015-05-01

Transport of anthropogenic pollution eastward out of the Los Angeles megacity region in California has been periodically observed to reach the Colorado River and the Colorado Plateau region beyond. In the 1980s, anthropogenic halocarbon tracers measured in and near the Las Angeles urban area and at a mountain-top site near the Colorado River, 400 km downwind, were shown to have a correlated seven-day cycle explainable by transport from the urban area with a time lag of 1-2 days. Recent short term springtime intensive studies using aircraft observations and regional modeling of long range transport of ozone from the Southern California megacity region showed frequent and persistent ozone impacts at surface sites across the Colorado Plateau and Southern Rocky Mountain region, at distances up to 1500 km, also with time lags of 1-2 days. However, the timing of ozone peaks at low altitude monitoring sites within the Mojave Desert, at distances from 100 to 400 km from the South Coast and San Joaquin Valley ozone source regions, does not show the expected time-lag behavior seen in the larger transport studies. This discrepancy is explained by recognizing ozone transport across the Mojave Desert to occur in a persistent layer of polluted air in the lower free troposphere with a base level at approximately 1 km MSL. This layer impacts elevated downwind sites directly, but only influences low altitude surface ozone maxima through deep afternoon mixing. Pollutants in this elevated layer derive from California source regions (the Los Angeles megacity region and the intensive agricultural region of the San Joaquin Valley), from long-range transport from Asia, and stratospheric down-mixing. Recognition of the role of afternoon mixing during spring and summer over the Mojave explains and expands the significance of previously published reports of ozone and other pollutants observed in and over the Mojave Desert, and resolves an apparent paradox in the timing of ozone peaks due to short-range and long-range transport from the upwind basins.

Investigating Dry Deposition of Ozone to Vegetation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, Sam J.; Heald, Colette L.

2018-01-01

Atmospheric ozone loss through dry deposition to vegetation is a critically important process for both air quality and ecosystem health. The majority of atmospheric chemistry models calculate dry deposition using a resistance-in-series parameterization by Wesely (1989), which is dependent on many environmental variables and lookup table values. The uncertainties contained within this parameterization have not been fully explored, ultimately challenging our ability to understand global scale biosphere-atmosphere interactions. In this work, we evaluate the GEOS-Chem model simulation of ozone dry deposition using a globally distributed suite of observations. We find that simulated daytime deposition velocities generally reproduce the magnitude of observations to within a factor of 1.4. When correctly accounting for differences in land class between the observations and model, these biases improve, most substantially over the grasses and shrubs land class. These biases do not impact the global ozone burden substantially; however, they do lead to local absolute changes of up to 4 ppbv and relative changes of 15% in summer surface concentrations. We use MERRA meteorology from 1979 to 2008 to assess that the interannual variability in simulated annual mean ozone dry deposition due to model input meteorology is small (generally less than 5% over vegetated surfaces). Sensitivity experiments indicate that the simulation is most sensitive to the stomatal and ground surface resistances, as well as leaf area index. To improve ozone dry deposition models, more measurements are necessary over rainforests and various crop types, alongside constraints on individual depositional pathways and other in-canopy ozone loss processes.

Northern Hemisphere Winter Climate Response to Greenhouse Gas, Ozone, Solar and Volcanic Forcing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shindell, Drew T.; Schmidt, Gavin A.; Miller, Ron L.; Rind, David; Hansen, James E. (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) climate/middle atmosphere model has been used to study the impacts of increasing greenhouse gases, polar ozone depletion, volcanic eruptions, and solar cycle variability. We focus on the projection of the induced responses onto Northern Hemisphere winter surface climate. Changes in the model's surface climate take place largely through enhancement of existing variability patterns, with greenhouse gases, polar ozone depletion and volcanic eruptions primarily affecting the Arctic Oscillation (AO) pattern. Perturbations descend from the stratosphere to the surface in the model by altering the propagation of planetary waves coming up from the surface, in accord with observational evidence. Models lacking realistic stratospheric dynamics fail to capture these wave flux changes. The results support the conclusion that the stratosphere plays a crucial role in recent AO trends. We show that in our climate model, while ozone depletion has a significant effect, greenhouse gas forcing is the only one capable of causing the large, sustained increase in the AO observed over recent decades. This suggests that the AO trend, and a concurrent strengthening of the stratospheric vortex over the Arctic, are very likely anthropogenic in origin.

Observations and impacts of transported Canadian wildfire smoke on ozone and aerosol air quality in the Maryland region on June 9-12, 2015.

PubMed

Dreessen, Joel; Sullivan, John; Delgado, Ruben

2016-09-01

Canadian wildfire smoke impacted air quality across the northern Mid-Atlantic (MA) of the United States during June 9-12, 2015. A multiday exceedance of the new 2015 70-ppb National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone (O3) followed, resulting in Maryland being incompliant with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) revised 2015 O3 NAAQS. Surface in situ, balloon-borne, and remote sensing observations monitored the impact of the wildfire smoke at Maryland air quality monitoring sites. At peak smoke concentrations in Maryland, wildfire-attributable volatile organic compounds (VOCs) more than doubled, while non-NOx oxides of nitrogen (NOz) tripled, suggesting long range transport of NOx within the smoke plume. Peak daily average PM2.5 was 32.5 µg m(-3) with large fractions coming from black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC), with a synonymous increase in carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations. Measurements indicate that smoke tracers at the surface were spatially and temporally correlated with maximum 8-hr O3 concentrations in the MA, all which peaked on June 11. Despite initial smoke arrival late on June 9, 2015, O3 production was inhibited due to ultraviolet (UV) light attenuation, lower temperatures, and nonoptimal surface layer composition. Comparison of Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model surface O3 forecasts to observations suggests 14 ppb additional O3 due to smoke influences in northern Maryland. Despite polluted conditions, observations of a nocturnal low-level jet (NLLJ) and Chesapeake Bay Breeze (BB) were associated with decreases in O3 in this case. While infrequent in the MA, wildfire smoke may be an increasing fractional contribution to high-O3 days, particularly in light of increased wildfire frequency in a changing climate, lower regional emissions, and tighter air quality standards. The presented event demonstrates how a single wildfire event associated with an ozone exceedance of the NAAQS can prevent the Baltimore region from complying with lower ozone standards. This relatively new problem in Maryland is due to regional reductions in NOx emissions that led to record low numbers of ozone NAAQS violations in the last 3 years. This case demonstrates the need for adequate means to quantify and justify ozone impacts from wildfires, which can only be done through the use of observationally based models. The data presented may also improve future air quality forecast models.

Quantifying the ozone and ultraviolet benefits already achieved by the Montreal Protocol

PubMed Central

Chipperfield, M. P.; Dhomse, S. S.; Feng, W.; McKenzie, R. L.; Velders, G.J.M.; Pyle, J. A.

2015-01-01

Chlorine- and bromine-containing ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) are controlled by the 1987 Montreal Protocol. In consequence, atmospheric equivalent chlorine peaked in 1993 and has been declining slowly since then. Consistent with this, models project a gradual increase in stratospheric ozone with the Antarctic ozone hole expected to disappear by ∼2050. However, we show that by 2013 the Montreal Protocol had already achieved significant benefits for the ozone layer. Using a 3D atmospheric chemistry transport model, we demonstrate that much larger ozone depletion than observed has been avoided by the protocol, with beneficial impacts on surface ultraviolet. A deep Arctic ozone hole, with column values <120 DU, would have occurred given meteorological conditions in 2011. The Antarctic ozone hole would have grown in size by 40% by 2013, with enhanced loss at subpolar latitudes. The decline over northern hemisphere middle latitudes would have continued, more than doubling to ∼15% by 2013. PMID:26011106

Perspectives on African Ozone from Sondes, Dobson and Aircraft Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, A. M.; Witte, J. C.; Chatfield, R. B.; Diab, R. D.; Thouret, V.; Sauvage, B.

2004-01-01

We have been studying variability in ozone over Africa using data from ozonesondes (vertical profiles from surface to stratosphere), aircraft (the MOZAIC dataset with cruise altitude and landing/takeoff profiles) and the ground (Dobson spectrophotometer total ozone column measurement). The following may give context for ozone investigations during AMMA: 1. Total ozone measurements since 1989 show considerable variability in mean value among the African stations in Algeria, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, as well as in seasonal cycles and year-to-year. Trends are not evident. 2. The impacts of convection, stratospheric injection, biomass burning and lightning appear in ozone sounding profile data. Time-series analysis and case studies point to periodic influences of long-range interactions with the Atlantic ("ozone paradox," wave-one") and Indian Oceans. 3. Tropospheric ozone variations, observed in tropospheric profiles and integrated column amount, follow general seasonal patterns but short- term variability is so strong that simple averages are inadequate for describing "climatology" and statistical classification approaches may be required.

Oxidative regeneration of toluene-saturated natural zeolite by gaseous ozone: the influence of zeolite chemical surface characteristics.

PubMed

Alejandro, Serguei; Valdés, Héctor; Manéro, Marie-Hélène; Zaror, Claudio A

2014-06-15

In this study, the effect of zeolite chemical surface characteristics on the oxidative regeneration of toluene saturated-zeolite samples is investigated. A Chilean natural zeolite (53% clinoptilolite, 40% mordenite and 7% quartz) was chemically modified by acid treatment with hydrochloric acid and by ion-exchange with ammonium sulphate. Thermal pre-treatments at 623 and 823K were applied and six zeolite samples with different chemical surface characteristics were generated. Chemical modification of natural zeolite followed by thermal out-gassing allows distinguishing the role of acidic surface sites on the regeneration of exhausted zeolites. An increase in Brønsted acid sites on zeolite surface is observed as a result of ammonium-exchange treatment followed by thermal treatment at 623K, thus increasing the adsorption capacity toward toluene. High ozone consumption could be associated to a high content of Lewis acid sites, since these could decompose ozone into atomic active oxygen species. Then, surface oxidation reactions could take part among adsorbed toluene at Brønsted acid sites and surface atomic oxygen species, reducing the amount of adsorbed toluene after the regenerative oxidation with ozone. Experimental results show that the presence of adsorbed oxidation by-products has a negative impact on the recovery of zeolite adsorption capacity. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Coordinated profiling of stratospheric intrusions and transported pollution by the Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet) and NASA Alpha Jet experiment (AJAX): Observations and comparison to HYSPLIT, RAQMS, and FLEXPART

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langford, A. O.; Alvarez, R. J.; Brioude, J.; Evan, S.; Iraci, L. T.; Kirgis, G.; Kuang, S.; Leblanc, T.; Newchurch, M. J.; Pierce, R. B.; Senff, C. J.; Yates, E. L.

2018-02-01

Ground-based lidars and ozonesondes belonging to the NASA-supported Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet) are used in conjunction with the NASA Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) to investigate the transport of stratospheric ozone and entrained pollution into the lower troposphere above the United States on May 24-25, 2013. TOLNet and AJAX measurements made in California, Nevada, and Alabama are compared to tropospheric ozone retrievals from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), to back trajectories from the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model, and to analyses from the NOAA/NESDIS Real-time Air Quality Modeling System (RAQMS) and FLEXPART particle dispersion model. The measurements and model analyses show much deeper descent of ozone-rich upper tropospheric/lower stratospheric air above the Desert Southwest than above the Southeast, and comparisons to surface measurements from regulatory monitors reporting to the U.S. EPA Air Quality System (AQS) suggest that there was a much greater surface impact in the Southwest including exceedances of the 2008 National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) of 0.075 ppm in both Southern California and Nevada. Our analysis demonstrates the potential benefits to be gained by supplementing the existing surface ozone network with coordinated upper air observations by TOLNet.

Surface ozone in the Southern Hemisphere: 20 years of data from a site with a unique setting in El Tololo, Chile

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anet, Julien G.; Steinbacher, Martin; Gallardo, Laura; Velásquez Álvarez, Patricio A.; Emmenegger, Lukas; Buchmann, Brigitte

2017-05-01

The knowledge of surface ozone mole fractions and their global distribution is of utmost importance due to the impact of ozone on human health and ecosystems and the central role of ozone in controlling the oxidation capacity of the troposphere. The availability of long-term ozone records is far better in the Northern than in the Southern Hemisphere, and recent analyses of the seven accessible records in the Southern Hemisphere have shown inconclusive trends. Since late 1995, surface ozone is measured in situ at "El Tololo", a high-altitude (2200 m a.s.l.) and pristine station in Chile (30° S, 71° W). The dataset has been recently fully quality controlled and reprocessed. This study presents the observed ozone trends and annual cycles and identifies key processes driving these patterns. From 1995 to 2010, an overall positive trend of ˜ 0.7 ppb decade-1 is found. Strongest trends per season are observed in March and April. Highest mole fractions are observed in late spring (October) and show a strong correlation with ozone transported from the stratosphere down into the troposphere, as simulated with a model. Over the 20 years of observations, the springtime ozone maximum has shifted to earlier times in the year, which, again, is strongly correlated with a temporal shift in the occurrence of the maximum of simulated stratospheric ozone transport at the site. We conclude that background ozone at El Tololo is mainly driven by stratospheric intrusions rather than photochemical production from anthropogenic and biogenic precursors. The major footprint of the sampled air masses is located over the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, due to the negligible influence of local processes, the ozone record also allows studying the influence of El Niño and La Niña episodes on background ozone levels in South America. In agreement with previous studies, we find that, during La Niña conditions, ozone mole fractions reach higher levels than during El Niño conditions.

Effects of ozonation pretreatment on natural organic matter and wastewater derived organic matter - Possible implications on the formation of ozonation by-products.

PubMed

Papageorgiou, Alexandros; Stylianou, Stylianos K; Kaffes, Pavlos; Zouboulis, Anastasios I; Voutsa, Dimitra

2017-03-01

The aim of this study was to investigate possible implications of natural and wastewater derived organic matter in river water that is subsequently used following treatment for drinking purposes. River water was subjected to lab-scale ozonation experiments under different ozone doses (0.1, 0.4, 0.8, 1.0 and 2.0 mgO 3 /mgC) and contact times (1, 3, 5, 8 and 10 min). Mixtures of river water with humic acids or wastewaters (sewage wastewater and secondary effluents) at different proportions were also ozonated. Dissolved organic carbon and biodegradable dissolved organic carbon concentrations as well as spectroscopic characteristics (UV absorbance and fluorescence intensities) of different types of dissolved organic matter and possible changes due to the ozonation treatment are presented. River water, humic substances and wastewater exhibited distinct spectroscopic characteristics that could serve for pollution source tracing. Wastewater impacted surface water results in higher formation of carbonyl compounds. However, the formation yield (μg/mgC) of wastewaters was lower than that of surface water possibly due to different composition of wastewater derived organic matter and the presence of scavengers, which may limit the oxidative efficiency of ozone. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mechanisms of impact of greenhouse gases on the Earth's ozone layer in the Polar Regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zadorozhny, Alexander; Dyominov, Igor

A numerical 2-D zonally averaged interactive dynamical radiative-photochemical model of the atmosphere including aerosol physics is used to examine the impact of the greenhouse gases CO2, CH4, and N2O on the future long-term changes of the Earth's ozone layer, in particular on its expected recovery after reduction of anthropogenic discharges of chlorine and bromine compounds into the atmosphere. The model allows calculating self-consistently diabatic circu-lation, temperature, gaseous composition of the troposphere and stratosphere at latitudes from the North to South Poles, as well as distribution of sulphate aerosol particles and polar strato-spheric clouds (PSCs) of types I and II. The scenarios of expected changes of the anthropogenic pollutants for the period from 1980 through 2050 are taken from Climate Change 2001. The processes, which determine the influence of anthropogenic growth of atmospheric abun-dance of the greenhouse gases on the long-term changes of the Earth's ozone layer in the Polar Regions, have been studied in details. Expected cooling of the stratosphere caused by increases of greenhouse gases, most importantly CO2, essentially influences the ozone layer by two ways: through temperature dependencies of the gas phase reaction rates and through enhancement of polar ozone depletion via increased PSC formation. The model calculations show that a weak-ness in efficiencies of all gas phase catalytic cycles of the ozone destruction due to cooling of the stratosphere is a dominant mechanism of the impact of the greenhouse gases on the ozone layer in Antarctic as well as at the lower latitudes. This mechanism leads to a significant acceleration of the ozone layer recovery here because of the greenhouse gases growth. On the contrary, the mechanism of the impact of the greenhouse gases on the ozone through PSC modification be-gins to be more effective in Arctic in comparison with the gas phase mechanism in springs after about 2020, which leads to retard the expected recovery of the ozone layer here. The difference in the impact of the greenhouse gases on the ozone layer at the southern and northern polar latitudes through PCS modification is determined by the difference in temperature regimes of the Polar Regions. The mechanism of the impact of the greenhouse gases on the polar ozone by means of modification of sulphate aerosol distribution in the atmosphere has been revealed and investigated, too. Numerical experiments show that enhancement of the surface area density of sulphate aerosol in the stratosphere caused by the growth of the greenhouse gases will reduce significantly the ozone depletion during the Antarctic ozone hole.

Radiative effects due to North American anthropogenic and lightning emissions: Global and regional modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martini, Matus Novak

We analyze the contribution of North American (NA) lightning and anthropogenic emissions to summertime ozone concentrations, radiative forcing, and exports from North America using the global University of Maryland chemistry transport model (UMD-CTM) and the regional scale Weather Research and Forecasting model with chemistry (WRF-Chem). Lightning NO contributes by 15--20 ppbv to upper tropospheric ozone concentrations over the United States with the effects of NA lightning on ozone seen as far east as North Africa and Europe. Using the UMD-CTM, we compare changes in surface and column ozone amounts due to the NOx State Implementation Plan (SIP) Call with the natural variability in ozone due to changes in meteorology and lightning. Comparing early summer 2004 with 2002, surface ozone decreased by up to 5 ppbv due to the NO x SIP Call while changes in meteorology and lightning resulted in a 0.3--1.4 ppbv increase in surface ozone. Ozone column variability was driven primarily by changes in lightning NO emissions, especially over the North Atlantic. As part of our WRF-Chem analysis, we modify the radiation schemes to use model-calculated ozone (interactive ozone) instead of climatological ozone profiles and conduct multiple 4-day simulations of July 2007. We found that interactive ozone increased the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) by 3 W m-2 decreasing the bias with respect to remotely sensed OLR. The improvement is due to a high bias in the climatological ozone profiles. The interactive ozone had a small impact on mean upper troposphere temperature (-0.15°C). The UMD-CTM simulations indicate that NA anthropogenic emissions are responsible for more ozone export but less ozone radiative forcing than lightning NO emissions. Over the North Atlantic, NA anthropogenic emissions contributed 0.15--0.30 W m-2 to the net downward radiative flux at the tropopause while NA lightning contributed 0.30--0.50 W m-2. The ozone export from anthropogenic emissions was almost twice as large as that from lightning emissions. The WRF-Chem simulations show that the export of reactive nitrogen was 23%--28% of the boundary layer emissions and 26%--38% of the total emissions including lightning NO.

Robust impact of coupled stratospheric ozone chemistry on the response of the Austral circulation to increased greenhouse gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chiodo, G.; Polvani, L. M.

2016-12-01

Due to computational constraints, interactive stratospheric chemistry is commonly neglected in most GCMs participating in inter-comparison projects. The impact of this simplification on the modeled response to external forcings remains largely unexplored. In this work, we examine the impact of the stratospheric chemistry coupling on the SH circulation response to an abrupt quadrupling of CO2. We accomplish this with a version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate (WACCM) model, which allows coupling and de-coupling stratospheric chemistry, without altering any other physical parameterization. We find that the chemistry coupling in WACCM significantly reduces (by about 20%) the response of both eddy-driven mid-latitude jet and the Hadley Cell strength, without altering the surface temperature response. This behavior is linked to the representation of stratospheric ozone, and its effects on the meridional temperature gradient at the extratropical tropopause. Our results imply that neglecting stratospheric ozone chemistry results in a potential overestimation of the circulation response to GHGs. Hence, stratospheric ozone chemistry produces a substantial negative feedback on the response of the atmospheric circulation to increased greenhouse gases.

Impact of the 2008 Global Recession on Air Quality over the United States: Implications for Surface Ozone Levels from Changes in NOx Emissions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tong, Daniel; Pan, Li; Chen, Weiwei; Lamsal, Lok; Lee, Pius; Tang, Youhua; Kim, Hyuncheol; Kondragunta, Shobha; Stajner, Ivanka

2016-01-01

Satellite and ground observations detected large variability in nitrogen oxides (NOx) during the 2008 economic recession, but the impact of the recession on air quality has not been quantified. This study combines observed NOx trends and a regional chemical transport model to quantify the impact of the recession on surface ozone (O3) levels over the continental United States. The impact is quantified by simulating O3 concentrations under two emission scenarios: business-as-usual (BAU) and recession. In the BAU case, the emission projection from the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule is used to estimate the would-be NOx emission level in 2011. In the recession case, the actual NO2 trends observed from Air Quality System ground monitors and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on the Aura satellite are used to obtain realistic changes in NOx emissions. The model prediction with the recession effect agrees better with ground O3 observations over time and space than the prediction with the BAU emission. The results show that the recession caused a 12ppbv decrease in surface O3 concentration over the eastern United States, a slight increase (0.51ppbv) over the Rocky Mountain region, and mixed changes in the Pacific West. The gain in air quality benefits during the recession, however, could be quickly offset by the much slower emission reduction rate during the post-recession period.

Climatic Effects of Medium-Sized Asteroid Impacts on Land

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bardeen, C.; Garcia, R. R.; Toon, O. B.; Otto-Bliesner, B. L.; Wolf, E. T.

2015-12-01

Using the Community Earth System Model (CESM), a three-dimensional coupled climate model with interactive chemistry, we have simulated the climate response to a medium-sized (1 km) asteroid impact on the land. An impact of this size would cause local fires and may also generate submicron dust particles. Dust aerosols are injected into the upper atmosphere where they persist for ~3 years. Soot aerosols from fires are injected into the troposphere and absorb solar radiation heating the air which helps loft the soot into the stratosphere where it persists for ~10 years. Initially, these aerosols cause a heating of over 240 K in the stratosphere and up to a 70% reduction in downwelling solar radiation at the surface. Global average surface temperature cools by as much as -8.5 K, ocean temperature cools by -4.5 K, precipitation is reduced by 50%, and the ozone column is reduced by 55%. The surface UV Index exceeds 20 in the tropics for several years. These changes represent a significant hazard to life on a global scale. These results extend the work of Pierazzo et al. (2010), also using CESM, which found a significant impact on stratospheric ozone, but little change in surface temperature or precipitation, from a 1 km asteroid impact in the ocean.

Ozone risk for crops and pastures in present and future climates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fuhrer, Jürg

2009-02-01

Ozone is the most important regional-scale air pollutant causing risks for vegetation and human health in many parts of the world. Ozone impacts on yield and quality of crops and pastures depend on precursor emissions, atmospheric transport and leaf uptake and on the plant’s biochemical defence capacity, all of which are influenced by changing climatic conditions, increasing atmospheric CO2 and altered emission patterns. In this article, recent findings about ozone effects under current conditions and trends in regional ozone levels and in climatic factors affecting the plant’s sensitivity to ozone are reviewed in order to assess implications of these developments for future regional ozone risks. Based on pessimistic IPCC emission scenarios for many cropland regions elevated mean ozone levels in surface air are projected for 2050 and beyond as a result of both increasing emissions and positive effects of climate change on ozone formation and higher cumulative ozone exposure during an extended growing season resulting from increasing length and frequency of ozone episodes. At the same time, crop sensitivity may decline in areas where warming is accompanied by drying, such as southern and central Europe, in contrast to areas at higher latitudes where rapid warming is projected to occur in the absence of declining air and soil moisture. In regions with rapid industrialisation and population growth and with little regulatory action, ozone risks are projected to increase most dramatically, thus causing negative impacts major staple crops such as rice and wheat and, consequently, on food security. Crop improvement may be a way to increase crop cross-tolerance to co-occurring stresses from heat, drought and ozone. However, the review reveals that besides uncertainties in climate projections, parameters in models for ozone risk assessment are also uncertain and model improvements are necessary to better define specific targets for crop improvements, to identify regions most at risk from ozone in a future climate and to set robust effect-based ozone standards.

The Global Structure of UTLS Ozone in GEOS-5: A Multi-Year Assimilation of EOS Aura Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wargan, Krzysztof; Pawson, Steven; Olsen, Mark A.; Witte, Jacquelyn C.; Douglass, Anne R.; Ziemke, Jerald R.; Strahan, Susan E.; Nielsen, J. Eric

2015-01-01

Eight years of ozone measurements retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the Microwave Limb Sounder, both on the EOS Aura satellite, have been assimilated into the Goddard Earth Observing System version 5 (GEOS-5) data assimilation system. This study thoroughly evaluates this assimilated product, highlighting its potential for science. The impact of observations on the GEOS-5 system is explored by examining the spatial distribution of the observation-minus-forecast statistics. Independent data are used for product validation. The correlation coefficient of the lower-stratospheric ozone column with ozonesondes is 0.99 and the bias is 0.5%, indicating the success of the assimilation in reproducing the ozone variability in that layer. The upper-tropospheric assimilated ozone column is about 10% lower than the ozonesonde column but the correlation is still high (0.87). The assimilation is shown to realistically capture the sharp cross-tropopause gradient in ozone mixing ratio. Occurrence of transport-driven low ozone laminae in the assimilation system is similar to that obtained from the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) above the 400 K potential temperature surface but the assimilation produces fewer laminae than seen by HIRDLS below that surface. Although the assimilation produces 5 - 8 fewer occurrences per day (up to approximately 20%) during the three years of HIRDLS data, the interannual variability is captured correctly. This data-driven assimilated product is complementary to ozone fields generated from chemistry and transport models. Applications include study of the radiative forcing by ozone and tracer transport near the tropopause.

How to most effectively expand the global surface ozone observing network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sofen, E. D.; Bowdalo, D.; Evans, M. J.

2016-02-01

Surface ozone observations with modern instrumentation have been made around the world for more than 40 years. Some of these observations have been made as one-off activities with short-term, specific science objectives and some have been made as part of wider networks which have provided a foundational infrastructure of data collection, calibration, quality control, and dissemination. These observations provide a fundamental underpinning to our understanding of tropospheric chemistry, air quality policy, atmosphere-biosphere interactions, etc. brought together eight of these networks to provide a single data set of surface ozone observations. We investigate how representative this combined data set is of global surface ozone using the output from a global atmospheric chemistry model. We estimate that on an area basis, 25 % of the globe is observed (34 % land, 21 % ocean). Whereas Europe and North America have almost complete coverage, other continents, Africa, South America, Australia, and Asia (12-17 %) show significant gaps. Antarctica is surprisingly well observed (78 %). Little monitoring occurs over the oceans, with the tropical and southern oceans particularly poorly represented. The surface ozone over key biomes such as tropical forests and savanna is almost completely unmonitored. A chemical cluster analysis suggests that a significant number of observations are made of polluted air masses, but cleaner air masses whether over the land or ocean (especially again in the tropics) are significantly under-observed. The current network is unlikely to see the impact of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) but may be capable of detecting other planetary-scale signals. Model assessment and validation activities are hampered by a lack of observations in regions where the models differ substantially, as is the ability to monitor likely changes in surface ozone over the next century. Using our methodology we are able to suggest new sites which would help to close the gap in our ability to measure global surface ozone. An additional 20 surface ozone monitoring sites (a 20 % increase in the World Meteorological Organization Global Atmosphere Watch (WMO GAW) ozone sites or a 1 % increase in the total background network) located on 10 islands and in 10 continental regions would almost double the area observed. The cost of this addition to the network is small compared to other expenditure on atmospheric composition research infrastructure and would provide a significant long-term benefit to our understanding of the composition of the atmosphere, information which will also be available for consideration by air quality control managers and policy makers.

Improving Aerosol and Visibility Forecasting Capabilities Using Current and Future Generations of Satellite Observations

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-30

improving forecast performance over cloudy regions using the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Aerosol Index; and 2) preparing for the post-MODIS...meteorological fields, the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) SW and LW surface characteristics, and an ozone climatology are used as...The primary impact of CALIOP assimilation on the model is the redistribution of mass toward the boundary layer from the free troposphere . For high

The ocean's role in polar climate change: asymmetric Arctic and Antarctic responses to greenhouse gas and ozone forcing

PubMed Central

Marshall, John; Armour, Kyle C.; Scott, Jeffery R.; Kostov, Yavor; Hausmann, Ute; Ferreira, David; Shepherd, Theodore G.; Bitz, Cecilia M.

2014-01-01

In recent decades, the Arctic has been warming and sea ice disappearing. By contrast, the Southern Ocean around Antarctica has been (mainly) cooling and sea-ice extent growing. We argue here that interhemispheric asymmetries in the mean ocean circulation, with sinking in the northern North Atlantic and upwelling around Antarctica, strongly influence the sea-surface temperature (SST) response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing, accelerating warming in the Arctic while delaying it in the Antarctic. Furthermore, while the amplitude of GHG forcing has been similar at the poles, significant ozone depletion only occurs over Antarctica. We suggest that the initial response of SST around Antarctica to ozone depletion is one of cooling and only later adds to the GHG-induced warming trend as upwelling of sub-surface warm water associated with stronger surface westerlies impacts surface properties. We organize our discussion around ‘climate response functions’ (CRFs), i.e. the response of the climate to ‘step’ changes in anthropogenic forcing in which GHG and/or ozone-hole forcing is abruptly turned on and the transient response of the climate revealed and studied. Convolutions of known or postulated GHG and ozone-hole forcing functions with their respective CRFs then yield the transient forced SST response (implied by linear response theory), providing a context for discussion of the differing warming/cooling trends in the Arctic and Antarctic. We speculate that the period through which we are now passing may be one in which the delayed warming of SST associated with GHG forcing around Antarctica is largely cancelled by the cooling effects associated with the ozone hole. By mid-century, however, ozone-hole effects may instead be adding to GHG warming around Antarctica but with diminished amplitude as the ozone hole heals. The Arctic, meanwhile, responding to GHG forcing but in a manner amplified by ocean heat transport, may continue to warm at an accelerating rate. PMID:24891392

The ocean's role in polar climate change: asymmetric Arctic and Antarctic responses to greenhouse gas and ozone forcing.

PubMed

Marshall, John; Armour, Kyle C; Scott, Jeffery R; Kostov, Yavor; Hausmann, Ute; Ferreira, David; Shepherd, Theodore G; Bitz, Cecilia M

2014-07-13

In recent decades, the Arctic has been warming and sea ice disappearing. By contrast, the Southern Ocean around Antarctica has been (mainly) cooling and sea-ice extent growing. We argue here that interhemispheric asymmetries in the mean ocean circulation, with sinking in the northern North Atlantic and upwelling around Antarctica, strongly influence the sea-surface temperature (SST) response to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing, accelerating warming in the Arctic while delaying it in the Antarctic. Furthermore, while the amplitude of GHG forcing has been similar at the poles, significant ozone depletion only occurs over Antarctica. We suggest that the initial response of SST around Antarctica to ozone depletion is one of cooling and only later adds to the GHG-induced warming trend as upwelling of sub-surface warm water associated with stronger surface westerlies impacts surface properties. We organize our discussion around 'climate response functions' (CRFs), i.e. the response of the climate to 'step' changes in anthropogenic forcing in which GHG and/or ozone-hole forcing is abruptly turned on and the transient response of the climate revealed and studied. Convolutions of known or postulated GHG and ozone-hole forcing functions with their respective CRFs then yield the transient forced SST response (implied by linear response theory), providing a context for discussion of the differing warming/cooling trends in the Arctic and Antarctic. We speculate that the period through which we are now passing may be one in which the delayed warming of SST associated with GHG forcing around Antarctica is largely cancelled by the cooling effects associated with the ozone hole. By mid-century, however, ozone-hole effects may instead be adding to GHG warming around Antarctica but with diminished amplitude as the ozone hole heals. The Arctic, meanwhile, responding to GHG forcing but in a manner amplified by ocean heat transport, may continue to warm at an accelerating rate.

Stratospheric contribution to surface ozone in the desert Southwest during the 2013 Las Vegas Ozone Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langford, A. O.; Senff, C. J.; Alvarez, R. J. _II, II; Brioude, J. F.; Cooper, O. R.; Holloway, J. S.; Lin, M.; Marchbanks, R.; Pierce, R. B.; Reddy, P. J.; Sandberg, S.; Weickmann, A. M.; Williams, E. J.; Gustin, M. S.; Iraci, L. T.; Leblanc, T.; Yates, E. L.

2014-12-01

The 2013 Las Vegas Ozone Study (LVOS) was designed to investigate the potential impact of stratosphere-troposphere transport (STT) and long-range transport of pollution from Asia on surface O3 concentrations in Clark County, NV. This measurement campaign, which took place in May and June of 2013, was conducted at Angel Peak, NV, a high elevation site about 2.8 km above mean sea level and 45 km west of Las Vegas. The study was organized around the NOAA ESRL truck-based TOPAZ scanning ozone lidar with collocated in situ sampling of O3, CO, and meteorological parameters. These measurements were supported by the NOAA/NESDIS real time modelling system (RAQMS), FLEXPART particle dispersion model, and the NOAA GFDL AM3 model. In this talk, I will describe one of several STT events that occurred during the LVOS campaign. This intrusion, which was profiled by TOPAZ on the night of May 24-25, was also sampled by the NASA Alpha Jet, the Table Mountain ozone lidar, and by an ozonesonde flying above southern California. This event also led to significant ozone increases at surface monitors operated by Clark County, the California Air Resources Board, the U.S. National Park Service, and the Nevada Rural Ozone Initiative (NRVOI), and resulted in exceedances of the 2008 75 ppbv O3 NAAQS both in Clark County and in surrounding areas of Nevada and southern California. The potential implications of this and similar events for air quality compliance in the western U.S. will be discussed.

On the role of ozone feedback in the ENSO amplitude response under global warming.

PubMed

Nowack, Peer J; Braesicke, Peter; Luke Abraham, N; Pyle, John A

2017-04-28

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the tropical Pacific Ocean is of key importance to global climate and weather. However, state-of-the-art climate models still disagree on the ENSO's response under climate change. The potential role of atmospheric ozone changes in this context has not been explored before. Here we show that differences between typical model representations of ozone can have a first-order impact on ENSO amplitude projections in climate sensitivity simulations. The vertical temperature gradient of the tropical middle-to-upper troposphere adjusts to ozone changes in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, modifying the Walker circulation and consequently tropical Pacific surface temperature gradients. We show that neglecting ozone changes thus results in a significant increase in the number of extreme ENSO events in our model. Climate modeling studies of the ENSO often neglect changes in ozone. We therefore highlight the need to understand better the coupling between ozone, the tropospheric circulation, and climate variability.

The reciprocal relation between lightning and pollution and their impact over Kolkata, India.

PubMed

Middey, Anirban; Chaudhuri, Sutapa

2013-05-01

Aerosol loading in the atmosphere can cause increased lightning flashes, and those lightning flashes produce NOX , which reacts in sun light to produce surface ozone. The present study deals with the effect of surface pollutants on premonsoon (April-May) lightning activity over the station Kolkata (22.65° N, 88.45° E). Seven-year (2004-2010) premonsoon thunderstorms data are taken for the study. Different parameters like aerosol optical depth and cloud top temperature from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite products along with lightning flash data from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission's (TRMM) Lightning Imaging Sensor are analyzed. Some surface pollution parameters like suspended particulate matter, particulate matter 10, nitrogen oxides (NOX), and surface ozone (O₃) data during the same period are taken account for clear understanding of their association with lightning activity. Heights of convective condensation level and lifting condensation level are collected from radiosonde observations to anticipate about cloud base. It is found that increased surface pollution in a near storm environment is related to increased lightning flash rate, which results in increased surface NOX and consequently increased surface ozone concentration over the station Kolkata.

Stratospheric Instrusion Catalog: A 10-Year Compilation of Events Identified by using TRACK with NASA's MERRA-2 Reanalysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Knowland, K. Emma; Ott, Lesley E.; Duncan, Bryan N.; Wargan, Kris; Hodges, Kevin

2017-01-01

Stratospheric intrusions "the introduction of ozone-rich stratospheric air into the troposphere" have been linked with surface ozone air quality exceedances, especially at the high elevations in the western USA in springtime. However, the impact of stratospheric intrusions in the remaining seasons and over the rest of the USA is less clear. A new approach to the study of stratospheric intrusions uses NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) model and assimilation products with an objective feature tracking algorithm to investigate the atmospheric dynamics that generate stratospheric intrusions and the different mechanisms through which stratospheric intrusions may influence tropospheric chemistry and surface air quality seasonally over both the western and the eastern USA. A catalog of stratospheric intrusions identified in the MERRA-2 reanalysis was produced for the period 2004-2015 and validated against surface ozone observations (focusing on those which exceed the national air quality standard) and a recent data set of stratospheric intrusion-influenced air quality exceedance flags from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Considering not all ozone exceedances have been flagged by the EPA, a collection of stratospheric intrusions can support air quality agencies for more rapid identification of the impact of stratospheric air on surface ozone and demonstrates that future operational analyses may aid in forecasting such events. An analysis of the spatiotemporal variability of stratospheric intrusions over the continental US was performed, and while the spring over the western USA does exhibit the largest number of stratospheric intrusions affecting the lower troposphere, the number of intrusions in the remaining seasons and over the eastern USA is sizable. By focusing on the major modes of variability that influence weather in the USA, such as the Pacific North American (PNA) teleconnection index, predicative meteorological patterns associated with stratospheric intrusions and their regional effects on tropospheric ozone were identified. Improved understanding of the connections between large-scale climate variability and local-scale dynamically-driven air quality events may support improved seasonal prediction of such events.

Stratospheric Intrusion Catalog: A 10-year Compilation of Events Identified By Using an Objective Feature Tracking Model With NASA's MERRA-2 Reanalysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knowland, K. E.; Ott, L. E.; Duncan, B. N.; Wargan, K.; Hodges, K.

2017-12-01

Stratospheric intrusions - the introduction of ozone-rich stratospheric air into the troposphere - have been linked with surface ozone air quality exceedances, especially at the high elevations in the western USA in springtime. However, the impact of stratospheric intrusions in the remaining seasons and over the rest of the USA is less clear. A new approach to the study of stratospheric intrusions uses NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) model and assimilation products with an objective feature tracking algorithm to investigate the atmospheric dynamics that generate stratospheric intrusions and the different mechanisms through which stratospheric intrusions may influence tropospheric chemistry and surface air quality seasonally over both the western and the eastern USA. A catalog of stratospheric intrusions identified in the MERRA-2 reanalysis was produced for the period 2005-2014 and validated against surface ozone observations (focusing on those which exceed the national air quality standard) and a recent data set of stratospheric intrusion-influenced air quality exceedance flags from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Considering not all ozone exceedances have been flagged by the EPA, a collection of stratospheric intrusions can support air quality agencies for more rapid identification of the impact of stratospheric air on surface ozone and demonstrates that future operational analyses may aid in forecasting such events. An analysis of the spatiotemporal variability of stratospheric intrusions over the continental US was performed, and while the spring over the western USA does exhibit the largest number of stratospheric intrusions affecting the lower troposphere, the number of intrusions in the remaining seasons and over the eastern USA is sizable. By focusing on the major modes of variability that influence weather in the USA, such as the Pacific North American (PNA) teleconnection index, predicative meteorological patterns associated with stratospheric intrusions and their regional effects on tropospheric ozone were identified. Improved understanding of the connections between large-scale climate variability and local-scale dynamically-driven air quality events may support improved seasonal prediction of such events.

Ozone impacts of gas-aerosol uptake in global chemistry transport models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stadtler, Scarlet; Simpson, David; Schröder, Sabine; Taraborrelli, Domenico; Bott, Andreas; Schultz, Martin

2018-03-01

The impact of six heterogeneous gas-aerosol uptake reactions on tropospheric ozone and nitrogen species was studied using two chemical transport models, the Meteorological Synthesizing Centre-West of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP MSC-W) and the European Centre Hamburg general circulation model combined with versions of the Hamburg Aerosol Model and Model for Ozone and Related chemical Tracers (ECHAM-HAMMOZ). Species undergoing heterogeneous reactions in both models include N2O5, NO3, NO2, O3, HNO3, and HO2. Since heterogeneous reactions take place at the aerosol surface area, the modelled surface area density (Sa) of both models was compared to a satellite product retrieving the surface area. This comparison shows a good agreement in global pattern and especially the capability of both models to capture the extreme aerosol loadings in east Asia. The impact of the heterogeneous reactions was evaluated by the simulation of a reference run containing all heterogeneous reactions and several sensitivity runs. One reaction was turned off in each sensitivity run to compare it with the reference run. The analysis of the sensitivity runs confirms that the globally most important heterogeneous reaction is the one of N2O5. Nevertheless, NO2, HNO3, and HO2 heterogeneous reactions gain relevance particularly in east Asia due to the presence of high NOx concentrations and high Sa in the same region. The heterogeneous reaction of O3 itself on dust is of minor relevance compared to the other heterogeneous reactions. The impacts of the N2O5 reactions show strong seasonal variations, with the biggest impacts on O3 in springtime when photochemical reactions are active and N2O5 levels still high. Evaluation of the models with northern hemispheric ozone surface observations yields a better agreement of the models with observations in terms of concentration levels, variability, and temporal correlations at most sites when the heterogeneous reactions are incorporated. Our results are loosely consistent with results from earlier studies, although the magnitude of changes induced by N2O5 reaction is at the low end of estimates, which seems to fit a trend, whereby the more recent the study the lower the impacts of these reactions.

Quantitative analysis of interaction between the free troposphere and planetary boundary layer using multiple measurements and large eddy simulation model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Guanyu

We investigate the interaction between the free troposphere (FT) and planetary boundary layer (PBL) using multiple measurements and Dutch Atmospheric Large Eddy Simulation (DALES) coupled with a chemical module. A residual layer (RL) storing high ozone concentrations can significantly influence ground ozone concentration through the entrainment process whereby the RL aloft is incorporated into the growing convective boundary layer (CBL) during the morning transition. We use DALES model coupled with a chemical module to simultaneously study the dynamical and chemical impacts of a RL (200-1200 m above ground level (AGL)) on ground-level (0-200 m AGL) ozone concentrations. Four numerical experiments test these interactions: 1) a RL with high ozone (100 ppb); 2) a RL with low ozone (50 ppb); 3) no RL with high ozone above the NBL (100 ppb from 200-1200 m AGL); and 4) no RL with low ozone above the NBL (50 ppb). The results indicate that ozone stored in the RL can contribute up to 86% of the ozone concentration in the CBL during the following day in Case 1. Even in Case 2, 64% of the ozone in the developed CBL results from intrusions from the RL. Additionally, a RL also increases the enhancement rate of ozone in the CBL. Furthermore, we investigate the ozone diurnal variation on September 6, 2013 in Huntsville AL. The ozone variation in the CBL is mainly caused by local emissions due to the weather conditions being controlled by an anticyclonic system. The local chemical production contributes over 67% of the ozone enhancement in the CBL. The dynamical processes contribute the rest. The numerical experiments show good agreement with our ozone lidar observations. However, our simulation results and ozone lidar observations fail to reproduce a declining trend of surface ozone measured by an Environment Protection Agency (EPA) surface monitoring station that is 6 km south of our facilities, which is very likely due to the large ozone horizontal variation and the diurnal variation of ozone dry deposition under urban environment.

Quantifying the Impact of Tropospheric Ozone on Crops Productivity at regional scale using JULES-crop

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leung, F.

2016-12-01

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is the third most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas. It is causing significant crop production losses. Currently, O3 concentrations are projected to increase globally, which could have a significant impact on food security. The Joint UK Land Environment Simulator modified to include crops (JULES-crop) is used here to quantify the impacts of tropospheric O3 on crop production at the regional scale until 2100. We evaluate JULES-crop against the Soybean Free-Air-Concentration-Enrichment (SoyFACE) experiment in Illinois, USA. Experimental data from SoyFACE and various literature sources is used to calibrate the parameters for soybean and ozone damage parameters in soybean in JULES-crop. The calibrated model is then applied for a transient factorial set of JULES-crop simulations over 1960-2005. Simulated yield changes are attributed to individual environmental drivers, CO2, O3 and climate change, across regions and for different crops. A mixed scenario of RCP 2.6 and RCP 8.5 climatology and ozone are simulated to explore the implication of policy. The overall findings are that regions with high ozone concentration such as China and India suffer the most from ozone damage, soybean is more sensitive to O3 than other crops. JULES-crop predicts CO2 fertilisation would increase the productivity of vegetation. This effect, however, is masked by the negative impacts of tropospheric O3. Using data from FAO and JULES-crop estimated that ozone damage cost around 55.4 Billion USD per year on soybean. Irrigation improves the simulation of rice only, and it increases the relative ozone damage because drought can reduce the ozone from entering the plant stomata. RCP 8.5 scenario results in a high yield for all crops mainly due to the CO2 fertilisation effect. Mixed climate scenarios simulations suggest that RCP 8.5 CO2 concentration and RCP 2.6 O3 concentration result in the highest yield. Further works such as more crop FACE-O3 experiments and more Crop functional types in JULES are necessary. The model will thus contribute to a complete understanding of the impacts of climate change on food production. JULES will be later coupled with the Unified Model to quantify the impact of tropospheric O3 on crops productivity including feedbacks between the land-surface, atmospheric chemistry and climate change.

Attenuation by clouds of UV radiation for low stratospheric ozone conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orte, Facundo; Wolfram, Elian; Salvador, Jacobo; D'Elia, Raúl; Quiroga, Jonathan; Quel, Eduardo; Mizuno, Akira

2017-02-01

Stratospheric poor ozone air masses related to the polar ozone hole overpass subpolar regions in the Southern Hemisphere during spring and summer seasons, resulting in increases of surface Ultraviolet Index (UVI). The impact of these abnormal increases in the ultraviolet radiation could be overestimated if clouds are not taking into account. The aim of this work is to determine the percentage of cases in which cloudiness attenuates the high UV radiation that would reach the surface in low total ozone column situations and in clear sky hypothetical condition for Río Gallegos, Argentina. For this purpose, we analysed UVI data obtained from a multiband filter radiometer GUV-541 (Biospherical Inc.) installed in the Observatorio Atmosférico de la Patagonia Austral (OAPA-UNIDEF (MINDEF - CONICET)) (51 ° 33' S, 69 ° 19' W), Río Gallegos, since 2005. The database used covers the period 2005-2012 for spring seasons. Measured UVI values are compared with UVI calculated using a parametric UV model proposed by Madronich (2007), which is an approximation for the UVI for clear sky, unpolluted atmosphere and low surface albedo condition, using the total ozone column amount, obtained from the OMI database for our case, and the solar zenith angle. It is observed that ˜76% of the total low ozone amount cases, which would result in high and very high UVI categories for a hypothetical (modeled) clear sky condition, are attenuated by clouds, while 91% of hypothetical extremely high UVI category are also attenuated.

Ozonation of activated carbons: Effect on the adsorption of selected phenolic compounds from aqueous solutions.

PubMed

Alvarez, P M; García-Araya, J F; Beltrán, F J; Masa, F J; Medina, F

2005-03-15

The impact of ozonation on textural and chemical surface characteristics of two granular activated carbons (GAC), namely F400 and AQ40, and their ability to adsorb phenol (P), p-nitrophenol (PNP), and p-chlorophenol (PCP) from aqueous solutions have been studied. The porous structure of the ozone-treated carbons remained practically unchanged with regard to the virgin GAC. However, important modifications of the chemical surface and hydrophobicity were observed from FTIR spectroscopy, pH titrations, and determination of pH(PZC). As a rule, the ozone treatment at either room temperature (i.e., about 25 degrees C) or 100 degrees C gave rise to acidic surface oxygen groups (SOG). At 25 degrees C primarily carboxylic acids were formed while a more homogeneous distribution of carboxylic, lactonic, hydroxyl, and carbonyl groups was obtained at 100 degrees C. The experimental isotherms for phenolic compounds on both GAC were analyzed using the Langmuir model. Dispersive interactions between pi electrons of the ring of the aromatics and those of the carbon basal planes were thought to be the primary forces responsible for the physical adsorption whereas oxidative coupling of phenolic compounds catalyzed by basic SOG was a major cause of irreversible adsorption. The exposure of both GAC to ozone at room temperature decreased their ability to adsorb P, PNP, and PCP. However, when ozone was applied at 100 degrees C adsorption was not prevented but in some cases (P and PNP on F400) the adsorption process was even enhanced.

Investigating the influence of photocatalytic cool wall adoption on meteorology and air quality in the Los Angeles basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, J.; Tang, X.; Levinson, R.; Destaillats, H.; Mohegh, A.; Li, Y.; Tao, W.; Liu, J.; Ban-Weiss, G. A.

2017-12-01

Solar reflective "cool materials" can be used to lower urban temperatures, useful for mitigating the urban heat island effect and adapting to the local impacts of climate change. While numerous past studies have investigated the climate impacts of cool surfaces, few studies have investigated their effects on air pollution. Meteorological changes from increases in surface albedo can lead to temperature and transport induced modifications in air pollutant concentrations. In an effort to maintain high albedos in polluted environments, cool surfaces can also be made using photocatalytic "self-cleaning" materials. These photocatalytic materials can also remove NOx from ambient air, with possible consequences on ambient gas and particle phase pollutant concentrations. In this research, we investigate the impact of widespread deployment of cool walls on urban meteorology and air pollutant concentrations in the Los Angeles basin. Both photocatalytic and standard (not photocatalytic) high albedo wall materials are investigated. Simulations using a coupled meteorology-chemistry model (WRF-Chem) show that cool walls could effectively decrease urban temperatures in the Los Angeles basin. Preliminary results indicate that meteorology-induced changes from adopting standard cool walls could lead to ozone concentration reductions of up to 0.5 ppb. NOx removal induced by photocatalytic materials was modeled by modifying the WRF-Chem dry deposition scheme, with deposition rates informed by laboratory measurements of various commercially available materials. Simulation results indicate that increased deposition of NOx by photocatalytic materials could increase ozone concentrations, analogous to the ozone "weekend effect" in which reduced weekend NOx emissions can lead to increases in ozone. The impacts of cool walls on particulate matter concentrations are also discussed. Changes in particulate matter concentrations are found to be driven by albedo-induced changes in air pollutant transport in the basin, temperature induced changes in photochemistry and aerosol phase partitioning, and changes to secondary organic aerosol.

Ozone budget over the Amazon - Regional effects from biomass-burning emissions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Richardson, Jennifer L.; Fishman, Jack; Gregory, Gerald L.

1991-01-01

Data from the NASA dry-season Amazon boundary layer experiment (ABLE2A) is used with a 1D tropospheric photochemical model to analyze the atmospheric chemistry in the region and determine the impact of the long-range transport of biomass-burning emissions. Inputs of surface sources and the deposition of various species measured during ABLE2A are employed to simulate the background atmosphere, and haze characteristics are introduced for a 12-hr simulation. The in situ ozone production rate doubles during the period of haze when hydrocarbons are present. The model predicts that the production of ozone is enhanced during the dry season, and that increased ozone during the southern tropical burning season is related to the regional transport of haze.

Catalytic ozonation of paracetamol using commercial and Pt-supported nanocomposites of Al2O3: The impact of ultrasound.

PubMed

Ziylan-Yavaş, Asu; Ince, Nilsun H

2018-01-01

The study is the assessment of commercial γ-Al 2 O 3 and its sonolytically modified nanocomposite in catalytic ozonation of paracetamol (PCT), which is an emerging water contaminant and a highly reactive compound with ozone. The results showed that commercial alumina was ineffective regardless of the solution pH, due to the low affinity of the catalyst surface for PCT and the high reactivity of the solute with molecular ozone. The modified catalyst, which was synthesized by decoration of the original surface with nanoparticles of platinum provided considerable improvement in the performance of the catalyst, particularly in mineralization of the target compound. The presence of OH scavenging agents in solution markedly retarded the rate of PCT oxidation and organic carbon decay, to signal the importance of radical-mediated reaction mechanisms on the degradation of the compound. Finally, the attempt to accelerate the reactions by running them in the presence of ultrasound was found inadequate for the early oxidation, but highly adequate for the longer mineralization process. The failure was attributed to the diffusion of a large fraction of ozone into the gaseous cavity bubbles (reduced probability of direct reactions) and the extreme conditions of cavitation collapse that partially damaged the catalyst surface. The success (in mineralization) was explained by the shift of the reaction site from the bulk solution (poor adsorption on catalyst surfaces) to the solid surface and the gaseous cavity bubbles (via enhanced hydrophobicity), both being considerably more active reaction media. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

New Insights on "Next Day" Ozone Increases in the Northeastern U.S. using Continuous Vertical Profiles of Ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sullivan, J. T.; McGee, T. J.; Rabenhorst, S. D.; Delgado, R.; Dreessen, J.; Sumnicht, G. K.; Twigg, L.

2016-12-01

A unique multi-day air quality event occurred throughout the Mid-Atlantic region from June 9-12, 2015. The June event was coupled to the advection of widespread smoke and debris from western Canada throughout the region. Observations indicated that the aged smoke impacted the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) and greatly enhanced ozone concentrations at the surface. Many ground sites in the region, particularly in Maryland, recorded 8-hr ozone concentrations that were in exceedance of the 75 ppb EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). After the high O3 episode occurred, a nocturnal low-level jet developed throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, which was spatially correlated with next day high O3 at several sites within the New England region. During this event, nearly continuous vertical profiles of ozone are presented at Beltsville, MD from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center TROPospheric OZone DIfferential Absorption Lidar (GSFC TROPOZ DIAL), which has been developed and validated within the Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet). Lidar observations reveal a well-mixed polluted PBL, nocturnal residual layer, and subsequent mixing down of the residual layer in the morning. Additional measurements of surface ozone, aerosol lidar profiles, wind profiles, and balloon borne profiles are also presented. Model output and trajectory analyses are also presented to illustrate the complex flow regimes that occurred during the daytime and nighttime to help redistribute the polluted air mass.

Spatial distribution of ozone over Indonesia (Study case: Forest fire event 2015)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muslimah, Sri; Buce Saleh, Muhamad; Hidayat, Rahmat

2018-05-01

Tropospheric ozone is known as surface ozone and caused several health impact. The objective of this study was to analysis spatial distribution of tropospheric ozone over Indonesia case study forest fire event in 2015. Monthly observation measured by Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) have been analysed from January – December 2015 to study spatial distribution of tropospheric ozone related to forest fire event 2015. The study discovered high level of tropospheric column ozone (TCO) from October to November 2015. The result shows increasing average of TCO from September to October almost 6 DU. Meanwhile, monthly number of hotspot is higher in September 2015 with total number 257 hotspot which is acquired by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) Terra version 6.1 with confidence level same or more than 90%. The hotspot distribution compared with spatial TCO distribution and shows interesting time lag with respect to hotspot distribution, one month. Further study for daily comparison of TCO and forest fire event needed. This result suggested that the tropospheric ozone over the Indonesian region increases in 2015 were remarkable and corresponded to forest fire event.

Impact of Tropospheric Ozone on Summer Climate in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Shu; Wang, Tijian; Zanis, Prodromos; Melas, Dimitris; Zhuang, Bingliang

2018-04-01

The spatial distribution, radiative forcing, and climatic effects of tropospheric ozone in China during summer were investigated by using the regional climate model RegCM4. The results revealed that the tropospheric ozone column concentration was high in East China, Central China, North China, and the Sichuan basin during summer. The increase in tropospheric ozone levels since the industrialization era produced clear-sky shortwave and clear-sky longwave radiative forcing of 0.18 and 0.71 W m-2, respectively, which increased the average surface air temperature by 0.06 K and the average precipitation by 0.22 mm day-1 over eastern China during summer. In addition, tropospheric ozone increased the land-sea thermal contrast, leading to an enhancement of East Asian summer monsoon circulation over southern China and a weakening over northern China. The notable increase in surface air temperature in northwestern China, East China, and North China could be attributed to the absorption of longwave radiation by ozone, negative cloud amount anomaly, and corresponding positive shortwave radiation anomaly. There was a substantial increase in precipitation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. It was related to the enhanced upward motion and the increased water vapor brought by strengthened southerly winds in the lower troposphere.

Impact of asymmetry in the total ozone distribution in Antarctic region to the South Ocean ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovalenok, S.; Evtushevsky, A.; Grytsai, A.; Milinevsky, G.

2009-04-01

Impact of asymmetry in the total ozone distribution in Antarctic region to South Ocean ecosystem is studied. The existence of the considerable zonal asymmetry in total ozone distribution over Antarctica observed last decades based on the satellite TOMS measurements in 1979-2005 due to existence of quasi-stationary planetary waves in a polar stratosphere. As was shown by authors earlier in the latitudinal interval of 55-75°S in Antarctic spring months (Sep-Nov) the region of zonal total ozone minimum experienced the systematic spatial drift to the east. In the same period a minimum and maximum of quasi-stationary wave in TOC distribution are located: minimum over the Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell Sea area, and maximum in the Ross Sea area. We expect that zonal asymmetry in total ozone distribution and its long-term spatial changes should impact to South Ocean ecosystem food chain, especially in primary level. The systematic eastern shift of the quasi-stationary minimum in ozone distribution over north Weddell Sea area should cause the increased UV radiation on sea surface in comparison to Ross Sea area, where the lack of UVR should exist in spring month. To study this influence the available data of phytoplankton distribution in South Ocean in 1997-2007 were analyzed. The results of analysis in connections with Antarctic Peninsula regional climate warming are discussed. The research was partly supported by project 06BF051-12 of the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv.

The Impact of Warm Pool El Nino Events on Antarctic Ozone

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hurwitz, Margaret M.; Newman, P. A.; Song, In-Sun; Frith, Stacey M.

2011-01-01

Warm pool El Nino (WPEN) events are characterized by positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the central equatorial Pacific in austral spring and summer. Previous work found an enhancement in planetary wave activity in the South Pacific in austral spring, and a warming of 3-5 K in the Antarctic lower stratosphere during austral summer, in WPEN events as compared with ENSO neutral. In this presentation, we show that weakening of the Antarctic vortex during WPEN affects the structure and magnitude of high-latitude total ozone. We use total ozone data from TOMS and OMI, as well as station data from Argentina and Antarctica, to identify shifts in the longitudinal location of the springtime ozone minimum from its climatological position. In addition, we examine the sensitivity of the WPEN-related ozone response to the phase of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). We then compare the observed response to WPEN events with Goddard Earth Observing System chemistry-climate model, version 2 (GEOS V2 CCM) simulations. Two, 50-year time-slice simulations are forced by annually repeating SST and sea ice climatologies, one set representing observed WPEN events and the second set representing neutral ENSO events, in a present-day climate. By comparing the two simulations, we isolate the impact of WPEN events on lower stratospheric ozone, and furthermore, examine the sensitivity of the WPEN ozone response to the phase of the QBO.

On the role of atmosphere-ocean interactions in the expected long-term changes of the Earth's ozone layer caused by greenhouse gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zadorozhny, Alexander; Dyominov, Igor

It is well known that anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere produce a global warming of the troposphere and a global cooling of the stratosphere. The expected stratospheric cooling essentially influences the ozone layer via increased polar stratospheric cloud formation and via temperature dependences of the gas phase reaction rates. One more mechanism of how greenhouse gases influences the ozone layer is enhanced water evaporation from the oceans into the atmosphere because of increasing temperatures of the ocean surface due to greenhouse effect. The subject of this paper is a study of the influence of anthropogenic pollution of the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases CO2, CH4, N2O and ozone-depleting chlorine and bromine compounds on the expected long-term changes of the ozone layer with taking into account an increase of water vapour content in the atmosphere due to greenhouse effect. The study based on 2-D zonally averaged interactive dynamical radiative-photochemical model of the troposphere and stratosphere. The model allows to self-consistently calculating diabatic circulation, temperature, gaseous composition of the troposphere and stratosphere at latitudes from the South to North Poles, as well as distribution of sulphate aerosol particles and polar stratospheric clouds of two types. It was supposed in the model that an increase of the ocean surface temperature caused by greenhouse effect is similar to calculated increase of atmospheric surface temperature. Evaporation rate from the ocean surface was computed in dependence of latitude. The model time-dependent runs were made for the period from 1975 to 2100 using two IPCC scenarios depicting maximum and average expected increases of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The model calculations show that anthropogenic increasing of water vapour abundance in the atmosphere due to heating of the ocean surface caused by greenhouse effect gives a sensible contribution to the expected ozone changes. The enhanced evaporation from the ocean increases noticeably a water vapour abundance in the stratosphere that decreases global total ozone and retards the expected recovery of the ozone layer. In polar latitudes, additional stratospheric water vapour increase due to greenhouse effect noticeably strengthens the impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gases on ozone through modification of polar stratospheric clouds and retards the expected recovery of the ozone, too. In the Northern hemisphere, the delay of the ozone recovery is about 5 years, in the Southern hemisphere the delay is about 2 years.

Response of Antarctic sea surface temperature and sea ice to ozone depletion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferreira, D.; Gnanadesikan, A.; Kostov, Y.; Marshall, J.; Seviour, W.; Waugh, D.

2017-12-01

The influence of the Antarctic ozone hole extends all the way from the stratosphere through the troposphere down to the surface, with clear signatures on surface winds, and SST during summer. In this talk we discuss the impact of these changes on the ocean circulation and sea ice state. We are notably motivated by the observed cooling of the surface Southern Ocean and associated increase in Antarctic sea ice extent since the 1970s. These trends are not reproduced by CMIP5 climate models, and the underlying mechanism at work in nature and the models remain unexplained. Did the ozone hole contribute to the observed trends?Here, we review recent advances toward answering these issues using "abrupt ozone depletion" experiments. The ocean and sea ice response is rather complex, comprising two timescales: a fast ( 1-2y) cooling of the surface ocean and sea ice cover increase, followed by a slower warming trend, which, depending on models, flip the sign of the SST and sea ice responses on decadal timescale. Although the basic mechanism seems robust, comparison across climate models reveal large uncertainties in the timescales and amplitude of the response to the extent that even the sign of the ocean and sea ice response to ozone hole and recovery remains unconstrained. After briefly describing the dynamics and thermodynamics behind the two-timescale response, we will discuss the main sources of uncertainties in the modeled response, namely cloud effects and air-sea heat exchanges, surface wind stress response and ocean eddy transports. Finally, we will consider the implications of our results on the ability of coupled climate models to reproduce observed Southern Ocean changes.

The Transition of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Total Ozone Products to Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berndt, E. B.; Zavodsky, B. T.; Jedlovec, G. J.

2014-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Short-term Prediction Research and Transition Center (NASA SPoRT) has transitioned a total column ozone product from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) retrievals to the Weather Prediction Center and Ocean Prediction Center. The total column ozone product is used to diagnose regions of warm, dry, ozone-rich, stratospheric air capable of descending to the surface to create high-impact non-convective winds. Over the past year, forecasters have analyzed the Red, Green, Blue (RGB) Air Mass imagery in conjunction with the AIRS total column ozone to aid high wind forecasts. One of the limitations of the total ozone product is that it is difficult for forecasters to determine whether elevated ozone concentrations are related to stratospheric air or climatologically high values of ozone in certain regions. During the summer of 2013, SPoRT created an AIRS ozone anomaly product which calculates the percent of normal ozone based on a global stratospheric ozone mean climatology. With the knowledge that ozone values 125 percent of normal and greater typically represent stratospheric air; the anomaly product can be used with the total column ozone product to confirm regions of stratospheric air. This paper describes the generation of these products along with forecaster feedback concerning the use of the AIRS ozone products in conjunction with the RGB Air Mass product to access the utility and transition of the products.

Impacts of Atmosphere-Ocean Coupling on Southern Hemisphere Climate Change

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Feng; Newman, Paul; Pawson, Steven

2013-01-01

Climate in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) has undergone significant changes in recent decades. These changes are closely linked to the shift of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) towards its positive polarity, which is driven primarily by Antarctic ozone depletion. There is growing evidence that Antarctic ozone depletion has significant impacts on Southern Ocean circulation change. However, it is poorly understood whether and how ocean feedback might impact the SAM and climate change in the SH atmosphere. This outstanding science question is investigated using the Goddard Earth Observing System Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean-Chemistry Climate Model(GEOS-AOCCM).We perform ensemble simulations of the recent past (1960-2010) with and without the interactive ocean. For simulations without the interactive ocean, we use sea surface temperatures and sea ice concentrations produced by the interactive ocean simulations. The differences between these two ensemble simulations quantify the effects of atmosphere-ocean coupling. We will investigate the impacts of atmosphere-ocean coupling on stratospheric processes such as Antarctic ozone depletion and Antarctic polar vortex breakup. We will address whether ocean feedback affects Rossby wave generation in the troposphere and wave propagation into the stratosphere. Another focuson this study is to assess how ocean feedback might affect the tropospheric SAM response to Antarctic ozone depletion

The CAMS interim Reanalysis of Carbon Monoxide, Ozone and Aerosol for 2003-2015

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flemming, Johannes; Benedetti, Angela; Inness, Antje; Engelen, Richard J.; Jones, Luke; Huijnen, Vincent; Remy, Samuel; Parrington, Mark; Suttie, Martin; Bozzo, Alessio; Peuch, Vincent-Henri; Akritidis, Dimitris; Katragkou, Eleni

2017-02-01

A new global reanalysis data set of atmospheric composition (AC) for the period 2003-2015 has been produced by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Satellite observations of total column (TC) carbon monoxide (CO) and aerosol optical depth (AOD), as well as several TC and profile observations of ozone, have been assimilated with the Integrated Forecasting System for Composition (C-IFS) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting. Compared to the previous Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) reanalysis (MACCRA), the new CAMS interim reanalysis (CAMSiRA) is of a coarser horizontal resolution of about 110 km, compared to 80 km, but covers a longer period with the intent to be continued to present day. This paper compares CAMSiRA with MACCRA and a control run experiment (CR) without assimilation of AC retrievals. CAMSiRA has smaller biases than the CR with respect to independent observations of CO, AOD and stratospheric ozone. However, ozone at the surface could not be improved by the assimilation because of the strong impact of surface processes such as dry deposition and titration with nitrogen monoxide (NO), which were both unchanged by the assimilation. The assimilation of AOD led to a global reduction of sea salt and desert dust as well as an exaggerated increase in sulfate. Compared to MACCRA, CAMSiRA had smaller biases for AOD, surface CO and TC ozone as well as for upper stratospheric and tropospheric ozone. Finally, the temporal consistency of CAMSiRA was better than the one of MACCRA. This was achieved by using a revised emission data set as well as by applying careful selection and bias correction to the assimilated retrievals. CAMSiRA is therefore better suited than MACCRA for the study of interannual variability, as demonstrated for trends in surface CO.

Evidence of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation driving multi-decadal variability of summertime surface air quality in the eastern United States: Implications for air quality management in the coming decades

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, L.; Mickley, L. J.

2016-12-01

Atlantic sea surface temperatures have a significant influence on the summertime meteorology and air quality in the eastern United States. In this study, we investigate the effect of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) on two key air pollutants, surface ozone and PM2.5, over the eastern United States. The shift of AMO from cold to warm phase increases surface air temperatures by 0.5 K across the East and reduces precipitation, resulting in a warmer and drier summer. By applying observed, present-day relationships between these pollutants and meteorological variables to a variety of observations and historical reanalysis datasets, we calculate the impacts of AMO on U.S. air quality. Our study reveals a multidecadal variability in mean summertime (JJA) maximum daily 8-hour (MDA8) ozone and surface PM2.5 concentrations in the eastern United States. In one-half cycle ( 30 years) of the AMO from negative to positive phase with constant anthropogenic emissions, JJA MDA8 ozone concentrations increase by 1-3 ppbv in the Northeast and 2-5 ppbv in the Great Plains; JJA PM2.5 concentrations increase by 0.8-1.2 μg m-3 in the Northeast and Southeast. The resulting impact on mortality rates is 4000 excess deaths per half cycle of AMO. We suggest that a complete picture of air quality management in coming decades requires consideration of the AMO influence.

An improved parameterisation of ozone dry deposition to the ocean and its impact in a global climate-chemistry model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luhar, Ashok K.; Galbally, Ian E.; Woodhouse, Matthew T.; Thatcher, Marcus

2017-03-01

Schemes used to parameterise ozone dry deposition velocity at the oceanic surface mainly differ in terms of how the dominant term of surface resistance is parameterised. We examine three such schemes and test them in a global climate-chemistry model that incorporates meteorological nudging and monthly-varying reactive-gas emissions. The default scheme invokes the commonly used assumption that the water surface resistance is constant. The other two schemes, named the one-layer and two-layer reactivity schemes, include the simultaneous influence on the water surface resistance of ozone solubility in water, waterside molecular diffusion and turbulent transfer, and a first-order chemical reaction of ozone with dissolved iodide. Unlike the one-layer scheme, the two-layer scheme can indirectly control the degree of interaction between chemical reaction and turbulent transfer through the specification of a surface reactive layer thickness. A comparison is made of the modelled deposition velocity dependencies on sea surface temperature (SST) and wind speed with recently reported cruise-based observations. The default scheme overestimates the observed deposition velocities by a factor of 2-4 when the chemical reaction is slow (e.g. under colder SSTs in the Southern Ocean). The default scheme has almost no temperature, wind speed, or latitudinal variations in contrast with the observations. The one-layer scheme provides noticeably better variations, but it overestimates deposition velocity by a factor of 2-3 due to an enhancement of the interaction between chemical reaction and turbulent transfer. The two-layer scheme with a surface reactive layer thickness specification of 2.5 µm, which is approximately equal to the reaction-diffusive length scale of the ozone-iodide reaction, is able to simulate the field measurements most closely with respect to absolute values as well as SST and wind-speed dependence. The annual global oceanic deposition of ozone determined using this scheme is approximately half of the original oceanic deposition obtained using the default scheme, and it corresponds to a 10 % decrease in the original estimate of the total global ozone deposition. The previously reported modelled estimate of oceanic deposition is roughly one-third of total deposition and with this new parameterisation it is reduced to 12 % of the modelled total global ozone deposition. Deposition parameterisation influences the predicted atmospheric ozone mixing ratios, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. For the latitudes 45-70° S, the two-layer scheme improves the prediction of ozone observed at an altitude of 1 km by 7 % and that within the altitude range 1-6 km by 5 % compared to the default scheme.

IMPACTS OF GLOBAL CHANGE ON UV EXPOSURE IN COASTAL SHELF REGIONS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

EPA Science Inventory

Global change has a variety of impact on UV exposure in coastal shelf regions of the southeastern United States. Changes in solar UV reaching the water surface have been caused by human alterations of atmospheric composition such as depletion of the ozone layer.

Lower tropospheric ozone and aerosol measurements at a coastal mountain site in Central California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Post, A.; Faloona, I. C.; Lighthall, D.; Wexler, A. S.; Cliff, S. S.; Conley, S. A.; Zhao, Y.

2013-12-01

Increasing concern over the impacts of exogenous air pollution in California's Central Valley has prompted the establishment of a coastal, high altitude monitoring site at the Chews Ridge Observatory (1550 m) approximately 30 km east of Point Sur in Monterey County, operated by the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy. Eighteen months of ozone and aerosol measurements are presented in the context of long-range transport and its potential impact on surface air quality in the southern San Joaquin Valley. Moreover, several ozone surveys have been conducted by aircraft upwind, over the Pacific Ocean, and downwind, over the Central Valley, to characterize horizontal and vertical transport across the coastal mountains. Diurnal variations present at Chews Ridge indicate the formation of a convective boundary layer on the ridge during the daytime leading to a 6-8 ppb decrease in ozone accompanied by a rise in specific humidity of 2-3 g/kg due to coupling with the forest. During the nighttime, the sampled air masses are representative of free tropospheric conditions which have not been significantly influenced by either local emissions nor convective coupling to the surface. The maximum daily 8-hour average ozone concentration at Chews Ridge is used in lagged correlation analysis with two sites in the San Joaquin Valley, Fresno and Arvin, to de-emphasize the influence of locally produced, diurnally cycled ozone. The correlation coefficients (~0.60) peak between 9-21 hour lag and tend to decorrelate completely within 4-5 days. These and other analyses along with data provided by the aircraft sampling are used to provide a deeper understanding of ozone transport into the San Joaquin Valley. Aerosol size is measured with a scanning mobility particle sizer and composition is analyzed with an 8-stage rotating drum impactor whose substrates are characterized by X-ray fluorescence. Various elemental ratios and back trajectory calculations are used to infer the temporal patterns of influence that long range transport has on California air quality.

The Interplay of Climate Change and Air Pollution on Health.

PubMed

Orru, H; Ebi, K L; Forsberg, B

2017-12-01

Air pollution significantly affects health, causing up to 7 million premature deaths annually with an even larger number of hospitalizations and days of sick leave. Climate change could alter the dispersion of primary pollutants, particularly particulate matter, and intensify the formation of secondary pollutants, such as near-surface ozone. The purpose of the review is to evaluate the recent evidence on the impacts of climate change on air pollution and air pollution-related health impacts and identify knowledge gaps for future research. Several studies modelled future ozone and particulate matter concentrations and calculated the resulting health impacts under different climate scenarios. Due to climate change, ozone- and fine particle-related mortalities are expected to increase in most studies; however, results differ by region, assumed climate change scenario and other factors such as population and background emissions. This review explores the relationships between climate change, air pollution and air pollution-related health impacts. The results highly depend on the climate change scenario used and on projections of future air pollution emissions, with relatively high uncertainty. Studies primarily focused on mortality; projections on the effects on morbidity are needed.

Sensitivity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and ozone to land surface processes and vegetation distributions in California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, C.; Huang, M.; Fast, J. D.; Berg, L. K.; Qian, Y.; Guenther, A. B.; Gu, D.; Shrivastava, M. B.; Liu, Y.; Walters, S.; Jin, J.

2014-12-01

Current climate models still have large uncertainties in estimating biogenic trace gases, which can significantly affect secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation and ultimately aerosol radiative forcing. These uncertainties result from many factors, including coupling strategy between biogenic emissions and land-surface schemes and specification of vegetation types, both of which can affect the simulated near-surface fluxes of biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this study, sensitivity experiments are conducted using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with chemistry (WRF-Chem) to examine the sensitivity of simulated VOCs and ozone to land surface processes and vegetation distributions in California. The measurements collected during the California Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Experiment (CalNex) and the Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiative Effects Study (CARES) conducted during May and June of 2010 provide a good opportunity to evaluate the simulations. First, the biogenic VOC emissions in the WRF-Chem simulations with the two land surface schemes, Noah and CLM4, are estimated by the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature version one (MEGANv1), which has been publicly released and widely used with WRF-Chem. The impacts of land surface processes on estimating biogenic VOC emissions and simulating VOCs and ozone are investigated. Second, in this study, a newer version of MEGAN (MEGANv2.1) is coupled with CLM4 as part of WRF-Chem to examine the sensitivity of biogenic VOC emissions to the MEGAN schemes used and determine the importance of using a consistent vegetation map between a land surface scheme and the biogenic VOC emission scheme. Specifically, MEGANv2.1 is embedded into the CLM4 scheme and shares a consistent vegetation map for estimating biogenic VOC emissions. This is unlike MEGANv1 in WRF-Chem that uses a standalone vegetation map that differs from what is used in land surface schemes. Furthermore, we examine the impact of vegetation distribution on simulating VOCs and ozone by comparing coupled WRF-Chem-CLM-MEGANv2.1 simulations using multiple vegetation maps.

Climate change: overview of data sources, observed and predicted temperature changes, and impacts on public and environmental health

Treesearch

David H. Levinson; Christopher J. Fettig

2014-01-01

This chapter addresses the societal and the environmental impacts of climate change related to increasing surface temperatures on air quality and forest health. Increasing temperatures at and near the earth’s surface, due to both a warming climate and urban heat island effects, have been shown to increase ground-level ozone concentrations in cities across the U.S. In...

Effect of ozone on biopolymers in biofiltration and ultrafiltration processes.

PubMed

Siembida-Lösch, Barbara; Anderson, William B; Wang, Yulang Michael; Bonsteel, Jane; Huck, Peter M

2015-03-01

The focus of this full-scale study was to determine the effect of ozone on biopolymer concentrations in biofiltration and ultrafiltration (UF) processes treating surface water from Lake Ontario. Ozonation was out of service for maintenance for 9 months, hence, it was possible to investigate ozone's action on biologically active carbon contactors (BACCs) and UF, in terms of biopolymer removal. Given the importance of biopolymers for fouling, this fraction was quantified using a chromatographic technique. Ozone pre-treatment was observed to positively impact the active biomass in biofilters. However, since an increase of the active biomass did not result in higher biopolymer removal, active biomass concentration cannot be a surrogate for biofiltration performance. It was evident that increasing empty bed contact time (EBCT) from 4 to 19 min only had a positive effect on biopolymer removal through BACCs when ozone was out of service. However, as a mass balance experiment showed, ozone-free operation resulted in higher deposition of biopolymers on a UF membrane and slight deterioration in its performance. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surface ozone concentrations in Europe: Links with the regional-scale atmospheric circulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davies, T. D.; Kelly, P. M.; Low, P. S.; Pierce, C. E.

1992-06-01

Daily surface ozone observations from 1978 (1976 for some analyses) to 1988 for Bottesford (United Kingdom), Cabauw, Kloosterburen (The Netherlands), Hohenpeissenberg, Neuglobsow, Hamburg, and Arkona (Germany) are used to analyze links between surface ozone variations and the atmospheric circulation. A daily Europe-wide synoptic classification highlights marked differences between surface ozone/meteorology relationships in summer and winter. These relationships are characterized by correlations between daily surface ozone concentrations at each station and a local subregional surface pressure gradient (a wind speed index). Although there are geographical variations, which are explicable in terms of regional climatology, there are distinct annual cycles. In summer, the surface ozone/wind speed relationship exhibits the expected negative sign; however, in winter, the relationship is, in the main, strongly positive, especially at those stations which are more influenced by the vigorous westerlies. Spring and autumn exhibit negative, positive, or transitional (between summer and winter) behavior, depending on geographical position. It is suggested that these relationships reflect the importance of vertical exchange from the free troposphere to the surface in the nonsummer months. Composite surface pressure patterns and surface pressure anomaly (from the long-term mean) patterns associated with high surface ozone concentrations on daily and seasonal time scales are consistent with the surface ozone/wind speed relationships. Moreover, they demonstrate that high surface ozone concentrations, in a climatological time frame, can be associated with mean surface pressure patterns which have a synoptic reality and are robust. Such an approach may be useful in interpreting past variations in surface ozone and may help to isolate the effect of human activity. It is also possible that assessments can be made of the effect of projected future changes in the atmospheric circulation. This potential is illustrated by the fact that up to 65% of the interannual variance in 6-month mean surface ozone concentrations can be explained by the subregional wind speed index.

Frequency and Impact of Summertime Stratospheric Intrusions Over Maryland During DISCOVER-AQ (2011): New Evidence from NASA's GEOS-5 Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ott, Lesley E.; Duncan, Bryan N.; Thompson, Anne M.; Diskin, Glenn; Fasnacht, Zachary; Langford, Andrew O.; Lin, Meiyun; Molod, Andrea Mara; Nielsen, J. Eric; Pusede, Sally E.;

Source attribution of interannual variability of tropospheric ozone over the southern hemisphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, J.; Rodriguez, J. M.; Logan, J. A.; Steenrod, S. D.; Douglass, A. R.; Olsen, M. A.; Wargan, K.; Ziemke, J. R.

2015-12-01

Both model simulations and GMAO assimilated ozone product derived from OMI/MLS show a high tropospheric ozone column centered over the south Atlantic from the equator to 30S. This ozone maximum extends eastward to South America and the southeast Pacific; it extends southwestward to southern Africa, south Indian Ocean. In this study, we use hindcast simulations from the GMI model of tropospheric and stratospheric chemistry, driven by assimilated MERRA meteorological fields, to investigate the factors controlling the interannual variations (IAV) of this ozone maximum during the last two decades. We also use various GMI tracer diagnostics, including a stratospheric ozone tracer to tag the impact of stratospheric ozone, and a tagged CO tracer to track the emission sources, to ascertain the contribution of difference processes to IAV in ozone at different altitudes, as well as partial columns above different pressure level. Our initial model analysis suggests that the IAV of the stratospheric contribution plays a major role on in the IAV of the upper tropospheric ozone and explains a large portion of variance during its winter season. Over the south Atlantic region, the IAV of surface emissions from both South America and southern Africa also contribute significantly to the IAV of ozone, especially in the middle and lower troposphere

Potential climate impact of black carbon emitted by rockets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ross, Martin; Mills, Michael; Toohey, Darin

2010-12-01

A new type of hydrocarbon rocket engine is expected to power a fleet of suborbital rockets for commercial and scientific purposes in coming decades. A global climate model predicts that emissions from a fleet of 1000 launches per year of suborbital rockets would create a persistent layer of black carbon particles in the northern stratosphere that could cause potentially significant changes in the global atmospheric circulation and distributions of ozone and temperature. Tropical stratospheric ozone abundances are predicted to change as much as 1%, while polar ozone changes by up to 6%. Polar surface temperatures change as much as one degree K regionally with significant impacts on polar sea ice fractions. After one decade of continuous launches, globally averaged radiative forcing from the black carbon would exceed the forcing from the emitted CO2 by a factor of about 105 and would be comparable to the radiative forcing estimated from current subsonic aviation.

Impacts of the large increase in international ship traffic 2000-2007 on tropospheric ozone and methane.

PubMed

Dalsøren, Stig B; Eide, Magnus S; Myhre, Gunnar; Endresen, Oyvind; Isaksen, Ivar S A; Fuglestvedt, Jan S

2010-04-01

The increase in civil world fleet ship emissions during the period 2000-2007 and the effects on key tropospheric oxidants are quantified using a global Chemical Transport Model (CTM). We estimate a substantial increase of 33% in global ship emissions over this period. The impact of ship emissions on tropospheric oxidants is mainly caused by the relatively large fraction of NOx in ship exhaust. Typical increases in yearly average surface ozone concentrations in the most impacted areas are 0.5-2.5 ppbv. The global annual mean radiative forcing due to ozone increases in the troposphere is 10 mWm(-2) over the period 2000-2007. We find global average tropospheric OH increase of 1.03% over the same period. As a result of this the global average tropospheric methane concentration is reduced by approximately 2.2% over a period corresponding to the turnover time. The resulting methane radiative forcing is -14 mWm(-2) with an additional contribution of -6 mWm(-2) from methane induced reduction in ozone. The net forcing of the ozone and methane changes due to ship emissions changes between 2000 and 2007 is -10 mWm(-2). This is significant compared to the net forcing of these components in 2000. Our findings support earlier observational studies indicating that ship traffic may be a major contributor to recent enhancement of background ozone at some coastal stations. Furthermore, by reducing global mean tropospheric methane by 40 ppbv over its turnover time it is likely to contribute to the recent observed leveling off in global mean methane concentration.

Shifting seasonal cycles of surface ozone: the role of regional vs. global emission changes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clifton, O.; Fiore, A. M.; Correa, G. J.; Naik, V.; Horowitz, L. W.

2013-12-01

Surface-level ozone seasonal cycles vary in shape and in magnitude with location. These variations reflect local contributions, whose influence differs each month, from regional anthropogenic and natural precursor emissions, as well as ozone transported from various sources. We focus on two U.S. regions with markedly different seasonal cycles over recent decades: the Northeast and the InterMountain West. In the Northeast, there are peak ozone values in the summer months due to high regional NOx emissions, abundant sunlight and isoprene emissions during this season. The lower NOx emissions in the InterMountain West combined with higher altitude where transported 'background' ozone is larger, leads to a weak spring maximum. Parrish et al. [2013] report a shift in seasonal cycles to earlier months in spring over recent decades at remote sites. We investigate here the role of changing global and regional ozone precursor emissions over the 21st century. With GFDL's fully coupled climate chemistry model CM3, we use selected Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios developed for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) in support of IPCC AR 5, and several sensitivity simulations, to examine the impacts of regional and global emissions on surface ozone seasonal cycles throughout the 21st century. In RCP8.5, an extreme climate warming scenario, methane doubles from the present to the end of the 21st century, whereas in RCP4.5, a more moderate climate warming scenario, there is a small (~10%) decrease of methane. For RCP8.5, global mean surface temperature increases by 4.5 K, and for RCP4.5, by 1.4 K. In RCP8.5 and RCP4.5, NOx emissions decrease globally by 70.1% and 52.3%, respectively, by the end of the 21st century. These regional NOx reductions shift the ozone maximum in the Northeast from summer to late winter/early spring, resembling the present-day seasonal cycle over the InterMountain West. Over the InterMoutain West, surface ozone also decreases in summer and increases in the late winter/early spring. We further find that in RCP8.5, the end of 21st century seasonal cycles in the Northeast and the InterMountain West increase by more than 5-15 ppb in each month due to the doubling of global methane. Across present-day high-NOx regions at northern mid-latitudes, surface ozone consistently decreases during the summer and fall months as NOx emissions decline globally, but in the RCP8.5 scenario increases during winter and early spring as CH4 rises.

The impact of drought on ozone dry deposition over eastern Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Ling; McDonald-Buller, Elena C.; McGaughey, Gary; Kimura, Yosuke; Allen, David T.

2016-02-01

Dry deposition represents a critical pathway through which ground-level ozone is removed from the atmosphere. Understanding the effects of drought on ozone dry deposition is essential for air quality modeling and management in regions of the world with recurring droughts. This work applied the widely used Zhang dry deposition algorithm to examine seasonal and interannual changes in estimated ozone dry deposition velocities and component resistances/conductances over eastern Texas during years with drought (2006 and 2011) as well as a year with slightly cooler temperatures and above average rainfall (2007). Simulated area-averaged daytime ozone dry deposition velocities ranged between 0.26 and 0.47 cm/s. Seasonal patterns reflected the combined seasonal variations in non-stomatal and stomatal deposition pathways. Daytime ozone dry deposition velocities during the growing season were consistently larger during 2007 compared to 2006 and 2011. These differences were associated with differences in stomatal conductances and were most pronounced in forested areas. Reductions in stomatal conductances under drought conditions were highly sensitive to increases in vapor pressure deficit and warmer temperatures in Zhang's algorithm. Reductions in daytime ozone deposition velocities and deposition mass during drought years were associated with estimates of higher surface ozone concentrations.

Coupling dry deposition to vegetation phenology in the Community Earth System Model: Implications for the simulation of surface O3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Val Martin, M.; Heald, C. L.; Arnold, S. R.

2014-04-01

Dry deposition is an important removal process controlling surface ozone. We examine the representation of this ozone loss mechanism in the Community Earth System Model. We first correct the dry deposition parameterization by coupling the leaf and stomatal vegetation resistances to the leaf area index, an omission which has adversely impacted over a decade of ozone simulations using both the Model for Ozone and Related chemical Tracers (MOZART) and Community Atmospheric Model-Chem (CAM-Chem) global models. We show that this correction increases O3 dry deposition velocities over vegetated regions and improves the simulated seasonality in this loss process. This enhanced removal reduces the previously reported bias in summertime surface O3 simulated over eastern U.S. and Europe. We further optimize the parameterization by scaling down the stomatal resistance used in the Community Land Model to observed values. This in turn further improves the simulation of dry deposition velocity of O3, particularly over broadleaf forested regions. The summertime surface O3 bias is reduced from 30 ppb to 14 ppb over eastern U.S. and 13 ppb to 5 ppb over Europe from the standard to the optimized scheme, respectively. O3 deposition processes must therefore be accurately coupled to vegetation phenology within 3-D atmospheric models, as a first step toward improving surface O3 and simulating O3 responses to future and past vegetation changes.

Effect of Climate Change on Surface Ozone over North America, Europe, and East Asia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schnell, Jordan L.; Prather, Michael J.; Josse, Beatrice; Naik, Vaishali; Horowitz, Larry W.; Zeng, Guang; Shindell, Drew T.; Faluvegi, Greg

2016-01-01

The effect of future climate change on surface ozone over North America, Europe, and East Asia is evaluated using present-day (2000s) and future (2100s) hourly surface ozone simulated by four global models. Future climate follows RCP8.5, while methane and anthropogenic ozone precursors are fixed at year-2000 levels. Climate change shifts the seasonal surface ozone peak to earlier in the year and increases the amplitude of the annual cycle. Increases in mean summertime and high-percentile ozone are generally found in polluted environments, while decreases are found in clean environments. We propose climate change augments the efficiency of precursor emissions to generate surface ozone in polluted regions, thus reducing precursor export to neighboring downwind locations. Even with constant biogenic emissions, climate change causes the largest ozone increases at high percentiles. In most cases, air quality extreme episodes become larger and contain higher ozone levels relative to the rest of the distribution.

Extreme value modeling for the analysis and prediction of time series of extreme tropospheric ozone levels: a case study.

PubMed

Escarela, Gabriel

2012-06-01

The occurrence of high concentrations of tropospheric ozone is considered as one of the most important issues of air management programs. The prediction of dangerous ozone levels for the public health and the environment, along with the assessment of air quality control programs aimed at reducing their severity, is of considerable interest to the scientific community and to policy makers. The chemical mechanisms of tropospheric ozone formation are complex, and highly variable meteorological conditions contribute additionally to difficulties in accurate study and prediction of high levels of ozone. Statistical methods offer an effective approach to understand the problem and eventually improve the ability to predict maximum levels of ozone. In this paper an extreme value model is developed to study data sets that consist of periodically collected maxima of tropospheric ozone concentrations and meteorological variables. The methods are applied to daily tropospheric ozone maxima in Guadalajara City, Mexico, for the period January 1997 to December 2006. The model adjusts the daily rate of change in ozone for concurrent impacts of seasonality and present and past meteorological conditions, which include surface temperature, wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, and ozone. The results indicate that trend, annual effects, and key meteorological variables along with some interactions explain the variation in daily ozone maxima. Prediction performance assessments yield reasonably good results.

Evolution of the eastward shift in the quasi-stationary minimum of the Antarctic total ozone column

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grytsai, Asen; Klekociuk, Andrew; Milinevsky, Gennadi; Evtushevsky, Oleksandr; Stone, Kane

2017-02-01

The quasi-stationary pattern of the Antarctic total ozone has changed during the last 4 decades, showing an eastward shift in the zonal ozone minimum. In this work, the association between the longitudinal shift of the zonal ozone minimum and changes in meteorological fields in austral spring (September-November) for 1979-2014 is analyzed using ERA-Interim and NCEP-NCAR reanalyses. Regressive, correlative and anomaly composite analyses are applied to reanalysis data. Patterns of the Southern Annular Mode and quasi-stationary zonal waves 1 and 3 in the meteorological fields show relationships with interannual variability in the longitude of the zonal ozone minimum. On decadal timescales, consistent longitudinal shifts of the zonal ozone minimum and zonal wave 3 pattern in the middle-troposphere temperature at the southern midlatitudes are shown. Attribution runs of the chemistry-climate version of the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS-CCM) model suggest that long-term shifts of the zonal ozone minimum are separately contributed by changes in ozone-depleting substances and greenhouse gases. As is known, Antarctic ozone depletion in spring is strongly projected on the Southern Annular Mode in summer and impacts summertime surface climate across the Southern Hemisphere. The results of this study suggest that changes in zonal ozone asymmetry accompanying ozone depletion could be associated with regional climate changes in the Southern Hemisphere in spring.

Evaluating the impact of chemical boundary conditions on near surface ozone in regional climate-air quality simulations over Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akritidis, D.; Zanis, P.; Katragkou, E.; Schultz, M. G.; Tegoulias, I.; Poupkou, A.; Markakis, K.; Pytharoulis, I.; Karacostas, Th.

2013-12-01

A modeling system based on the air quality model CAMx driven off-line by the regional climate model RegCM3 is used for assessing the impact of chemical lateral boundary conditions (LBCs) on near surface ozone over Europe for the period 1996-2000. The RegCM3 and CAMx simulations were performed on a 50 km × 50 km grid over Europe with RegCM3 driven by the NCEP meteorological reanalysis fields and CAMx with chemical LBCs from ECHAM5/MOZART global model. The recent past period (1996-2000) was simulated in three experiments. The first simulation was forced using time and space invariant LBCs, the second was based on ECHAM5/MOZART chemical LBCs fixed for the year 1996 and the third was based on ECHAM5/MOZART chemical LBCs with interannual variability. Anthropogenic and biogenic emissions were kept identical for the three sensitivity runs.

Impact of ozonation on particle aggregation in mature fine tailings.

PubMed

Liang, Jiaming; Tumpa, Fahmida; Pérez Estrada, Leonidas; Gamal El-Din, Mohamed; Liu, Yang

2014-12-15

The extraction of bitumen from the oil sands in Canada generates tonnes of mature fine tailings (MFT), consisting of a mineral matrix of sand, clay, and water, which without treatment requires thousands of years to fully consolidate. We assessed the performance of a novel ozonation method designed to enhance the settling of MFT and explored the mechanisms involved. The solid content of MFT obtained from oil sands tailings was adjusted to 1, 3, 5 wt % with water before applying 15, 30, and 60 min of ozonation. MFT settled after a short (15 min) ozonation treatment, resulting in a sample with clear released water on the top and condensed sludge at the bottom. The water chemistry characteristics, particles' surface charge and chemical bonding were measured. Ozonation led to the increased organic acids concentrations in MFT suspension through converting of organic matter from high to low molecular weight, and detaching organic coating on MFT particles. The pH and the concentrations of ions in the MFT suspension were changed significantly, an association of metal ions with MFT particles was promoted, and the surface charges of MFT particles were neutralized. Consequently, the MFT suspension was destabilized and MFT particle precipitation was observed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Studies of Arctic Tropospheric Ozone Depletion Events Through Buoy-Borne Observations and Laboratory Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halfacre, John W.

The photochemically-induced destruction of ground-level Arctic ozone in the Arctic occurs at the onset of spring, in concert with polar sunrise. Solar radiation is believed to stimulate a series of reactions that cause the production and release of molecular halogens from frozen, salty surfaces, though this mechanism is not yet well understood. The subsequent photolysis of molecular halogens produces reactive halogen atoms that remove ozone from the atmosphere in these so-called "Ozone Depletion Events" (ODEs). Given that much of the Arctic region is sunlit, meteorologically stable, and covered by saline ice and snow, it is expected that ODEs could be a phenomenon that occurs across the entire Arctic region. Indeed, an ever-growing body of evidence from coastal sites indicates that Arctic air masses devoid of O3 most often pass over sea ice-covered regions before arriving at an observation site, suggesting ODE chemistry occurs upwind over the frozen Arctic Ocean. However, outside of coastal observations, there exist very few long-term observations from the Arctic Ocean from which quantitative assessments of basic ODE characteristics can be made. This work presents the interpretation of ODEs through unique chemical and meteorological observations from several ice-tethered buoys deployed around the Arctic Ocean. These observations include detection of ozone, bromine monoxide, and measurements of temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. To assess whether the O-Buoys were observing locally based depletion chemistry or the transport of ozone-poor air masses, periods of ozone decay were interpreted based on current understanding of ozone depletion kinetics, which are believed to follow a pseudo-first order rate law. In addition, the spatial extents of ODEs were estimated using air mass trajectory modeling to assess whether they are a localized or synoptic phenomenon. Results indicate that current understanding of the responsible chemical mechanisms are lacking, ODEs are observed primarily due to air mass transport (even in the Arctic Ocean), or some combination of both. Air mass trajectory modeling was also used in tandem with remote sensing observations of sea ice to determine the types of surfaces air masses were exposed to before arriving at O-Buoys. The impact of surface exposure was subsequently compared with local meteorology to assess which variables had the most effect on O 3 variability. For two observation sites, the impact of local meteorology was significantly stronger than air mass history, while a third was inconclusive. Finally, this work tests the viability of the hypothesis that initial production of molecular halogens from frozen saline surfaces results from photolytic production of the hydroxyl radical, and could be enhanced in the presence of O3. This investigation was enabled by a custom frozen-walled flow reactor coupled with chemical ionization spectrometry. It was found that hydroxyl radical could indeed promote the production and release of iodine, bromine, and chlorine, and that this production could be enhanced in the presence of ozone.

Current and future climate- and air pollution-mediated impacts on human health.

PubMed

Doherty, Ruth M; Heal, Mathew R; Wilkinson, Paul; Pattenden, Sam; Vieno, Massimo; Armstrong, Ben; Atkinson, Richard; Chalabi, Zaid; Kovats, Sari; Milojevic, Ai; Stevenson, David S

2009-12-21

We describe a project to quantify the burden of heat and ozone on mortality in the UK, both for the present-day and under future emission scenarios. Mortality burdens attributable to heat and ozone exposure are estimated by combination of climate-chemistry modelling and epidemiological risk assessment. Weather forecasting models (WRF) are used to simulate the driving meteorology for the EMEP4UK chemistry transport model at 5 km by 5 km horizontal resolution across the UK; the coupled WRF-EMEP4UK model is used to simulate daily surface temperature and ozone concentrations for the years 2003, 2005 and 2006, and for future emission scenarios. The outputs of these models are combined with evidence on the ozone-mortality and heat-mortality relationships derived from epidemiological analyses (time series regressions) of daily mortality in 15 UK conurbations, 1993-2003, to quantify present-day health burdens. During the August 2003 heatwave period, elevated ozone concentrations > 200 microg m-3 were measured at sites in London and elsewhere. This and other ozone photochemical episodes cause breaches of the UK air quality objective for ozone. Simulations performed with WRF-EMEP4UK reproduce the August 2003 heatwave temperatures and ozone concentrations. There remains day-to-day variability in the high ozone concentrations during the heatwave period, which on some days may be explained by ozone import from the European continent.Preliminary calculations using extended time series of spatially-resolved WRF-EMEP4UK model output suggest that in the summers (May to September) of 2003, 2005 & 2006 over 6000 deaths were attributable to ozone and around 5000 to heat in England and Wales. The regional variation in these deaths appears greater for heat-related than for ozone-related burdens.Changes in UK health burdens due to a range of future emission scenarios will be quantified. These future emissions scenarios span a range of possible futures from assuming current air quality legislation is fully implemented, to a more optimistic case with maximum feasible reductions, through to a more pessimistic case with continued strong economic growth and minimal implementation of air quality legislation. Elevated surface ozone concentrations during the 2003 heatwave period led to exceedences of the current UK air quality objective standards. A coupled climate-chemistry model is able to reproduce these temperature and ozone extremes. By combining model simulations of surface temperature and ozone with ozone-heat-mortality relationships derived from an epidemiological regression model, we estimate present-day and future health burdens across the UK. Future air quality legislation may need to consider the risk of increases in future heatwaves.

Modelling the Impacts of Long-term Changes in Ozone Depleting Substances on Stratospheric Composition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chipperfield, M.; Feng, W.; Dhomse, S.; Hossaini, R.

2016-12-01

Long-lived ozone-depleting substances (ODSs), such as chlorofluorocarbons, halons and other gases, are controlled by the Montreal Protocol. Consequently, their atmospheric abundance has started to decline. This has led to a decrease in the overall loading of inorganic chlorine and bromine in the stratosphere and our expectation of recovery of the ozone layer. While observations of atmospheric composition are largely consistent with this picture, there remain some quantitative issues, which are investigated here using multi-decadal simulations of a three-dimensional chemical transport model. For example, atmospheric carbon tetrachloride has been decreasing at a slower rate than expected based on lifetime estimates and known emissions. We use the 3-D model to investigate the impact of uncertainties in the loss process. Also, increases in uncontrolled anthropogenic very short-lived species (VSLS), such as CH2Cl2, may offset some of the decline in chlorine from long-lived species, thereby delaying ozone recovery. We will quantify this impact using the 3-D model. Overall, we will use the model to test the agreement between observed changes in the near-surface abundance of ODSs and changes to stratospheric chlorine and bromine. For example, past studies have noted that variability in stratospheric dynamics (i.e. age of stratospheric air) can complicate the detection of composition trends. Finally, we will use the model to quantify the expected extent of ozone recovery from the combined effect of ODS decreases by late 2016.

Impact of physical properties on ozone removal by several porous materials.

PubMed

Gall, Elliott T; Corsi, Richard L; Siegel, Jeffrey A

2014-04-01

Models of reactive uptake of ozone in indoor environments generally describe materials through aerial (horizontal) projections of surface area, a potentially limiting assumption for porous materials. We investigated the effect of changing porosity/pore size, material thickness, and chamber fluid mechanic conditions on the reactive uptake of ozone to five materials: two cellulose filter papers, two cementitious materials, and an activated carbon cloth. Results include (1) material porosity and pore size distributions, (2) effective diffusion coefficients for ozone in materials, and (3) material-ozone deposition velocities and reaction probabilities. At small length scales (0.02-0.16 cm) increasing thickness caused increases in estimated reaction probabilities from 1 × 10(-6) to 5 × 10(-6) for one type of filter paper and from 1 × 10(-6) to 1 × 10(-5) for a second type of filter paper, an effect not observed for materials tested at larger thicknesses. For high porosity materials, increasing chamber transport-limited deposition velocities resulted in increases in reaction probabilities by factors of 1.4-2.0. The impact of physical properties and transport effects on values of the Thiele modulus, ranging across all materials from 0.03 to 13, is discussed in terms of the challenges in estimating reaction probabilities to porous materials in scenarios relevant to indoor environments.

Impacts of aerosol direct effects on tropospheric ozone through changes in atmospheric dynamics and photolysis rates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xing, Jia; Wang, Jiandong; Mathur, Rohit; Wang, Shuxiao; Sarwar, Golam; Pleim, Jonathan; Hogrefe, Christian; Zhang, Yuqiang; Jiang, Jingkun; Wong, David C.; Hao, Jiming

2017-08-01

Aerosol direct effects (ADEs), i.e., scattering and absorption of incoming solar radiation, reduce radiation reaching the ground and the resultant photolysis attenuation can decrease ozone (O3) formation in polluted areas. One the other hand, evidence also suggests that ADE-associated cooling suppresses atmospheric ventilation, thereby enhancing surface-level O3. Assessment of ADE impacts is thus important for understanding emission reduction strategies that seek co-benefits associated with reductions in both particulate matter and O3 levels. This study quantifies the impacts of ADEs on tropospheric ozone by using a two-way online coupled meteorology and atmospheric chemistry model, WRF-CMAQ, using a process analysis methodology. Two manifestations of ADE impacts on O3 including changes in atmospheric dynamics (ΔDynamics) and changes in photolysis rates (ΔPhotolysis) were assessed separately through multiple scenario simulations for January and July of 2013 over China. Results suggest that ADEs reduced surface daily maxima 1 h O3 (DM1O3) in China by up to 39 µg m-3 through the combination of ΔDynamics and ΔPhotolysis in January but enhanced surface DM1O3 by up to 4 µg m-3 in July. Increased O3 in July is largely attributed to ΔDynamics, which causes a weaker O3 sink of dry deposition and a stronger O3 source of photochemistry due to the stabilization of the atmosphere. Meanwhile, surface OH is also enhanced at noon in July, though its daytime average values are reduced in January. An increased OH chain length and a shift towards more volatile organic compound (VOC)-limited conditions are found due to ADEs in both January and July. This study suggests that reducing ADEs may have the potential risk of increasing O3 in winter, but it will benefit the reduction in maxima O3 in summer.

Ozone-surface interactions: Investigations of mechanisms, kinetics, mass transport, and implications for indoor air quality

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Morrison, Glenn Charles

1999-12-01

In this dissertation, results are presented of laboratory investigations and mathematical modeling efforts designed to better understand the interactions of ozone with surfaces. In the laboratory, carpet and duct materials were exposed to ozone and measured ozone uptake kinetics and the ozone induced emissions of volatile organic compounds. To understand the results of the experiments, mathematical methods were developed to describe dynamic indoor aldehyde concentrations, mass transport of reactive species to smooth surfaces, the equivalent reaction probability of whole carpet due to the surface reactivity of fibers and carpet backing, and ozone aging of surfaces. Carpets, separated carpet fibers, andmore » separated carpet backing all tended to release aldehydes when exposed to ozone. Secondary emissions were mostly n-nonanal and several other smaller aldehydes. The pattern of emissions suggested that vegetable oils may be precursors for these oxidized emissions. Several possible precursors and experiments in which linseed and tung oils were tested for their secondary emission potential were discussed. Dynamic emission rates of 2-nonenal from a residential carpet may indicate that intermediate species in the oxidation of conjugated olefins can significantly delay aldehyde emissions and act as reservoir for these compounds. The ozone induced emission rate of 2-nonenal, a very odorous compound, can result in odorous indoor concentrations for several years. Surface ozone reactivity is a key parameter in determining the flux of ozone to a surface, is parameterized by the reaction probability, which is simply the probability that an ozone molecule will be irreversibly consumed when it strikes a surface. In laboratory studies of two residential and two commercial carpets, the ozone reaction probability for carpet fibers, carpet backing and the equivalent reaction probability for whole carpet were determined. Typically reaction probability values for these materials were 10 -7, 10 -5, and 10 -5 respectively. To understand how internal surface area influences the equivalent reaction probability of whole carpet, a model of ozone diffusion into and reaction with internal carpet components was developed. This was then used to predict apparent reaction probabilities for carpet. He combines this with a modified model of turbulent mass transfer developed by Liu, et al. to predict deposition rates and indoor ozone concentrations. The model predicts that carpet should have an equivalent reaction probability of about 10 -5, matching laboratory measurements of the reaction probability. For both carpet and duct materials, surfaces become progressively quenched (aging), losing the ability to react or otherwise take up ozone. He evaluated the functional form of aging and find that the reaction probability follows a power function with respect to the cumulative uptake of ozone. To understand ozone aging of surfaces, he developed several mathematical descriptions of aging based on two different mechanisms. The observed functional form of aging is mimicked by a model which describes ozone diffusion with internal reaction in a solid. He shows that the fleecy nature of carpet materials in combination with the model of ozone diffusion below a fiber surface and internal reaction may explain the functional form and the magnitude of power function parameters observed due to ozone interactions with carpet. The ozone induced aldehyde emissions, measured from duct materials, were combined with an indoor air quality model to show that concentrations of aldehydes indoors may approach odorous levels. He shows that ducts are unlikely to be a significant sink for ozone due to the low reaction probability in combination with the short residence time of air in ducts.« less

Assimilation of IASI partial tropospheric columns with an Ensemble Kalman Filter over Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coman, A.; Foret, G.; Beekmann, M.; Eremenko, M.; Dufour, G.; Gaubert, B.; Ung, A.; Schmechtig, C.; Flaud, J.-M.; Bergametti, G.

2011-09-01

Partial lower tropospheric ozone columns provided by the IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) instrument have been assimilated into a chemistry-transport model at continental scale (CHIMERE) using an Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF). Analyses are made for the month of July 2007 over the European domain. Launched in 2006, aboard the MetOp-A satellite, IASI shows high sensitivity for ozone in the free troposphere and low sensitivity at the ground; therefore it is important to evaluate if assimilation of these observations can improve free tropospheric ozone, and possibly surface ozone. The analyses are validated against independent ozone observations from sondes, MOZAIC1 aircraft and ground based stations (AIRBASE - the European Air quality dataBase) and compared with respect to the free run of CHIMERE. These comparisons show a decrease in error of 6 parts-per-billion (ppb) in the free troposphere over the Frankfurt area, and also a reduction of the root mean square error (respectively bias) at the surface of 19% (33%) for more than 90% of existing ground stations. This provides evidence of the potential of data assimilation of tropospheric IASI columns to better describe the tropospheric ozone distribution, including surface ozone, despite the lower sensitivity. The changes in concentration resulting from the observational constraints were quantified and several geophysical explanations for the findings of this study were drawn. The corrections were most pronounced over Italy and the Mediterranean region, on the average we noted an average reduction of 8-9 ppb in the free troposphere with respect to the free run, and still a reduction of 5.5 ppb at ground, likely due to a longer residence time of air masses in this part associated to the general circulation pattern (i.e. dominant western circulation) and to persistent anticyclonic conditions over the Mediterranean basin. This is an important geophysical result, since the ozone burden is large over this area, with impact on the radiative balance and air quality. 1 Measurements of OZone, water vapour, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides by in-service AIrbus airCraft ( http://mozaic.aero.obs-mip.fr/web/)

Assimilation of IASI partial tropospheric columns with an Ensemble Kalman Filter over Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coman, A.; Foret, G.; Beekmann, M.; Eremenko, M.; Dufour, G.; Gaubert, B.; Ung, A.; Schmechtig, C.; Flaud, J.-M.; Bergametti, G.

2012-03-01

Partial lower tropospheric ozone columns provided by the IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer) instrument have been assimilated into a chemistry-transport model at continental scale (CHIMERE) using an Ensemble Square Root Kalman Filter (EnSRF). Analyses are made for the month of July 2007 over the European domain. Launched in 2006, aboard the MetOp-A satellite, IASI shows high sensitivity for ozone in the free troposphere and low sensitivity at the ground; therefore it is important to evaluate if assimilation of these observations can improve free tropospheric ozone, and possibly surface ozone. The analyses are validated against independent ozone observations from sondes, MOZAIC1 aircraft and ground based stations (AIRBASE - the European Air quality dataBase) and compared with respect to the free run of CHIMERE. These comparisons show a decrease in error of 6 parts-per-billion (ppb) in the free troposphere over the Frankfurt area, and also a reduction of the root mean square error (respectively bias) at the surface of 19% (33%) for more than 90% of existing ground stations. This provides evidence of the potential of data assimilation of tropospheric IASI columns to better describe the tropospheric ozone distribution, including surface ozone, despite the lower sensitivity. The changes in concentration resulting from the observational constraints were quantified and several geophysical explanations for the findings of this study were drawn. The corrections were most pronounced over Italy and the Mediterranean region, we noted an average reduction of 8-9 ppb in the free troposphere with respect to the free run, and still a reduction of 5.5 ppb at ground, likely due to a longer residence time of air masses in this part associated to the general circulation pattern (i.e. dominant western circulation) and to persistent anticyclonic conditions over the Mediterranean basin. This is an important geophysical result, since the ozone burden is large over this area, with impact on the radiative balance and air quality. 1 Measurements of OZone, water vapour, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides by in-service AIrbus airCraft (http://mozaic.aero.obs-mip.fr/web/).

Projection of Changes in Regional Climate and Air Quality in the Great Lakes Basin between 2000 and 2050 for the RCP8.5 Emissions Scenario using the GEM-AQ Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lupu, A.; Semeniuk, K.; McConnell, J. C.; Kaminski, J. W.; Toyota, K.; Neary, L.

2012-12-01

The Global Environmental Multiscale Air Quality (GEM-AQ) model was run in global and limited area model (LAM) modes for the baseline year 2000 and one future year, 2050, on three different horizontal grids of increasing resolution from global (1.5°) to North American (LAM, 0.45°) to Ontario regional scale (LAM, 0.15°). For the future simulation we used the high greenhouse emissions scenario RCP8.5. Boundary conditions for the LAM runs were taken from the coarser resolution runs. All simulations had 54 vertical sigma-pressure hybrid levels from the ground to the stratopause (˜50 km), which should give a good representation of ozone injection to the troposphere from the stratosphere. The model uses the interactive land surface scheme ISBA. Sea surface and lake temperatures are prescribed, but ice cover is partially interactive based on prescribed fields. A lake model, FLAKE, was coupled to GEM-AQ in order to capture the impacts of the Great Lakes on the meteorology when the model is run at high resolution. For the Ontario regional simulation the interactive lake model allowed for self-consistent water temperatures and moisture fluxes. The simulation for the year 2000 shows that the model is able to reproduce the observed monthly surface temperatures across the US. The monthly surface ozone is reproduced at the level of detail of most other air quality models with year 2000 weather as opposed to a free run forced by SSTs. Our year 2050 simulation shows that ozone levels during the summer throughout most of Ontario and Canada will increase. Regions south of the latitude of Lake Superior will generally see decreased levels of summer (JJA) ozone, except for around large urban areas such as Toronto, Chicago and Montreal. However, NOx levels will decrease during the summer, reflecting decreased emissions. Ozone levels in the US will generally improve. Other indices rather than simple averages yield a different perspective. If the MDA8 ozone metric and NO2 one-hour 98th percentile are used, then it is found that air quality across Canada and US will generally improve. From the perspective of meteorology, the most significant surface warming that is likely to occur by 2050 is during winter. The winter warming also reflects changes in large scale circulation with baroclinic eddy storm tracks moving north. Winter warming contributes to a surface ozone increase by 2050 in spite of reduced emissions. In addition, we note that in the Ontario region and environs for 2050 there is a significant increase (˜40) in the number of DD5 days, i.e. days where the temperature is above 5°C, a metric useful for the length of the growing season for agriculture. This also means that conditions that impact forests and movement of disease vectors will also change.

Comparative Analysis of the Long-term Trends of the Surface Ozone Concentration at Elevated Sites in the Alps and in Caucasus Region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tarasova, O. A.; Staehelin, J.; Prevot, A. S.; Senik, I. A.; Sosonkin, M. G.; Cui, J.

2007-12-01

Analysis of the long-term surface ozone records of two mountain sites, namely Kislovodsk High Mountain Station (KHMS) in Caucasus, Russia (43.7°N, 42.7°E, 2070 asl.) and Jungfraujoch (JFJ) in Switzerland (46.5°N, 7.9°E, 3580m asl) will be presented. A strong increase in ozone concentration (up +0.46±0.11ppb/year) was found at JFJ while ozone significantly deceased at KHMS (-0.65 ±0.09 ppb/year) during 1990-2005. We will compare trends values for earlier years (1990-2001) and for the latter ones (1993-2005). Among the possible reasons of the trends difference the impact of atmospheric transport is studied. Both vertical and horizontal components are considered in connection with ozone concentration trends. Transport analysis is based on 3D trajectories using LAGRANTO. There was no substantial difference in trends detected for different PV-levels or PBL filtered cases, while the main difference has been found in the source areas of the air masses at the two locations and inside different advection sectors at the each particular site. Trends will be compared (for the two receptor sites and two periods) for filtered subsets of upper tropospheric/stratospheric cases (based on PV and trajectory altitude), cases impacted by Planetary Boundary Layer (based on PBL height) and in different horizontal advection clusters. The work is financially supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (JRP IB7320-110831), European Commission (Marie-Curie IIF project N 039905 - FP6-2005-Mobility-7) and Russian Foundation for Basic Research (projects 06-05-64427 and 06-05-65308) and contributes to ACCENT T&TP project.

Effects of stratospheric ozone recovery on photochemistry and ozone air quality in the troposphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, H.; Wu, S.; Huang, Y.; Wang, Y.

2014-04-01

There has been significant stratospheric ozone depletion since the late 1970s due to ozone-depleting substances (ODSs). With the implementation of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments and adjustments, stratospheric ozone is expected to recover towards its pre-1980 level in the coming decades. In this study, we examine the implications of stratospheric ozone recovery for the tropospheric chemistry and ozone air quality with a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem). With a full recovery of the stratospheric ozone, the projected increases in ozone column range from 1% over the low latitudes to more than 10% over the polar regions. The sensitivity factor of troposphere ozone photolysis rate, defined as the percentage changes in surface ozone photolysis rate for 1% increase in stratospheric ozone column, shows significant seasonal variation but is always negative with absolute value larger than one. The expected stratospheric ozone recovery is found to affect the tropospheric ozone destruction rates much more than the ozone production rates. Significant decreases in surface ozone photolysis rates due to stratospheric ozone recovery are simulated. The global average tropospheric OH decreases by 1.7%, and the global average lifetime of tropospheric ozone increases by 1.5%. The perturbations to tropospheric ozone and surface ozone show large seasonal and spatial variations. General increases in surface ozone are calculated for each season, with increases by up to 0.8 ppbv in the remote areas. Increases in ozone lifetime by up to 13% are found in the troposphere. The increased lifetimes of tropospheric ozone in response to stratospheric ozone recovery enhance the intercontinental transport of ozone and global pollution, in particular for the summertime. The global background ozone attributable to Asian emissions is calculated to increase by up to 15% or 0.3 ppbv in the Northern Hemisphere in response to the projected stratospheric ozone recovery.

Ultrafiltration and nanofiltration membrane fouling by natural organic matter: Mechanisms and mitigation by pre-ozonation and pH.

PubMed

Yu, Wenzheng; Liu, Teng; Crawshaw, John; Liu, Ting; Graham, Nigel

2018-08-01

The fouling of ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes during the treatment of surface waters continues to be of concern and the particular role of natural organic matter (NOM) requires further investigation. In this study the effect of pH and surface charge on membrane fouling during the treatment of samples of a representative surface water (Hyde Park recreational lake) were evaluated, together with the impact of pre-ozonation. While biopolymers in the surface water could be removed by the UF membrane, smaller molecular weight (MW) fractions of NOM were poorly removed, confirming the importance of membrane pore size. For NF membranes the removal of smaller MW fractions (800 Da-10 kDa) was less than expected from their pore size; however, nearly all of the hydrophobic, humic-type substances could be removed by the hydrophilic NF membranes for all MW distributions (greater than 90%). The results indicated the importance of the charge and hydrophilic nature of the NOM. Thus, the hydrophilic NF membrane could remove the hydrophobic organic matter, but not the hydrophilic substances. Increasing charge effects (more negative zeta potentials) with increasing solution pH were found to enhance organics removal and reduce fouling (flux decline), most likely through greater membrane surface repulsion. Pre-ozonation of the surface water increased the hydrophilic fraction and anionic charge of NOM and altered their size distributions. This resulted in a decreased fouling (less flux decline) for the UF and smaller pore NF, but a slight increase in fouling for the larger pore NF. The differences in the NF behavior are believed to relate to the relative sizes of ozonated organic fractions and the NF pores; a similar size of ozonated organic fractions and the NF pores causes significant membrane fouling. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Modeling the uncertainty of several VOC and its impact on simulated VOC and ozone in Houston, Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pan, Shuai; Choi, Yunsoo; Roy, Anirban; Li, Xiangshang; Jeon, Wonbae; Souri, Amir Hossein

2015-11-01

A WRF-SMOKE-CMAQ modeling system was used to study Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions and their impact on surface VOC and ozone concentrations in southeast Texas during September 2013. The model was evaluated against the ground-level Automated Gas Chromatograph (Auto-GC) measurement data from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The comparisons indicated that the model over-predicted benzene, ethylene, toluene and xylene, while under-predicting isoprene and ethane. The mean biases between simulated and observed values of each VOC species showed clear daytime, nighttime, weekday and weekend variations. Adjusting the VOC emissions using simulated/observed ratios improved model performance of each VOC species, especially mitigating the mean bias substantially. Simulated monthly mean ozone showed a minor change: a 0.4 ppb or 1.2% increase; while a change of more than 5 ppb was seen in hourly ozone data on high ozone days, this change moved model predictions closer to observations. The CMAQ model run with the adjusted emissions better reproduced the variability in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) formaldehyde (HCHO) columns. The adjusted model scenario also slightly better reproduced the aircraft HCHO concentrations from NASA's DISCOVER-AQ campaign conducted during the simulation episode period; Correlation, Mean Bias and RMSE improved from 0.34, 1.38 ppb and 2.15 ppb to 0.38, 1.33 ppb and 2.08 ppb respectively. A process analysis conducted for both industrial/urban and rural areas suggested that chemistry was the main process contributing to ozone production in both areas, while the impact of chemistry was smaller in rural areas than in industrial and urban areas. For both areas, the positive chemistry contribution increased in the sensitivity simulation largely due to the increase in emissions. Nudging VOC emissions to match the observed concentrations shifted the ozone hotspots outside the industrial/urban region and enhanced the peaked ozone in the outflow region with consistent southerly/southeasterly winds during the afternoon time (1-5 pm). This study helps in the understanding of these processes which are critical to constrain high peak ozone values in the outflow regions. The results indicate that formation of ozone in the outflow could complicate attainment status in neighboring counties.

Sources of Springtime Tropospheric Ozone Over North China: A Modeling Analysis of Ozonesonde and Satellite Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, H.; Chan, C.; Huang, J.; Zhang, Y.; Choi, H.; Crawford, J. H.; Considine, D. B.; Zheng, X.; Oltmans, S. J.; Liu, S. C.; Zhang, L.; Liu, X.; Thouret, V.

2012-12-01

Tropospheric ozone concentrations and emissions of NOx have both increased significantly over China as a result of rapid industrialization during the past decade. These trends degrade local and regional air quality and have important effects on background tropospheric ozone and surface ozone over downwind North Pacific and North America. In-situ observations of tropospheric ozone over China are therefore essential to testing and improving our understanding of the impact of Asian anthropogenic (versus natural) emissions and various chemical, physical, and dynamical processes on both regional and global tropospheric ozone. Despite their critical importance, in-situ observations of tropospheric ozone profiles over China have been few and far between in most of the country. To investigate the ensemble of processes that control the distribution, variability, and sources of springtime tropospheric ozone over China and its surrounding regions, an intensive ozonesonde sounding campaign, called Transport of Air Pollutants and Tropospheric Ozone over China (TAPTO-China), was conducted at nine locations across China in the springs of 2004 (South China) and 2005 (North China). In this paper, we use a global 3-D model of tropospheric chemistry (GEOS-Chem) to examine the characteristics of distribution and variability and quantify various sources of tropospheric ozone over North China by analysis of intensive ozonesonde data obtained at four stations in North / Northwest China during the second phase of TAPTO-China (April-May 2005). These four stations include Xining (36.43N, 101.45E), Beijing (39.80N, 116.18E), Longfengshan (44.44N, 127.36E), and Aletai (47.73N, 88.08E). We drive GEOS-Chem with two sets of assimilated meteorological observations (GEOS-4 and GEOS-5) from the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) of the NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GAMO), allowing us to examine the impacts of variability in meteorology. We show that the observed tropospheric ozone mixing ratios exhibit strong spatio-temporal variability. The model generally simulates well the ozonesonde observations but tends to underestimate ozone in the upper troposphere over Beijing and Longfengshan. We find that Asian fossil fuel emissions, stratospheric ozone, African lightning NOx emissions, as well as intercontinental transport are the main contributors to tropospheric ozone over North China in spring. While the lower-tropospheric ozone is largely influenced by Asian fossil fuel emissions (except over Aletai, Northwest China), lightning NOx emissions have a larger impact on the upper-tropospheric ozone than Asian fossil fuel emissions (except over Longfengshan, Northeast China). Model simulations suggest that the European fossil fuel emissions contribute more to the lower-tropospheric ozone over Aletai than the Asian fossil fuel emissions. We will also show that tropospheric ozone measurements by Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) aboard the NASA EOS Aura satellite can be used to study tropospheric ozone variability at Xining.

The chemistry-climate model ECHAM6.3-HAM2.3-MOZ1.0

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, Martin G.; Stadtler, Scarlet; Schröder, Sabine; Taraborrelli, Domenico; Franco, Bruno; Krefting, Jonathan; Henrot, Alexandra; Ferrachat, Sylvaine; Lohmann, Ulrike; Neubauer, David; Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Colombe; Wahl, Sebastian; Kokkola, Harri; Kühn, Thomas; Rast, Sebastian; Schmidt, Hauke; Stier, Philip; Kinnison, Doug; Tyndall, Geoffrey S.; Orlando, John J.; Wespes, Catherine

2018-05-01

The chemistry-climate model ECHAM-HAMMOZ contains a detailed representation of tropospheric and stratospheric reactive chemistry and state-of-the-art parameterizations of aerosols using either a modal scheme (M7) or a bin scheme (SALSA). This article describes and evaluates the model version ECHAM6.3-HAM2.3-MOZ1.0 with a focus on the tropospheric gas-phase chemistry. A 10-year model simulation was performed to test the stability of the model and provide data for its evaluation. The comparison to observations concentrates on the year 2008 and includes total column observations of ozone and CO from IASI and OMI, Aura MLS observations of temperature, HNO3, ClO, and O3 for the evaluation of polar stratospheric processes, an ozonesonde climatology, surface ozone observations from the TOAR database, and surface CO data from the Global Atmosphere Watch network. Global budgets of ozone, OH, NOx, aerosols, clouds, and radiation are analyzed and compared to the literature. ECHAM-HAMMOZ performs well in many aspects. However, in the base simulation, lightning NOx emissions are very low, and the impact of the heterogeneous reaction of HNO3 on dust and sea salt aerosol is too strong. Sensitivity simulations with increased lightning NOx or modified heterogeneous chemistry deteriorate the comparison with observations and yield excessively large ozone budget terms and too much OH. We hypothesize that this is an impact of potential issues with tropical convection in the ECHAM model.

Factors dominating 3-dimensional ozone distribution during high tropospheric ozone period.

PubMed

Chen, Xiaoyang; Liu, Yiming; Lai, Anqi; Han, Shuangshuang; Fan, Qi; Wang, Xuemei; Ling, Zhenhao; Huang, Fuxiang; Fan, Shaojia

2018-01-01

Data from an in situ monitoring network and five ozone sondes are analysed during August of 2012, and a high tropospheric ozone episode is observed around the 8th of AUG. The Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and its process analysis tool were used to study factors and mechanisms for high ozone mixing ratio at different levels of ozone vertical profiles. A sensitive scenario without chemical initial and boundary conditions (ICBCs) from MOZART4-GEOS5 was applied to study the impact of stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) on vertical ozone. The simulation results indicated that the first high ozone peak near the tropopause was dominated by STE. Results from process analysis showed that: in the urban area, the second peak at approximately 2 km above ground height was mainly caused by local photochemical production. The third peak (near surface) was mainly caused by the upwind transportation from the suburban/rural areas; in the suburban/rural areas, local photochemical production of ozone dominated the high ozone mixing ratio from the surface to approximately 3 km height. Furthermore, the capability of indicators to distinguish O 3 -precursor sensitivity along the vertical O 3 profiles was investigated. Two sensitive scenarios, which had cut 30% anthropogenic NO X or VOC emissions, showed that O 3 -precursor indicators, specifically the ratios of O 3 /NOy, H 2 O 2 /HNO 3 or H 2 O 2 /NO Z , could partly distinguish the O 3 -precursor sensitivity between VOCs-sensitive and NOx-sensitive along the vertical profiles. In urban area, the O 3 -precursor relationship transferred from VOCs-sensitive within the boundary layer to NOx-sensitive at approximately 1-3 km above ground height, further confirming the dominant roles of transportation and photochemical production in high O 3 peaks at the near-ground layer and 2 km above ground height, respectively. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

New analytical model for the ozone electronic ground state potential surface and accurate ab initio vibrational predictions at high energy range.

PubMed

Tyuterev, Vladimir G; Kochanov, Roman V; Tashkun, Sergey A; Holka, Filip; Szalay, Péter G

2013-10-07

An accurate description of the complicated shape of the potential energy surface (PES) and that of the highly excited vibration states is of crucial importance for various unsolved issues in the spectroscopy and dynamics of ozone and remains a challenge for the theory. In this work a new analytical representation is proposed for the PES of the ground electronic state of the ozone molecule in the range covering the main potential well and the transition state towards the dissociation. This model accounts for particular features specific to the ozone PES for large variations of nuclear displacements along the minimum energy path. The impact of the shape of the PES near the transition state (existence of the "reef structure") on vibration energy levels was studied for the first time. The major purpose of this work was to provide accurate theoretical predictions for ozone vibrational band centres at the energy range near the dissociation threshold, which would be helpful for understanding the very complicated high-resolution spectra and its analyses currently in progress. Extended ab initio electronic structure calculations were carried out enabling the determination of the parameters of a minimum energy path PES model resulting in a new set of theoretical vibrational levels of ozone. A comparison with recent high-resolution spectroscopic data on the vibrational levels gives the root-mean-square deviations below 1 cm(-1) for ozone band centres up to 90% of the dissociation energy. New ab initio vibrational predictions represent a significant improvement with respect to all previously available calculations.

Re-approaching global iodine emissions: A novel parameterisation for sea-surface iodide concentrations using a machine learning approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sherwen, T.; Evans, M. J.; Chance, R.; Tinel, L.; Carpenter, L.

2017-12-01

Halogens (Cl, Br, I) in the troposphere have been shown to play a profound role in determining the concentrations of ozone and OH. Iodine, which is essentially oceanic in source, exerts its largest impacts on composition in both the marine boundary layer, and in the upper troposphere. This chemistry has only recently been implemented into global models and significant uncertainties remain, particularly regarding the magnitude of iodine emissions. Iodine emissions are dominated by the inorganic oxidation of iodide in the sea surface by ozone, which leads to release of gaseous inorganic iodine (HOI, I2). Critical for calculation of these fluxes is the sea-surface concentration of iodide, which is poorly constrained by observations. Previous parameterizations for sea-surface iodide concentration have focused on simple regressive relationships with sea surface temperature and another single oceanographic variables. This leads to differences in iodine fluxes of approximately a factor of two, and leads to substantial differences in the modelled impact of iodine on atmospheric composition. Here we use an expanded dataset of oceanic iodide observations, which incorporates new data that has been targeted at areas with poor coverage previously. A novel approach of multivariate machine learning techniques is applied to this expanded dataset to generate a model that yields improved estimates of the global sea surface iodide distribution. We then use a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) to explore the impact of this new parameterisation on the atmospheric budget of iodine and its impact on tropospheric composition.

Ozone Depletion from Nearby Supernovae

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gehrels, Neil; Laird, Claude M.; Jackman, Charles H.; Cannizzo, John K.; Mattson, Barbara J.; Chen, Wan; Bhartia, P. K. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Estimates made in the 1970's indicated that a supernova occurring within tens of parsecs of Earth could have significant effects on the ozone layer. Since that time improved tools for detailed modeling of atmospheric chemistry have been developed to calculate ozone depletion, and advances have been made also in theoretical modeling of supernovae and of the resultant gamma ray spectra. In addition, one now has better knowledge of the occurrence rate of supernovae in the galaxy, and of the spatial distribution of progenitors to core-collapse supernovae. We report here the results of two-dimensional atmospheric model calculations that take as input the spectral energy distribution of a supernova, adopting various distances from Earth and various latitude impact angles. In separate simulations we calculate the ozone depletion due to both gamma rays and cosmic rays. We find that for the combined ozone depletion from these effects roughly to double the 'biologically active' UV flux received at the surface of the Earth, the supernova must occur at approximately or less than 8 parsecs.

The potential impact on atmospheric ozone and temperature of increasing trace gas concentrations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brasseur, G.; Derudder, A.

1987-01-01

The response of the atmosphere to emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other chlorocarbons, and to increasing concentrations of other radiatively active trace gases such as CO2, CH4, and N2O is calculated by a coupled chemical-radiative transport one-dimensional model. It is shown that significant reductions in the ozone concentration and in the temperature are expected in the upper stratosphere as a result of increasing concentrations of active chlorine produced by photodecomposition of the CFCs. The ozone content is expected to increase in the troposphere, as a consequence of increasing concentrations of methane and nitrogen oxides. Due to enhanced greenhouse effects, the Earth's surface should warm up by several degrees. The amplitude and even the sign of future changes in the ozone column are difficult to predict as they are strongly scenario-dependent. An early detection system to prevent noticeable ozone changes as a result of increasing concentrations of source gases should thus be based on a continuous monitoring of the ozone amount in the upper stratosphere rather than on measurements of the ozone column only. Measurements of NOx, Clx, and HOx are also required for unambiguous trend detection and interpretation.

Future heat waves and surface ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meehl, Gerald A.; Tebaldi, Claudia; Tilmes, Simone; Lamarque, Jean-Francois; Bates, Susan; Pendergrass, Angeline; Lombardozzi, Danica

2018-06-01

A global Earth system model is used to study the relationship between heat waves and surface ozone levels over land areas around the world that could experience either large decreases or little change in future ozone precursor emissions. The model is driven by emissions of greenhouse gases and ozone precursors from a medium-high emission scenario (Representative Concentration Pathway 6.0–RCP6.0) and is compared to an experiment with anthropogenic ozone precursor emissions fixed at 2005 levels. With ongoing increases in greenhouse gases and corresponding increases in average temperature in both experiments, heat waves are projected to become more intense over most global land areas (greater maximum temperatures during heat waves). However, surface ozone concentrations on future heat wave days decrease proportionately more than on non-heat wave days in areas where ozone precursors are prescribed to decrease in RCP6.0 (e.g. most of North America and Europe), while surface ozone concentrations in heat waves increase in areas where ozone precursors either increase or have little change (e.g. central Asia, the Mideast, northern Africa). In the stabilized ozone precursor experiment, surface ozone concentrations increase on future heat wave days compared to non-heat wave days in most regions except in areas where there is ozone suppression that contributes to decreases in ozone in future heat waves. This is likely associated with effects of changes in isoprene emissions at high temperatures (e.g. west coast and southeastern North America, eastern Europe).

The impact of recirculation, ventilation and filters on secondary organic aerosols generated by indoor chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fadeyi, M. O.; Weschler, C. J.; Tham, K. W.

This study examined the impact of recirculation rates (7 and 14 h -1), ventilation rates (1 and 2 h -1), and filtration on secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) generated by ozone of outdoor origin reacting with limonene of indoor origin. Experiments were conducted within a recirculating air handling system that serviced an unoccupied, 236 m 3 environmental chamber configured to simulate an office; either no filter, a new filter or a used filter was located downstream of where outdoor air mixed with return air. For otherwise comparable conditions, the SOA number and mass concentrations at a recirculation rate of 14 h -1 were significantly smaller than at a recirculation rate of 7 h -1. This was due primarily to lower ozone concentrations, resulting from increased surface removal, at the higher recirculation rate. Increased ventilation increased outdoor-to-indoor transport of ozone, but this was more than offset by the increased dilution of SOA derived from ozone-initiated chemistry. The presence of a particle filter (new or used) strikingly lowered SOA number and mass concentrations compared with conditions when no filter was present. Even though the particle filter in this study had only 35% single-pass removal efficiency for 100 nm particles, filtration efficiency was greatly amplified by recirculation. SOA particle levels were reduced to an even greater extent when an activated carbon filter was in the system, due to ozone removal by the carbon filter. These findings improve our understanding of the influence of commonly employed energy saving procedures on occupant exposures to ozone and ozone-derived SOA.

Characteristics of ozone vertical profile observed in the boundary layer around Beijing in autumn.

PubMed

Ma, Zhiqiang; Zhang, Xiaoling; Xu, Jing; Zhao, Xiujuan; Meng, Wei

2011-01-01

In the autumn of 2008, the vertical profiles of ozone and meteorological parameters in the low troposphere (0-1000 m) were observed at two sites around Beijing, specifically urban Nanjiao and rural Shangdianzi. At night and early morning, the lower troposphere divided into two stratified layers due to temperature inversion. Ozone in the lower layer showed a large gradient due to the titration of NO. Air flow from the southwest brought ozone-rich air to Beijing, and the ozone profiles were marked by a continuous increase in the residual layer at night. The accumulated ozone in the upper layer played an important role in the next day's surface peak ozone concentration, and caused a rapid increase in surface ozone in the morning. Wind direction shear and wind speed shear exhibited different influences on ozone profiles and resulted in different surface ozone concentrations in Beijing.

Variability of winter and summer surface ozone in Mexico City on the intraseasonal timescale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barrett, Bradford S.; Raga, Graciela B.

2016-12-01

Surface ozone concentrations in Mexico City frequently exceed the Mexican standard and have proven difficult to forecast due to changes in meteorological conditions at its tropical location. The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is largely responsible for intraseasonal variability in the tropics. Circulation patterns in the lower and upper troposphere and precipitation are associated with the oscillation as it progresses eastward around the planet. It is typically described by phases (labeled 1 through 8), which correspond to the broad longitudinal location of the active component of the oscillation with enhanced precipitation. In this study we evaluate the intraseasonal variability of winter and summer surface ozone concentrations in Mexico City, which was investigated over the period 1986-2014 to determine if there is a modulation by the MJO that would aid in the forecast of high-pollution episodes. Over 1 000 000 hourly observations of surface ozone from five stations around the metropolitan area were standardized and then binned by active phase of the MJO, with phase determined using the real-time multivariate MJO index. Highest winter ozone concentrations were found in Mexico City on days when the MJO was active and in phase 2 (over the Indian Ocean), and highest summer ozone concentrations were found on days when the MJO was active and in phase 6 (over the western Pacific Ocean). Lowest winter ozone concentrations were found during active MJO phase 8 (over the eastern Pacific Ocean), and lowest summer ozone concentrations were found during active MJO phase 1 (over the Atlantic Ocean). Anomalies of reanalysis-based cloud cover and UV-B radiation supported the observed variability in surface ozone in both summer and winter: MJO phases with highest ozone concentration had largest positive UV-B radiation anomalies and lowest cloud-cover fraction, while phases with lowest ozone concentration had largest negative UV-B radiation anomalies and highest cloud-cover fraction. Furthermore, geopotential height anomalies at 250 hPa favoring reduced cloudiness, and thus elevated surface ozone, were found in both seasons during MJO phases with above-normal ozone concentrations. Similar height anomalies at 250 hPa favoring enhanced cloudiness, and thus reduced surface ozone, were found in both seasons during MJO phases with below-normal ozone concentrations. These anomalies confirm a physical pathway for MJO modulation of surface ozone via modulation of the upper troposphere.

Recent Advances in Ozone Data Assimilation at the GMAO - Towards a New Reanalysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krzysztof, Wargan; Pawson, S.; Nielsen, J. E.; Witte, J.; Douglass, A.; Strahan, S.; Joiner, J.; Bhartia, P. K.; Livesey, N.; Read, W.;

Ozone reaction with interior building materials: Influence of diurnal ozone variation, temperature and humidity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rim, Donghyun; Gall, Elliott T.; Maddalena, Randy L.; Nazaroff, William W.

2016-01-01

Elevated tropospheric ozone concentrations are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Indoor ozone chemistry affects human exposure to ozone and reaction products that also may adversely affect health and comfort. Reactive uptake of ozone has been characterized for many building materials; however, scant information is available on how diurnal variation of ambient ozone influences ozone reaction with indoor surfaces. The primary objective of this study is to investigate ozone-surface reactions in response to a diurnally varying ozone exposure for three common building materials: ceiling tile, painted drywall, and carpet tile. A secondary objective is to examine the effects of air temperature and humidity. A third goal is to explore how conditioning of materials in an occupied office building might influence subsequent ozone-surface reactions. Experiments were performed at bench-scale with inlet ozone concentrations varied to simulate daytime (ozone elevated) and nighttime (ozone-free in these experiments) periods. To simulate office conditions, experiments were conducted at two temperatures (22 °C and 28 °C) and three relative humidity values (25%, 50%, 75%). Effects of indoor surface exposures were examined by placing material samples in an occupied office and repeating bench-scale characterization after exposure periods of 1 and 2 months. Deposition velocities were observed to be highest during the initial hour of ozone exposure with slow decrease in the subsequent hours of simulated daytime conditions. Daily-average ozone reaction probabilities for fresh materials are in the respective ranges of (1.7-2.7) × 10-5, (2.8-4.7) × 10-5, and (3.0-4.5) × 10-5 for ceiling tile, painted drywall, and carpet tile. The reaction probability decreases by 7%-47% across the three test materials after two 8-h periods of ozone exposure. Measurements with the samples from an occupied office reveal that deposition velocity can decrease or increase with time. Influence of temperature and humidity on ozone-surface reactivity was not strong.

The effect of ozone and open air factor on surface-attached and biofilm environmental Listeria monocytogenes.

PubMed

Nicholas, R; Dunton, P; Tatham, A; Fielding, L

2013-08-01

The effects of gaseous ozone and open air factor (OAF) on environmental Listeria monocytogenes attached to three common food contact surfaces were investigated. Listeria monocytogenes on different food contact surfaces was treated with ozone and OAF. Microbiological counts, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were performed. Ozone at 10 ppm gave <1-log reduction when L. monocytogenes was attached to stainless steel, while 45 ppm gave a log reduction of 3.41. OAF gave better log reductions than 10 ppm ozone, but lower log reductions than 45 ppm. Significant differences were found between surfaces. Biofilm organisms were significantly more resistant than those surface attached on stainless steel. SEM and AFM demonstrated different membrane and cell surface modifications following ozone or OAF treatment. The strain used demonstrated higher resistance to ozone than previous studies. This may be due to the fact that it was isolated from a food manufacturing premises that used oxidizing disinfectants. OAF was more effective at reducing the levels of the organism than an ozone concentration of 10 ppm. Pathogen management strategies must account for resistance of environmental strains when validating cleaning and disinfection. OAF has shown potential for surface decontamination compared with ozone. SEM and AFM are valuable tools for determining mechanisms of action of antimicrobial agents. © 2013 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

Study of UV cloud modification factors in Southern Patagonia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wolfram, Elian A.; Orte, Facundo; Salvador, Jacobo; Quiroga, Jonathan; D'Elia, Raúl; Antón, Manuel; Alados-Arboledas, Lucas; Quel, Eduardo

2017-02-01

Anthropogenic perturbation of the ozone layer has induced change in the amount of UV radiation that reaches the Earth's surface, mainly through the Antarctic ozone hole, making the ozone and ultraviolet (UV) radiation two important issues in the study of Earth atmosphere in the scientific community. Also the clouds have been identified as the main modulator of UV amount in short time scales and produce the main source of uncertainty in the projection of surface UV level as consequence of projected ozone recovery. While clouds can decrease direct radiation, they can produce an increase in the diffuse component, and as consequence the surface UV radiation may be higher than an equivalent clear sky scenario for several minutes. In particular this situation can be important when low ozone column and partially cloud cover skies happen simultaneously. These situations happen frequently in southern Patagonia, where the CEILAP Lidar Division has established the Atmospheric Observatory of Southern Patagonia, an atmospheric remote sensing site near the city of Río Gallegos (51°55'S, 69°14'W). In this paper, the impact of clouds over the UV radiation is investigated by the use of ground based measurements from the passive remote sensing instruments operating at this site, mainly of broad and moderate narrow band filter radiometers. We analyzed the UV Index obtained from a multiband filter radiometer GUV-541 (UVI) [Biospherical Inc.] installed in the Observatorio Atmosférico de la Patagonia Austral, Río Gallegos, since 2005. Cloud modification factors (CMF, ratio between the measured UV radiation in a cloudy sky and the simulated radiation under cloud-free conditions) are evaluated for the study site. The database used in this work covers the period 2005-2012 for spring and summer seasons, when the ozone hole can affect these subpolar regions. CMF higher than 1 are found during spring and summer time, when lower total ozone columns, higher solar elevations and high cloud cover occur simultaneously, producing extreme erythemal irradiance at ground surface. Enhancements as high as 25% were registered. The maximum duration of the enhancement was around 30 minute. This produces dangerous sunbathing situations for the Río Gallegos citizen.

Evaluation of Day and Nighttime Lower Tropospheric Ozone from Air Quality Models using TES and Ozonesondes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osterman, G. B.; Neu, J. L.; Eldering, A.; Pinder, R. W.; Tang, Y.; McQueen, J.

2012-12-01

At night, ozone can be transported long distances above the surface inversion layer without chemical destruction or deposition. As the boundary layer breaks up in the morning, this nocturnal ozone can be mixed down to the surface and rapidly increase ozone concentrations at a rate that can rival chemical ozone production. Most regional scale models that are used for air quality forecasts and ozone source attribution do not adequately capture nighttime ozone concentrations and transport. We combine ozone profile data from the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and other sensors, ozonesonde data collected during the INTEX Ozonesonde Network Study (IONS), EPA AirNow ground station ozone data, the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, and the National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) model to examine air quality events during August 2006. We present both aggregated statistics and case-study analyses that assess the relationship between the models' ability to reproduce surface air quality events and their ability to capture the vertical distribution of ozone both during the day and at night. We perform the comparisons looking at the geospatial dependence in the differences between the measurements and models under different surface ozone conditions.

Current and future contributions of local emissions from shipping and hydrocarbon extraction flaring to short lived pollutants in the Arctic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marelle, L.; Raut, J. C.; Law, K.; Thomas, J. L.; Fast, J. D.; Berg, L. K.; Shrivastava, M. B.; Easter, R. C.; Herber, A. B.

2015-12-01

The Arctic is increasingly open to human activity due to rapid Arctic warming, associated with decreased sea ice extent and snow cover. While pollution from in-Arctic sources is currently low, oil and gas extraction and marine traffic could become a significant future source of short-lived pollutants (aerosols, ozone) in the Arctic. It is currently unclear if these local sources might become significant compared to the long-range transport of anthropogenic pollution from the midlatitudes, which is currently the main source of Arctic pollution. Here, we investigate the current (2012) and future (2050) impact of emissions from shipping and oil and gas extraction on Arctic aerosols and ozone, in relation to emissions from long-range transport. These impacts are determined by performing 6-month long, quasi-hemispheric simulations over the Arctic region with the WRF-Chem model. Our regional simulations include up-to-date representations of cloud/aerosol interactions and secondary organic aerosol formation developed recently for WRF-Chem. In order to determine the impact of Arctic shipping and oil and gas extraction, we use recent emission inventories by Winther et al., 2014 for local shipping and ECLIPSEv5 for oil and gas flaring. Both inventories suggest that current and future emissions from these sources are higher than previous estimates. Simulations are evaluated using measurements at Arctic surface sites and aircraft campaigns (ACCESS, YAK) in 2012. Model results are then used to assess the impact of Arctic shipping and oil and gas flaring on modeled surface aerosol and ozone concentrations, direct aerosol and ozone radiative effects, indirect aerosol radiative effects, and aerosol deposition. Results are used to determine if these local emissions are expected to have a significant influence on these quantities at the local or the regional scale, compared to emissions transported from the midlatitudes and to other emission sources, including boreal fires.

Nimbus-7 TOMS Version 7 Calibration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wellemeyer, C. G.; Taylor, S. L.; Jaross, G.; DeLand, M. T.; Seftor, C. J.; Labow, G.; Swissler, T. J.; Cebula, R. P.

1996-01-01

This report describes an improved instrument characterization used for the Version 7 processing of the Nimbus-7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data record. An improved internal calibration technique referred to as spectral discrimination is used to provide long-term calibration precision of +/- 1%/decade in total column ozone amount. A revised wavelength scale results in a day one calibration that agrees with other satellite and ground-based measurements of total ozone, while a wavelength independent adjustment of the initial radiometric calibration constants provides good agreement with surface reflectivity measured by other satellite-borne ultraviolet measurements. The impact of other aspects of the Nimbus-7 TOMS instrument performance are also discussed. The Version 7 data should be used in all future studies involving the Nimbus-7 TOMS measurements of ozone. The data are available through the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Distributive Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Total ozone and surface temperature correlations during 1972 - 1981

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parsons, C. L.

1983-01-01

Ten years of Dobson spectrophotometer total ozone measurements and surface temperature observations were used to construct monthly mean values of the two parameters. The variability of both parameters is greatest in the months of January and February. Indeed, in January there is an apparent correlation between high total ozone values and abnormally low surface temperatures. However, the correlation does not hold in February. By reviewing the history of stratospheric warmings during this period, it is argued that the ozone and surface temperature correlation is influenced by the advection or lack of advection of ozone rich arctic air resulting from sudden stratospheric warmings.

Ethane: A Key to Evaluating Natural Gas Industrial Emissions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yacovitch, T. I.; Herndon, S. C.; Agnese, M.; Roscioli, J. R.; Floerchinger, C. R.; Knighton, W. B.; Pusede, S. E.; Diskin, G. S.; DiGangi, J. P.; Sachse, G. W.; Eichler, P.; Mikoviny, T.; Müller, M.; Wisthaler, A.; Conley, S. A.; Petron, G.

2014-12-01

Airborne and mobile-surface measurements of ethane at 1Hz in the Denver-Julesberg oil and gas production basin in NE Colorado reveal a rich set of emission sources and magnitudes. Although ethane has only a mild influence on hemispheric ozone levels, it is often co-emitted with larger hydrocarbons including hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and ozone precursors that impact local and regional air quality. Ethane/methane enhancement ratios provide a map of expected emission source types in different areas around greater Denver. Links are drawn between the ethane content of isolated methane emission plumes and the prevalence of concomitant HAP and ozone precursor species. The efficacy of using ethane as a dilution tracer specific to the oil & gas footprint will be demonstrated.

Retrieval of Surface Ozone from UV-MFRSR Irradiances using Deep Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, M.; Sun, Z.; Davis, J.; Zempila, M.; Liu, C.; Gao, W.

2017-12-01

High concentration of surface ozone is harmful to humans and plants. USDA UV-B Monitoring and Research Program (UVMRP) uses Ultraviolet (UV) version of Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer (UV-MFRSR) to measure direct, diffuse, and total irradiances every three minutes at seven UV channels (i.e. 300, 305, 311, 317, 325, 332, and 368 nm channels with 2 nm full width at half maximum). Based on the wavelength dependency of aerosol optical depths, there have been plenty of literatures exploring retrieval methods of total column ozone from UV-MFRSR measurements. However, few has explored the retrieval of surface ozone. The total column ozone is the integral of the multiplication of ozone concentration (varying by height and time) and cross section (varying by wavelength and temperature) over height. Because of the distinctive values of ozone cross section in the UV region, the irradiances at seven UV channels have the potential to resolve the ozone concentration at multiple vertical layers. If the UV irradiances at multiple time points are considered together, the uncertainty or the vertical resolution of ozone concentrations can be further improved. In this study, the surface ozone amounts at the UVMRP station located at Billings, Oklahoma are estimated from the adjacent (i.e. within 200 miles) US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) surface ozone observations using the spatial analysis technique. Then, the (direct normal) irradiances of UVMRP at one or more time points as inputs and the corresponding estimated surface ozone from EPA as outputs are fed into a pre-trained (dense) deep neural network (DNN) to explore the hidden non-linear relationship between them. This process could improve our understanding of their physical/mathematical relationship. Finally, the optimized DNN is tested with the preserved 5% of the dataset, which are not used during training, to verify the relationship.

Development and evaluation of an ozone deposition scheme for coupling to a terrestrial biosphere model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franz, Martina; Simpson, David; Arneth, Almut; Zaehle, Sönke

2017-01-01

Ozone (O3) is a toxic air pollutant that can damage plant leaves and substantially affect the plant's gross primary production (GPP) and health. Realistic estimates of the effects of tropospheric anthropogenic O3 on GPP are thus potentially important to assess the strength of the terrestrial biosphere as a carbon sink. To better understand the impact of ozone damage on the terrestrial carbon cycle, we developed a module to estimate O3 uptake and damage of plants for a state-of-the-art global terrestrial biosphere model called OCN. Our approach accounts for ozone damage by calculating (a) O3 transport from 45 m height to leaf level, (b) O3 flux into the leaf, and (c) ozone damage of photosynthesis as a function of the accumulated O3 uptake over the lifetime of a leaf. A comparison of modelled canopy conductance, GPP, and latent heat to FLUXNET data across European forest and grassland sites shows a general good performance of OCN including ozone damage. This comparison provides a good baseline on top of which ozone damage can be evaluated. In comparison to literature values, we demonstrate that the new model version produces realistic O3 surface resistances, O3 deposition velocities, and stomatal to total O3 flux ratios. A sensitivity study reveals that key metrics of the air-to-leaf O3 transport and O3 deposition, in particular the stomatal O3 uptake, are reasonably robust against uncertainty in the underlying parameterisation of the deposition scheme. Nevertheless, correctly estimating canopy conductance plays a pivotal role in the estimate of cumulative O3 uptake. We further find that accounting for stomatal and non-stomatal uptake processes substantially affects simulated plant O3 uptake and accumulation, because aerodynamic resistance and non-stomatal O3 destruction reduce the predicted leaf-level O3 concentrations. Ozone impacts on GPP and transpiration in a Europe-wide simulation indicate that tropospheric O3 impacts the regional carbon and water cycling less than expected from previous studies. This study presents a first step towards the integration of atmospheric chemistry and ecosystem dynamics modelling, which would allow for assessing the wider feedbacks between vegetation ozone uptake and tropospheric ozone burden.

Impacts of aerosol direct effects on tropospheric ozone ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Aerosol direct effects (ADE), i.e., scattering and absorption of incoming solar radiation, reduce radiation reaching the ground and the resultant photolysis attenuation can decrease O3 formation in polluted areas. One the other hand, evidence also suggests that ADE associated cooling suppresses atmospheric ventilation thereby enhancing surface-level O3. Assessment of ADE impacts is thus important for understanding emission reduction strategies that seek co-benefits associated with reductions in both particulate matter and O3 levels. This study quantifies the impacts of ADE on tropospheric ozone by using a two-way online coupled meteorology and atmospheric chemistry model, WRF-CMAQ, instrumented with process analysis methodology. Two manifestations of ADE impacts on O3 including changes in atmospheric dynamics (∆Dynamics) and changes in photolysis rates (∆Photolysis) were assessed separately through multiple scenario simulations for January and July of 2013 over China. Results suggest that ADE reduced surface daily maxima 1h O3 (DM1O3) in China by up to 39 µg m-3 1 through the combination of ∆Dynamics and ∆Photolysis in January, but enhanced surface DM1O3 by up to 4 µg m-3 in July. Increased O3 in July is largely attributed to ∆Dynamics which causes a weaker O3 sink of dry deposition and a stronger O3 source of photochemistry due to the stabilization of atmosphere. Meanwhile, surface OH is also enhanced at noon in July, though its daytime average valu

Projected global ground-level ozone impacts on vegetation under different emission and climate scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sicard, Pierre; Anav, Alessandro; De Marco, Alessandra; Paoletti, Elena

2017-10-01

The impact of ground-level ozone (O3) on vegetation is largely under-investigated at the global scale despite large areas worldwide that are exposed to high surface O3 levels. To explore future potential impacts of O3 on vegetation, we compared historical and projected surface O3 concentrations simulated by six global atmospheric chemistry transport models on the basis of three representative concentration pathways emission scenarios (i.e. RCP2.6, 4.5, 8.5). To assess changes in the potential surface O3 threat to vegetation at the global scale, we used the AOT40 metric. Results point out a significant exceedance of AOT40 in comparison with the recommendations of UNECE for the protection of vegetation. In fact, many areas of the Northern Hemisphere show that AOT40-based critical levels will be exceeded by a factor of at least 10 under RCP8.5. Changes in surface O3 by 2100 worldwide range from about +4-5 ppb in the RCP8.5 scenario to reductions of about 2-10 ppb in the most optimistic scenario, RCP2.6. The risk of O3 injury for vegetation, through the potential O3 impact on photosynthetic assimilation, decreased by 61 and 47 % under RCP2.6 and RCP4.5, respectively, and increased by 70 % under RCP8.5. Key biodiversity areas in southern and northern Asia, central Africa and North America were identified as being at risk from high O3 concentrations.

Exposure-Relevant Ozone Chemistry in Occupied Spaces

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Coleman, Beverly Kaye

2009-04-01

Ozone, an ambient pollutant, is transformed into other airborne pollutants in the indoor environment. In this dissertation, the type and amount of byproducts that result from ozone reactions with common indoor surfaces, surface residues, and vapors were determined, pollutant concentrations were related to occupant exposure, and frameworks were developed to predict byproduct concentrations under various indoor conditions. In Chapter 2, an analysis is presented of secondary organic aerosol formation from the reaction of ozone with gas-phase, terpene-containing consumer products in small chamber experiments under conditions relevant for residential and commercial buildings. The full particle size distribution was continuously monitored, andmore » ultrafine and fine particle concentrations were in the range of 10 to>300 mu g m -3. Particle nucleation and growth dynamics were characterized.Chapter 3 presents an investigation of ozone reactions with aircraft cabin surfaces including carpet, seat fabric, plastics, and laundered and worn clothing fabric. Small chamber experiments were used to determine ozone deposition velocities, ozone reaction probabilities, byproduct emission rates, and byproduct yields for each surface category. The most commonly detected byproducts included C1?C10 saturated aldehydes and skin oil oxidation products. For all materials, emission rates were higher with ozone than without. Experimental results were used to predict byproduct exposure in the cabin and compare to other environments. Byproduct levels are predicted to be similar to ozone levels in the cabin, which have been found to be tens to low hundreds of ppb in the absence of an ozone converter. In Chapter 4, a model is presented that predicts ozone uptake by and byproduct emission from residual chemicals on surfaces. The effects of input parameters (residue surface concentration, ozone concentration, reactivity of the residue and the surface, near-surface airflow conditions, and byproduct yield) were explored. In Chapter 5, the reaction of ozone with permethrin, a residual insecticide used in aircraft cabins, to form phosgene is investigated. A derivatization technique was developed to detect phosgene at low levels, and chamber experiments were conducted with permethrin-coated cabin materials. It was determined that phosgene formation, if it occurs in the aircraft cabin, is not likely to exceed the relevant, health-based phosgene exposure guidelines.« less

A Comparative Study on Ozone Photochemical Formation in the Megacities of Tianjin and Shanghai, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ran, L.; Zhao, C.; Xu, W.; Geng, F.; Lu, X.; Han, M.; Lin, W.; Xu, X.

2011-12-01

As one of the most widespread and stubborn environmental issues, the ozone problem has been of particular concern for many years, given the potential adverse effects of high ozone concentrations on public health and agricultural productivity. In the past decades, rapid urbanization and industrialization have given rise to a significant increase in ozone precursor emissions in many regions of China, especially in the densely populated megacities. Due to the highly nonlinear impacts of ozone precursors including nitrogen oxides (NOx) and various volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on ozone photochemistry, formation of ozone affected by different precursor emission patterns in those megacities has exhibited different characteristics. A comparative analysis of ozone photochemical production in the megacities of Tianjin and Shanghai has thus been carried out, using the data sets of surface ozone and its precursors measured respectively at an urban and a suburban site of the two megacities during the summertime. Observation-based analysis indicated an elevated ozone daily peak under photochemistry dominant conditions from the urban center to the suburb in both regions, nevertheless bearing different reasons. Ozone production was generally sensitive to VOCs in the Tianjin region, leading to a relatively higher level of ozone in the suburb where reactive VOCs were abundantly released from a number of industrial facilities, whereas a sensitivity of ozone production to NOx was found in Shanghai. The high level of NOx emitted mainly by motor vehicles in urban Shanghai largely inhibited ozone formation and resulted in a much more rapid decrease in ozone concentrations after reaching the daily maximum around midday compared with the other three areas. Ozone pollution in the megacity of Tianjin was more representative of the regional condition, implying that combined efforts would be needed to bring the ozone problem under control within this region. Improved understanding of ozone formation in the two megacities would be quite imperative and critical to provide a solid scientific basis for designing effective ozone control strategies.

Mitigation of global cooling by stratospheric chemistry feedbacks in a simulation of the Last Glacial Maximum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noda, S.; Kodera, K.; Deushi, M.; Kitoh, A.; Mizuta, R.; Yoshida, K.; Murakami, S.; Adachi, Y.; Yoden, S.

2017-12-01

A series of numerical simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (21 kyr B.P.) climate are performed by using an Earth System Model of the Meteorological Research Institute of the Japan Meteorological Agency to investigate the impact of stratospheric ozone profile on the surface climate with decreased CO2 condition and different orbital parameters. The contribution of the interactive ozone chemistry reveals a significant anomaly of +0.5 K (approximately 20 %) in the tropics and up to +1.5 K in high-latitudes for the annual mean zonal mean surface air temperature compared with those of the corresponding experiments with a prescribed ozone profile for preindustrial simulation of the fifth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). In the tropics, this mitigation of global cooling is related to longwave radiative feedbacks associated with circulation-driven increases in lower stratospheric ozone and related increase in stratospheric water vapor and related decrease in cirrus cloud. The relations are opposite signs to and consistent with those of a global warming simulation. In high-latitudes, the polar amplification of mitigation of cooling associated with the change of sea ice area that is the same sign to and consistent with our previous paleoclimate simulation in the mid-Holocene (6 kyr B.P.). We recommend that climate models include sea ice and ozone profile that are consistent with CO2 concentration.

Different efficiency of ozonated water washing to inactivate Salmonella enterica typhimurium on green onions, grape tomatoes, and green leaf lettuces.

PubMed

Xu, Wenqing; Wu, Changqing

2014-03-01

Ozonated water washing is one of the emerging techniques to inactivate foodborne pathogens on produce, and limited information is available to optimize processing parameters (treatment time, temperature, and pH) to improve ozone efficacy on Salmonella inactivation for different produce. The efficacy of ozonated water washing for inactivation of Salmonella enterica Typhimurium on green onions, grape tomatoes and green leaf lettuces were studied in our research. Surface inoculated fresh produce were washed by ozonated water for 1, 5, or 10 min at room temperature and pH 5.60 ± 0.03. Then efficacy of ozonated water washing at mild heated (50 °C) and refrigerated (4 °C) temperature for 5 min with pH 5.60 ± 0.03 was investigated. Salmonella inactivation efficacy under pH 5.60 ± 0.03 and 2.64 ± 0.02 with 5 min washing at room temperature were also compared. Our results showed that Salmonella inactivation by ozonated water was time-dependent for 3 fresh produce. Mild heated temperature (50 °C) and pH 2.64 ± 0.02 improved efficacy of ozonated water to inactivate Salmonella on tomatoes and lettuces, but not on green onions. It is suggested that different surface structures of fresh produce significantly impact the antimicrobial efficacy of ozonated water washing operated under various parameters (time, temperature, and pH). Washing is the essential step for green onions and lettuces in the packinghouse and grape tomatoes in the restaurants and grocery stores having salad bars. Ozonated water can be used as disinfectant to reduce microbial contamination (FDA). The effectiveness of this disinfectant depends on the type of product and treatment conditions, such as water temperature, acidity, contact time. Our study showed that Salmonella inactivation by ozonated water washing was time-dependent. Mild heat and low pH improved inactivation efficacy on tomatoes and lettuces, but not on green onions. Processors should consider adjustments that are most appropriate for their produce. © 2014 Institute of Food Technologists®

Using Ozone Lidar to Investigate Sources of High Ozone Concentrations in the Western United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Senff, C. J.; Langford, A. O.; Alvarez, R. J.; Brewer, Wm. A.; Banta, R. M.; Marchbanks, R. D.; Sandberg, S. P.; Weickmann, A. M.; Holloway, J. S.; Williams, E. J.

2016-06-01

We have used NOAA's Tunable Optical Profiler for Aerosol and oZone (TOPAZ) ozone lidar to investigate the sources of high surface ozone concentrations in two different regions of the western United States (US): the Uintah Basin in northeast Utah and Clark County in southern Nevada, which includes the city of Las Vegas. The Uintah Basin is a booming oil and gas producing region that often suffers from very high wintertime ozone concentrations. Clark County experiences violations of the US ozone standard primarily in spring and early summer despite a lack of any major local pollution sources. TOPAZ lidar observations, in conjunction with surface in situ measurements and model results, provided strong evidence that the high wintertime ozone concentrations in the Uintah Basin are primarily driven by local emissions associated with oil and gas exploration, whereas the Clark County ozone exceedances are often caused by ozone-rich air that is transported from the lower stratosphere all the way down to the earth's surface.

Comparative Analysis of the Surface Ozone Regime Over Russia and Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuznetsov, G. I.; Tarasova, O. A.; Elansky, N. F.; Beloglazov, M. I.

2004-05-01

The data of the measurements of the surface ozone concentration (SOC) at several Russian cites, in TROICA expeditions, data of EMEP network as well as the results of LOTOS model application were used to compare the main characteristics of ozone spatial and temporal variability over Russia and Europe. To carry out this investigation the number of new methods of data analysis were developed and applied. Their complex application gave us possibility to separate clearly the contribution of photochemical processes having mainly periodical component (daily and seasonal). Hence more attention could be paid to the dynamical mechanism impacting SOC regime, their spatial and temporal variability including trends estimation. Spectral windowing application to the filtered database of EMEP network showed that among the different processes providing annual and shorter variability the main part (about 40% of dispersion) is governed by local and synoptical scale processes in the range of 2-7 days. At the same time the spatial distribution of these percentage contribution is non-uniform over Europe. One of the important mechanisms providing this type of variability as well as the longer ones is air transport. To study the impact of air transport the correlation fields were calculated for the transport indices using 2D NILU trajectories and SOC at EMEP network. They showed that at the Eastern border of Europe the growth of the westerlies provides not the decrease but the growth of observed SOC. This approach was use to study the features of the zonal and meridianal transport, its seasonal characteristics and annual variability. Moreover at Kislovodsk High Mountain Station the changes of the transport patters can partly explain even observed trend of SOC. Comparison of the regime at the different locations using TROICA data shows that in the most of Russian cities ozone destruction is observed. The generation of the surface ozone is only possible in the cases of combination of natural and anthropogenic emissions (like forest fires episodes in Moscow region in summer 2002). The spatial structure of the surface ozone over the European Russia was obtained with the application of LOTOS model (TNO) evaluated for 1997. It showed much more uniformity of the SOC fields over Russia with the high concentrations in rural regions in comparison with industrial ones. This conclusion is in a good agreement with the measurements of TROICA expedition. The work is carried out under the support of INTAS grant 01-0016 and RFBR 03-05-64712.

Why do Models Overestimate Surface Ozone in the Southeastern United States?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Travis, K.; Jacob, D.; Fisher, J. A.; Kim, S.; Marais, E. A.; Zhu, L.; Yu, K.; Miller, C. E.; Yantosca, R.; Payer Sulprizio, M.; Thompson, A. M.; Wennberg, P. O.; Crounse, J.; St Clair, J. M.; Cohen, R. C.; Laughner, J.; Dibb, J. E.; Hall, S. R.; Ullmann, K.; Wolfe, G.; Pollack, I. B.; Peischl, J.; Neuman, J. A.; Zhou, X.

2016-12-01

Ozone pollution in the Southeast US involves complex chemistry driven by emissions of anthropogenic nitrogen oxide radicals (NOx = NO + NO2) and biogenic isoprene. Model estimates of surface ozone concentrations tend to be biased high in the region and this is of concern for designing effective emission control strategies to meet air quality standards. We use detailed chemical observations from the SEAC4RS aircraft campaign in August and September 2013, interpreted with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model at 0.25°×0.3125° horizontal resolution, to better understand the factors controlling surface ozone in the Southeast US. We find that the National Emission Inventory (NEI) for NO­x from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is too high in the Southeast and nationally by a factor of 2. This finding is based on SEAC4RS observations of NOx and its oxidation products, surface network observations of nitrate wet deposition fluxes, and OMI satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 columns. Upper tropospheric NO2 from lightning makes a large contribution to the satellite observations that must be accounted for when using these data to estimate surface NOx emissions. We find that only half of isoprene oxidation proceeds by the high-NOx pathway to produce ozone; this fraction is only moderately sensitive to changes in NOx emissions because isoprene and NOx emissions are spatially segregated. GEOS-Chem with reduced NOx emissions provides an unbiased simulation of ozone observations from the aircraft, and reproduces the observed ozone production efficiency in the boundary layer as derived from a regression of ozone and NOx oxidation products. However, the model is still biased high by 8±13 ppb relative to observed surface ozone in the Southeast US. Ozonesondes launched during midday hours show a 7 ppb ozone decrease from 1.5 km to the surface that GEOS-Chem does not capture. This may be caused by excessively dry conditions in the model, representing another factor important in the simulation of surface ozone.

Impact of Ozone Radiative Feedbacks on Global Weather Forecasting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivanova, I.; de Grandpré, J.; Rochon, Y. J.; Sitwell, M.

2017-12-01

A coupled Chemical Data Assimilation system for ozone is being developed at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) with the goals to improve the forecasting of UV index and the forecasting of air quality with the Global Environmental Multi-scale (GEM) Model for Air quality and Chemistry (MACH). Furthermore, this system provides an opportunity to evaluate the benefit of ozone assimilation for improving weather forecasting with the ECCC Global Deterministic Prediction System (GDPS) for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP). The present UV index forecasting system uses a statistical approach for evaluating the impact of ozone in clear-sky and cloudy conditions, and the use of real-time ozone analysis and ozone forecasts is highly desirable. Improving air quality forecasting with GEM-MACH further necessitates the development of integrated dynamical-chemical assimilation system. Upon its completion, real-time ozone analysis and ozone forecasts will also be available for piloting the regional air quality system, and for the computation of ozone heating rates, in replacement of the monthly mean ozone distribution currently used in the GDPS. Experiments with ozone radiative feedbacks were run with the GDPS at 25km resolution and 84 levels with a lid at 0.1 hPa and were initialized with ozone analysis that has assimilated total ozone column from OMI, OMPS, and GOME satellite instruments. The results show that the use of prognostic ozone for the computation of the heating/cooling rates has a significant impact on the temperature distribution throughout the stratosphere and upper troposphere regions. The impact of ozone assimilation is especially significant in the tropopause region, where ozone heating in the infrared wavelengths is important and ozone lifetime is relatively long. The implementation of the ozone radiative feedback in the GDPS requires addressing various issues related to model biases (temperature and humidity) and biases in equilibrium state (ozone mixing ratio, air temperature and overhead column ozone) used for the calculation of the linearized photochemical production and loss of ozone. Furthermore the radiative budget in the tropopause region is strongly affected by water vapor cooling, which impact requires further evaluation for the use in chemically coupled operational NWP systems.

Contributions of regional and intercontinental transport to surface ozone in the Tokyo area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshitomi, M.; Wild, O.; Akimoto, H.

2011-08-01

Japan lies downwind of the Asian continent and for much of the year air quality is directly influenced by emissions of ozone precursors over these heavily-populated and rapidly-industrializing regions. This study examines the extent to which oxidant transport from regional and distant anthropogenic sources influences air quality in Japan in springtime, when these contributions are largest. We find that European and North American contributions to surface ozone over Japan in spring are persistent, averaging 3.5±1.1 ppb and 2.8±0.5 ppb respectively, and are greatest in cold continental outflow conditions following the passage of cold fronts. Contributions from China are larger, 4.0±2.8 ppb, and more variable, as expected for a closer source region, and are generally highest near cold fronts preceding the influence of more distant sources. The stratosphere provides a varying but ever-present background of ozone of about 11.2±2.5 ppb during spring. Local sources over Japan and Korea have a relatively small impact on mean ozone, 2.4±7.6 ppb, but this masks a strong diurnal signal, and local sources clearly dominate during episodes of high daytime ozone. By examining the meteorological mechanisms that favour transport from different source regions, we demonstrate that while maximum foreign influence generally does not occur at the same time as the greatest buildup of oxidants from local sources, it retains a significant influence under these conditions. It is thus clear that while meteorological boundaries provide some protection from foreign influence during oxidant outbreaks in Tokyo, these distant sources still make a substantial contribution to exceedance of the Japanese ozone air quality standard in springtime.

Contributions of regional and intercontinental transport to surface ozone in Tokyo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshitomi, M.; Wild, O.; Akimoto, H.

2011-04-01

Japan lies downwind of the Asian continent and for much of the year air quality is directly influenced by emissions of ozone precursors over these heavily-populated and rapidly-industrializing regions. This study examines the extent to which oxidant transport from regional and distant anthropogenic sources influences air quality in Japan in springtime, when these contributions are largest. We find that European and North American contributions to surface ozone over Japan in spring are persistent, averaging 3.5±1.1 ppb and 2.8±0.5 ppb respectively, and are greatest in cold continental outflow conditions following the passage of cold fronts. Contributions from China are larger, 4.0±2.8 ppb, and more variable, as expected for a closer source region, and are generally highest near cold fronts preceding the influence of more distant sources. The stratosphere provides a varying but ever-present background of ozone of about 11.2±2.5 ppb during spring. Local sources over Japan and Korea have a relatively small impact on mean ozone, 2.4±7.6 ppb, but this masks a strong diurnal signal, and local sources clearly dominate during episodes of high daytime ozone. By examining the meteorological mechanisms that favour transport from different source regions, we demonstrate that while maximum foreign influence generally does not occur at the same time as the greatest buildup of oxidants from local sources, it retains a significant influence under these conditions. It is thus clear that while meteorological boundaries provide some protection from foreign influence during oxidant outbreaks in Tokyo, these distant sources still make a substantial contribution to exceedance of the Japanese ozone air quality standard in springtime.

Assessing the impact of local meteorological variables on surface ozone in Hong Kong during 2000-2015 using quantile and multiple line regression models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Wei; Fan, Shaojia; Guo, Hai; Gao, Bo; Sun, Jiaren; Chen, Laiguo

2016-11-01

The quantile regression (QR) method has been increasingly introduced to atmospheric environmental studies to explore the non-linear relationship between local meteorological conditions and ozone mixing ratios. In this study, we applied QR for the first time, together with multiple linear regression (MLR), to analyze the dominant meteorological parameters influencing the mean, 10th percentile, 90th percentile and 99th percentile of maximum daily 8-h average (MDA8) ozone concentrations in 2000-2015 in Hong Kong. The dominance analysis (DA) was used to assess the relative importance of meteorological variables in the regression models. Results showed that the MLR models worked better at suburban and rural sites than at urban sites, and worked better in winter than in summer. QR models performed better in summer for 99th and 90th percentiles and performed better in autumn and winter for 10th percentile. And QR models also performed better in suburban and rural areas for 10th percentile. The top 3 dominant variables associated with MDA8 ozone concentrations, changing with seasons and regions, were frequently associated with the six meteorological parameters: boundary layer height, humidity, wind direction, surface solar radiation, total cloud cover and sea level pressure. Temperature rarely became a significant variable in any season, which could partly explain the peak of monthly average ozone concentrations in October in Hong Kong. And we found the effect of solar radiation would be enhanced during extremely ozone pollution episodes (i.e., the 99th percentile). Finally, meteorological effects on MDA8 ozone had no significant changes before and after the 2010 Asian Games.

Surface ozone variability at Kislovodsk Observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elansky, Nikolay F.; Makarov, Oleg V.; Senik, Irina A.

1994-01-01

The results of the surface ozone observations at the Observatory 'Kislovodsk', situated in the North Caucasus at the altitude 2070 m a.s.l., are given. The observatory is in the background conditions and the variations of the surface ozone are determined by the natural dynamic and photochemical processes. The mean value of the concentration and its seasonal variations are very near to those obtained at the high-mountain stations in Alps. The daily variations have the features, which remain stable during all warm period of the year (April-October). These features, including the minimum of the surface ozone at noon, are formed by the mountain-valley circulation. The significant variations of the surface ozone are connected with the unstationary lee waves.

Evaluation of emission control strategies to reduce ozone pollution in the Paso del Norte region using a photochemical air quality modeling system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valenzuela, Victor Hugo

Air pollution emissions control strategies to reduce ozone precursor pollutants are analyzed by applying a photochemical modeling system. Simulations of air quality conditions during an ozone episode which occurred in June, 2006 are undertaken by increasing or reducing area source emissions in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Two air pollutants are primary drivers in the formation of tropospheric ozone. Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) undergo multiple chemical reactions under favorable meteorological conditions to form ozone, which is a secondary pollutant that irritates respiratory systems in sensitive individuals especially the elderly and young children. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to limit ambient air pollutants such as ozone by establishing an 8-hour average concentration of 0.075 ppm as the threshold at which a violation of the standard occurs. Ozone forms primarily due reactions in the troposphere of NOx and VOC emissions generated primarily by anthropogenic sources in urban regions. Data from emissions inventories indicate area sources account for ˜15 of NOx and ˜45% of regional VOC emissions. Area sources include gasoline stations, automotive paint bodyshops and nonroad mobile sources. Multiplicity of air pollution emissions sources provides an opportunity to investigate and potentially implement air quality improvement strategies to reduce emissions which contribute to elevated ozone concentrations. A baseline modeling scenario was established using the CAMx photochemical air quality model from which a series of sensitivity analyses for evaluating air quality control strategies were conducted. Modifications to area source emissions were made by varying NOx and / or VOC emissions in the areas of particular interest. Model performance was assessed for each sensitivity analysis. Normalized bias (NB) and normalized error (NE) were used to identify variability of the PREDICTED to OBSERVED ozone concentrations of both BASELINE model and simulations with modified emissions assessed by the sensitivity analysis. All simulations were found to vary within acceptable ranges of these two criteria variables. Simulation results indicate ozone formation in the PdN region is VOC-limited. Under VOC-limited conditions, modifications to NOx emissions do not produce a marked increase or decrease in ozone concentrations. Modifications to VOC emissions generated the highest variability in ozone concentrations. Increasing VOC emissions by 75% produced results which minimized model bias and error when comparing PREDICTED and OBSERVED ozone concentrations. Increasing VOC emissions by 75% either alone or in combination with a 75% increase in NOx emissions generated PREDICTED ozone concentrations very near to OBSERVED ozone. By evaluating the changes in ambient ozone concentrations through photochemical modeling, air quality planners may identify the most efficient or effective VOC emissions control strategies for area sources. Among the strategies to achieve emissions reductions are installation of gasoline vapor recovery systems, replacing high-pressure low-volume surface coating paint spray guns with high-volume low-pressure spray paint guns, requiring emissions control booths for surface coating operations as well as undertaking solvent management practices, requiring the sale of low VOC paint solvents in the surface-coating industry, and requiring low-VOC solvents in the dry cleaning industry. Other strategies to reduce VOC emissions include initiating Eco-Driving strategies to reduce fuel consumption from mobile sources and minimize vehicle idling at the international ports of entry by reducing bridge wait times. This dissertation depicts a tool for evaluating impacts of emissions on regional air quality by addressing the highly unresolved fugitive emissions in the Paso del Norte region. It provides a protocol for decision makers to assess the effects of various emission control strategies in the region. Impacts of specific source categories such as the international ports of entry, gasoline stations, paint body shops, truck stops, and military installations on the regional air quality can be easily and systematically addressed in a timely manner in the future.

Interaction between isoprene and ozone fluxes at ecosystem level in a poplar plantation and its impact at European level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zenone, T.; Hendriks, C.; Brilli, F.; Gioli, B.; Portillo Estrada, M.; Schaap, M.; Ceulemans, R.

2015-12-01

The emissions of Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) from vegetation, mainly in form of isoprenoids, play an important role in the tropospheric ozone (O3) formation. The potential large expansion of isoprene emitter species (e.g. poplar) as biofuels feedstock might impact the ground level O3 formation. Here we report the simultaneous observations, using the eddy covariance (EC) technique, of isoprene, O3 and CO2 fluxes in a short rotation coppice (SRC) of poplar. The impact of current poplar plantations and associated isoprene emissions on ground level ozone concentrations for Europe was evaluated using a chemistry transport model (CTM) LOTOS-EUROS. The isoprene fluxes showed a well-defined seasonal and daily cycle that mirrored with the stomata O3 uptake. The isoprene emission and the stomata O3 uptake showed significant statistical relationship especially at elevated temperature. Isoprene was characterized by a remarkable peak of emissions (e.g. 38 nmol m-2s-1) occurring for few days as a consequence of the rapid variation of the air and surface temperature. During these days the photosynthetic apparatus (i.e. the CO2 fluxes) and transpiration rates did not show significant variation while we did observe a variation of the energy exchange and a reduction of the bowen ratio. The response of isoprene emissions to ambient O3 concentration follows the common form of the hormetic dose-response curve with a considerable reduction of the isoprene emissions at [O3] > 80 ppbv indicating a potential damping effect of the O3 levels on isoprene. Under the current condition the impact of SRC plantations on ozone concentrations / formation is very limited in Europe. Our findings indicate that, even with future scenarios with more SRC, or conventional poplar plantations, the impact on Ozone formation is negligible.

Multiscale Modeling of Multi-decadal Trends in Ozone across the Northern Hemisphere & United States

EPA Science Inventory

Both observational and modeling studies have demonstrated that pollutants near the Earth’s surface can be convectively lofted to higher altitudes where strong winds can efficiently transport them from one continent to another, thereby impacting air quality on intercontinent...

Impact on short-lived climate forcers increases projected warming due to deforestation.

PubMed

Scott, C E; Monks, S A; Spracklen, D V; Arnold, S R; Forster, P M; Rap, A; Äijälä, M; Artaxo, P; Carslaw, K S; Chipperfield, M P; Ehn, M; Gilardoni, S; Heikkinen, L; Kulmala, M; Petäjä, T; Reddington, C L S; Rizzo, L V; Swietlicki, E; Vignati, E; Wilson, C

2018-01-11

The climate impact of deforestation depends on the relative strength of several biogeochemical and biogeophysical effects. In addition to affecting the exchange of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and moisture with the atmosphere and surface albedo, vegetation emits biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) that alter the formation of short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), which include aerosol, ozone and methane. Here we show that a scenario of complete global deforestation results in a net positive radiative forcing (RF; 0.12 W m -2 ) from SLCFs, with the negative RF from decreases in ozone and methane concentrations partially offsetting the positive aerosol RF. Combining RFs due to CO 2 , surface albedo and SLCFs suggests that global deforestation could cause 0.8 K warming after 100 years, with SLCFs contributing 8% of the effect. However, deforestation as projected by the RCP8.5 scenario leads to zero net RF from SLCF, primarily due to nonlinearities in the aerosol indirect effect.

Volatilization of low vapor pressure--volatile organic compounds (LVP-VOCs) during three cleaning products-associated activities: Potential contributions to ozone formation.

PubMed

Shin, Hyeong-Moo; McKone, Thomas E; Bennett, Deborah H

2016-06-01

There have been many studies to reduce ozone formation mostly from volatile organic compound (VOC) sources. However, the role of low vapor pressure (LVP)-VOCs from consumer products remains mostly unexplored and unaddressed. This study explores the impact of high production volume LVP-VOCs on ozone formation from three cleaning products-associated activities (dishwashing, clothes washing, and surface cleaning). We develop a model framework to account for the portion available for ozone formation during the use phase and from the down-the-drain disposal. We apply experimental studies that measured emission rates or models that were developed for estimating emission rates of organic compounds during the use phase. Then, the fraction volatilized (fvolatilized) and the fraction disposed down the drain (fdown-the-drain) are multiplied by the portion available for ozone formation for releases to the outdoor air (fO3|volatilized) and down-the-drain (fO3|down-the-drain), respectively. Overall, for chemicals used in three specific cleaning-product uses, fvolatilized is less than 0.6% for all studied LVP-VOCs. Because greater than 99.4% of compounds are disposed of down the drain during the use phase, when combined with fO3|volatilized and fO3|down-the-drain, the portion available for ozone formation from the direct releases to outdoor air and the down-the-drain disposal is less than 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively. The results from this study indicate that the impact of the studied LVP-VOCs on ozone formation is very sensitive to what occurs during the use phase and suggest the need for future research on experimental work at the point of use. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Preliminary Analysis of Ozonesonde Data from Houston, TX as Part of INTEX-A, July - August 2004

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hersey, S.; Morris, G.; Fraser, M.; Holmes, C.; Thompson, A.; Kuscera, T.; Witte, J.

2004-12-01

The Houston area is well-known for its frequent levels of high ozone pollution. The extent of the pollution in Houston has important direct and indirect consequences for the local population, ranging from the cancelling of recess to increased rates of asthma to threats of fines and loss of transportation dollars for failure to comply with EPA standards. Despite these consequences, the Houston area has no established program to monitor ozone concentrations at any altitude in the atmosphere but the surface. During the period July 8 - August 12, we launched 25 ozonesondes that yielded data on the vertical distribution of ozone over the city of Houston as part of INTEX-A and a study sponsored by the Shell Center for Sustainable Development at Rice University. Combining ozonesonde data from Houston with a trajectory model from NASA Goddard provides a powerful approach to interpreting the data, including insight into local and remote contributions to Houston's ozone pollution. Analysis of our data show (1) the impact of remote wild fires on ozone levels above Houston, (2) the amount of ozone that develops over Houston in the course of one day, and (3) the extent of vertical mixing of Houston's ozone pollution, a factor in transport to areas downwind of the city.

Growth in the Stratospheric Loading of Chlorinated Very Short-Lived Substances: Recent Trends and Implications for Future Ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hossaini, R.; Chipperfield, M.; Montzka, S. A.; Leeson, A.; Dhomse, S.; Pyle, J. A.

2016-12-01

Very short-lived species (VSLS) are an important source of stratospheric halogens and contribute to ozone loss, particularly in the lower stratosphere, where ozone perturbations are most climate-relevant (Hossaini et al., 2015a,b). Chlorine VSLS, such as dichloromethane (CH2Cl2), are primarily anthropogenic and their production is not controlled by the Montreal Protocol. Long-term surface measurements of CH2Cl2, the most abundant chlorine VSLS, show its atmospheric concentration has more than doubled in the last decade. Here, we used the TOMCAT/SLIMCAT chemical transport model to quantify (i) recent trends in the emission and stratospheric input of CH2Cl2, (ii) the impact of CH2Cl2 on present day ozone & (iii) the impact of continued CH2Cl2 growth on future ozone. Constrained by time-dependent surface CH2Cl2 measurements, our model shows the contribution of CH2Cl2 to stratospheric Cl doubled between 2005 (36 ppt Cl) and 2016 (72 ppt Cl). The model reproduces well high-altitude CH2Cl2 measurements from recent NASA ATTREX missions. Increases in the stratospheric input of CH2Cl2 are attributed to increasing industrial emissions. We estimate a 1 Tg CH2Cl2/yr source is required to sustain observed present day CH2Cl2 concentrations. By comparing a simulation with CH2Cl2 considered to one without, we show that CH2Cl2 presently accounts for up to 10% of lower stratospheric Cly. Inclusion of CH2Cl2 leads to a modest reduction of the model springtime Antarctic ozone column of up to 3%. Assuming CH2Cl2 concentrations continue to increase at their present rate, our forward simulations show CH2Cl2 could account for 20-30% of lower stratospheric Cly by 2050, as the contribution from long-lived chlorocarbons declines. We find that continued CH2Cl2 growth could significantly delay the return of Antarctic ozone to pre-1980 levels by more than a decade. In conclusion, sustained future CH2Cl2 growth could significantly offset some of the future benefits of the Montreal Protocol and add uncertainty to projections of ozone recovery. - Hossaini, R., et al. Efficiency of short-lived halogens at influencing climate through depletion of stratospheric ozone, Nat. Geosci., 2015a. Hossaini, R., et al. Growth in stratospheric chlorine from short-lived chemicals not controlled by the Montreal Protocol, Geophys. Res. Lett., 2015b.

Impact of near-surface atmospheric composition on ozone formation in Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berezina, Elena; Moiseenko, Konstantin; Skorokhod, Andrey; Belikov, Igor; Pankratova, Natalia; Elansky, Nikolai

2017-04-01

One of the consequences of the human impact on the atmosphere is increasing in tropospheric ozone concentration, with the highest ozone level being observed in industrially developed and highly populated regions of the world. In these regions, main anthropogenic sources of carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are concentrated. The oxidation of these compounds, when interacting with hydroxyl and nitrogen oxides at rather high temperature and sunlight, leads to ozone formation. CO and CH4 are slowly oxidized in the atmosphere and cause an increase in global and regional background ozone. However, the oxidation of some VOCs occurs during daylight hours and is accompanied by an increase in ozone concentration near VOCs sources, particularly in urban and industrial areas. The contribution of biogenic VOCs to ozone generation is estimated to be from 40 to 70% of the total contribution of all chemical ozone precursors in the troposphere [1], with isoprene playing the main role in ozone formation [2]. The impact of aromatic hydrocarbons to ozone formation is reported to be about 40% of the total ozone generation from the oxidation of anthropogenic VOCs [3]. In this study, the results of VOCs measurements (isoprene, benzene, toluene, phenol, styrene, xylene and propilbenzene) by proton mass spectrometry in different regions of Russia along the Trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Vladivostok from TROICA-12 campaign on a mobile laboratory in summer 2008 are analyzed. It is shown that the TROICA-12 measurements were carried out mostly in moderately polluted (2≤NOx<20 ppb) environment ( 78% of measurements) with the remaining part of the measurements divided between weakly polluted (NOx≤2 ppb) and highly polluted (NOx>20 ppb) conditions ( 20 and 2% of measurements, correspondingly). The lower troposphere chemical regime in the campaign is found to be mainly NOx sensitive, both in rural and urban environments, with typical morning NMHC/NOx ratios being well above 20. Hence, ozone production rates are expected to be controlled by regional NOx emissions and their complex interplay with both natural and anthropogenic sources of VOCs. The quantitative contribution of aromatic VOCs to ozone formation in urban areas and in Russian regions along the railway is estimated. The greatest impact of aromatic VOCs to ozone formation (up to 7.5 ppb of O3) is obtained in the large cities along the Trans-Siberian Railway, with the highest concentrations of aromatic VOCs (1-1.7 ppb) and nitrogen oxides (> 20 ppb) being observed. The results show a significant contribution of anthropogenic emissions of VOCs to the photochemical ozone generation (30-50%) in the large cities along the Trans-Siberian railway in hot and dry weather conditions against natural isoprene emissions determining the regional balance of ground-level ozone in summer. This study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 14-47-00049) and by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant no. 16-35-00158). References: 1. Xie, X., Shao, M., Liu, Y., Lu, S., Chang, C. C., and Chen, Z. M. // Atmos. Environ., 2008, 42, pp. 6000-6010. 2. Guenther, A., Geron, C., Pierce, T., Lamb, B., Harley, P., Fall, R. // Atmospheric Environment, 2000, 34, pp. 2205-2230. 3. Dreyfus, G. B., Schade G. W., Goldstein A. H. // J. Geophys. Res., 2002, 107(D19): 4365, doi:10.1029/2001JD001490.

Impact of uncertainties in inorganic chemical rate constants on tropospheric composition and ozone radiative forcing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newsome, Ben; Evans, Mat

2017-12-01

Chemical rate constants determine the composition of the atmosphere and how this composition has changed over time. They are central to our understanding of climate change and air quality degradation. Atmospheric chemistry models, whether online or offline, box, regional or global, use these rate constants. Expert panels evaluate laboratory measurements, making recommendations for the rate constants that should be used. This results in very similar or identical rate constants being used by all models. The inherent uncertainties in these recommendations are, in general, therefore ignored. We explore the impact of these uncertainties on the composition of the troposphere using the GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model. Based on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) evaluations we assess the influence of 50 mainly inorganic rate constants and 10 photolysis rates on tropospheric composition through the use of the GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model. We assess the impact on four standard metrics: annual mean tropospheric ozone burden, surface ozone and tropospheric OH concentrations, and tropospheric methane lifetime. Uncertainty in the rate constants for NO2 + OH →M HNO3 and O3 + NO → NO2 + O2 are the two largest sources of uncertainty in these metrics. The absolute magnitude of the change in the metrics is similar if rate constants are increased or decreased by their σ values. We investigate two methods of assessing these uncertainties, addition in quadrature and a Monte Carlo approach, and conclude they give similar outcomes. Combining the uncertainties across the 60 reactions gives overall uncertainties on the annual mean tropospheric ozone burden, surface ozone and tropospheric OH concentrations, and tropospheric methane lifetime of 10, 11, 16 and 16 %, respectively. These are larger than the spread between models in recent model intercomparisons. Remote regions such as the tropics, poles and upper troposphere are most uncertain. This chemical uncertainty is sufficiently large to suggest that rate constant uncertainty should be considered alongside other processes when model results disagree with measurement. Calculations for the pre-industrial simulation allow a tropospheric ozone radiative forcing to be calculated of 0.412 ± 0.062 W m-2. This uncertainty (13 %) is comparable to the inter-model spread in ozone radiative forcing found in previous model-model intercomparison studies where the rate constants used in the models are all identical or very similar. Thus, the uncertainty of tropospheric ozone radiative forcing should expanded to include this additional source of uncertainty. These rate constant uncertainties are significant and suggest that refinement of supposedly well-known chemical rate constants should be considered alongside other improvements to enhance our understanding of atmospheric processes.

Direct observation of ozone formation on SiO2 surfaces in O2 discharges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marinov, D.; Guaitella, O.; Booth, J. P.; Rousseau, A.

2013-01-01

Ozone production is studied in a pulsed O2 discharge at pressures in the range 1.3-6.7 mbar. Time-resolved absolute concentrations of O3 and O are measured in the post-discharge using UV absorption spectroscopy and two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence. In a bare silica discharge tube ozone is formed mainly by three-body gas-phase recombination. When the tube surface is covered by a high specific surface silica catalyst heterogeneous formation becomes the main source of ozone. The efficiency of this surface process increases with O2 pressure and is favoured by the presence of OH groups and adsorbed H2O on the surface. At p = 6.7 mbar ozone production accounts for up to 25% of the atomic oxygen losses on the surface.

Tropospheric ozone in the western Pacific Rim: Analysis of satellite and surface-based observations along with comprehensive 3-D model simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, Sun-Woo; Carmichael, Gregory R.

1994-01-01

Tropospheric ozone production and transport in mid-latitude eastern Asia is studied. Data analysis of surface-based ozone measurements in Japan and satellite-based tropospheric column measurements of the entire western Pacific Rim are combined with results from three-dimensional model simulations to investigate the diurnal, seasonal and long-term variations of ozone in this region. Surface ozone measurements from Japan show distinct seasonal variation with a spring peak and summer minimum. Satellite studies of the entire tropospheric column of ozone show high concentrations in both the spring and summer seasons. Finally, preliminary model simulation studies show good agreement with observed values.

Quantifying the effects of ozone on plant reproductive growth and development

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Tropospheric ozone is a harmful air pollutant that can negatively impact plant growth and development. Current ozone concentrations negatively impact forest productivity and crop yields, and future ozone concentrations will increase if current emission rates continue. However, the specific effects o...

Photochemical model estimated fire impacts on ozone and aerosol evaluated with field studies and routine data sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baker, K. R.

2017-12-01

Highly instrumented field studies provide a unique opportunity to evaluate multiple aspects of photochemical grid model representation of fire emissions, dispersion, and chemical evolution. Fuel information and burn area for a specific fire coupled with near-fire and downwind chemical measurements provides information needed to constrain model predicted fire plume transport and chemical evolution of important pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter (PM2.5) that have deleterious health effects. Most local to regional scale field campaigns to date have made relatively few transects through plumes from fires with well characterized fuel type and consumption. While more comprehensive field studies are being planned for 2018 and beyond (WE-CAN, FIREX, FIRE-CHEM, and FASMEE), existing measurement data from multiple field campaigns including 2013 SEAC4RS, satellite data, and routine surface networks are used to assess how a regulatory modeling system captures fire impacts on local to regional scale ozone and PM2.5. Key aspects of the regulatory modeling system include fire location and burn area from SMARTFIRE2, emissions from BlueSky framework, and predictions of ambient O3 and PM2.5 from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) photochemical transport model. A comparison of model estimated O3 from specific fires with routine surface measurements at rural locations in proximity to the 2013 Rim fire, 2011 Wallow fire, and 2011 Flint Hills fires suggest the modeling system over-estimates smoke impacts on hourly ozone. Sensitivity simulations where solar radiation and photolysis rates are more aggressively attenuated by smoke reduced O3 predictions but did not ameliorate the over prediction bias. PM2.5 organic carbon tends to be overpredicted at rural surface sites downwind from the 2011 Flint Hills prescribed fires while results were mixed at rural sites downwind of the 2013 Rim fire and 2011 Wallow fire suggesting differences in fuel characterization (e.g., emission factors, emissions speciation, burn period, etc.) between these areas may contribute to differences in model prediction. Aircraft plume transects made downwind of the 2013 Rim fire and satellite information suggest the model does well at regional scale plume transport.

Long-term variation of Surface Ozone, NO2, temperature and relative humidity on crop yield over Andhra Pradesh (AP), India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arunachalam, M. S.; Obili, Manjula; Srimurali, M.

2016-07-01

Long-term variation of Surface Ozone, NO2, Temperature, Relative humidity and crop yield datasets over thirteen districts of Andhra Pradesh(AP) has been studied with the help of OMI, MODIS, AIRS, ERA-Interim re-analysis and Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES) of AP. Inter comparison of crop yield loss estimates according to exposure metrics such as AOT40 (accumulated ozone exposure over a threshold of 40) and non-linear variation of surface temperature for twenty and eighteen varieties of two major crop growing seasons namely, kharif (April-September) and rabi (October-March), respectively has been made. Study is carried to establish a new crop-yield-exposure relationship for different crop cultivars of AP. Both ozone and temperature are showing a correlation coefficient of 0.66 and 0.87 with relative humidity; and 0.72 and 0.80 with NO2. Alleviation of high surface ozone results in high food security and improves the economy thereby reduces the induced warming of the troposphere caused by ozone. Keywords: Surface Ozone, NO2, Temperature, Relative humidity, Crop yield, AOT 40.

The influences of wildfires and stratospheric-tropospheric exchange on ozone during seacions mission over St. Louis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilkins, Joseph L.

The influence of wildfire biomass burning and stratospheric air mass transport on tropospheric ozone (O3) concentrations in St. Louis during the SEAC4RS and SEACIONS-2013 measurement campaigns has been investigated. The Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART-WRF analysis reveals that 55% of ozonesonde profiles during SEACIONS were effected by biomass burning. Comparing ozonesonde profiles with numerical simulations show that as biomass burning plumes age there is O3 production aloft. A new plume injection height technique was developed based on the Naval Research Laboratory's (NRL) detection algorithm for pyro-convection. The NRL method identified 29 pyro-cumulonimbus events that occurred during the summer of 2013, of which 13 (44%) impacted the SEACIONS study area, and 4 (14%) impacted the St. Louis area. In this study, we investigate wildfire plume injection heights using model simulations and the FLAMBE emissions inventory using 2 different algorithms. In the first case, wildfire emissions are injected at the surface and allowed to mix within the boundary layer simulated by the meteorological model. In the second case, the injection height of wildfire emissions is determined by a guided deep-convective pyroCb run using the NRL detection algorithm. Results show that simulations using surface emissions were able to represent the transport of carbon monoxide plumes from wildfires when the plumes remained below 5 km or occurred during large convective systems, but that the surface effects were over predicted. The pyroCb cases simulated the long-range transport of elevated plumes above 5 km 68% of the time. In addition analysis of potential vorticity suggests that stratospheric intrusions or tropopause folds affected 13 days (48%) when there were sonde launches and 27 days (44%) during the entire study period. The largest impact occurred on September 12, 2013 when ozone-rich air impacted the nocturnal boundary layer. By analyzing ozonesonde profiles with meteorological transport models, we were able to identify biomass burning and stratospheric intrusions in St. Louis.

Feasibility Study For A Spaceborne Ozone/Aerosol Lidar System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, Richard E.; Browell, Edward V.; Ismail, Syed; Dudelzak, Alexander E.; Carswell, Allan I.; Ulitsky, Arkady

1997-01-01

Because ozone provides a shield against harmful ultraviolet radiation, determines the temperature profile in the stratosphere, plays important roles in tropospheric chemistry and climate, and is a health risk near the surface, changes in natural ozone layers at different altitudes and their global impact are being intensively researched. Global ozone coverage is currently provided by passive optical and microwave satellite sensors that cannot deliver high spatial resolution measurements and have particular limitations in the troposphere. Vertical profiling DIfferential Absorption Lidars (DIAL) have shown excellent range-resolved capabilities, but these systems have been large, inefficient, and have required continuous technical attention for long term operations. Recently, successful, autonomous DIAL measurements have been performed from a high-altitude aircraft (LASE - Lidar Atmospheric Sensing Experiment), and a space-qualified aerosol lidar system (LITE - Laser In-space Technology Experiment) has performed well on Shuttle. Based on the above successes, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency are jointly studying the feasibility of developing ORACLE (Ozone Research with Advanced Cooperative Lidar Experiments), an autonomously operated, compact DIAL instrument to be placed in orbit using a Pegasus class launch vehicle.

Solid rocket exhaust in the stratosphere: Plume diffusion and chemical reactions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Denison, M.R.; Lamb, J.J.; Bjorndahl, W.D.

1994-05-01

A model has been developed to examine, on a local scale, the reactions of rocket exhaust from solid rocket motors with stratospheric ozone. The effects were examined at two different altitudes. Results of the modeling study indicate that afterburning chemistry of reactive exhaust products can cause local but transient (on the order of several minutes) loss of ozone. The modeling study included potential heterogeneous reactions at aluminum oxide surfaces. Results indicate that these potential heterogeneous reactions do not have a major impact on the local plume chemistry. Homogeneous reactions appear to be of more consequence during the early dispersion ofmore » the plume. It has also been found that the rate of plume dispersion has a very significant effect on local ozone loss.« less

Forests and ozone: productivity, carbon storage, and feedbacks.

PubMed

Wang, Bin; Shugart, Herman H; Shuman, Jacquelyn K; Lerdau, Manuel T

2016-02-22

Tropospheric ozone is a serious air-pollutant, with large impacts on plant function. This study demonstrates that tropospheric ozone, although it damages plant metabolism, does not necessarily reduce ecosystem processes such as productivity or carbon sequestration because of diversity change and compensatory processes at the community scale ameliorate negative impacts at the individual level. This study assesses the impact of ozone on forest composition and ecosystem dynamics with an individual-based gap model that includes basic physiology as well as species-specific metabolic properties. Elevated tropospheric ozone leads to no reduction of forest productivity and carbon stock and to increased isoprene emissions, which result from enhanced dominance by isoprene-emitting species (which tolerate ozone stress better than non-emitters). This study suggests that tropospheric ozone may not diminish forest carbon sequestration capacity. This study also suggests that, because of the often positive relationship between isoprene emission and ozone formation, there is a positive feedback loop between forest communities and ozone, which further aggravates ozone pollution.

Improve observation-based ground-level ozone spatial distribution by compositing satellite and surface observations: A simulation experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yuzhong; Wang, Yuhang; Crawford, James; Cheng, Ye; Li, Jianfeng

2018-05-01

Obtaining the full spatial coverage of daily surface ozone fields is challenging because of the sparsity of the surface monitoring network and the difficulty in direct satellite retrievals of surface ozone. We propose an indirect satellite retrieval framework to utilize the information from satellite-measured column densities of tropospheric NO2 and CH2O, which are sensitive to the lower troposphere, to derive surface ozone fields. The method is applicable to upcoming geostationary satellites with high-quality NO2 and CH2O measurements. To prove the concept, we conduct a simulation experiment using a 3-D chemical transport model for July 2011 over the eastern US. The results show that a second order regression using both NO2 and CH2O column densities can be an effective predictor for daily maximum 8-h average ozone. Furthermore, this indirect retrieval approach is shown to be complementary to spatial interpolation of surface observations, especially in regions where the surface sites are sparse. Combining column observations of NO2 and CH2O with surface site measurements leads to an improved representation of surface ozone over simple kriging, increasing the R2 value from 0.53 to 0.64 at a surface site distance of 252 km. The improvements are even more significant with larger surface site distances. The simulation experiment suggests that the indirect satellite retrieval technique can potentially be a useful tool to derive the full spatial coverage of daily surface ozone fields if satellite observation uncertainty is moderate.

Plasmachemical and heterogeneous processes in ozonizers with oxygen activation by a dielectric barrier discharge

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mankelevich, Yu. A., E-mail: ymankelevich@mics.msu.su; Voronina, E. N.; Poroykov, A. Yu.

Plasmachemical and heterogeneous processes of generation and loss of ozone in the atmosphericpressure dielectric barrier discharge in oxygen are studied theoretically. Plasmachemical and electronic kinetics in the stage of development and decay of a single plasma filament (microdischarge) are calculated numerically with and without allowance for the effects of ozone vibrational excitation and high initial ozone concentration. The developed analytical approach is applied to determine the output ozone concentration taking into account ozone heterogeneous losses on the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} dielectric surface. Using the results of quantummechanical calculations by the method of density functional theory, a multistage catalytic mechanism ofmore » heterogeneous ozone loss based on the initial passivation of a pure Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} surface by ozone and the subsequent interaction of O{sub 3} molecules with the passivated surface is proposed. It is shown that the conversion reaction 2O{sub 3} → 3O{sub 2} of a gas-phase ozone molecule with a physically adsorbed ozone molecule can result in the saturation of the maximum achievable ozone concentration at high specific energy depositions, the nonstationarity of the output ozone concentration, and its dependence on the prehistory of ozonizer operation.« less

Surface ozone at Nam Co in the inland Tibetan Plateau: variation, synthesis comparison and regional representativeness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yin, Xiufeng; Kang, Shichang; de Foy, Benjamin; Cong, Zhiyuan; Luo, Jiali; Zhang, Lang; Ma, Yaoming; Zhang, Guoshuai; Rupakheti, Dipesh; Zhang, Qianggong

2017-09-01

Ozone is an important pollutant and greenhouse gas, and tropospheric ozone variations are generally associated with both natural and anthropogenic processes. As one of the most pristine and inaccessible regions in the world, the Tibetan Plateau has been considered as an ideal region for studying processes of the background atmosphere. Due to the vast area of the Tibetan Plateau, sites in the southern, northern and central regions exhibit different patterns of variation in surface ozone. Here, we present continuous measurements of surface ozone mixing ratios at Nam Co Station over a period of ˜ 5 years (January 2011 to October 2015), which is a background site in the inland Tibetan Plateau. An average surface ozone mixing ratio of 47.6 ± 11.6 ppb (mean ± standard deviation) was recorded, and a large annual cycle was observed with maximum ozone mixing ratios in the spring and minimum ratios during the winter. The diurnal cycle is characterized by a minimum in the early morning and a maximum in the late afternoon. Nam Co Station represents a background region where surface ozone receives negligible local anthropogenic emissions inputs, and the anthropogenic contribution from South Asia in spring and China in summer may affect Nam Co Station occasionally. Surface ozone at Nam Co Station is mainly dominated by natural processes involving photochemical reactions, vertical mixing and downward transport of stratospheric air mass. Model results indicate that the study site is affected differently by the surrounding areas in different seasons: air masses from the southern Tibetan Plateau contribute to the high ozone levels in the spring, and enhanced ozone levels in the summer are associated with air masses from the northern Tibetan Plateau. By comparing measurements at Nam Co Station with those from other sites on the Tibetan Plateau, we aim to expand the understanding of ozone cycles and transport processes over the Tibetan Plateau. This work may provide a reference for future model simulations.

Vertical ozone characteristics in urban boundary layer in Beijing.

PubMed

Ma, Zhiqiang; Xu, Honghui; Meng, Wei; Zhang, Xiaoling; Xu, Jing; Liu, Quan; Wang, Yuesi

2013-07-01

Vertical ozone and meteorological parameters were measured by tethered balloon in the boundary layer in the summer of 2009 in Beijing, China. A total of 77 tethersonde soundings were taken during the 27-day campaign. The surface ozone concentrations measured by ozonesondes and TEI 49C showed good agreement, albeit with temporal difference between the two instruments. Two case studies of nocturnal secondary ozone maxima are discussed in detail. The development of the low-level jet played a critical role leading to the observed ozone peak concentrations in nocturnal boundary layer (NBL). The maximum of surface ozone was 161.7 ppbv during the campaign, which could be attributed to abundant precursors storage near surface layer at nighttime. Vertical distribution of ozone was also measured utilizing conventional continuous analyzers on 325-m meteorological observation tower. The results showed the NBL height was between 47 and 280 m, which were consistent with the balloon data. Southerly air flow could bring ozone-rich air to Beijing, and the ozone concentrations exceeded the China's hourly ozone standard (approximately 100 ppb) above 600 m for more than 12 h.

Ozone assisted oxidation of gaseous PCDD/Fs over CNTs-containing composite catalysts at low temperature.

PubMed

Wang, Qiulin; Tang, Minghui; Peng, Yaqi; Du, Cuicui; Lu, Shengyong

2018-05-01

Ozone assisted carbon nanotubes (CNTs) supported vanadium oxide/titanium dioxide (V/Ti-CNTs) or vanadium oxide-manganese oxide/titanium dioxide (V-Mn/Ti-CNTs) catalysts towards gaseous PCDD/Fs (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans) catalytic oxidations at low temperature (150 °C) were investigated. The removal efficiency (RE) and decomposition efficiency (DE) of PCDD/Fs achieved with V-Mn/Ti-CNTs alone were 95% and 45% at 150 °C under a space velocity (SV) of 14000 h -1 ; yet, these values reached 99% and 91% when catalyst and low concentration (50 ppm) ozone were used in combined. The ozone promotion effect on catalytic activity was further enhanced with the addition of manganese oxide (MnO x ) and CNTs. Adding MnO x and CNTs in V/Ti catalysts facilitated the ozone decomposition (creating more active species on catalyst surface), thus, improved ozone utilization (demanding relatively lower ozone addition concentration). On the other hand, this study threw light upon ozone promotion mechanism based on the comparison of catalyst properties (i.e. components, surface area, surface acidity, redox ability and oxidation state) before and after ozone treatment. The experimental results indicate that a synergistic effect exists between catalyst and ozone: ozone is captured and decomposed on catalyst surface; meanwhile, the catalyst properties are changed by ozone in return. Reactive oxygen species from ozone decomposition and the accompanied catalyst properties optimization are crucial reasons for catalyst activation at low temperature. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ozone impact minimization through coordinated scheduling of turnaround operations from multiple olefin plants in an ozone nonattainment area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ge, Sijie; Wang, Sujing; Xu, Qiang; Ho, Thomas

2018-03-01

Turnaround operations (start-up and shutdown) are critical operations in olefin plants, which emit large quantities of VOCs, NOx and CO. The emission has great potentials to impact the ozone level in ozone nonattainment areas. This study demonstrates a novel practice to minimize the ozone impact through coordinated scheduling of turnaround operations from multiple olefin plants located in Houston, Texas, an ozone nonattainment area. The study considered two olefin plants scheduled to conduct turnaround operations: one start-up and one shutdown, simultaneously on the same day within a five-hour window. Through dynamic simulations of the turnaround operations using ASPEN Plus Dynamics and air quality simulations using CAMx, the study predicts the ozone impact from the combined effect of the two turnaround operations under different starting-time scenarios. The simulations predict that the ozone impact from planned turnaround operations ranges from a maximum of 11.4 ppb to a minimum of 1.4 ppb. Hence, a reduction of up to 10.0 ppb can be achieved on a single day based on the selected two simulation days. This study demonstrates a cost-effective and environmentally benign ozone control practice for relevant stakeholders, including environmental agencies, regional plant operators, and local communities.

Trends in surface ozone concentrations at Arosa (Switzerland)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Staehelin, Johannes; Thudium, Juerg; Buehler, Ralph; Volz-Thomas, Andreas; Graber, Werner

During the years 1989-1991, ozone was measured at four sites around Arosa (Switzerland). One of these sites was identical with that, where surface ozone was measured in the 1950s (Götz and Volz, 1951; Perl, 1965). Comparison of both old and recent data indicates that surface ozone concentrations at Arosa have increased by a factor of approximately 2.2. The increase shows a seasonal variation with a relative increase of more than a factor of three in December and January. The results are discussed in the context of measurements made at other times, locations and altitudes. The comparison indicates that the increase in ozone levels at Arosa has most likely occured between the fifties and today. The measurements additionally suggest that photochemical ozone production in the free troposphere has significantly contributed to the observed ozone trends in winter.

Apparatus and process for the surface treatment of carbon fibers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Paulauskas, Felix Leonard; Ozcan, Soydan; Naskar, Amit K.

A method for surface treating a carbon-containing material in which carbon-containing material is reacted with decomposing ozone in a reactor (e.g., a hollow tube reactor), wherein a concentration of ozone is maintained throughout the reactor by appropriate selection of at least processing temperature, gas stream flow rate, reactor dimensions, ozone concentration entering the reactor, and position of one or more ozone inlets (ports) in the reactor, wherein the method produces a surface-oxidized carbon or carbon-containing material, preferably having a surface atomic oxygen content of at least 15%. The resulting surface-oxidized carbon material and solid composites made therefrom are also described.

Sorption, desorption, and surface oxidative fate of nicotine.

PubMed

Petrick, Lauren; Destaillats, Hugo; Zouev, Irena; Sabach, Sara; Dubowski, Yael

2010-09-21

Nicotine dynamics in an indoor environment can be greatly affected by building parameters (e.g. relative humidity (RH), air exchange rate (AER), and presence of ozone), as well as surface parameters (e.g. surface area (SA) and polarity). To better understand the indoor fate of nicotine, these parameter effects on its sorption, desorption, and oxidation rates were investigated on model indoor surfaces that included fabrics, wallboard paper, and wood materials. Nicotine sorption under dry conditions was enhanced by higher SA and higher polarity of the substrate. Interestingly, nicotine sorption to cotton and nylon was facilitated by increased RH, while sorption to polyester was hindered by it. Desorption was affected by RH, AER, and surface type. Heterogeneous nicotine-ozone reaction was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry with attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATR), and revealed a pseudo first-order surface reaction rate of 0.035 +/- 0.015 min(-1) (at [O(3)] = 6 +/- 0.3 x 10(15) molecules cm(-3)) that was partially inhibited at high RH. Extrapolation to a lower ozone level ([O(3)] = 42 ppb) showed oxidation on the order of 10(-5) min(-1) corresponding to a half-life of 1 week. In addition, similar surface products were identified in dry and high RH using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). However, FTIR analysis revealed different product spectra for these conditions, suggesting additional unidentified products and association with surface water. Knowing the indoor fate of condensed and gas phase nicotine and its oxidation products will provide a better understanding of nicotine's impact on personal exposures as well as overall indoor air quality.

The microbial killing capacity of aqueous and gaseous ozone on different surfaces contaminated with dairy cattle manure

PubMed Central

Lowe, James

2018-01-01

A high reactivity and leaving no harmful residues make ozone an effective disinfectant for farm hygiene and biosecurity. Our objectives were therefore to (1) characterize the killing capacity of aqueous and gaseous ozone at different operational conditions on dairy cattle manure-based pathogens (MBP) contaminated different surfaces (plastic, metal, nylon, rubber, and wood); (2) determine the effect of microbial load on the killing capacity of aqueous ozone. In a crossover design, 14 strips of each material were randomly assigned into 3 groups, treatment (n = 6), positive-control (n = 6), and negative-control (n = 2). The strips were soaked in dairy cattle manure with an inoculum level of 107–108 for 60 minutes. The treatment strips were exposed to aqueous ozone of 2, 4, and 9 ppm and gaseous ozone of 1and 9 ppm for 2, 4, and 8 minutes exposure. 3M™ Petrifilm™ rapid aerobic count plate and plate reader were used for bacterial culture. On smooth surfaces, plastic and metal, aqueous ozone at 4 ppm reduced MBP to a safe level (≥5-log10) within 2 minutes (6.1 and 5.1-log10, respectively). However, gaseous ozone at 9 ppm for 4 minutes inactivated 3.3-log10 of MBP. Aqueous ozone of 9 ppm is sufficient to reduce MBP to a safe level, 6.0 and 5.4- log10, on nylon and rubber surfaces within 2 and 8 minutes, respectively. On complex surfaces, wood, both aqueous and gaseous ozone at up to 9 ppm were unable to reduce MBP to a safe level (3.6 and 0.8-log10, respectively). The bacterial load was a strong predictor for reduction in MBP (P<0.0001, R2 = 0.72). We conclude that aqueous ozone of 4 and 9 ppm for 2 minutes may provide an efficient method to reduce MBP to a safe level on smooth and moderately rough surfaces, respectively. However, ozone alone may not an adequate means of controlling MBP on complex surfaces. PMID:29758045

Influence of Mountains on Arctic Tropospheric Ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whiteway, J. A.; Seabrook, J.

2015-12-01

Tropospheric ozone was measured above Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic during spring using a differential absorption lidar (DIAL). Analysis of the observations revealed that mountains had a significant effect on the vertical distribution of ozone. Ozone depletion events were observed when air that had spent significant time near to the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean reached Eureka. This air arrived at Eureka by flowing over the surrounding mountains. Surface level ozone depletion events were not observed during periods when mountains blocked the flow of air from over the sea ice. In the case of blocking there was an enhancement in the amount of ozone near the surface as air from the mid troposphere descended in the lee of the mountains. Three case studies will be presented.

Modeling the Chemical Effect of Tropopause-penetrating Convection using NEXRAD Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clapp, C.; Anderson, J. G.

2017-12-01

Water vapor in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) from the tropics to the poles is important both radiatively and chemically. Chemically, water vapor is the dominant source of OH in the lower stratosphere, and increases in water vapor concentrations promote stratospheric ozone loss by raising the reactivity of several key heterogeneous reactions as well as by promoting the growth of reactive surface area. We examine the chemical impact of the convective contribution of boundary layer air to stratospheric chemistry over the mid-latitude United States. Using NEXRAD observations of tropopause penetrating events during the summers of 2004 through 2013 (with approximately 3300 events reaching 390K in potential temperature per year), we calculate the loss of stratospheric ozone due to an average event and the seasonal impact.

Expected ozone benefits of reducing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from coal-fired electricity generating units in the eastern United States.

PubMed

Vinciguerra, Timothy; Bull, Emily; Canty, Timothy; He, Hao; Zalewsky, Eric; Woodman, Michael; Aburn, George; Ehrman, Sheryl; Dickerson, Russell R

2017-03-01

On hot summer days in the eastern United States, electricity demand rises, mainly because of increased use of air conditioning. Power plants must provide this additional energy, emitting additional pollutants when meteorological conditions are primed for poor air quality. To evaluate the impact of summertime NO x emissions from coal-fired electricity generating units (EGUs) on surface ozone formation, we performed a series of sensitivity modeling forecast scenarios utilizing EPA 2018 version 6.0 emissions (2011 base year) and CMAQ v5.0.2. Coal-fired EGU NO x emissions were adjusted to match the lowest NO x rates observed during the ozone seasons (April 1-October 31) of 2005-2012 (Scenario A), where ozone decreased by 3-4 ppb in affected areas. When compared to the highest emissions rates during the same time period (Scenario B), ozone increased ∼4-7 ppb. NO x emission rates adjusted to match the observed rates from 2011 (Scenario C) increased ozone by ∼4-5 ppb. Finally in Scenario D, the impact of additional NO x reductions was determined by assuming installation of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) controls on all units lacking postcombustion controls; this decreased ozone by an additional 2-4 ppb relative to Scenario A. Following the announcement of a stricter 8-hour ozone standard, this analysis outlines a strategy that would help bring coastal areas in the mid-Atlantic region closer to attainment, and would also provide profound benefits for upwind states where most of the regional EGU NO x originates, even if additional capital investments are not made (Scenario A). With the 8-hr maximum ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) decreasing from 75 to 70 ppb, modeling results indicate that use of postcombustion controls on coal-fired power plants in 2018 could help keep regions in attainment. By operating already existing nitrogen oxide (NO x ) removal devices to their full potential, ozone could be significantly curtailed, achieving ozone reductions by up to 5 ppb in areas around the source of emission and immediately downwind. Ozone improvements are also significant (1-2 ppb) for areas affected by cross-state transport, especially Mid-Atlantic coast regions that had struggled to meet the 75 ppb standard.

Analysis of erythemally effective UV radiation at the Mendel Station, James Ross Island in the period of 2006-2007

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laska, K.; Prosek, P.; Budik, L.; Budikova, M.

2009-04-01

The results of global solar and erythemally effective ultraviolet (EUV) radiation measurements are presented. The radiation data were collected within the period of 2006-2007 at the Czech Antarctic station J. G. Mendel, James Ross Island (63°48'S, 57°53'W). Global solar radiation was measured by a Kipp&Zonen CM11 pyranometer. EUV radiation was measured according to the McKinley and Diffey Erythemal Action Spectrum with a Solar Light broadband UV-Biometer Model 501A. The effects of stratospheric ozone concentration and cloudiness (estimated as cloud impact factor from global solar radiation) on the intensity of incident EUV radiation were calculated by a non-linear regression model. The total ozone content (TOC) and cloud/surface reflectivity derived from satellite-based measurements were applied into the model for elimination of the uncertainties in measured ozone values. There were two input data of TOC used in the model. The first were taken from the Dobson spectrophotometer measurements (Argentinean Antarctic station Marambio), the second was acquired for geographical coordinates of the Mendel Station from the EOS Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument and V8.5 algorithm. Analysis of measured EUV data showed that variable cloudiness affected rather short-term fluctuations of the radiation fluxes, while ozone declines caused long-term UV radiation increase in the second half of the year. The model predicted about 98 % variability of the measured EUV radiation. The residuals between measured and modeled EUV radiation intensities were evaluated separately for the above-specified two TOC datasets, parts of seasons and cloud impact factor (cloudiness). The mean average prediction error was used for model validation according to the cloud impact factor and satellite-based reflectivity data.

Ultrahigh vacuum and low-temperature cleaning of oxide surfaces using a low-concentration ozone beam

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pratt, A.; Department of Physics, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD; Graziosi, P.

We present a novel method of delivering a low-concentration (<15%) ozone beam to an ultra-high vacuum environment for the purpose of cleaning and dosing experimental samples through oxidation processing. The system described is safe, low-cost, and practical and overcomes the limitations of ozone transport in the molecular flow environment of high or ultrahigh vacuum whilst circumventing the use of pure ozone gas which is potentially highly explosive. The effectiveness of this method in removing surface contamination is demonstrated through comparison of high-temperature annealing of a simple oxide (MgO) in ozone and oxygen environments as monitored using quadrupole mass spectroscopy andmore » Auger electron spectroscopy. Additionally, we demonstrate the potential of ozone for obtaining clean complex oxide surfaces without the need for high-temperature annealing which may significantly alter surface structure.« less

Space-Based Diagnosis of Surface Ozone Sensitivity to Anthropogenic Emissions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, Randall V.; Fiore, Arlene M.; VanDonkelaar, Aaron

2004-01-01

We present a novel capability in satellite remote sensing with implications for air pollution control strategy. We show that the ratio of formaldehyde columns to tropospheric nitrogen dioxide columns is an indicator of the relative sensitivity of surface ozone to emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO(x) = NO + NO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The diagnosis from these space-based observations is highly consistent with current understanding of surface ozone chemistry based on in situ observations. The satellite-derived ratios indicate that surface ozone is more sensitive to emissions of NO(x) than of VOCs throughout most continental regions of the Northern Hemisphere during summer. Exceptions include Los Angeles and industrial areas of Germany. A seasonal transition occurs in the fall when surface ozone becomes less sensitive to NOx and more sensitive to VOCs.

Future Effects of Southern Hemisphere Stratospheric Zonal Asymmetries on Climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stone, K.; Solomon, S.; Kinnison, D. E.; Fyfe, J. C.

2017-12-01

Stratospheric zonal asymmetries in the Southern Hemisphere have been shown to have significant influences on both stratospheric and tropospheric dynamics and climate. Accurate representation of stratospheric ozone in particular is important for realistic simulation of the polar vortex strength and temperature trends. This is therefore also important for stratospheric ozone change's effect on the troposphere, both through modulation of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), and more localized climate. Here, we characterization the impact of future changes in Southern Hemisphere zonal asymmetry on tropospheric climate, including changes to future tropospheric temperature, and precipitation. The separate impacts of increasing GHGs and ozone recovery on the zonal asymmetric influence on the surface are also investigated. For this purpose, we use a variety of models, including Chemistry Climate Model Initiative simulations from the Community Earth System Model, version 1, with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (CESM1(WACCM)) and the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator-Chemistry Climate Model (ACCESS-CCM). These models have interactive chemistry and can therefore more accurately represent the zonally asymmetric nature of the stratosphere. The CESM1(WACCM) and ACCESS-CCM models are also compared to simulations from the Canadian Can2ESM model and CESM-Large Ensemble Project (LENS) that have prescribed ozone to further investigate the importance of simulating stratospheric zonal asymmetry.

Utilization of satellite observation of ozone and aerosols in providing initial and boundary condition for regional air quality studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pour-Biazar, Arastoo; Khan, Maudood; Wang, Lihua; Park, Yun-Hee; Newchurch, Mike; McNider, Richard T.; Liu, Xiong; Byun, Daewon W.; Cameron, Robert

2011-09-01

To demonstrate the efficacy of satellite observations in the realization of the background and transboundary transport of pollution in regional air quality modeling practices, satellite observations of ozone and aerosol optical depth were incorporated in the EPA Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model (http://www.cmascenter.org). Observations from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard NASA's Aura satellite and AOD products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Terra (EOS AM) and Aqua (EOS PM) satellites were used to specify initial and lateral boundary conditions (IC/BC) for a simulation that spanned over August 2006. The tools and techniques using the satellite data were tested in the context of current regulatory air quality modeling practices. Daily satellite observations were remapped onto the modeling domain and used as IC/BC for daily segments of a month-long simulation and the results were evaluated against surface and ozonesonde observations. Compared to the standard application of CMAQ, OMI O3 profiles significantly improved model performance in the free troposphere and MODIS aerosol products substantially improved PM2.5 predictions in the boundary layer. The utilization of satellite data for BC helped in the realization of transboundary transport of pollution and was able to explain the recirculation of pollution from Northeast Corridor to the southeastern region. Ozone in the mid- to upper-troposphere was largely dominated by transport and thus benefited most from satellite provided BC. The ozone within the boundary layer was mostly affected by fast production/loss mechanisms that are impacted by surface emissions, chemistry and removal processes and was not impacted as much. A case study for August 18-22 demonstrated that model errors in the placement of a stationary front were the main reason for errors in PM2.5 predictions as the front acted as a boundary between high and low PM2.5 concentrations.

Effects of 1997-1998 El Nino on Tropospheric Ozone and Water Vapor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chandra, S.; Ziemke, J. R.; Min, W.; Read, W. G.

1998-01-01

This paper analyzes the impact of the 1997-1998 El Nino on tropospheric column ozone and tropospheric water vapor derived respectively from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) on Earth Probe and the Microwave Limb Scanning instrument on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. The 1997-1998 El Nino, characterized by an anomalous increase in sea-surface temperature (SST) across the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean, is one of the strongest El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events of the century, comparable in magnitude to the 1982-1983 episode. The major impact of the SST change has been the shift in the convection pattern from the western to the eastern Pacific affecting the response of rain-producing cumulonimbus. As a result, there has been a significant increase in rainfall over the eastern Pacific and a decrease over the western Pacific and Indonesia. The dryness in the Indonesian region has contributed to large-scale burning by uncontrolled wildfires in the tropical rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo. Our study shows that tropospheric column ozone decreased by 4-8 Dobson units (DU) in the eastern Pacific and increased by about 10-20 DU in the western Pacific largely as a result of the eastward shift of the tropical convective activity as inferred from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) data. The effect of this shift is also evident in the upper tropospheric water vapor mixing ratio which varies inversely as ozone (O3). These conclusions are qualitatively consistent with the changes in atmospheric circulation derived from zonal and vertical wind data obtained from the Goddard Earth Observing System data assimilation analyses. The changes in tropospheric column O3 during the course of the 1997-1998 El Nino appear to be caused by a combination of large-scale circulation processes associated with the shift in the tropical convection pattern and surface/boundary layer processes associated with forest fires in the Indonesian region.

A revised global ozone dry deposition estimate based on a new two-layer parameterisation for air-sea exchange and the multi-year MACC composition reanalysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luhar, Ashok K.; Woodhouse, Matthew T.; Galbally, Ian E.

2018-03-01

Dry deposition at the Earth's surface is an important sink of atmospheric ozone. Currently, dry deposition of ozone to the ocean surface in atmospheric chemistry models has the largest uncertainty compared to deposition to other surface types, with implications for global tropospheric ozone budget and associated radiative forcing. Most global models assume that the dominant term of surface resistance in the parameterisation of ozone dry deposition velocity at the oceanic surface is constant. There have been recent mechanistic parameterisations for air-sea exchange that account for the simultaneous waterside processes of ozone solubility, molecular diffusion, turbulent transfer, and first-order chemical reaction of ozone with dissolved iodide and other compounds, but there are questions about their performance and consistency. We present a new two-layer parameterisation scheme for the oceanic surface resistance by making the following realistic assumptions: (a) the thickness of the top water layer is of the order of a reaction-diffusion length scale (a few micrometres) within which ozone loss is dominated by chemical reaction and the influence of waterside turbulent transfer is negligible; (b) in the water layer below, both chemical reaction and waterside turbulent transfer act together and are accounted for; and (c) chemical reactivity is present through the depth of the oceanic mixing layer. The new parameterisation has been evaluated against dry deposition velocities from recent open-ocean measurements. It is found that the inclusion of only the aqueous iodide-ozone reaction satisfactorily describes the measurements. In order to better quantify the global dry deposition loss and its interannual variability, modelled 3-hourly ozone deposition velocities are combined with the 3-hourly MACC (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate) reanalysis ozone for the years 2003-2012. The resulting ozone dry deposition is found to be 98.4 ± 30.0 Tg O3 yr-1 for the ocean and 722.8 ± 87.3 Tg O3 yr-1 globally. The new estimate of the ocean component is approximately a third of the current model estimates. This reduction corresponds to an approximately 20 % decrease in the total global ozone dry deposition, which (with all other components being unchanged) is equivalent to an increase of approximately 5 % in the modelled tropospheric ozone burden and a similar increase in tropospheric ozone lifetime.

Improvements to the WRF-Chem 3.5.1 model for quasi-hemispheric simulations of aerosols and ozone in the Arctic

DOE PAGES

Marelle, Louis; Raut, Jean-Christophe; Law, Kathy S.; ...

2017-01-01

In this study, the WRF-Chem regional model is updated to improve simulated short-lived pollutants (e.g., aerosols, ozone) in the Arctic. Specifically, we include in WRF-Chem 3.5.1 (with SAPRC-99 gas-phase chemistry and MOSAIC aerosols) (1) a correction to the sedimentation of aerosols, (2) dimethyl sulfide (DMS) oceanic emissions and gas-phase chemistry, (3) an improved representation of the dry deposition of trace gases over seasonal snow, and (4) an UV-albedo dependence on snow and ice cover for photolysis calculations. We also (5) correct the representation of surface temperatures over melting ice in the Noah Land Surface Model and (6) couple and further test the recent KF-CuP (Kain–Fritsch +more » Cumulus Potential) cumulus parameterization that includes the effect of cumulus clouds on aerosols and trace gases. The updated model is used to perform quasi-hemispheric simulations of aerosols and ozone, which are evaluated against surface measurements of black carbon (BC), sulfate, and ozone as well as airborne measurements of BC in the Arctic. The updated model shows significant improvements in terms of seasonal aerosol cycles at the surface and root mean square errors (RMSEs) for surface ozone, aerosols, and BC aloft, compared to the base version of the model and to previous large-scale evaluations of WRF-Chem in the Arctic. These improvements are mostly due to the inclusion of cumulus effects on aerosols and trace gases in KF-CuP (improved RMSE for surface BC and BC profiles, surface sulfate, and surface ozone), the improved surface temperatures over sea ice (surface ozone, BC, and sulfate), and the updated trace gas deposition and UV albedo over snow and ice (improved RMSE and correlation for surface ozone). DMS emissions and chemistry improve surface sulfate at all Arctic sites except Zeppelin, and correcting aerosol sedimentation has little influence on aerosols except in the upper troposphere.« less

Improvements to the WRF-Chem 3.5.1 model for quasi-hemispheric simulations of aerosols and ozone in the Arctic

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marelle, Louis; Raut, Jean-Christophe; Law, Kathy S.

In this study, the WRF-Chem regional model is updated to improve simulated short-lived pollutants (e.g., aerosols, ozone) in the Arctic. Specifically, we include in WRF-Chem 3.5.1 (with SAPRC-99 gas-phase chemistry and MOSAIC aerosols) (1) a correction to the sedimentation of aerosols, (2) dimethyl sulfide (DMS) oceanic emissions and gas-phase chemistry, (3) an improved representation of the dry deposition of trace gases over seasonal snow, and (4) an UV-albedo dependence on snow and ice cover for photolysis calculations. We also (5) correct the representation of surface temperatures over melting ice in the Noah Land Surface Model and (6) couple and further test the recent KF-CuP (Kain–Fritsch +more » Cumulus Potential) cumulus parameterization that includes the effect of cumulus clouds on aerosols and trace gases. The updated model is used to perform quasi-hemispheric simulations of aerosols and ozone, which are evaluated against surface measurements of black carbon (BC), sulfate, and ozone as well as airborne measurements of BC in the Arctic. The updated model shows significant improvements in terms of seasonal aerosol cycles at the surface and root mean square errors (RMSEs) for surface ozone, aerosols, and BC aloft, compared to the base version of the model and to previous large-scale evaluations of WRF-Chem in the Arctic. These improvements are mostly due to the inclusion of cumulus effects on aerosols and trace gases in KF-CuP (improved RMSE for surface BC and BC profiles, surface sulfate, and surface ozone), the improved surface temperatures over sea ice (surface ozone, BC, and sulfate), and the updated trace gas deposition and UV albedo over snow and ice (improved RMSE and correlation for surface ozone). DMS emissions and chemistry improve surface sulfate at all Arctic sites except Zeppelin, and correcting aerosol sedimentation has little influence on aerosols except in the upper troposphere.« less

Improvements to the WRF-Chem 3.5.1 model for quasi-hemispheric simulations of aerosols and ozone in the Arctic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marelle, Louis; Raut, Jean-Christophe; Law, Kathy S.; Berg, Larry K.; Fast, Jerome D.; Easter, Richard C.; Shrivastava, Manish; Thomas, Jennie L.

2017-10-01

In this study, the WRF-Chem regional model is updated to improve simulated short-lived pollutants (e.g., aerosols, ozone) in the Arctic. Specifically, we include in WRF-Chem 3.5.1 (with SAPRC-99 gas-phase chemistry and MOSAIC aerosols) (1) a correction to the sedimentation of aerosols, (2) dimethyl sulfide (DMS) oceanic emissions and gas-phase chemistry, (3) an improved representation of the dry deposition of trace gases over seasonal snow, and (4) an UV-albedo dependence on snow and ice cover for photolysis calculations. We also (5) correct the representation of surface temperatures over melting ice in the Noah Land Surface Model and (6) couple and further test the recent KF-CuP (Kain-Fritsch + Cumulus Potential) cumulus parameterization that includes the effect of cumulus clouds on aerosols and trace gases. The updated model is used to perform quasi-hemispheric simulations of aerosols and ozone, which are evaluated against surface measurements of black carbon (BC), sulfate, and ozone as well as airborne measurements of BC in the Arctic. The updated model shows significant improvements in terms of seasonal aerosol cycles at the surface and root mean square errors (RMSEs) for surface ozone, aerosols, and BC aloft, compared to the base version of the model and to previous large-scale evaluations of WRF-Chem in the Arctic. These improvements are mostly due to the inclusion of cumulus effects on aerosols and trace gases in KF-CuP (improved RMSE for surface BC and BC profiles, surface sulfate, and surface ozone), the improved surface temperatures over sea ice (surface ozone, BC, and sulfate), and the updated trace gas deposition and UV albedo over snow and ice (improved RMSE and correlation for surface ozone). DMS emissions and chemistry improve surface sulfate at all Arctic sites except Zeppelin, and correcting aerosol sedimentation has little influence on aerosols except in the upper troposphere.

Technical Report on Ozone Exposure, Risk, and Impact Assessments for Vegetation

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The report presents analyses of national ozone air quality, vegetation exposures and risk, and impact to economic benefits that incorporates improved methods for estimating ozone at unmonitored locations.

Climate sensitivity to the lower stratospheric ozone variations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kilifarska, N. A.

2012-12-01

The strong sensitivity of the Earth's radiation balance to variations in the lower stratospheric ozone—reported previously—is analysed here by the use of non-linear statistical methods. Our non-linear model of the land air temperature (T)—driven by the measured Arosa total ozone (TOZ)—explains 75% of total variability of Earth's T variations during the period 1926-2011. We have analysed also the factors which could influence the TOZ variability and found that the strongest impact belongs to the multi-decadal variations of galactic cosmic rays. Constructing a statistical model of the ozone variability, we have been able to predict the tendency in the land air T evolution till the end of the current decade. Results show that Earth is facing a weak cooling of the surface T by 0.05-0.25 K (depending on the ozone model) until the end of the current solar cycle. A new mechanism for O3 influence on climate is proposed.

Use of AIRS, OMI, MLS, and TES Data in Assessing Forest Ecosystem Exposure to Ozone

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spruce, Joseph P.

2007-01-01

Ground-level ozone at high levels poses health threats to exposed flora and fauna, including negative impacts to human health. While concern is common regarding depletion of ozone in the stratosphere, portions of the urban and rural United States periodically have high ambient levels of tropospheric ozone on the ground. Ozone pollution can cause a variety of impacts to susceptible vegetation (e.g., Ponderosa and Jeffrey pine species in the southwestern United States), such as stunted growth, alteration of growth form, needle or leaf chlorosis, and impaired ability to withstand drought-induced water stress. In addition, Southern Californian forests with high ozone exposures have been recently subject to multiyear droughts that have led to extensive forest overstory mortality from insect outbreaks and increased incidence of wildfires. Residual forests in these impacted areas may be more vulnerable to high ozone exposures and to other forest threats than ever before. NASA sensors collect a wealth of atmospheric data that have been used recently for mapping and monitoring regional tropospheric ozone levels. AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder), OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument), MLS (Microwave Limb Sounder), and TES (Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer) data could be used to assess forest ecosystem exposure to ozone. Such NASA data hold promise for providing better or at least complementary synoptic information on ground-level ozone levels that Federal agency partners can use to assess forest health trends and to mitigate the threats as needed in compliance with Federal laws and mandates. NASA data products on ozone concentrations may be able to aid applications of DSTs (decision support tools) adopted by the USDA FS (U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service) and by the NPS (National Park Service), such as the Ozone Calculator, in which ground ozone estimates are employed to assess ozone impacts to forested vegetation.

An evaluation of the regional acid deposition model surface module for ozone uptake at three sites in the San Joaquin Valley of California

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Massman, W. J.; Pederson, J.; Delany, A.; Grantz, D.; Hertog, G. Den; Neumann, H. H.; Oncley, S. P.; Pearson, R., Jr.; Shaw, R. H.

1994-01-01

Plants and soils act as major sinks for the destruction of tropospheric ozone, especially during daylight hours when plant stomata open and are thought to provide the dominant pathway for the uptake of ozone. The present study, part of the California Ozone Deposition Experiment, compares predictions of the regional acid deposition model ozone surface conductance module with surface conductance data derived from eddy covariance measurements of ozone flux taken at a grape, a cotton, and a grassland site in the San Joaquin Valley of California during the summer of 1991. Results indicate that the model (which was developed to provide long-term large-area estimates for the eastern United States) significantly overpredicts the surface conductance at all times of the day for at least two important types of plant cover of the San Joaquin Valley and that it incorrectly partitions the ozone flux between transpiring and nontranspiring components of the surface at the third site. Consequently, the model either overpredicts or inaccurately represents the observed deposition velocities. Other results indicate that the presence of dew does not reduce the rate of ozone deposition, contradicting to model assumptions, and that model assumptions involving the dependency of stomata upon environmental temperature are unnecessary. The effects of measurement errors and biases, arising from the presence of the roughness sublayer and possible photochemical reactions, are also discussed. A simpler model for ozone surface deposition (at least for the San Joaquin Valley) is proposed and evaluated.

Importance of a Priori Vertical Ozone Profiles for TEMPO Air Quality Retrievals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Matthew S.; Sullivan, John; Liu, Xiong; Zoogman, Peter; Newchurch, Mike; Kuang, Shi; McGee, Thomas; Leblanc, Thierry

2017-01-01

Ozone (O3) is a toxic pollutant which plays a major role in air quality. Typically, monitoring of surface air quality and O3 mixing ratios is conducted using in situ measurement networks. This is partially due to high-quality information related to air quality being limited from space-borne platforms due to coarse spatial resolution, limited temporal frequency, and minimal sensitivity to lower tropospheric and surface-level O3. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) satellite is designed to address the limitations of current space-based platforms and to improve our ability to monitor North American air quality. TEMPO will provide hourly data of total column and vertical profiles of O3 with high spatial resolution to be used as a near-real-time air quality product. TEMPO O3 retrievals will apply the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory profile algorithm developed based on work from GOME (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment), GOME-2, and OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument). This algorithm is suggested to use a priori O3 profile information from a climatological data-base developed from long-term ozone-sonde measurements (tropopause-based (TB-Clim) O3 climatology). This study evaluates the TB-Clim dataset and model simulated O3 profiles, which could potentially serve as a priori O3 profile information in TEMPO retrievals, from near-real-time data assimilation model products (NASA GMAO's (Global Modeling and Assimilation Office) operational GEOS-5 (Goddard Earth Observing System, Version 5) FP (Forecast Products) model and reanalysis data from MERRA2 (Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2)) and a full chemical transport model (CTM), GEOS-Chem. In this study, vertical profile products are evaluated with surface (0-2 kilometers) and tropospheric (0-10 kilometers) TOLNet (Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network) observations and the theoretical impact of individual a priori profile sources on the accuracy of TEMPO O3 retrievals in the troposphere and at the surface are presented. Results indicate that while the TB-Clim climatological dataset can replicate seasonally-averaged tropospheric O3 profiles, model-simulated profiles from a full CTM resulted in more accurate tropospheric and surface-level O3 retrievals from TEMPO when compared to hourly and daily-averaged TOLNet observations. Furthermore, it is shown that when large surface O3 mixing ratios are observed, TEMPO retrieval values at the surface are most accurate when applying CTM a priori profile information compared to all other data products.

Particulate matter air pollution may offset ozone damage to global crop production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schiferl, Luke D.; Heald, Colette L.

2018-04-01

Ensuring global food security requires a comprehensive understanding of environmental pressures on food production, including the impacts of air quality. Surface ozone damages plants and decreases crop production; this effect has been extensively studied. In contrast, the presence of particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere can be beneficial to crops given that enhanced light scattering leads to a more even and efficient distribution of photons which can outweigh total incoming radiation loss. This study quantifies the impacts of ozone and PM on the global production of maize, rice, and wheat in 2010 and 2050. We show that accounting for the growing season of these crops is an important factor in determining their air pollution exposure. We find that the effect of PM can offset much, if not all, of the reduction in yield associated with ozone damage. Assuming maximum sensitivity to PM, the current (2010) global net impact of air quality on crop production varies by crop (+5.6, -3.7, and +4.5 % for maize, wheat, and rice, respectively). Future emissions scenarios indicate that attempts to improve air quality can result in a net negative effect on crop production in areas dominated by the PM effect. However, we caution that the uncertainty in this assessment is large, due to the uncertainty associated with crop response to changes in diffuse radiation; this highlights that a more detailed physiological study of this response for common cultivars is crucial.

Ozone studies in the Paso del Norte region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becerra-Davila, Fernando

The Paso del Norte region forms the largest contiguous bi-national conglomerate on the US-Mexico border. With a combined population of around 2 million inhabitants, the Paso del Norte region is isolated, more than 500 km away from the nearest urban area of comparable size, thus making it an ideal location for air quality studies of an isolated urban environment. The meteorological conditions leading to a high ozone episode in this region, such as the historical ozone episode of June 2006, are analyzed. It is well known that stagnation and minimal winds, high temperatures, and pressure ridges over the region are conducive to high ozone episodes. In addition, the planetary boundary height is studied to understand its impact on high ozone episodes. Several studies report that ground level ozone non-attainment regulations could be caused not only by local emissions, but also by atmospheric transport. In this work the atmospheric advection of pollutants into the region is analyzed using HYSPLIT backward trajectories. Furthermore, a novel backward trajectory clustering technique is implemented for the summer of 2006. The "ozone weekend effect" (OWE) is a phenomenon by which in some geographical regions ambient ozone concentrations tend to be higher on weekends than on weekdays, despite the lower emissions of ozone precursors during those days. The observed local OWE has never previously been studied in terms of the photolysis rates of four of the main ozone precursors. In this research a novel method that allows the calculation of actinic fluxes, photolysis frequencies and photolysis rates with a high degree of accuracy and reliability has been developed. This method utilizes a combination of the experimental data available for this region in conjunction with a radiative transfer model (TUV model). Three weekend-weekday cases during summers 2006, 2009 and 2010 are studied in this work. In this research, the photolysis impact on the local OWE is studied. The results obtained from this photolysis study demonstrate that the local ground level ozone formation is not only influenced by the strong solar radiation and changing aerosol makeup, but also by other heterogeneous factors and reactions. In addition, this research provided good evidence that the ground level ozone precursor regime in El Paso during the ozone episode of June 2006 was mostly VOC-limited. Much of this estimation was derived from measurements of local ambient VOC/NOx ratios. This finding shows that at least during June 2006, the non-linear surface ozone production increased during weekends compared to workdays in a habitually VOC-limited regime. The seasonal variations of columnar ozone as measured by a Multi-filter Rotating Shadowband instrument installed at the UTEP campus are analyzed for the first time for this region and results are presented. This investigation has addressed the problem of ground-level ozone formation in the Paso del Norte region. Urban ozone is a complex problem with many aspects that are not fully understood. In this investigation, a range of techniques has been used to address the study of local surface ozone episodes with the purpose of acquiring new insights and knowledge that will help understand and remediate the diverse atmospheric pollution events that affect this bi-national region recurrently. Innovative techniques were developed and used, ranging from the use of local ambient atmospheric pollution data to the utilization of complex modeling techniques to achieve the best possible computer results. Finally, the influence of ground level ozone concentrations in admissions to hospitals for this region due to respiratory diseases is analyzed. The comprehensive results obtained in this work will help to better understand ozone formation in the Paso del Norte Region for future policy regulation implementations.

Analysis of European ozone trends in the period 1995-2014

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yan, Yingying; Pozzer, Andrea; Ojha, Narendra; Lin, Jintai; Lelieveld, Jos

2018-04-01

Surface-based measurements from the EMEP and Airbase networks are used to estimate the changes in surface ozone levels during the 1995-2014 period over Europe. We find significant ozone enhancements (0.20-0.59 µg m-3 yr-1 for the annual means; P-value < 0.01 according to an F-test) over the European suburban and urban stations during 1995-2012 based on the Airbase sites. For European background ozone observed at EMEP sites, it is shown that a significantly decreasing trend in the 95th percentile ozone concentrations has occurred, especially at noon (0.9 µg m-3 yr-1; P-value < 0.01), while the 5th percentile ozone concentrations continued to increase with a trend of 0.3 µg m-3 yr-1 (P-value < 0.01) during the study period. With the help of numerical simulations performed with the global chemistry-climate model EMAC, the importance of anthropogenic emissions changes in determining these changes over background sites are investigated. The EMAC model is found to successfully capture the observed temporal variability in mean ozone concentrations, as well as the contrast in the trends of 95th and 5th percentile ozone over Europe. Sensitivity simulations and statistical analysis show that a decrease in European anthropogenic emissions had contrasting effects on surface ozone trends between the 95th and 5th percentile levels and that background ozone levels have been influenced by hemispheric transport, while climate variability generally regulated the inter-annual variations of surface ozone in Europe.

Parameterizing the impacts of ozone-vegetation coupling and feedbacks on ozone air quality in a chemical transport model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhou, S.; Tai, A. P. K.; Lombardozzi, D.

2016-12-01

Apart from being an important greenhouse gas, tropospheric ozone is a significant air pollutant that is shown to have harmful effects both on human health and vegetation. Ozone damages vegetation mainly through reducing plant photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. Meanwhile, ozone is also strongly dependent on vegetation via various biogeochemical and physical processes. These interdependences between ozone and vegetation would constitute feedback mechanisms that can potentially alter ozone concentration itself, and should be considered in future climate and air quality projections. In this study, we first implement an empirical scheme for ozone damage on vegetation in the Community Land Model (CLM), and simulate the relative changes in leaf area indices (LAI) and stomatal conductance for three plant groups (consolidated from 15 plant functional types) at various prescribed ozone levels (from 0 ppb to 100 ppb). We find that all plant groups suffer the greatest decreases in LAI and stomatal conductance in regions with their greatest abundance, and grasses and crops show the most severe damage from ozone exposure compared with broadleaf and needleleaf groups, with an LAI reduction of as much as 50% in some areas even at an ozone level of 30 ppb. Using the CLM-simulated results, we develop a semi-empirical parameterization scheme to link prescribed ozone levels to the spatially varying simulated relative changes in LAI and stomatal conductance at model steady state. We implement the scheme in the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model so that ozone-vegetation chemical coupling via ozone dry deposition and biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions can be simulated online. Model simulations indicate that ozone effect on stomatal conductance (which modifies dry deposition) appears to be the dominant feedback pathway influencing surface ozone, whereas ozone-mediated LAI changes (which affects biogenic VOC emissions) appear to play a lesser role. This work is the first attempt to account for online ozone-vegetation coupling in a chemical transport model, with important ramifications for more realistic assessment of ozone air quality under a constantly evolving climate and land cover.

UV-B Radiation Contributes to Amphibian Population Declines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blaustein, Andrew

2007-05-01

UV-B (280-315 nm) radiation is the most significant biologically damaging radiation at the terrestrial surface. At the organismal level, UV-B radiation can slow growth rates, cause immune dysfunction and result in sublethal damage. UV-B radiation can lead to mutations and cell death. Over evolutionary time, UV radiation has been an important stressor on living organisms. Natural events, including impacts from comets and asteroids, volcanic activity, supernova explosions and solar flares, can cause large-scale ozone depletion with accompanying increases in UV radiation. However, these natural events are transient. Moreover, the amount of ozone damage due to natural events depends upon a number of variables, including the magnitude of the event. This is different from modern-day human-induced production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other chemicals that deplete stratospheric ozone continuously, resulting in long-term increases in UV-B radiation at the surface of the earth. We will briefly review the effects of UV-B exposure in one group of aquatic organisms_amphibians. UV-B has been implicated as a possible factor contributing to global declines and range reductions in amphibian populations.

Arctic spring ozone reduction associated with projected sea ice loss

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deser, C.; Sun, L.; Tomas, R. A.; Polvani, L. M.

2013-12-01

The impact of Arctic sea ice loss on the stratosphere is investigated using the Whole-Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), by prescribing the sea ice in the late 20th century and late 21st century, respectively. The localized Sea Surface Temperature (SST) change associated with sea ice melt is also included in the future run. Overall, the model simulates a negative annular-mode response in the winter and spring. In the stratosphere, polar vortex strengthens from February to April, peaking in March. Consistent with it, there is an anomalous cooling in the high-latitude stratosphere, and polar cap ozone reduction is up to 20 DU. Since the difference between these two runs lies only in the sea ice and localized SST in the Arctic, the stratospheric circulation and ozone changes can be attributed to the surface forcing. Eliassen-Palm analysis reveals that the upward propagation of planetary waves is suppressed in the spring as a consequence of sea ice loss. The reduction in propagation causes less wave dissipation and thus less zonal wind deceleration in the extratropical stratosphere.

High Background Ozone Events in the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria Area: Effects from Central American Fires

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lei, R.; Wang, S. C.; Yang, S.; Wang, Y.; Talbot, R. W.

2016-12-01

The policy-relevant background (PRB) ozone is defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the surface ozone mixing ratio that would occur over the U.S. without North American anthropogenic emission influences. PRB ozone over the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria (HGB) area may be affected by foreign sources due to its unique geographical location and meteorology. Our monitoring data revealed several high ozone events over HGB area which might be caused by Central American fire during the years of 2013-2015. To qualify the effects from Central American fire, we estimated the US, Central American and worldwide background over HGB area during those events using the GEOS-Chem global 3-D model. Anomalies in fire emissions leading to high PRB ozone were mapped through spatiotemporal sampling of the Fire INventory from NCAR (FINN) along background trajectories of air masses affecting the HGB area prior to and during the selected high PRB ozone days. Daily HGB PRB ozone estimated by researchers at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) was used as the data source to validate model results. Results showed that contribution of emission from Central American to HGB PRB ozone could be tripled during fire events compared to non-impacted fire days. Besides fire emissions from Central American, different types of meteorological events (e.g., cold fronts and thunderstorms) and high local photochemical production (e.g., heat waves and stagnation) are also found associated with high PRB ozone in HGB area during these events. Thus we imply that synthetic contribution from foreign sources and local meteorology to HGB PRB ozone warrants further investigated.

Impact of future land-cover changes on HNO3 and O3 surface dry deposition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verbeke, T.; Lathière, J.; Szopa, S.; de Noblet-Ducoudré, N.

2015-12-01

Dry deposition is a key component of surface-atmosphere exchange of compounds, acting as a sink for several chemical species. Meteorological factors, chemical properties of the trace gas considered and land surface properties are strong drivers of dry deposition efficiency and variability. Under both climatic and anthropogenic pressure, the vegetation distribution over the Earth has been changing a lot over the past centuries and could be significantly altered in the future. In this study, we perform a modeling investigation of the potential impact of land-cover changes between the present day (2006) and the future (2050) on dry deposition velocities at the surface, with special interest for ozone (O3) and nitric acid (HNO3), two compounds which are characterized by very different physicochemical properties. The 3-D chemistry-transport model LMDz-INCA is used, considering changes in vegetation distribution based on the three future projections, RCPs 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5, and present-day (2007) meteorology. The 2050 RCP 8.5 vegetation distribution leads to a rise of up to 7 % (+0.02 cm s-1) in the surface deposition velocity calculated for ozone (Vd,O3) and a decrease of -0.06 cm s-1 in the surface deposition velocity calculated for nitric acid (Vd,HNO3) relative to the present-day values in tropical Africa and up to +18 and -15 %, respectively, in Australia. When taking into account the RCP 4.5 scenario, which shows dramatic land-cover change in Eurasia, Vd,HNO3 increases by up to 20 % (annual-mean value) and reduces Vd,O3 by the same magnitude in this region. When analyzing the impact of surface dry deposition change on atmospheric chemical composition, our model calculates that the effect is lower than 1 ppb on annual-mean surface ozone concentration for both the RCP 8.5 and RCP 2.6 scenarios. The impact on HNO3 surface concentrations is more disparate between the two scenarios regarding the spatial repartition of effects. In the case of the RCP 4.5 scenario, a significant increase of the surface O3 concentration reaching locally by up to 5 ppb (+5 %) is calculated on average during the June-August period. This scenario also induces an increase of HNO3 deposited flux exceeding locally 10 % for monthly values. Comparing the impact of land-cover change to the impact of climate change, considering a 0.93 °C increase of global temperature, on dry deposition velocities, we estimate that the strongest increase over lands occurs in the Northern Hemisphere during winter, especially in Eurasia, by +50 % (+0.07 cm s-1) for Vd,O3 and +100 % (+0.9 cm s-1) for Vd,HNO3. However, different regions are affected by both changes, with climate change impact on deposition characterized by a latitudinal gradient, while the land-cover change impact is much more heterogeneous depending on vegetation distribution modification described in the future RCP scenarios. The impact of long-term land-cover changes on dry deposition is shown to be significant and to differ strongly from one scenario to another. It should therefore be considered in biosphere-atmospheric chemistry interaction studies in order to have a fully consistent picture.

Using Tropospheric Ozone Profiles and Surface Data (2004 - 2012) to Determine Background Ozone Levels in Houston, Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Spychala, M. D.; Morris, G. A.; Lefer, B. L.; Rappenglueck, B.; Cohan, D. S.; zhou, W.

2012-12-01

The Tropospheric Ozone Pollution Project (TOPP) at Rice University (2004 - 2006) and the University of Houston (2006 - present) has gathered > 400 profiles of ozone, temperature, pressure, and relative humidity, and > 250 of those also have wind speed and wind direction near the core of the City of Houston, Texas. Houston continues to be plagued with difficulty in coming into compliance with EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) due to a combination of its geographic location, large commuter population, significant petrochemical and energy production, and favorable weather patterns. An outstanding question remains the relative partitioning of ozone between local and remote, anthropogenic and natural sources. In this presentation, we use TOPP ozone profiles to determine a "background" ozone concentration and compare this measure with surface monitor "background" ozone as determined from upwind and downwind Continuous Air Monitoring Stations (CAMS) in an effort to further our understanding of this partitioning. For periods studied with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model, we also compare the sonde and surface "background" ozone with that suggested by the model.

Evaluating the Vertical Distribution of Ozone and its Relationship to Pollution Events in Air Quality Models using Satellite Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osterman, G. B.; Neu, J. L.; Eldering, A.; Pinder, R. W.; Tang, Y.; McQueen, J.

2014-12-01

Most regional scale models that are used for air quality forecasts and ozone source attribution do not adequately capture the distribution of ozone in the mid- and upper troposphere, but it is unclear how this shortcoming relates to their ability to simulate surface ozone. We combine ozone profile data from the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and a new joint product from TES and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument along with ozonesonde measurements and EPA AirNow ground station ozone data to examine air quality events during August 2006 in the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) and National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) models. We present both aggregated statistics and case-study analyses with the goal of assessing the relationship between the models' ability to reproduce surface air quality events and their ability to capture the vertical distribution of ozone. We find that the models lack the mid-tropospheric ozone variability seen in TES and the ozonesonde data, and discuss the conditions under which this variability appears to be important for surface air quality.

Impact of a future H2-based road transportation sector on the composition and chemistry of the atmosphere - Part 2: Stratospheric ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, D.; Jia, W.; Olsen, S. C.; Wuebbles, D. J.; Dubey, M. K.; Rockett, A. A.

2013-07-01

The prospective future adoption of molecular hydrogen (H2) to power the road transportation sector could greatly improve tropospheric air quality but also raises the question of whether the adoption would have adverse effects on the stratospheric ozone. The possibility of undesirable impacts must be fully evaluated to guide future policy decisions. Here we evaluate the possible impact of a future (2050) H2-based road transportation sector on stratospheric composition and chemistry, especially on the stratospheric ozone, with the MOZART (Model for OZone And Related chemical Tracers) model. Since future growth is highly uncertain, we evaluate the impact of two world evolution scenarios, one based on an IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) high-emitting scenario (A1FI) and the other on an IPCC low-emitting scenario (B1), as well as two technological options: H2 fuel cells and H2 internal combustion engines. We assume a H2 leakage rate of 2.5% and a complete market penetration of H2 vehicles in 2050. The model simulations show that a H2-based road transportation sector would reduce stratospheric ozone concentrations as a result of perturbed catalytic ozone destruction cycles. The magnitude of the impact depends on which growth scenario evolves and which H2 technology option is applied. For the evolution growth scenario, stratospheric ozone decreases more in the H2 fuel cell scenarios than in the H2 internal combustion engine scenarios because of the NOx emissions in the latter case. If the same technological option is applied, the impact is larger in the A1FI emission scenario. The largest impact, a 0.54% decrease in annual average global mean stratospheric column ozone, is found with a H2 fuel cell type road transportation sector in the A1FI scenario; whereas the smallest impact, a 0.04% increase in stratospheric ozone, is found with applications of H2 internal combustion engine vehicles in the B1 scenario. The impacts of the other two scenarios fall between the above two boundary scenarios. However, the magnitude of these changes is much smaller than the increases in 2050 stratospheric ozone projected, as stratospheric ozone is expected to recover due to the limits in ozone depleting substance emissions imposed in the Montreal Protocol.

On the Influence of Anthropogenic Forcings on Changes in the Stratospheric Mean Age

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oman, Luke; Waugh, Darryn W.; Pawson, Steven; Stolarski, Richard S.; Newman, Paul A.

2009-01-01

A common feature of stratospheric simulations of the past or future is an increase in tropical upwelling and a decrease in mean age. Possible causes or these changes include (1) increases in tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) driven by increases in well-mixed greenhouse gases (WMGHGs), (2) the direct radiative effect of increases in WMGHGs, and (3) changes in ozone. Here we examine a suite of simulations from the Goddard Earth Observing System chemistry-climate model (GEOS CCM) to isolate the relative role of these three factors. Our analysis indicates that all three factors cause changes in the mean age, but the relative impact of each factor depends on the time period analyzed. Over the past 30-40 years ozone depletion is the major factor causing the decrease in mean age, with negligible changes due to direct radiative impact of WMGHG's. However, ozone is predicted to recover back to 1970 levels during the next 50-60 years, and this causes an increase in the mean age, whereas the continued increase in SSTs from increased levels of WMGHGs and the direct radiative impact of WMGHGs will still cause a decrease in the mean age. The net impact of these factors will still result in a decreasing mean age although the rate will be smaller than that of the past. The decreases in mean age are primarily caused by increases in upwelling in the tropical lower stratosphere. The increased upwelling from both increased tropical SSTs and polar ozone loss appears to be related to changes in zonal winds and increases in wave activity propagating into the stratosphere. The different contributions of changes in SSTs, WMGHGs, and ozone to the circulation of the stratosphere may help explain the large spread in the rate of change of tropical upwelling seen in previous studies.

Surface Ozone Measured at GLOBE Schools in the Czech Republic: A Demonstration of the Importance of Student Contribution to the Larger Science Picture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pippin, Margaret R.; Creilson, John K.; Henderson, Bryana L.; Ladd, Irene H.; Fishman, Jack; Votapkova, Dana; Krpcova, Ilona

2008-01-01

GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based education and science program, developed to give students a chance to perform real science by making measurements, analyzing data, and participating in research in collaboration with scientists. As part of the GLOBE Surface Ozone Protocol and with the assistance of the TEREZA Association in the Czech Republic, schools in the Czech Republic have been making and reporting daily measurements of surface ozone and surface meteorological data since 2001. Using a hand-held ozone monitor developed for GLOBE, students at several Czech schools have generated multiyear data records of surface ozone from 2001 to 2005. Analysis of the data shows surface ozone levels were anomalously high during the summer of 2003 relative to other summers. These findings are consistent with measurements by the European Environment Agency that highlights the summer of 2003 as having exceptionally long-lasting and spatially extensive episodes of high surface ozone, especially during the first half of August. Further analysis of the summer s prevailing meteorology shows not only that it was one of the hottest on record, a finding also seen in the student data, but the conditions for production of ozone were ideal. Findings such as these increase student, teacher, and scientist confidence in the utility of the GLOBE data for engaging budding scientists in the collection, analysis, and eventual interpretation of the data for inquiry-based education.

Impact of preindustrial to present-day changes in short-lived pollutant emissions on atmospheric composition and climate forcing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naik, Vaishali; Horowitz, Larry W.; Fiore, Arlene M.; Ginoux, Paul; Mao, Jingqiu; Aghedo, Adetutu M.; Levy, Hiram

2013-07-01

We describe and evaluate atmospheric chemistry in the newly developed Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory chemistry-climate model (GFDL AM3) and apply it to investigate the net impact of preindustrial (PI) to present (PD) changes in short-lived pollutant emissions (ozone precursors, sulfur dioxide, and carbonaceous aerosols) and methane concentration on atmospheric composition and climate forcing. The inclusion of online troposphere-stratosphere interactions, gas-aerosol chemistry, and aerosol-cloud interactions (including direct and indirect aerosol radiative effects) in AM3 enables a more complete representation of interactions among short-lived species, and thus their net climate impact, than was considered in previous climate assessments. The base AM3 simulation, driven with observed sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice cover (SIC) over the period 1981-2007, generally reproduces the observed mean magnitude, spatial distribution, and seasonal cycle of tropospheric ozone and carbon monoxide. The global mean aerosol optical depth in our base simulation is within 5% of satellite measurements over the 1982-2006 time period. We conduct a pair of simulations in which only the short-lived pollutant emissions and methane concentrations are changed from PI (1860) to PD (2000) levels (i.e., SST, SIC, greenhouse gases, and ozone-depleting substances are held at PD levels). From the PI to PD, we find that changes in short-lived pollutant emissions and methane have caused the tropospheric ozone burden to increase by 39% and the global burdens of sulfate, black carbon, and organic carbon to increase by factors of 3, 2.4, and 1.4, respectively. Tropospheric hydroxyl concentration decreases by 7%, showing that increases in OH sinks (methane, carbon monoxide, nonmethane volatile organic compounds, and sulfur dioxide) dominate over sources (ozone and nitrogen oxides) in the model. Combined changes in tropospheric ozone and aerosols cause a net negative top-of-the-atmosphere radiative forcing perturbation (-1.05 W m-2) indicating that the negative forcing (direct plus indirect) from aerosol changes dominates over the positive forcing due to ozone increases, thus masking nearly half of the PI to PD positive forcing from long-lived greenhouse gases globally, consistent with other current generation chemistry-climate models.

3rd hand smoking; heterogeneous oxidation of nicotine and secondary aerosol formation in the indoor environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrick, Lauren; Dubowski, Yael

2010-05-01

Tobacco smoking is well known as a significant source of primary indoor air pollutants. However, only recently has it been recognized that the impact of Tobacco smoking may continue even after the cigarette has been extinguished (i.e., third hand smoke) due to the effect of indoor surfaces. These surfaces may affect the fate of tobacco smoke in the form of secondary reactions and pollutants, including secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometry with Attenuated Total Reflection (FTIR-ATR) in tandem with a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizing (SMPS) system was used to monitor the ozonation of cellulose sorbed nicotine and resulting SOA formation. SOA formation began at onset of ozone introduction ([O3] = 60 ± 5 ppb) with a size distribution of dp ≤ 25 nm, and was determined to be a result of heterogeneous reaction (opposed to homogeneous). SOA yield from reacted surface nicotine was on the order of 10 %. Simultaneous to SOA monitoring, FTIR-ATR spectra showed surface changes in the nicotine film as the reaction progressed, revealing a pseudo first-order surface reaction rate of 0.0026 ± 0.0008 min-1. Identified surface oxidation products included: cotinine, myosmine, methylnicotinamide and nicotyrine. Surface reaction rate was found to be partially inhibited at high relative humidity. Given the toxicity of some of the identified products (e.g., cotinine has shown potential mutagenicity and teratogenicity) and that small particles may contribute to adverse health effects, the present study indicates that exposure to 3rd hand smoke ozonation products may pose additional health risks.

Enhanced near-surface ozone under heatwave conditions in a Mediterranean island.

PubMed

Pyrgou, Andri; Hadjinicolaou, Panos; Santamouris, Mat

2018-06-15

Near-surface ozone is enhanced under particular chemical reactions and physical processes. This study showed the seasonal variation of near-surface ozone in Nicosia, Cyprus and focused in summers when the highest ozone levels were noted using a seven year hourly dataset from 2007 to 2014. The originality of this study is that it examines how ozone levels changed under heatwave conditions (defined as 4 consecutive days with daily maximum temperature over 39 °C) with emphasis on specific air quality and meteorological parameters with respect to non-heatwave summer conditions. The influencing parameters had a medium-strong positive correlation of ozone with temperature, UVA and UVB at daytime which increased by about 35% under heatwave conditions. The analysis of the wind pattern showed a small decrease of wind speed during heatwaves leading to stagnant weather conditions, but also revealed a steady diurnal cycle of wind speed reaching a peak at noon, when the highest ozone levels were noted. The negative correlation of NOx budget with ozone was further increased under heatwave conditions leading to steeper lows of ozone in the morning. In summary, this research encourages further analysis into the persistent weather conditions prevalent during HWs stimulating ozone formation for higher temperatures.

Temperature Trends in the Tropical Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere: Connections with Sea Surface Temperatures and Implications for Water Vapor and Ozone

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Garfinkel, C. I.; Waugh, D. W.; Oman, L. D.; Wang, L.; Hurwitz, M. M.

2013-01-01

Satellite observations and chemistry-climate model experiments are used to understand the zonal structure of tropical lower stratospheric temperature, water vapor, and ozone trends. The warming in the tropical upper troposphere over the past 30 years is strongest near the Indo-Pacific warm pool, while the warming trend in the western and central Pacific is much weaker. In the lower stratosphere, these trends are reversed: the historical cooling trend is strongest over the Indo-Pacific warm pool and is weakest in the western and central Pacific. These zonal variations are stronger than the zonal-mean response in boreal winter. Targeted experiments with a chemistry-climate model are used to demonstrate that sea surface temperature (hereafter SST) trends are driving the zonal asymmetry in upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric tropical temperature trends. Warming SSTs in the Indian Ocean and in the warm pool region have led to enhanced moist heating in the upper troposphere, and in turn to a Gill-like response that extends into the lower stratosphere. The anomalous circulation has led to zonal structure in the ozone and water vapor trends near the tropopause, and subsequently to less water vapor entering the stratosphere. The radiative impact of these changes in trace gases is smaller than the direct impact of the moist heating. Projected future SSTs appear to drive a temperature and water vapor response whose zonal structure is similar to the historical response. In the lower stratosphere, the changes in water vapor and temperature due to projected future SSTs are of similar strength to, though slightly weaker than, that due directly to projected future CO2, ozone, and methane.

Modeling and Observations of the Response of Tropical Tropospheric Ozone to ENSO

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oman, L. D.; Douglass, A. R.; Ziemke, J. R.; Waugh, D. W.; Lang, C.; Rodriquez, J. M.; Nielsen, J. E.

2012-01-01

The El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the dominant mode of tropical variability on interannual time scales. ENSO appears to extend its influence into the chemical composition of the tropical troposphere, Recent results have revealed an ENSO induced wave-1 anomaly in observed tropical tropospheric column ozone, This results in a dipole over the western and eastern tropical Pacific, whereby differencing the two regions produces an ozone anomaly with an extremely high correlation to the Nino 3.4 Index. We have successfully reproduced this result using the Goddard Earth Observing System Version 5 (GEOS-5) general circulation model coupled to a comprehensive stratospheric and tropospheric chemical mechanism forced with observed sea surface temperatures over the past 25 years, An examination of the modeled ozone field reveals the vertical contributions of tropospheric ozone to the column over the western and eastern Pacific region, We will show targeted comparisons with SHADOZ ozonesondes over these regions to provide insight into the vertical structure. Also, comparisons with NASA's Aura satellite Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and Tropospheric Emissions Spectrometer (TES) instruments and other appropriate data sets will be shown. In addition, the water vapor response to ENSO will be compared to help illuminate its role relative to dynamics in impacting ozone concentrations. These results indicate that the tropospheric ozone response to ENSO is potentially a very useful chemistry-climate diagnostic and should be considered in future modeling assessments.

Meteorological air quality forecasting using the WRF-Chem model during the LMOS2017 field campaign

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stanier, C. O.; Abdioskouei, M.; Carmichael, G. R.; Christiansen, M.; Sobhani, N.

2017-12-01

The Lake Michigan Ozone Study (LMOS 2017) occurred during May and June 2017 to address the high ozone episodes in coastal communities surrounding Lake Michigan. Aircraft, ship, mobile lab, and ground-based stations were used in this campaign to build an extensive dataset regarding ozone, its precursors, and particulate matter. The University of Iowa produced high-resolution (4x4 km2 horizontal resolution and 53 vertical levels) forecast products using the WRF-Chem modeling system in support of experimental planning during LMOS 2017. The base forecast system used WRF-Chem 3.6.1 and updated National Emission Inventory (NEI-2011v2). In the updated NEI-2011v2, we reduced the NOx emissions by 28% based on EPA's estimated NOx trends from 2011 to 2017. We ran another daily forecast (perturbed forecast) with 50% reduced NOx emission to capture the sensitivity of ozone to NOx emission and account for the impact of weekend emissions on ozone values. Preliminary in-field evaluation of model performance for clouds, on-shore flows, and surface and aircraft sampled ozone and NOx concentrations found that the model successfully captured much of the observed synoptic variability of onshore flows. The model captured the variability of O3 well, but underpredicted peak ozone during high O3 episodes. In post-campaign WRF-Chem simulations, we investigated the sensitivity of the model to the hydrocarbon emission.

Using Ozone To Clean and Passivate Oxygen-Handling Hardware

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Torrance, Paul; Biesinger, Paul

2009-01-01

A proposed method of cleaning, passivating, and verifying the cleanliness of oxygen-handling hardware would extend the established art of cleaning by use of ozone. As used here, "cleaning" signifies ridding all exposed surfaces of combustible (in particular, carbon-based) contaminants. The method calls for exposing the surfaces of the hardware to ozone while monitoring the ozone effluent for carbon dioxide. The ozone would passivate the hardware while oxidizing carbon-based residues, converting the carbon in them to carbon dioxide. The exposure to ozone would be continued until no more carbon dioxide was detected, signifying that cleaning and passivation were complete.

Analysis of Ozone And CO2 Profiles Measured At A Diary Facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ogunjemiyo, S. O.; Hasson, A. S.; Ashkan, S.; Steele, J.; Shelton, T.

2015-12-01

Ozone and carbon dioxide are both greenhouse gasses in the planetary boundary layer. Ozone is a harmful secondary pollutant in the troposphere produced mostly during the day when there is a photochemical reaction in which primary pollutant precursors such as nitrous oxide (NOx) or volatile organic compounds (VOC's) mix with sunlight. As with most pollutants in the lower troposphere, both ozone and carbon dioxide vary in spatial and temporal scale depending on sources of pollution, environmental conditions and the boundary layer dynamics. Among the several factors that influence ozone variation, the seasonal changes in meteorological parameters and availability of ozone precursors are crucial because they control ozone formation and decay. Understanding how the difference in emission sources affect vertical transport of ozone and carbon dioxide is considered crucial to the improvement of their regional inventory sources. The purpose of this study is to characterize vertical transport of ozone and carbon at a diary facility. The study was conducted in the summer of 2011 and 2012 at a commercial dairy facility in Central California and involved profile measurements of ozone and CO2 using electrochemical ozonesondes, meteorological sondes and CO2 probe tethered to a 9 cubic meters helium balloon. On each day of the data collection, multiple balloon launches were made over a period representing different stages of the boundary layer development. The results show ozone and CO2 profiles display different characteristics. Regardless of the time of the day, the CO2 concentration decreases with height with a sharp gradient near the surface that is strengthened by a stable atmospheric condition, a feature suggesting the surface as the source. On the other hand, ozone profiles show greater link to the evolution of the lower boundary layer. Ozone profiles display unique features indicating ozone destruction near the surface. This unusual near the surface, observed even in the afternoon when the boundary layer is fully developed, greatly contrast ozone profiles are typical of urban environment

Efficiency of activated carbon to transform ozone into *OH radicals: influence of operational parameters.

PubMed

Sánchez-Polo, M; von Gunten, U; Rivera-Utrilla, J

2005-09-01

Based on previous findings (Jans, U., Hoigné, J., 1998. Ozone Sci. Eng. 20, 67-87), the activity of activated carbon for the transformation of ozone into *OH radicals including the influence of operational parameters (carbon dose, ozone dose, carbon-type and carbon treatment time) was quantified. The ozone decomposition constant (k(D)) was increased by the presence of activated carbon in the system and depending on the type of activated carbon added, the ratio of the concentrations of *OH radicals and ozone, the R(ct) value ([*OH]/[O3]), was increased by a factor 3-5. The results obtained show that the surface chemical and textural characteristics of the activated carbon determines its activity for the transformation of ozone into *OH radicals. The most efficient carbons in this process are those with high basicity and large surface area. The obtained results show that the interaction between ozone and pyrrol groups present on the surface of activated carbon increase the concentration of O2*- radicals in the system, enhancing ozone transformation into *OH radicals. The activity of activated carbon decreases for extended ozone exposures. This may indicate that activated carbon does not really act as a catalyst but rather as a conventional initiator or promoter for the ozone transformation into *OH radicals. Ozonation of Lake Zurich water ([O3] = 1 mg/L) in presence of activated carbon (0.5 g/L) lead to an increase in the k(D) and R(ct) value by a factor of 10 and 39, respectively, thereby favouring the removal of ozone-resistant contaminants. Moreover, the presence of activated carbon during ozonation of Lake Zurich water led to a 40% reduction in the content of dissolved organic carbon during the first 60 min of treatment. The adsorption of low concentrations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) on activated carbon surfaces did not modify its capacity to initiate/promote ozone transformation into *OH radicals.

Field-analysis of potable water quality and ozone efficiency in ozone-assisted biological filtration systems for surface water treatment.

PubMed

Zanacic, Enisa; Stavrinides, John; McMartin, Dena W

2016-11-01

Potable water treatment in small communities is challenging due to a complexity of factors starting with generally poor raw water sources, a smaller tax and consumption base that limit capital and operating funds, and culminating in what is typically a less sophisticated and robust water treatment plant for production and delivery of safe, high quality potable water. The design and optimization of modular ozone-assisted biological filtration systems can address some of these challenges. In surface water treatment, the removal of organic matter (e.g., dissolved organic carbon - DOC), inorganic nutrients and other exposure-related contaminants (e.g., turbidity and dissolved solids) from the raw water source is essential. Thus, a combination of chemical and biological oxidation processes can produce an effective and efficient water treatment plant design that is also affordable and robust. To that end, the ozone-assisted biological filtration water treatment plants in two communities were evaluated to determine the efficacy of oxidation and contaminant removal processes. The results of testing for in-field system performance indicate that plant performance is particularly negatively impacted by high alkalinity, high organics loading, and turbidity. Both bicarbonate and carbonate alkalinity were observed to impede ozone contact and interaction with DOC, resulting in lower than anticipated DOC oxidation efficiency and bioavailability. The ozone dosage at both water treatment plants must be calculated on a more routine basis to better reflect both the raw water DOC concentration and presence of alkalinities to ensure maximized organics oxidation and minimization of trihalomethanes production. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Why do Models Overestimate Surface Ozone in the Southeastern United States?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Travis, Katherine R.; Jacob, Daniel J.; Fisher, Jenny A.; Kim, Patrick S.; Marais, Eloise A.; Zhu, Lei; Yu, Karen; Miller, Christopher C.; Yantosca, Robert M.; Sulprizio, Melissa P.;

Why do models overestimate surface ozone in the Southeast United States?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Travis, Katherine R.; Jacob, Daniel J.; Fisher, Jenny A.; Kim, Patrick S.; Marais, Eloise A.; Zhu, Lei; Yu, Karen; Miller, Christopher C.; Yantosca, Robert M.; Sulprizio, Melissa P.; Thompson, Anne M.; Wennberg, Paul O.; Crounse, John D.; St. Clair, Jason M.; Cohen, Ronald C.; Laughner, Joshua L.; Dibb, Jack E.; Hall, Samuel R.; Ullmann, Kirk; Wolfe, Glenn M.; Pollack, Illana B.; Peischl, Jeff; Neuman, Jonathan A.; Zhou, Xianliang

2016-11-01

Ozone pollution in the Southeast US involves complex chemistry driven by emissions of anthropogenic nitrogen oxide radicals (NOx ≡ NO + NO2) and biogenic isoprene. Model estimates of surface ozone concentrations tend to be biased high in the region and this is of concern for designing effective emission control strategies to meet air quality standards. We use detailed chemical observations from the SEAC4RS aircraft campaign in August and September 2013, interpreted with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model at 0.25° × 0.3125° horizontal resolution, to better understand the factors controlling surface ozone in the Southeast US. We find that the National Emission Inventory (NEI) for NOx from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is too high. This finding is based on SEAC4RS observations of NOx and its oxidation products, surface network observations of nitrate wet deposition fluxes, and OMI satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 columns. Our results indicate that NEI NOx emissions from mobile and industrial sources must be reduced by 30-60 %, dependent on the assumption of the contribution by soil NOx emissions. Upper-tropospheric NO2 from lightning makes a large contribution to satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 that must be accounted for when using these data to estimate surface NOx emissions. We find that only half of isoprene oxidation proceeds by the high-NOx pathway to produce ozone; this fraction is only moderately sensitive to changes in NOx emissions because isoprene and NOx emissions are spatially segregated. GEOS-Chem with reduced NOx emissions provides an unbiased simulation of ozone observations from the aircraft and reproduces the observed ozone production efficiency in the boundary layer as derived from a regression of ozone and NOx oxidation products. However, the model is still biased high by 6 ± 14 ppb relative to observed surface ozone in the Southeast US. Ozonesondes launched during midday hours show a 7 ppb ozone decrease from 1.5 km to the surface that GEOS-Chem does not capture. This bias may reflect a combination of excessive vertical mixing and net ozone production in the model boundary layer.

Why do Models Overestimate Surface Ozone in the Southeastern United States?

PubMed

Travis, Katherine R; Jacob, Daniel J; Fisher, Jenny A; Kim, Patrick S; Marais, Eloise A; Zhu, Lei; Yu, Karen; Miller, Christopher C; Yantosca, Robert M; Sulprizio, Melissa P; Thompson, Anne M; Wennberg, Paul O; Crounse, John D; St Clair, Jason M; Cohen, Ronald C; Laughner, Joshua L; Dibb, Jack E; Hall, Samuel R; Ullmann, Kirk; Wolfe, Glenn M; Pollack, Illana B; Peischl, Jeff; Neuman, Jonathan A; Zhou, Xianliang

2016-01-01

Ozone pollution in the Southeast US involves complex chemistry driven by emissions of anthropogenic nitrogen oxide radicals (NO x ≡ NO + NO 2 ) and biogenic isoprene. Model estimates of surface ozone concentrations tend to be biased high in the region and this is of concern for designing effective emission control strategies to meet air quality standards. We use detailed chemical observations from the SEAC 4 RS aircraft campaign in August and September 2013, interpreted with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model at 0.25°×0.3125° horizontal resolution, to better understand the factors controlling surface ozone in the Southeast US. We find that the National Emission Inventory (NEI) for NO x from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is too high. This finding is based on SEAC 4 RS observations of NO x and its oxidation products, surface network observations of nitrate wet deposition fluxes, and OMI satellite observations of tropospheric NO 2 columns. Our results indicate that NEI NO x emissions from mobile and industrial sources must be reduced by 30-60%, dependent on the assumption of the contribution by soil NO x emissions. Upper tropospheric NO 2 from lightning makes a large contribution to satellite observations of tropospheric NO 2 that must be accounted for when using these data to estimate surface NO x emissions. We find that only half of isoprene oxidation proceeds by the high-NO x pathway to produce ozone; this fraction is only moderately sensitive to changes in NO x emissions because isoprene and NO x emissions are spatially segregated. GEOS-Chem with reduced NO x emissions provides an unbiased simulation of ozone observations from the aircraft, and reproduces the observed ozone production efficiency in the boundary layer as derived from a regression of ozone and NO x oxidation products. However, the model is still biased high by 8±13 ppb relative to observed surface ozone in the Southeast US. Ozonesondes launched during midday hours show a 7 ppb ozone decrease from 1.5 km to the surface that GEOS-Chem does not capture. This bias may reflect a combination of excessive vertical mixing and net ozone production in the model boundary layer.

Why do Models Overestimate Surface Ozone in the Southeastern United States?

PubMed Central

Travis, Katherine R.; Jacob, Daniel J.; Fisher, Jenny A.; Kim, Patrick S.; Marais, Eloise A.; Zhu, Lei; Yu, Karen; Miller, Christopher C.; Yantosca, Robert M.; Sulprizio, Melissa P.; Thompson, Anne M.; Wennberg, Paul O.; Crounse, John D.; St Clair, Jason M.; Cohen, Ronald C.; Laughner, Joshua L.; Dibb, Jack E.; Hall, Samuel R.; Ullmann, Kirk; Wolfe, Glenn M.; Pollack, Illana B.; Peischl, Jeff; Neuman, Jonathan A.; Zhou, Xianliang

2018-01-01

Ozone pollution in the Southeast US involves complex chemistry driven by emissions of anthropogenic nitrogen oxide radicals (NOx ≡ NO + NO2) and biogenic isoprene. Model estimates of surface ozone concentrations tend to be biased high in the region and this is of concern for designing effective emission control strategies to meet air quality standards. We use detailed chemical observations from the SEAC4RS aircraft campaign in August and September 2013, interpreted with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model at 0.25°×0.3125° horizontal resolution, to better understand the factors controlling surface ozone in the Southeast US. We find that the National Emission Inventory (NEI) for NOx from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is too high. This finding is based on SEAC4RS observations of NOx and its oxidation products, surface network observations of nitrate wet deposition fluxes, and OMI satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 columns. Our results indicate that NEI NOx emissions from mobile and industrial sources must be reduced by 30–60%, dependent on the assumption of the contribution by soil NOx emissions. Upper tropospheric NO2 from lightning makes a large contribution to satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 that must be accounted for when using these data to estimate surface NOx emissions. We find that only half of isoprene oxidation proceeds by the high-NOx pathway to produce ozone; this fraction is only moderately sensitive to changes in NOx emissions because isoprene and NOx emissions are spatially segregated. GEOS-Chem with reduced NOx emissions provides an unbiased simulation of ozone observations from the aircraft, and reproduces the observed ozone production efficiency in the boundary layer as derived from a regression of ozone and NOx oxidation products. However, the model is still biased high by 8±13 ppb relative to observed surface ozone in the Southeast US. Ozonesondes launched during midday hours show a 7 ppb ozone decrease from 1.5 km to the surface that GEOS-Chem does not capture. This bias may reflect a combination of excessive vertical mixing and net ozone production in the model boundary layer. PMID:29619045

[Effects of elevated ozone concentrations on enzyme activities and organic acids content in wheat rhizospheric soil.

PubMed

Yin, Wei Qin; Jing, Hao Qi; Wang, Ya Bo; Wei, Si Yu; Sun, Yue; Wang, Sheng Sen; Wang, Xuai Zhi

2018-02-01

The elevated concentration of tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) is an important global climate change driver, with adverse impacts on soil ecological environment and crop growth. In this study, a pot experiment was carried out in an open top chamber (OTC), to investigate the effects of elevated ozone concentration on soil enzyme activities (catalase, polyphenol oxidase, dehydrogenase and invertase), organic acids contents (oxalic acid, citric acid and malic acid) at different growth stages (tillering, jointing, heading and ripening stages) of wheat, and combined with the rhizospheric soil physicochemical properties and plant root characteristics to analyze the underlying reasons. The results showed that, elevated ozone concentration increased soil catalase, polyphenol oxidase, dehydrogenase and invertase activities at wheat ripening period to different degrees, with the effects on the activities of catalase and polyphenol oxidase being statistically significant. At the heading stage, activities of dehydrogenase and invertase were significantly increased by up to 76.7%. At the ripening stage, elevated ozone concentration significantly increased the content of citric acid and malic acid and redox potential (Eh) in rhizospheric soil, but reduced soil pH, electrical conductivity, total carbon and nitrogen. For root characteristics, elevated ozone concentrations significantly reduced the wheat root biomass, total root length and root surface area but increased the average root diameter.

Improved Potential Energy Surface of Ozone Constructed Using the Fitting by Permutationally Invariant Polynomial Function

DOE PAGES

Ayouz, Mehdi; Babikov, Dmitri

2012-01-01

New global potential energy surface for the ground electronic state of ozone is constructed at the complete basis set level of the multireference configuration interaction theory. A method of fitting the data points by analytical permutationally invariant polynomial function is adopted. A small set of 500 points is preoptimized using the old surface of ozone. In this procedure the positions of points in the configuration space are chosen such that the RMS deviation of the fit is minimized. New ab initio calculations are carried out at these points and are used to build new surface. Additional points are added tomore » the vicinity of the minimum energy path in order to improve accuracy of the fit, particularly in the region where the surface of ozone exhibits a shallow van der Waals well. New surface can be used to study formation of ozone at thermal energies and its spectroscopy near the dissociation threshold.« less

California Baseline Ozone Transport Study (CABOTS): Ozonesonde Measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eiserloh, A. J., Jr.; Chiao, S.; Spitze, J.; Cauley, S.; Clark, J.; Roberts, M.

2016-12-01

Because the EPA recently lowered the ambient air quality standard for the 8-hr average of ozone (O3) to70 ppbv, California must continue to achieve significant reductions in ozone precursor emissions and prepare for new State Implementation Plans (SIP) to demonstrate how ground-level ambient ozone will be reduced below the new health-based standard. Prior studies suggest that background levels of ozone traveling across the Pacific Ocean can significantly influence surface ozone throughout California, particularly during the spring. Evidence has been presented indicating that background levels of ozone continue to increase in the western United States over the recent few decades, implying more ozone exceedances in the future. To better understand the contributions of the external natural and anthropogenic pollution sources as well as atmospheric processes for surface ozone concentrations in California during the spring and summer months, the California Baseline Ozone Transport Study (CABOTS) has been established. One major goal of CABOTS is to implement near daily ozonesonde measurements along the California Coast to quantify background ozone aloft before entering the State during high ozone season. CABOTS has been ongoing from May through August of 2016 launching ozonesondes from Bodega Bay and Half Moon Bay, California. The temporal progression of ozonesonde measurements and subsequent analysis of the data will be discussed with a focus on the contribution of background ozone to surface ozone sites inland as well as likely origins of layers aloft. Comparisons of current ozonesondes versus prior ozonesonde studies of California will also be performed. A few selected cases of high ozone layers moving onshore from different sources will be discussed as well.

Surface and Tropospheric Ozone Profile Variability (1999-2014) at the TOLNet Site of Table Mountain, California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Granados-Muñoz, M. J.; Leblanc, T.

2015-12-01

Ozone in the lower troposphere acts as an air pollutant affecting human health and vegetation. Tropospheric ozone sources and variability are not yet fully identified or understood and recent studies reveal the importance of increasing the number of tropospheric ozone profiling stations and long term measurements. As part of the international monitoring network NDACC, and the U.S.-based network TOLNet, a differential absorption lidar has been performing tropospheric ozone measurements (3-20 km) at the JPL Table Mountain Facility (TMF, California) since 1999, and surface measurements have been performed since 2013 with a UV photometric analyzer. Because of the site's geolocation and high elevation, background tropospheric ozone, unaffected by the boundary layer dynamics and local anthropogenic emissions of ozone precursors, is usually expected. However, transboundary ozone contributions such as stratospheric intrusions and Asian pollution episodes are frequently detected. In this study, a statistical analysis of the 14-year lidar profiles and the 2.5-year surface data is presented. Seasonal, interannual and diurnal variability and its possible causes (e.g. El Nino/La Nina events, North American Monsoon) are investigated. Together with the high elevation surface data gathered at TMF, surface data from ARB stations nearby are analyzed to understand the lowermost tropospheric ozone variability component. The frequency of stratospheric intrusions and Asian pollution episodes reaching the Western U.S. is also examined in an attempt to understand the relative contribution of each process to the observed variability throughout the troposphere. The Table Mountain surface and lidar measurements are expected to contribute significantly to the emerging system of global air quality observations, and to the improvement of global and regional data assimilation and modeling.

Preliminary SEM Observations on the Surface of Elastomeric Impression Materials after Immersion or Ozone Disinfection

PubMed Central

Prombonas, Anthony; Yannikakis, Stavros; Karampotsos, Thanasis; Katsarou, Martha-Spyridoula; Drakoulis, Nikolaos

2016-01-01

Introduction Surface integrity of dental elastomeric impression materials that are subjected to disinfection is of major importance for the quality of the final prosthetic restorations. Aim The aim of this qualitative Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) study was to reveal the effects of immersion or ozone disinfection on the surface of four dental elastomeric impression materials. Materials and Methods Four dental elastomeric impression material brands were used (two vinyl polysiloxane silicones, one polyether, and one vinyl polyether silicone). Total of 32 specimens were fabricated, eight from each impression material. Specimens were immersion (0.525% sodium hypochlorite solution or 0.3% benzalkonium chloride solution) or ozone disinfected or served as controls and examined with SEM. Results Surface degradation was observed on several speci-mens disinfected with 0.525% sodium hypochlorite solution. Similar wavy-wrinkling surface structures were observed in almost all specimens, when treated either with 0.3% benzalkonium chloride solution or ozone. Conclusion The SEM images obtained from this study revealed that both immersion disinfectants and ozone show similar impression material surface alterations. Ozone seems to be non-inferior as compared to immersion disinfectants, but superior as to environmental protection. PMID:28208993

Tropospheric ozone in east Asia

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Phadnis, M.J.

1996-12-31

An analysis of the observed data for the tropospheric ozone at mid latitudes in east Asia is done. There are three ways by which the tropospheric ozone is calculated, namely: (1) Ozonesonde measurements, (2) Fishman`s method of Residual Ozone and (3) TOMS measurements - an indirect method of calculating tropospheric ozone. In addition the surface ozone values at the network sites in Japan is also considered. The analysis of data is carried out for a period of twelve years from 1979 to 1991. In general it is observed that the tropospheric ozone is more in summer than winter, obviously becausemore » of the larger tropopause height in summer. On an average for the period of the analysis, the ozone values are at a high of about 60 DU (dobson units). While in winter the values go down to around 30 DU. Also a time series analysis shows an increasing trend in the values over the years. The ozonesonde values are correlated more to the TOMS tropospheric ozone values. For the stations analyzed in Japan, the TOMS tropospheric ozone values are generally greater than the ozonesonde values. The analysis of the average monthly surface ozone in Japan shows highs in spring and lows in summer. This can be attributed to movement of pollutant laden fronts towards Japan during spring. The highs for surface ozone are about 50 DU while the lows are around 20 DU.« less

Interactive Ozone and Methane Chemistry in GISS-E2 Historical and Future Climate Simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shindell, D. T.; Pechony, O.; Voulgarakis, A.; Faluvegi, G.; Nazarenko. L.; Lamarque, J.-F.; Bowman, K.; Milly, G.; Kovari, B.; Ruedy, R.;

Surface Ozone Variability and Trends over the South African Highveld from 1990 to 2007

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Balashov, Nikolay V.; Thompson, Anne M.; Piketh, Stuart J.; Langerman, Kristy E.

2014-01-01

Surface ozone is a secondary air pollutant formed from reactions between nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) and volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight. In this work we examine effects of the climate pattern known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and NOx variability on surface ozone from 1990 to 2007 over the South African Highveld, a heavily populated region in South Africa with numerous industrial facilities. Over summer and autumn (December-May) on the Highveld, El Niño, as signified by positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the central Pacific Ocean, is typically associated with drier and warmer than normal conditions favoring ozone formation. Conversely, La Niña, or negative SST anomalies over the central Pacific Ocean, is typically associated with cloudier and above normal rainfall conditions, hindering ozone production. We use a generalized regression model to identify any linear dependence that the Highveld ozone, measured at five air quality monitoring stations, may have on ENSO and NOx. Our results indicate that four out of the five stations exhibit a statistically significant sensitivity to ENSO at some point over the December-May period where El Niño amplifies ozone formation and La Niña reduces ozone formation. Three out of the five stations reveal statistically significant sensitivity to NOx variability, primarily in winter and spring. Accounting for ENSO and NOx effects throughout the study period of 18 years, two stations exhibit statistically significant negative ozone trends in spring, one station displays a statistically significant positive trend in August, and two stations show no statistically significant change in surface ozone.

Lidar Measurements of Tropospheric Ozone in the Arctic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seabrook, Jeffrey; Whiteway, James

2016-06-01

This paper reports on differential absorption lidar (DIAL) measurements of tropospheric ozone in the Canadian Arctic during springtime. Measurements at Eureka Weather Station revealed that mountains have a significant effect on the vertical structure of ozone above Ellesmere Island. Ozone depletion events were observed when air that had spent significant time near to the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean reached Eureka. This air arrived at Eureka by flowing over the surrounding mountains. Surface level ozone depletions were not observed during periods when the flow of air from over the sea ice was blocked by mountains. In the case of blocking there was an enhancement in the amount of ozone near the surface as air from the mid troposphere descended in the lee of the mountains. Three case studies will be shown in the presentation, while one is described in this paper.

Effects of ozone-vegetation coupling on surface ozone air quality via biogeochemical and meteorological feedbacks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadiq, Mehliyar; Tai, Amos P. K.; Lombardozzi, Danica; Martin, Maria Val

2017-02-01

Tropospheric ozone is one of the most hazardous air pollutants as it harms both human health and plant productivity. Foliage uptake of ozone via dry deposition damages photosynthesis and causes stomatal closure. These foliage changes could lead to a cascade of biogeochemical and biogeophysical effects that not only modulate the carbon cycle, regional hydrometeorology and climate, but also cause feedbacks onto surface ozone concentration itself. In this study, we implement a semi-empirical parameterization of ozone damage on vegetation in the Community Earth System Model to enable online ozone-vegetation coupling, so that for the first time ecosystem structure and ozone concentration can coevolve in fully coupled land-atmosphere simulations. With ozone-vegetation coupling, present-day surface ozone is simulated to be higher by up to 4-6 ppbv over Europe, North America and China. Reduced dry deposition velocity following ozone damage contributes to ˜ 40-100 % of those increases, constituting a significant positive biogeochemical feedback on ozone air quality. Enhanced biogenic isoprene emission is found to contribute to most of the remaining increases, and is driven mainly by higher vegetation temperature that results from lower transpiration rate. This isoprene-driven pathway represents an indirect, positive meteorological feedback. The reduction in both dry deposition and transpiration is mostly associated with reduced stomatal conductance following ozone damage, whereas the modification of photosynthesis and further changes in ecosystem productivity are found to play a smaller role in contributing to the ozone-vegetation feedbacks. Our results highlight the need to consider two-way ozone-vegetation coupling in Earth system models to derive a more complete understanding and yield more reliable future predictions of ozone air quality.

Linking Global to Regional Models to Assess Future Climate Impacts on Surface Ozone Concentrations in the United States

EPA Science Inventory

The UCD sectional aerosol model has been coupled to the CMAQ air quality model and used to simulate air quality in Tampa, Florida. Sea salt emissions are parameterized as a function of modeled wind speed and relative humidity. Modeled aerosol sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, sodium,...

The role of refinery flaring events and bay breezes on a high surface ozone episode during the Houston, Texas DISCOVER-AQ field campaign

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loughner, C.; Follette-Cook, M. B.; Fried, A.; Pickering, K. E.

2015-12-01

The highest observed surface ozone concentrations in the Houston metropolitan area in 2013 occurred on September 25, which coincided with the Texas DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality) field campaign. Surface ozone was elevated throughout the Houston metropolitan area with maximum 8-hour average ozone peaking along the western shore of Galveston Bay, reaching 124 ppbv, almost 50 ppbv above the current EPA standard of 75 ppbv. The NASA P-3B aircraft observed plumes from refinery flares west and northwest of Galveston Bay that were transported over the water. Continental air pollution from the north was transported into the Houston metropolitan area where it mixed with locally generated emissions. A bay breeze circulation formed causing pollutants that were transported out over the water in the morning to recirculate back inland where they mixed with freshly emitted pollution near the bay breeze convergence zone. The highest surface ozone concentrations were reported near the bay breeze front. This ozone episode will be presented using measurements made during the DISCOVER-AQ field campaign and a CMAQ model simulation with integrated source apportionment, which tracks the contribution of emissions source groups and regions on ozone concentrations.

Environmental assessment of gas management options at the Old Ammässuo landfill (Finland) by means of LCA-modeling (EASEWASTE).

PubMed

Manfredi, Simone; Niskanen, Antti; Christensen, Thomas H

2009-05-01

The current landfill gas (LFG) management (based on flaring and utilization for heat generation of the collected gas) and three potential future gas management options (LFG flaring, heat generation and combined heat and power generation) for the Old Ammässuo landfill (Espoo, Finland) were evaluated by life-cycle assessment modeling. The evaluation accounts for all resource utilization and emissions to the environment related to the gas generation and management for a life-cycle time horizon of 100 yr. The assessment criteria comprise standard impact categories (global warming, photo-chemical ozone formation, stratospheric ozone depletion, acidification and nutrient enrichment) and toxicity-related impact categories (human toxicity via soil, via water and via air, eco-toxicity in soil and in water chronic). The results of the life-cycle impact assessment show that disperse emissions of LFG from the landfill surface determine the highest potential impacts in terms of global warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, and human toxicity via soil. Conversely, the impact potentials estimated for other categories are numerically-negative when the collected LFG is utilized for energy generation, demonstrating that net environmental savings can be obtained. Such savings are proportional to the amount of gas utilized for energy generation and the gas energy recovery efficiency achieved, which thus have to be regarded as key parameters. As a result, the overall best performance is found for the heat generation option - as it has the highest LFG utilization/energy recovery rates - whereas the worst performance is estimated for the LFG flaring option, as no LFG is here utilized for energy generation. Therefore, to reduce the environmental burdens caused by the current gas management strategy, more LFG should be used for energy generation. This inherently requires a superior LFG capture rate that, in addition, would reduce fugitive emissions of LFG from the landfill surface, bringing further environmental benefits.

The impact of a future H2-based road transportation sector on the composition and chemistry of the atmosphere - Part 2: Stratospheric ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, D.; Jia, W.; Olsen, S. C.; Wuebbles, D. J.; Dubey, M. K.; Rockett, A. A.

2012-08-01

The prospective future adoption of hydrogen to power the road transportation sector could greatly improve tropospheric air quality but also raises the question whether the adoption would have adverse effects on stratospheric ozone. The possibility of these undesirable impacts must be fully evaluated to guide future policy decisions. Here we evaluate the possible impact of a future (2050) H2-based road transportation sector on stratospheric composition and chemistry, especially on stratospheric ozone, with the MOZART chemical transport model. Since future growth is highly uncertain we evaluate the impact for two world evolution scenarios, one based on a high emitting scenario (IPCC A1FI) and the other on a low emitting scenario (IPCC B1), as well as two technological options: H2 fuel cells and H2 internal combustion engines. We assume a H2 leakage rate of 2.5% and a complete market penetration of H2 vehicles in 2050. The model simulations show that a H2-based road transportation sector would reduce stratospheric ozone concentrations as a result of perturbed catalytic ozone destruction cycles. The magnitude of the impact depends on which growth scenario the world evolves and which H2 technology option is applied. For the same world evolution scenario, stratospheric ozone decreases more in the H2 fuel cell scenarios than in the H2 internal combustion engine scenarios because of the NOx emissions in the latter case. If the same technological option is applied, the impact is larger in the A1FI emission scenario. The largest impact, a 0.54% decrease in annual average global mean stratospheric column ozone, is found with a H2 fuel cell type road transportation sector in the A1FI scenario; whereas the smallest impact, a 0.04% increase in stratospheric ozone, is found with applications of H2 internal combustion engine vehicles in the B1 scenario. The impacts of the other two scenarios fall between the above two bounding scenarios. However, the magnitude of these changes is much smaller than the increases in 2050 stratospheric ozone expected as stratospheric ozone recovers due to the limits in ozone depleting substance emissions imposed in the Montreal Protocol.

The impact of past and future climate change on global human mortality due to ozone and PM2.5 outdoor air pollution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, R.; West, J.; Anenberg, S.; Lamarque, J.; Shindell, D. T.; Bergmann, D. J.; Berntsen, T.; Cameron-Smith, P. J.; Collins, B.; Ghan, S. J.; Josse, B.; Nagashima, T.; Naik, V.; Plummer, D.; Rodriguez, J. M.; Szopa, S.; Zeng, G.

2012-12-01

Climate change can adversely affect air quality, through changes in meteorology, atmospheric chemistry, and emissions. Future changes in air pollutant emissions will also profoundly influence air quality. These changes in air quality can affect human health, as exposure to ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been associated with premature human mortality. Here we will quantify the global mortality impacts of past and future climate change, considering the effects of climate change on air quality isolated from emission changes. The Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP) has simulated the past and future surface concentrations of ozone and PM2.5 from each of several GCMs, for emissions from 1850 ("preindustrial") to 2000 ("present-day"), and for the IPCC AR5 Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) scenarios to 2100. We will use ozone and PM2.5 concentrations from simulations from five or more global models of atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, for a base year (present-day), pre-industrial conditions, and future scenarios, considering changes in climate and emissions. We will assess the mortality impacts of past climate change by using one simulation ensemble with present emissions and climate and one with present emissions but 1850 climate. We will similarly quantify the potential impacts of future climate change under the four RCP scenarios in 2030, 2050 and 2100. All model outputs will be regridded to the same resolution to estimate multi-model medians and range in each grid cell. Resulting premature deaths will be calculated using these medians along with epidemiologically-derived concentration-response functions, and present-day or future projections of population and baseline mortality rates, considering aging and transitioning disease rates over time. The spatial distributions of current and future global premature mortalities due to ozone and PM2.5 outdoor air pollution will be presented separately. These results will strengthen our understanding of the impacts of climate change today, and in future years considering different plausible scenarios.

Effects of future land use and ecosystem changes on boundary-layer meteorology and air quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tai, A. P. K.; Wang, L.; Sadeke, M.

2017-12-01

Land vegetation plays key roles shaping boundary-layer meteorology and air quality via various pathways. Vegetation can directly affect surface ozone via dry deposition and biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Transpiration from land plants can also influence surface temperature, soil moisture and boundary-layer mixing depth, thereby indirectly affecting surface ozone. Future changes in the distribution, density and physiology of vegetation are therefore expected to have major ramifications for surface ozone air quality. In our study, we examine two aspects of potential vegetation changes using the Community Earth System Model (CESM) in the fully coupled land-atmosphere configuration, and evaluate their implications on meteorology and air quality: 1) land use change, which alters the distribution of plant functional types and total leaf density; and 2) ozone damage on vegetation, which alters leaf density and physiology (e.g., stomatal resistance). We find that, following the RCP8.5 scenario for 2050, global cropland expansion induces only minor changes in surface ozone in tropical and subtropical regions, but statistically significant changes by up to +4 ppbv in midlatitude North America and East Asia, mostly due to higher surface temperature that enhances biogenic VOC emissions, and reduced dry deposition to a lesser degree. These changes are in turn to driven mostly by meteorological changes that include a shift from latent to sensible heat in the surface energy balance and reduced soil moisture, reflecting not only local responses but also a northward expansion of the Hadley Cell. On the other hand, ozone damage on vegetation driven by rising anthropogenic emissions is shown to induce a further enhancement of ozone by up to +6 ppbv in midlatitude regions by 2050. This reflects a strong localized positive feedback, with severe ozone damage in polluted regions generally inducing stomatal closure, which in turn reduces transpiration, increases surface temperature, and thus enhances biogenic VOC emissions and surface ozone. Our findings demonstrate the importance of considering meteorological responses to vegetation changes in future air quality assessment, and call for greater coordination among land use, ecosystem and air quality management efforts.

A network of autonomous surface ozone monitors in Antarctica: technical description and first results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bauguitte, S. J.; Brough, N.; Frey, M. M.; Jones, A. E.; Roscoe, H. K.; Wolff, E. W.

2009-12-01

Concentrations of surface ozone over polar regions cannot be derived from satellite data so can only be studied from ground-based platforms. To understand the regional picture a carefully-designed network of ground-based monitors is required. Here we report on a network of 10 autonomous ozone monitors that was established around the Weddell Sea sector of coastal Antarctica with a transect up onto the Antarctic Plateau during the International Polar Year. The aim was to measure for a full year, thus gaining a much-improved broader view of boundary layer ozone seasonality at different locations as well as on factors affecting the budget of surface ozone in Antarctica. Of specific interest were the balance between halogen-driven destruction and photochemical production from snow-emitted precursors, as well as the spatial extent of ozone depletion events. Each ozone monitor measured successfully within its predefined duty cycle throughout the year, with some differences in performance dependent on power availability. Here we present technical information and first results from the network.

Retrieving cloud, dust and ozone abundances in the Martian atmosphere using SPICAM/UV nadir spectra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willame, Y.; Vandaele, A. C.; Depiesse, C.; Lefèvre, F.; Letocart, V.; Gillotay, D.; Montmessin, F.

2017-08-01

We present the retrieval algorithm developed to analyse nadir spectra from SPICAM/UV aboard Mars-Express. The purpose is to retrieve simultaneously several parameters of the Martian atmosphere and surface: the dust optical depth, the ozone total column, the cloud opacity and the surface albedo. The retrieval code couples the use of an existing complete radiative transfer code, an inversion method and a cloud detection algorithm. We describe the working principle of our algorithm and the parametrisation used to model the required absorption, scattering and reflection processes of the solar UV radiation that occur in the Martian atmosphere and at its surface. The retrieval method has been applied on 4 Martian years of SPICAM/UV data to obtain climatologies of the different quantities under investigation. An overview of the climatology is given for each species showing their seasonal and spatial distributions. The results show a good qualitative agreement with previous observations. Quantitative comparisons of the retrieved dust optical depths indicate generally larger values than previous studies. Possible shortcomings in the dust modelling (altitude profile) have been identified and may be part of the reason for this difference. The ozone results are found to be influenced by the presence of clouds. Preliminary quantitative comparisons show that our retrieved ozone columns are consistent with other results when no ice clouds are present, and are larger for the cases with clouds at high latitude. Sensitivity tests have also been performed showing that the use of other a priori assumptions such as the altitude distribution or some scattering properties can have an important impact on the retrieval.

Characterizing the seasonal cycle and vertical structure of ozone in Paris, France using four years of ground based LIDAR measurements in the lowermost troposphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klein, Amélie; Ancellet, Gérard; Ravetta, François; Thomas, Jennie L.; Pazmino, Andrea

2017-10-01

Systematic ozone LIDAR measurements were completed during a 4 year period (2011-2014) in Paris, France to study the seasonal variability of the vertical structure of ozone in the urban boundary layer. In addition, we use in-situ measurements from the surface air quality network that is located in Paris (AIRPARIF). Specifically, we use ozone and NO2 measurements made at two urban stations: Paris13 (60 m ASL) and the Eiffel Tower (310 m ASL) to validate and interpret the LIDAR profiles. Remote sensed tropospheric NO2 integrated columns from the SAOZ instrument located in Paris are also used to interpret ozone measurements. Comparison between ozone LIDAR measurements averaged from 250 m to 500 m and the Eiffel Tower in-situ measurements shows that the accuracy of the LIDAR (originally ±14 μg·m-3) is significantly improved (±7 μg·m-3) when a small telescope with a wide angular aperture is used. Results for the seasonal cycle of the ozone vertical gradient are found to be similar using two methods: (1) measured differences between AIRPARIF stations with measurements at 60 m ASL and 310 m ASL and (2) using LIDAR profiles from 300 m to the top of the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL). Ozone concentrations measured by the LIDAR increase with altitude within the PBL, with a steeper gradient in winter (60 μg·m-3·km-1) and a less strong gradient in summer (20 μg·m-3·km-1). Results show that in winter, there is a sharp positive gradient of ozone at the surface, which is explained by ozone titration by NO combined with increased atmospheric stability in winter. In the afternoon during summer, photochemistry and vertical mixing are large enough to compensate for ozone titration near the surface, where NOx is emitted, and there is no gradient in ozone observed. In contrast, in the summer during the morning, ozone has a sharper positive vertical gradient similar to the winter values. Comparison of the vertically averaged ozone concentrations up to (0-3 km) and urban layer (0-310 m) ozone concentrations shows that the ratio between these two quantities is the largest in summer (86%) and the lowest in winter (49%). We conclude that satellite measurements that represent the 0-3 km integrated ozone column are not necessarily a good proxy for surface ozone and may lead to incorrect conclusions about the surface ozone seasonal variability. The ratio between the urban layer NO2 average concentration and the boundary layer NO2 average concentration obtained from SAOZ NO2 tropospheric columns is always less than 50%, meaning NO2 does not decrease linearly in the PBL, but with a sharper decrease close to the surface.

Lidar Observations of the Vertical Structure of Ozone and Aerosol during Wintertime High-Ozone Episodes Associated with Oil and Gas Exploration in the Uintah Basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Senff, C. J.; Langford, A. O.; Banta, R. M.; Alvarez, R. J.; Weickmann, A.; Sandberg, S.; Marchbanks, R. D.; Brewer, A.; Hardesty, R. M.

2013-12-01

The Uintah Basin in northeast Utah has been experiencing extended periods of poor air quality in the winter months including very high levels of surface ozone. To investigate the causes of these wintertime ozone pollution episodes, two comprehensive studies were undertaken in January/February of 2012 and 2013. As part of these Uintah Basin Ozone Studies (UBOS), NOAA deployed its ground-based, scanning Tunable Optical Profiler for Aerosol and oZone (TOPAZ) lidar to document the vertical structure of ozone and aerosol backscatter from near the surface up to about 3 km above ground level (AGL). TOPAZ, along with a comprehensive set of chemistry and meteorological measurements, was situated in both years at the Horse Pool site at the northern edge of a large concentration of gas producing wells in the eastern part of the Uintah Basin. The 2012 study was characterized by unusually warm and snow-free condition and the TOPAZ lidar observed deep boundary layers (BL) and mostly well-mixed vertical ozone profiles at or slightly above tropospheric background levels. During UBOS 2013, winter weather conditions in the Uintah Basin were more typical with snow-covered ground and a persistent, shallow cold-pool layer. The TOPAZ lidar characterized with great temporal and spatial detail the evolution of multiple high-ozone episodes as well as cleanout events caused by the passage of synoptic-scale storm systems. Despite the snow cover, the TOPAZ observations show well-mixed afternoon ozone and aerosol profiles up to about 100 m AGL. After several days of pollutant buildup, BL ozone values reached 120-150 ppbv. Above the mixed layer, ozone values gradually decreased to tropospheric background values of around 50 ppbv throughout the several-hundred-meter-deep cold-pool layer and then stayed constant above that up to about 3 km AGL. During the ozone episodes, the lidar observations show no indication of either vertical or horizontal transport of high ozone levels to the surface, thus supporting the notion that ozone is locally produced in the Uintah Basin. In both winters, TOPAZ occasionally observed ozone titration as the NOx-rich plume from the nearby Bonanza power plant was advected over the Horse Pool site. In 2012, low ozone values due to titration were observed at the surface and throughout the well-mixed BL, while in 2013 low ozone values were confined to the upper part of the cold-pool layer above the BL. This suggests that power plant NOx was very likely not part of the precursor mix that led to the high surface ozone values observed in 2013.

Influence of boundary conditions to multi-model simulations of ozone and PM2.5 levels over Europe and North America in frame of AQMEII3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Im, Ulas; Hansen, Kaj M.; Geels, Camilla; Christensen, Jesper H.; Brandt, Jørgen; Hogrefe, Christian; Galmarini, Stefano

2016-04-01

AQMEII (Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative) promotes research on regional air quality model evaluation across the European and North American atmospheric modelling communities, providing the ideal platform for advancing the evaluation of air quality models at the regional scale. In frame of the AQMEII3 model evaluation exercise, thirteen regional chemistry and transport models have simulated the air pollutant levels over Europe and/or North America for the year 2010, along with various sensitivity simulations of reductions in anthropogenic emissions and boundary conditions. All participating groups have performed sensitivity simulation with 20% reductions in global (GLO) anthropogenic emissions. In addition, various groups simulated sensitivity scenarios of 20% reductions in anthropogenic emissions in different HTAP-defined regions such as North America (NAM), Europe (EUR) and East Asia (EAS). The boundary conditions for the base case and the perturbation scenarios were derived from the MOZART-IFS global chemical model. The present study will evaluate the impact of these emission perturbations on regional surface ozone and PM2.5 levels as well as over individual surface measurement stations over both continents and vertical profiles over the radiosonde stations from the World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC) and the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) stations for ozone and for PM2.5, respectively.

A WRF/Chem sensitivity study using ensemble modelling for a high ozone episode in Slovenia and the Northern Adriatic area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Žabkar, Rahela; Koračin, Darko; Rakovec, Jože

2013-10-01

A high ozone (O3) concentrations episode during a heat wave event in the Northeastern Mediterranean was investigated using the WRF/Chem model. To understand the major model uncertainties and errors as well as the impacts of model inputs on the model accuracy, an ensemble modelling experiment was conducted. The 51-member ensemble was designed by varying model physics parameterization options (PBL schemes with different surface layer and land-surface modules, and radiation schemes); chemical initial and boundary conditions; anthropogenic and biogenic emission inputs; and model domain setup and resolution. The main impacts of the geographical and emission characteristics of three distinct regions (suburban Mediterranean, continental urban, and continental rural) on the model accuracy and O3 predictions were investigated. In spite of the large ensemble set size, the model generally failed to simulate the extremes; however, as expected from probabilistic forecasting the ensemble spread improved results with respect to extremes compared to the reference run. Noticeable model nighttime overestimations at the Mediterranean and some urban and rural sites can be explained by too strong simulated winds, which reduce the impact of dry deposition and O3 titration in the near surface layers during the nighttime. Another possible explanation could be inaccuracies in the chemical mechanisms, which are suggested also by model insensitivity to variations in the nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions. Major impact factors for underestimations of the daytime O3 maxima at the Mediterranean and some rural sites include overestimation of the PBL depths, a lack of information on forest fires, too strong surface winds, and also possible inaccuracies in biogenic emissions. This numerical experiment with the ensemble runs also provided guidance on an optimum model setup and input data.

Surface recombination of oxygen atoms in O2 plasma at increased pressure: II. Vibrational temperature and surface production of ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lopaev, D. V.; Malykhin, E. M.; Zyryanov, S. M.

2011-01-01

Ozone production in an oxygen glow discharge in a quartz tube was studied in the pressure range of 10-50 Torr. The O3 density distribution along the tube diameter was measured by UV absorption spectroscopy, and ozone vibrational temperature TV was found comparing the calculated ab initio absorption spectra with the experimental ones. It has been shown that the O3 production mainly occurs on a tube surface whereas ozone is lost in the tube centre where in contrast the electron and oxygen atom densities are maximal. Two models were used to analyse the obtained results. The first one is a kinetic 1D model for the processes occurring near the tube walls with the participation of the main particles: O(3P), O2, O2(1Δg) and O3 molecules in different vibrational states. The agreement of O3 and O(3P) density profiles and TV calculated in the model with observed ones was reached by varying the single model parameter—ozone production probability (\\gamma_{O_{3}}) on the quartz tube surface on the assumption that O3 production occurs mainly in the surface recombination of physisorbed O(3P) and O2. The phenomenological model of the surface processes with the participation of oxygen atoms and molecules including singlet oxygen molecules was also considered to analyse \\gamma_{O_{3}} data obtained in the kinetic model. A good agreement between the experimental data and the data of both models—the kinetic 1D model and the phenomenological surface model—was obtained in the full range of the studied conditions that allowed consideration of the ozone surface production mechanism in more detail. The important role of singlet oxygen in ozone surface production was shown. The O3 surface production rate directly depends on the density of physisorbed oxygen atoms and molecules and can be high with increasing pressure and energy inputted into plasma while simultaneously keeping the surface temperature low enough. Using the special discharge cell design, such an approach opens up the possibility to develop compact ozonizers having high ozone yield at the low energy cost of O → O3 conversion.

Human Health and Economic Impacts of Ozone Reductions by Income Group.

PubMed

Saari, Rebecca K; Thompson, Tammy M; Selin, Noelle E

2017-02-21

Low-income households may be disproportionately affected by ozone pollution and ozone policy. We quantify how three factors affect the relative benefits of ozone policies with household income: (1) unequal ozone reductions; (2) policy delay; and (3) economic valuation methods. We model ozone concentrations under baseline and policy conditions across the full continental United States to estimate the distribution of ozone-related health impacts across nine income groups. We enhance an economic model to include these impacts across household income categories, and present its first application to evaluate the benefits of ozone reductions for low-income households. We find that mortality incidence rates decrease with increasing income. Modeled ozone levels yield a median of 11 deaths per 100 000 people in 2005. Proposed policy reduces these rates by 13%. Ozone reductions are highest among low-income households, which increases their relative welfare gains by up to 4% and decreases them for the rich by up to 8%. The median value of reductions in 2015 is either $30 billion (in 2006 U.S. dollars) or $1 billion if reduced mortality risks are valued with willingness-to-pay or as income from increased life expectancy. Ozone reductions were relatively twice as beneficial for the lowest- compared to the highest-income households. The valuation approach affected benefits more than a policy delay or differential ozone reductions with income.

The effect of surface anisotropy on the accuracy of total ozone estimates from satellite observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fraser, R. S.; Ahmad, Z.

1978-01-01

The total amount of ozone in a vertical column of the earth's atmosphere is being derived from satellite measurements of the intensity of ultraviolet sunlight scattered by the earth-atmosphere system. The algorithm for deriving the ozone amount utilizes the assumption that the earth's surface reflects the incident light isotropically according to Lambert's law. Natural surface reflection deviates more or less from this law. Two extreme examples of anisotropic reflection from dark ocean and from bright snow are analyzed by means of models for their effects on the derived values of ozone.

Coincident Observations of Surface Ozone and NMVOCs over Abu Dhabi

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abbasi, Naveed; Majeed, Tariq; Iqbal, Mazhar; Tarasick, David; Davies, Jonathan; Riemer, Daniel; Apel, Eric

2016-07-01

The vertical profiles of ozone are measured coincidently with non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) at the meteorological site located at the Abu Dhabi international airport (latitude 24.45N; longitude 54.22E) during the years 2012 - 2014. Some of the profiles show elevated surface ozone >95 ppbv during the winter months (December, January and February). The ground-level NMVOCs obtained from the gas chromatography-flame ionization detection/mass spectrometry system also show elevated values of acetylene, ethane, propane, butane, pentane, benzene, and toluene. NMVOCs and ozone abundances in other seasons are much lower than the values in winter season. NMVOCs are emitted from an extensive number of sources in urban environments including fuel production, distribution, and consumption, and serve as precursor of ozone. Transport sources contribute a substantial portion of the NMVOC burden to the urban atmosphere in developed regions. Abu Dhabi is located at the edge of the Arabian Gulf and is highly affected by emissions from petrochemical industries in the neighboring Gulf region. The preliminary results indicate that wintertime enhancement in ozone is associated with large values of NMVOCs at Abu Dhabi. The domestic production of surface ozone is estimated from the combination of oxygen recombination and NMVOCs and compared with the data. It is estimated that about 40-50% of ozone in Abu Dhabi is transported from the neighbouring petrochemical industries. We will present ozone sounding and NMVOCs data and our model estimates of surface ozone, including a discussion on the high levels of the tropospheric ozone responsible for contaminating the air quality in the UAE. This work is supported by National Research Foundation, UAE.

The influence of changing UVB radiation in near-surface ozone time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

BröNnimann, Stefan; Voigt, Stefan; Wanner, Heinz

2000-04-01

UVB radiation plays an important role in tropospheric photochemistry since it determines the rate of ozone photolysis J(O1D) and subsequent formation of OH radicals. Consequently, changes of UVB radiation, for example due to changes of the stratospheric ozone amount, could alter the concentration of reactive tropospheric gases including ozone. An observation-based attempt is made to quantify the effect of changing UVB radiation on surface ozone peaks on a day-to-day scale using a time series of measurements at a Swiss mountain site. Seven years data of ozone, NO, NOx, and meteorological measurements from Chaumont (1140 m above sea level (asl)), total ozone and UVB measurements from Arosa (1847 m asl), and surface albedo from satellite observations are investigated. The study is restricted to fair weather days with moderately high NOx concentrations. Multiple regression analysis is performed using chemical, meteorological, and UV dependent variables to predict afternoon ozone peaks. From autumn to spring, positive deviations of ozone peaks are clearly connected with positive UVB deviations. The relation is statistically significant only in part of the seasonal data subsets; however, it is consistent with model studies. The estimated net effect on ozone peaks is normally within a range of 4 ppb, a range of about 6 ppb is predicted for large UVB changes. Applying the coefficients for the large interannual variability of the stratospheric ozone layer observed in spring in the last 10 years results in a range of variation of at most 1 to 1.5 ppb for monthly mean ozone peaks. For trends of J(O1D) from 1970 to 1990, a trend bias of surface ozone peaks on polluted fair weather days of less than 0.12 ppb/yr is calculated. Although the numbers are rather small, they may play a role in certain circumstances.

Influence of mountains on Arctic tropospheric ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seabrook, Jeffrey; Whiteway, James

2016-02-01

Tropospheric ozone was measured above Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic during spring of 2008 using a differential absorption lidar. The observations were carried out at Eureka Weather Station, which is located between various mountain ranges. Analysis of the observations revealed that mountains had a significant effect on the vertical distribution of ozone. Ozone depletion events were observed when air that had spent significant time near to the frozen surface of the Arctic Ocean reached Eureka. This air arrived at Eureka by flowing over the surrounding mountains. Surface level ozone depletions were not observed during periods when mountains blocked the flow of air from over the sea ice. In the case of blocking there was an enhancement in the amount of ozone near the surface as air from the midtroposphere descended in the lee of the mountains. Three case studies from spring of 2008 are described.

Relating health and climate impacts to grid-scale emissions using adjoint sensitivity modeling for the Climate and Clean Air Coalition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henze, D. K.; Lacey, F.; Seltzer, M.; Vallack, H.; Kuylenstierna, J.; Bowman, K. W.; Anenberg, S.; Sasser, E.; Lee, C. J.; Martin, R.

2013-12-01

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) was initiated in 2012 to develop, understand and promote measures to reduce short lived climate forcers such as aerosol, ozone and methane. The Coalition now includes over 30 nations, and as a service to these nations is committed to providing a decision support toolkit that allows member nations to explore the benefits of a range of emissions mitigation measures in terms of the combined impacts on air quality and climate and so help in the development of their National Action Plans. Here we will present recent modeling work to support the development of the CCAC National Action Plans toolkit. Adjoint sensitivity analysis is presented as a means of efficiently relating air quality, climate and crop impacts back to changes in emissions from each species, sector and location at the grid-scale resolution of typical global air quality model applications. The GEOS-Chem adjoint model is used to estimate the damages per ton of emissions of PM2.5 related mortality, the impacts of ozone precursors on crops and ozone-related health effects, and the combined impacts of these species on regional surface temperature changes. We show how the benefits-per-emission vary spatially as a function of the surrounding environment, and how this impacts the overall benefit of sector-specific control strategies. We present initial findings for Bangladesh, as well as Mexico, Ghana and Colombia, some of the first countries to join the CCAC, and discuss general issues related to adjoint-based metrics for quantifying air quality and climate co-benefits.

Exploring the direct impacts of particulate matter and surface ozone on global crop production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schiferl, L. D.; Heald, C. L.

2016-12-01

The current era of rising food demand to feed an increasing population along with expansion of industrialization throughout the globe has been accompanied by deteriorating air quality and an enhancement in agricultural activity. Both air quality and the food supply are vitally important to sustaining human enterprise, and understanding the effects air quality may have on agricultural production is critical. Particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere decreases the total photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) available to crops through the scattering and absorption of radiation while also increasing the diffuse fraction (DF) of this PAR. Since plants respond positively to a higher DF through the more even distribution of photons to all leaves, the net effect of PM on crop production depends on the magnitudes of these values and the response mechanisms of a specific crop. In contrast, atmospheric ozone always acts to decrease crop production through its phytotoxic properties. While the relationships between ozone and crop production have been readily studied, the effects of PM on crop production and their relative importance compared to ozone is much more uncertain. This study uses the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model linked to the RRTMG radiative transfer model and the DSSAT crop model to explore the impacts of PM and ozone on the globally distributed production of maize, rice, wheat and soybeans. First, we examine how air quality differentially affects total seasonal production by crop and region. Second, we investigate the dependence of simulated production on air quality over different timescales and under varying cloud conditions.

Simulation of ozone production in a complex circulation region using nested grids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taghavi, M.; Cautenet, S.; Foret, G.

2004-06-01

During the ESCOMPTE precampaign (summer 2000, over Southern France), a 3-day period of intensive observation (IOP0), associated with ozone peaks, has been simulated. The comprehensive RAMS model, version 4.3, coupled on-line with a chemical module including 29 species, is used to follow the chemistry of the polluted zone. This efficient but time consuming method can be used because the code is installed on a parallel computer, the SGI 3800. Two runs are performed: run 1 with a single grid and run 2 with two nested grids. The simulated fields of ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide are compared with aircraft and surface station measurements. The 2-grid run looks substantially better than the run with one grid because the former takes the outer pollutants into account. This on-line method helps to satisfactorily retrieve the chemical species redistribution and to explain the impact of dynamics on this redistribution.

Vibronic coupling and selectivity of vibrational excitation in the negative ion resonances of ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allan, Michael; Popovic̀, Duška B.

1997-04-01

A recent experimental paper reported two shape resonances in electron impact on ozone, A 1 and B 2, both causing vibrational excitation with a distinct pattern of selectivity. The present Letter attempts to rationalize this selectivity using approximate potential curves, calculated for the A 1 and B 2 resonances by adding the SCF energy of neutral ozone to electron attachment energies calculated from ab initio virtual orbital energies using the Koopmans' theorem and an empirical scaling relation. The slopes of the curves explain the efficient excitation of the symmetric stretch by both resonances and the lack of the bending excitation by the B 2 resonance. The A 1 and B 2 resonances are strongly coupled by the b 2 antisymmetric stretch vibration, causing a double minimum on the lower surface. Nonadiabatic effects caused by the strong vibronic coupling explain the observed excitation of the antisymmetric stretch vibration.

Identifying and forecasting deep stratospheric ozone intrusions over the western United States from space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, M.; Fiore, A. M.; Horowitz, L. W.; Cooper, O. R.; Langford, A. O.; Pan, L.; Liu, X.; Reddy, P. J.

2012-12-01

Recent studies have shown that deep stratospheric ozone intrusions can episodically enhance ground-level ozone above the health-based standard over the western U.S. in spring. Advanced warning of incoming intrusions could be used by state agencies to inform the public about poor air quality days. Here we explore the potential for using total ozone retrievals (version 5.2, level 3) at twice daily near global coverage from the AIRS instrument aboard the NASA Aqua satellite to identify stratospheric intrusions and forecast the eventual surface destination of transported stratospheric ozone. The method involves the correlation of AIRS daily total ozone columns at each 1ox1o grid box ~1-3 days prior to stratospheric enhancements to daily maximum 8-hour average ozone at a selected surface site using datasets from April to June in 2003-2011. The surface stratospheric enhancements are estimated by the GFDL AM3 chemistry-climate model which includes full stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry and is nudged to reanalysis winds. Our earlier work shows that the model presents deep stratospheric intrusions over the Western U.S. consistently with observations from AIRS, surface networks, daily ozone sondes, and aircraft lidar available in spring of 2010 during the NOAA CalNex field campaign. For the 15 surface sites in the U.S. Mountain West considered, a correlation coefficient of 0.4-0.7 emerges with AIRS ozone columns over 30o-50oN latitudes and 125o-105oW longitudes - variability in the AIRS column within this spatial domain indicates incoming intrusions. For each "surface receptor site", the spatial domain can narrow to an area ~5ox5o northwest of the individual site, with the strong correlation (0.5-0.7) occurring when the AIRS data is lagged by 1 day from the AM3 stratospheric enhancements in surface air. The spatial pattern of correlations is consistent with our process-oriented understanding developed from case studies of extreme intrusions. Surface observations during these events show that the sites experiencing elevated ozone levels are typically located over the southeastern side of the enhanced ozone columns captured by AIRS ~12 hours to 1 day prior. This first scoping study suggests there is potential to use near-daily global coverage of ozone in total column or in UT/LS levels from the space-based instruments (e.g. AIRS, OMI, MLS) to serve as a qualitative early-warning indicator of incoming stratospheric intrusions with a lead time of ~1-3 days. There is more skill in ~12 hours to 1 day as to where the intrusion will reach the surface, particularly during the ENSO years (i.e. 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011) when deep intrusions are more likely to occur as compared to other years. These space-based ozone products can also provide some indication of whether a historic exceedance was caused by an intrusion.

Investigation of the influence of transport from oil and natural gas regions on elevated ozone levels in the northern Colorado front range.

PubMed

Evans, Jason M; Helmig, Detlev

2017-02-01

The Northern Colorado Front Range (NCFR) has been in exceedance of the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) since 2004, which has led to much debate over the sources of ozone precursors to the region, as this area is home to both the Denver, CO, metropolitan area and the Denver-Julesburg Basin, which has experienced rapid growth of oil and natural gas (O&NG) operations and associated emissions. Several recent studies have reported elevated levels of atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as a result of O&NG emissions and the potential for significant ozone production from these emissions, despite implementation of stricter O&NG VOC emissions regulations in 2008. Approximately 88% of 1-hr elevated ozone events (>75 ppbv) occur during June-August, indicating that elevated ozone levels are driven by regional photochemistry. Analyses of surface ozone and wind observations from two sites, namely, South Boulder and the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory, both near Boulder, CO, show a preponderance of elevated ozone events associated with east-to-west airflow from regions with O&NG operations in the N-ESE, and a relatively minor contribution of transport from the Denver Metropolitan area to the SE-S. Transport from upwind areas associated with abundant O&NG operations accounts for on the order of 65% (mean for both sites) of 1-hr averaged elevated ozone levels, while the Denver urban corridor accounts for 9%. These correlations contribute to mounting evidence that air transport from areas with O&NG operation has a significant impact on ozone and air quality in the NCFR. This article builds on several previous pieces of research that implied significant contributions from oil and natural gas emissions on ozone production in the Northern Colorado Front Range. By correlating increased ozone events with transport analyses we show that there is a high abundance of transport events with elevated ozone originating from the Denver-Julesburg oil and natural gas basin. These findings will help air quality regulators to better assess contributing sources to ozone production and in directing policies to curb ozone pollution in this region.

Quantifying the Contribution of Thermally Driven Recirculation to a High-Ozone Event Along the Colorado Front Range Using Lidar

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, John T.; McGee, Thomas J.; Langford, Andrew O.; Alvarez, Raul J., II; Senff, Christoph; Reddy, Patrick J.; Thompson, Anne M.; Twigg, Laurence W.; Sumnicht, Grant K.; Lee, Pius;

A climatology of visible surface reflectance spectra

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zoogman, Peter; Liu, Xiong; Chance, Kelly; Sun, Qingsong; Schaaf, Crystal; Mahr, Tobias; Wagner, Thomas

2016-09-01

We present a high spectral resolution climatology of visible surface reflectance as a function of wavelength for use in satellite measurements of ozone and other atmospheric species. The Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument is planned to measure backscattered solar radiation in the 290-740 nm range, including the ultraviolet and visible Chappuis ozone bands. Observation in the weak Chappuis band takes advantage of the relative transparency of the atmosphere in the visible to achieve sensitivity to near-surface ozone. However, due to the weakness of the ozone absorption features this measurement is more sensitive to errors in visible surface reflectance, which is highly variable. We utilize reflectance measurements of individual plant, man-made, and other surface types to calculate the primary modes of variability of visible surface reflectance at a high spectral resolution, comparable to that of TEMPO (0.6 nm). Using the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Bidirection Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF)/albedo product and our derived primary modes we construct a high spatial resolution climatology of wavelength-dependent surface reflectance over all viewing scenes and geometries. The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) Lambertian Equivalent Reflectance (LER) product provides complementary information over water and snow scenes. Preliminary results using this approach in multispectral ultraviolet+visible ozone retrievals from the GOME-2 instrument show significant improvement to the fitting residuals over vegetated scenes.

Global Ozone Distribution relevant to Human Health: Metrics and present day levels from the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fleming, Z. L.; Doherty, R. M.; von Schneidemesser, E.; Cooper, O. R.; Malley, C.; Colette, A.; Xu, X.; Pinto, J. P.; Simpson, D.; Schultz, M. G.; Hamad, S.; Moola, R.; Solberg, S.; Feng, Z.

2017-12-01

Using stations from the TOAR surface ozone database, this study quantifies present-day global and regional distributions of five ozone metrics relevant for both short-term and long-term human exposure. These metrics were explored at ozone monitoring sites globally, and re-classified for this project as urban or non-urban using population densities and night-time lights. National surface ozone limit values are usually related to an annual number of exceedances of daily maximum 8-hour running mean (MDA8), with many countries not even having any ozone limit values. A discussion and comparison of exceedances in the different ozone metrics, their locations and the seasonality of exceedances provides clues as to the regions that potentially have more serious ozone health implications. Present day ozone levels (2010-2014) have been compared globally and show definite geographical differences (see Figure showing the annual 4th highest MDA8 for present day ozone for all non-urban stations). Higher ozone levels are seen in western compared to eastern US, and between southern and northern Europe, and generally higher levels in east Asia. The metrics reflective of peak concentrations show highest values in western North America, southern Europe and East Asia. A number of the metrics show similar distributions of North-South gradients, most prominent across Europe and Japan. The interquartile range of the regional ozone metrics was largest in East Asia, higher for urban stations in Asia but higher for non-urban stations in Europe and North America. With over 3000 monitoring stations included in this analysis and despite the higher densities of monitoring stations in Europe, north America and East Asia, this study provides the most comprehensive global picture to date of surface ozone levels in terms of health-relevant metrics.

Comparison between assimilated and non-assimilated experiments of the MACCii global reanalysis near surface ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsikerdekis, Athanasios; Katragou, Eleni; Zanis, Prodromos; Melas, Dimitrios; Eskes, Henk; Flemming, Johannes; Huijnen, Vincent; Inness, Antje; Kapsomenakis, Ioannis; Schultz, Martin; Stein, Olaf; Zerefos, Christos

2014-05-01

In this work we evaluate near surface ozone concentrations of the MACCii global reanalysis using measurements from the EMEP and AIRBASE database. The eight-year long reanalysis of atmospheric composition data covering the period 2003-2010 was constructed as part of the FP7-funded Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate project by assimilating satellite data into a global model and data assimilation system (Inness et al., 2013). The study mainly focuses in the differences between the assimilated and the non-assimilated experiments and aims to identify and quantify any improvements achieved by adding data assimilation to the system. Results are analyzed in eight European sub-regions and region-specific Taylor plots illustrate the evaluation and the overall predictive skill of each experiment. The diurnal and annual cycles of near surface ozone are evaluated for both experiments. Furthermore ozone exposure indices for crop growth (AOT40), human health (SOMO35) and the number of days that 8-hour ozone averages exceeded 60ppb and 90ppb have been calculated for each station based on both observed and simulated data. Results indicate mostly improvement of the assimilated experiment with respect to the high near surface ozone concentrations, the diurnal cycle and range and the bias in comparison to the non-assimilated experiment. The limitations of the comparison between assimilated and non-assimilated experiments for near surface ozone are also discussed.

The Impact of Increasing Carbon Dioxide on Ozone Recovery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosenfield, Joan E.; Douglass, Anne R.; Considine, David B.; Einaudi, Franco (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

We have used the GSFC coupled two-dimensional (2D) model to study the impact of increasing carbon dioxide from 1980 to 2050 on the recovery of ozone to its pre-1980 amounts. We find that the changes in temperature and circulation arising from increasing CO2 affect ozone recovery in a manner which varies greatly with latitude, altitude, and time of year. Middle and upper stratospheric ozone recovers faster at all latitudes due to a slowing of the ozone catalytic loss cycles. In the lower stratosphere, the recovery of tropical ozone is delayed due to a decrease in production and a speed up in the overturning circulation. The recovery of high northern latitude lower stratospheric ozone is delayed in spring and summer due to an increase in springtime heterogeneous chemical loss, and is speeded up in fall and winter due to increased downwelling. The net effect on the higher northern latitude column ozone is to slow down the recovery from late March to late July, while making it faster at other times. In the high southern latitudes, the impact of CO2 cooling is negligible. Annual mean column ozone is predicted to recover faster at all latitudes, and globally averaged ozone is predicted to recover approximately ten years faster as a result of increasing CO2.

Impact of ozonation on naphthenic acids speciation and toxicity of oil sands process-affected water to Vibrio fischeri and mammalian immune system.

PubMed

Wang, Nan; Chelme-Ayala, Pamela; Perez-Estrada, Leonidas; Garcia-Garcia, Erick; Pun, Jonathan; Martin, Jonathan W; Belosevic, Miodrag; Gamal El-Din, Mohamed

2013-06-18

Oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) is the water contained in tailings impoundment structures in oil sands operations. There are concerns about the environmental impacts of the release of OSPW because of its toxicity. In this study, ozonation followed by biodegradation was used to remediate OSPW. The impacts of the ozone process evolution on the naphthenic acids (NAs) speciation and acute toxicity were evaluated. Ion-mobility spectrometry (IMS) was used to preliminarily separate isomeric and homologous species. The results showed limited effects of the ozone reactor size on the treatment performance in terms of contaminant removal. In terms of NAs speciation, high reactivity of NAs with higher number of carbons and rings was only observed in a region of high reactivity (i.e., utilized ozone dose lower than 50 mg/L). It was also found that nearly 0.5 mg/L total NAs was oxidized per mg/L of utilized ozone dose, at utilized ozone doses lower than 50 mg/L. IMS showed that ozonation was able to degrade NAs, oxidized NAs, and sulfur/nitrogenated NAs. Complete removal of toxicity toward Vibrio fischeri was achieved after ozonation followed by 28-day biodegradation period. In vitro and in vivo assays indicated that ozonation reduced the OSPW toxicity to mice.

Impacts of enhanced fertilizer applications on tropospheric ozone and crop damage over sub-Saharan Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Yaoxian; Hickman, Jonathan E.; Wu, Shiliang

2018-05-01

Fertilizer-induced nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to increase substantially in the coming decades, driven by increasing application of fertilizers to increase crop yields in an effort to attain food security across the continent. In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, surface ozone (O3) is sensitive to increasing atmospheric concentrations of NOx. In this study, we employ the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to conduct a preliminary investigation of the impacts on O3 air quality and the consequential crop damage associated with increasing fertilizer-induced NOx emissions in sub-Saharan Africa. Our simulation results, constrained by field NO flux measurements for the years 2011 and 2012 in response to a variety of fertilizer application rates in western Kenya, show that the enhancements in NO flux with fertilizer application rate of 150 kg N ha-1 can increase surface NOx and O3 concentrations by up to 0.36 and 2.8 ppbv respectively during the growing season. At the same time, accumulated O3 exposure during the crop growing season (expressed as AOT40 values) could increase by up to 496 ppb h, leading to crop yield decline of about 0.8% for O3-sensitive crops. Our results suggest that, when accounting for the consequential impacts on surface O3 air quality and crop damage over sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural intensification is possible without substantial impacts on crop productivity because the relatively small decline of crop yield resulting from O3 damage appears unlikely to outweigh the gain in crop yield from fertilization.

Ozone in Sequoia National Park: Linking Ozone Production in the San Joaquin Valley to Trends in Vegetative Impacts in Sequoia National Park from 2000-2016

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buysse, C. E.; Pusede, S.; Kotsakis, A.

2016-12-01

Sequoia National Park (SNP) has the worst ozone air pollution of any National Park in the United States. Ozone pollution levels in SNP are high enough to exert damaging impacts on humans, animals, and vegetation. The major source of ozone to SNP is chemical production within the nearby and ozone-polluted San Joaquin Valley (SJV), which is then transported out of the valley into the park. Emission controls to reduce ozone in the SJV have been in place for the last two decades and these controls should have had the effect of altering ozone levels within SNP. This work has two aims. First, we investigate the chemistry driving trends in ozone in SNP and link these changes to trends in ozone in the SJV. Second, we consider both the metrics and time frames that best capture ozone trends contributing to vegetative damage, as these are not well represented in assessments of human health-based ambient air quality standards over an entire ozone season.

Ultraviolet radiation changes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mckenzie, Richard L.; Frederick, John E.; Ilyas, Mohammad; Filyushkin, V.; Wahner, Andreas; Stamnes, K.; Muthusubramanian, P.; Blumthaler, M.; Roy, Colin E.; Madronich, Sasha

1991-01-01

A major consequence of ozone depletion is an increase in solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation received at the Earth's surface. This chapter discusses advances that were made since the previous assessment (World Meteorological Organization (WMO)) to our understanding of UV radiation. The impacts of these changes in UV on the biosphere are not included, because they are discussed in the effects assessment.

Evaluation of ozone emissions and exposures from consumer products and home appliances.

PubMed

Zhang, Q; Jenkins, P L

2017-03-01

Ground-level ozone can cause serious adverse health effects and environmental impacts. This study measured ozone emissions and impacts on indoor ozone levels and associated exposures from 17 consumer products and home appliances that could emit ozone either intentionally or as a by-product of their functions. Nine products were found to emit measurable ozone, one up to 6230 ppb at a distance of 5 cm (2 inches). One use of these products increased room ozone concentrations by levels up to 106 ppb (mean, from an ozone laundry system) and personal exposure concentrations of the user by 12-424 ppb (mean). Multiple cycles of use of one fruit and vegetable washer increased personal exposure concentrations by an average of 2550 ppb, over 28 times higher than the level of the 1-h California Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone (0.09 ppm). Ozone emission rates ranged from 1.6 mg/h for a refrigerator air purifier to 15.4 mg/h for a fruit and vegetable washer. The use of some products was estimated to contribute up to 87% of total daily exposures to ozone. The results show that the use of some products may result in potential health impacts. © 2016 The Authors. Indoor Air published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Effect of acute ozone exposure on the lung metabolomes of obese and lean mice.

PubMed

Mathews, Joel Andrew; Kasahara, David Itiro; Cho, Youngji; Bell, Lauren Nicole; Gunst, Philip Ross; Karoly, Edward D; Shore, Stephanie Ann

2017-01-01

Pulmonary responses to the air pollutant, ozone, are increased in obesity. Both obesity and ozone cause changes in systemic metabolism. Consequently, we examined the impact of ozone on the lung metabolomes of obese and lean mice. Lean wildtype and obese db/db mice were exposed to acute ozone (2 ppm for 3 h) or air. 24 hours later, the lungs were excised, flushed with PBS to remove blood and analyzed via liquid-chromatography or gas-chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry for metabolites. Both obesity and ozone caused changes in the lung metabolome. Of 321 compounds identified, 101 were significantly impacted by obesity in air-exposed mice. These included biochemicals related to carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, which were each increased in lungs of obese versus lean mice. These metabolite changes may be of functional importance given the signaling capacity of these moieties. Ozone differentially affected the lung metabolome in obese versus lean mice. For example, almost all phosphocholine-containing lysolipids were significantly reduced in lean mice, but this effect was attenuated in obese mice. Glutathione metabolism was also differentially affected by ozone in obese and lean mice. Finally, the lung metabolome indicated a role for the microbiome in the effects of both obesity and ozone: all measured bacterial/mammalian co-metabolites were significantly affected by obesity and/or ozone. Thus, metabolic derangements in obesity appear to impact the response to ozone.

On the Climate Impacts of Upper Tropospheric and Lower Stratospheric Ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xia, Yan; Huang, Yi; Hu, Yongyun

2018-01-01

The global warming simulations of the general circulation models (GCMs) are generally performed with different ozone prescriptions. We find that the differences in ozone distribution, especially in the upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric (UTLS) region, account for important model discrepancies shown in the ozone-only historical experiment of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). These discrepancies include global high cloud fraction, stratospheric temperature, and stratospheric water vapor. Through a set of experiments conducted by an atmospheric GCM with contrasting UTLS ozone prescriptions, we verify that UTLS ozone not only directly radiatively heats the UTLS region and cools the upper parts of the stratosphere but also strongly influences the high clouds due to its impact on relative humidity and static stability in the UTLS region and the stratospheric water vapor due to its impact on the tropical tropopause temperature. These consequences strongly affect the global mean effective radiative forcing of ozone, as noted in previous studies. Our findings suggest that special attention should be paid to the UTLS ozone when evaluating the climate effects of ozone depletion in the 20th century and recovery in the 21st century. UTLS ozone difference may also be important for understanding the intermodel discrepancy in the climate projections of the CMIP6 GCMs in which either prescribed or interactive ozone is used.

Estimation of ozone dry deposition over Europe for the period 2071-2100

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Komjáthy, Eszter; Gelybó, Györgyi; László Lagzi, István.; Mészáros, Róbert

2010-05-01

Ozone in the lower troposphere is a phytotoxic air pollutant which can cause injury to plant tissues, causing reduction in plant growth and productivity. In the last decades, several investigations have been carried out for the purpose to estimate ozone load over different surface types. At the same time, the changes of atmospheric variables as well as surface/vegetation parameters due to the global climate change could also strongly modify both temporal and spatial variations of ozone load over Europe. In this study, the possible effects of climate change on ozone deposition are analyzed. Using a sophisticated deposition model, ozone deposition was estimated on a regular grid over Europe for the period 2071-2100. Our aim is to determine the uncertainties and the possible degree of change in ozone deposition velocity as an important predictor of total ozone load using climate data from multiple climate models and runs. For these model calculations, results of the PRUDENCE (Predicting of Regional Scenarios and Uncertainties for Defining European Climate Change Risks and Effects) climate prediction project were used. As a first step, seasonal variations of ozone deposition over different vegetation types in case of different climate scenarios are presented in this study. Besides model calculations, in the frame of a sensitivity analyses, the effects of surface/vegetation parameters (e.g. leaf area index or stomatal resistance) on ozone deposition under a modified climate regime have also been analyzed.

Photochemical oxidant processes in the presence of dust: An evaluation of the impact of dust on particulate nitrate and ozone formation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zhang, Yang; Sunwoo, Young; Kotamarthi, Veerabhadra; Carmichael, Gregory R.

1994-01-01

The influence of dust on the tropospheric photochemical oxidant cycle is studied through the use of a detailed coupled aerosol and gas-phase chemistry model. Dust is a significant component of the troposphere throughout Asia and provides a surface for a variety of heterogeneous reactions. Dust is found to be an important surface for particulate nitrate formation. For dust loading and ambient concentrations representative of conditions in East Asia, particulate nitrate levels of 1.5-11.5 micrograms/cubic meter are predicted, consistent with measured levels in this region. Dust is also found to reduce NO(x) levels by up to 50%, HO2 concentrations by 20%-80%, and ozone production rates by up to 25%. The magnitude of the influence of dust is sensitive to mass concentration of the aerosol, relative humidity, and the value of the accommodation coefficient.

Impact of Future Emissions and Climate Change on Surface Ozone over China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, C. T.; Westervelt, D. M.; Fiore, A. M.; Rieder, H. E.; Kinney, P.; Wang, S.; Correa, G. J. P.

2017-12-01

China's immense ambient air pollution problem and world-leading greenhouse gas emissions place it at the forefront of global efforts to address these related environmental concerns. Here, we analyze the impact of ECLIPSE (Evaluating the Climate and Air Quality Impacts of Short-Lived Pollutants) future emissions scenarios representative of current legislation (CLE) and maximum technically feasible emissions reductions (MFR) on surface ozone (O3) concentrations over China in the 2030s and 2050s, in the context of a changing climate. We use a suite of simulations performed with the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory's AM3 global chemistry-climate model. To estimate the impact of climate change in isolation on Chinese air quality, we hold emissions of air pollutants including O3 precursors fixed at 2015 levels but allow climate (global sea surface temperatures and sea ice cover) to change according to decadal averages for the years 2026-2035 and 2046-2055 from a three-member ensemble of GFDL-CM3 simulations under the RCP8.5 high warming scenario. Evaluation of the present-day simulation (2015 CLE) with observations from 1497 chiefly urban air quality monitoring stations shows that simulated surface O3 is positively biased by 26 ppb on average over the domain of China. Previous studies, however, have shown that the modeled ozone response to changes in NOx emissions over the Eastern United States mirrors the magnitude and structure of observed changes in maximum daily average 8-hour (MDA8) O3 distributions. Therefore, we use the model's simulated changes for the 2030s and 2050s to project changes in policy-relevant MDA8 O3 concentrations. We find an overall increase in MDA8 O3 for CLE scenarios in which emissions of NOx precursors are projected to increase, and under MFR scenarios, an overall decrease, with the highest changes occurring in summertime for both 2030 and 2050 MFR. Under climate change alone, the model simulates a mean summertime decrease of 1.3 ppb and wintertime increase of 3.3 ppb by 2050. Adjustment of the observed site-level MDA8 O3 distribution to reflect regionally interpolated projected changes from AM3 allows us to examine changes in the number of days in exceedance of MDA8 O3 Level I (50 ppb) and Level II (80 ppb) Chinese national ambient air quality standards.

Ozone treatment of coal- and coffee grounds-based active carbons: Water vapor adsorption and surface fractal micropores

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tsunoda, Ryoichi; Ozawa, Takayoshi; Ando, Junichi

1998-09-15

Characteristics of the adsorption iostherms of water vapor on active carbons from coal and coffee grounds and those ozonized ones from the surface fractal dimension analysis are discussed. The upswing of the adsorption isotherms in the low relative pressure of coffee grounds-based active carbon, of which isotherms were not scarcely affected on ozonization, was attributed to the adsorption of water molecules on the metallic oxides playing the role of oxygen-surface complexes, which formed the corrugated surfaces on the basal planes of micropore walls with the surface fractal dimension D{sub s} > 2. On the other hand, coal-based active carbon withmore » D{sub s} < 2, which indicated the flat surfaces of micropore walls, showed little effect on the upswing even on ozonization, even though the adsorption amounts of water vapor were increased in the low relative pressure.« less

Hydrological control on Ozone greenhouse gas effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuai, L.; Bowman, K. W.; Worden, H. M.; Herman, R. L.; Kulawik, S. S.

2016-12-01

Our study present a new concept to use a derived observation-based quantity: instantaneous radiative kernel (IRK), to access the hydrological control on the variation of ozone greenhouse gas effect with AURA TES satellite data. We attribute the spatiotemporal variation of the TES O3 longwave radiative effect (LWRE), which is defined as the net reduction of top-of-atmosphere flux due to total tropospheric O3 absorption, to variations in relative humidity, surface temperature, and tropospheric O3 column. The maximum GHG effect for ozone, represented by LWRE, is found to be around 0.6 to 0.7 Wm-2 on zonal average in the subtropics. This maximum is related by low water vapor concentrations and suppression of clouds, which are driven by the downward branch of the Hadley cell over this region. Within the subtropics, the largest values of LWRE are over the Middle East (>1 W/m2) due to both large thermal contrast and tropospheric ozone enhancements from atmospheric circulation and pollution. Conversely, a lower ozone GHG effect (about 0.4 Wm-2 or lower) is found in the deep tropics closely following the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, attributable to strong water vapor absorption and clouds over deep convective regions. These results show that changes in the hydrological cycle due to climate change could impact the magnitude and distribution of ozone radiative forcing.

Stratospheric Ozone Response in Experiments G3 and G4 of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pitari, Giovanni; Aquila, Valentina; Kravitz, Ben; Watanabe, Shingo; Tilmes, Simone; Mancini, Eva; DeLuca, Natalia; DiGenova, Glauco

2013-01-01

Geoengineering with stratospheric sulfate aerosols has been proposed as a means of temporarily cooling the planet, alleviating some of the side effects of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, one of the known side effects of stratospheric injections of sulfate aerosols is a decrease in stratospheric ozone. Here we show results from two general circulation models and two coupled chemistry climate models that have simulated stratospheric sulfate aerosol geoengineering as part of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP). Changes in photolysis rates and upwelling of ozone-poor air in the tropics reduce stratospheric ozone, suppression of the NOx cycle increases stratospheric ozone, and an increase in available surfaces for heterogeneous chemistry modulates reductions in ozone. On average, the models show a factor 20-40 increase of the sulfate aerosol surface area density (SAD) at 50 hPa in the tropics with respect to unperturbed background conditions and a factor 3-10 increase at mid-high latitudes. The net effect for a tropical injection rate of 5 Tg SO2 per year is a decrease in globally averaged ozone by 1.1-2.1 DU in the years 2040-2050 for three models which include heterogeneous chemistry on the sulfate aerosol surfaces. GISS-E2-R, a fully coupled general circulation model, performed simulations with no heterogeneous chemistry and a smaller aerosol size; it showed a decrease in ozone by 9.7 DU. After the year 2050, suppression of the NOx cycle becomes more important than destruction of ozone by ClOx, causing an increase in total stratospheric ozone. Contribution of ozone changes in this experiment to radiative forcing is 0.23 W m-2 in GISS-E2-R and less than 0.1 W m-2 in the other three models. Polar ozone depletion, due to enhanced formation of both sulfate aerosol SAD and polar stratospheric clouds, results in an average 5 percent increase in calculated surface UV-B.

The historic surface ozone record, 1896-1975, and its relation to modern measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galbally, I. E.; Tarasick, D. W.; Stähelin, J.; Wallington, T. J.; Steinbacher, M.; Schultz, M.; Cooper, O. R.

2017-12-01

Tropospheric ozone is a greenhouse gas, a key component of atmospheric chemistry, and is detrimental to human health and plant productivity. The historic surface ozone record 1896-1975 has been constructed from measurements selected for (a) instrumentation whose ozone response can be traced to modern tropospheric ozone measurement standards, (b) samples taken when there is low probability of chemical interference and (c) sampling locations, heights and times when atmospheric mixing will minimise vertical gradients of ozone in the planetary boundary layer above and around the measurement location. Early measurements with the Schönbein filter paper technique cannot be related to modern methods with any degree of confidence. The potassium iodide-arsenite technique used at Montsouris for 1876-1910 is valid for measuring ozone; however, due to the presence of the interfering gases sulfur dioxide, ammonia and nitrogen oxides, the measured ozone concentrations are not representative of the regional atmosphere. The use of these data sets for trend analyses is not recommended. In total, 58 acceptable sets of measurements are currently identified, commencing in Europe in 1896, Greenland in 1932 and globally by the late 1950's. Between 1896 and 1944 there were 21 studies (median duration 5 days) with a median mole fraction of 23 nmol mol-1 (range of study averages 15-62 nmol mol-1). Between 1950 and 1975 there were 37 studies (median duration approx. 21 months) with a median mole fraction of 22 nmol mol-1 (range of study averages 13-49 nmol mol-1), all measured under conditions likely to give ozone mole fractions similar to those in the planetary boundary layer. These time series are matched with modern measurements from the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) Ozone Database and used to examine changes between the historic and modern observations. These historic ozone levels are higher than previously accepted for surface ozone in the late 19th early 20th Century. This historic surface ozone analysis provides a new test for historical reconstructions by Climate-Chemistry models.

Rate acceleration of the heterogeneous reaction of ozone with a model alkene at the air-ice interface at low temperatures.

PubMed

Ray, Debajyoti; Malongwe, Joseph K'Ekuboni; Klán, Petr

2013-07-02

The kinetics of the ozonation reaction of 1,1-diphenylethylene (DPE) on the surface of ice grains (also called "artificial snow"), produced by shock-freezing of DPE aqueous solutions or DPE vapor-deposition on pure ice grains, was studied in the temperature range of 268 to 188 K. A remarkable and unexpected increase in the apparent ozonation rates with decreasing temperature was evaluated using the Langmuir-Hinshelwood and Eley-Rideal kinetic models, and by estimating the apparent specific surface area of the ice grains. We suggest that an increase of the number of surface reactive sites, and possibly higher ozone uptake coefficients are responsible for the apparent rate acceleration of DPE ozonation at the air-ice interface at lower temperatures. The increasing number of reactive sites is probably related to the fact that organic molecules are displaced more to the top of a disordered interface (or quasi-liquid) layer on the ice surface, which makes them more accessible to the gas-phase reactants. The effect of NaCl as a cocontaminant on ozonation rates was also investigated. The environmental implications of this phenomenon for natural ice/snow are discussed. DPE was selected as an example of environmentally relevant species which can react with ozone. For typical atmospheric ozone concentrations in polar areas (20 ppbv), we estimated that its half-life on the ice surface would decrease from ∼5 days at 258 K to ∼13 h at 188 K at submonolayer DPE loadings.

Growth of soybean at midcentury tropospheric ozone concentrations decreases canopy evapotranspiration and soil water depletion

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Ground-level concentrations of ozone are increasing as a result of anthropogenic activities. This is having a negative impact on terrestrial ecosystems around the planet, including agricultural ecosystems. Critical questions surround the impact of rising ozone on soybean (Glycine max) since this spe...

Surface modification of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes by ozone via atomic layer deposition

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lushington, Andrew; Liu, Jian; Tang, Yongji

The use of ozone as an oxidizing agent for atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes is rapidly growing due to its strong oxidizing capabilities. However, the effect of ozone on nanostructured substrates such as nitrogen-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) and pristine multiwalled carbon nanotubes (PCNTs) are not very well understood and may provide an avenue toward functionalizing the carbon nanotube surface prior to deposition. The effects of ALD ozone treatment on NCNTs and PCNTs using 10 wt. % ozone at temperatures of 150, 250, and 300 °C are studied. The effect of ozone pulse time and ALD cycle number on NCNTs and PCNTsmore » was also investigated. Morphological changes to the substrate were observed by scanning electron microscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller measurements were also conducted to determine surface area, pore size, and pore size distribution following ozone treatment. The graphitic nature of both NCNTs and PCNTs was determined using Raman analysis while x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was employed to probe the chemical nature of NCNTs. It was found that O{sub 3} attack occurs preferentially to the outermost geometric surface of NCNTs. Our research also revealed that the deleterious effects of ozone are found only on NCNTs while little or no damage occurs on PCNTs. Furthermore, XPS analysis indicated that ALD ozone treatment on NCNTs, at elevated temperatures, results in loss of nitrogen content. Our studies demonstrate that ALD ozone treatment is an effective avenue toward creating low nitrogen content, defect rich substrates for use in electrochemical applications and ALD of various metal/metal oxides.« less

Characterization of ozone decomposition in a soil slurry: kinetics and mechanism.

PubMed

Lim, Hyung-Nam; Choi, Hechul; Hwang, Tae-Moon; Kang, Joon-Wun

2002-01-01

A series of soil slurry experiments were performed in a carefully conceived reactor set-up to investigate the characteristics of the catalytic decomposition of ozone on a sand and iron surface. Real time on-line monitoring of ozone in the reaction module was possible using flow injection analysis coupled with a computer-controlled UV detector and data acquisition system. The effects of the soil media and size, ozone dosage, pH and p-CBA as a probe compound were examined at the given experimental conditions. Two apparent phases existed, and ozone instantaneously decomposed within one second in the first phase. These were defined as the instantaneous ozone demand (ID) phase, and the relatively slow decay stage. The interactions of ozone with the soil organic matter (SOM) and metal oxides were attributed mostly to the instantaneous decomposition of ozone. From the probe (p-CBA) experiments, 60-68% of total p-CBA removal occurred during the ID phase. The generation of hydroxyl radicals (OH.) was demonstrated and was closely related with metal oxides as well as SOM. Metal oxides in soil surface were considered to have relatively faster reaction rate with ozone and provide more favorable reactive sites to generate higher amount of OH. than SOM. Even at one-tenth concentration of the sands, a goethite-induced catalytic reaction outfitted the removal rate ofp-CBA among all the soils tested. More than 40% of total p-CBA removal occurred on the soil surface. It was inferred that the radical reaction with the probe compound seemed to take place not only on the soil surface but also in the solid-liquid interface. Ozone decomposition and the reaction between OH. and p-CBA appeared to be independent of any change in pH.

A Statistical Modeling Framework for Projecting Future Ambient Ozone and its Health Impact due to Climate Change

PubMed Central

Chang, Howard H.; Hao, Hua; Sarnat, Stefanie Ebelt

2014-01-01

The adverse health effects of ambient ozone are well established. Given the high sensitivity of ambient ozone concentrations to meteorological conditions, the impacts of future climate change on ozone concentrations and its associated health effects are of concern. We describe a statistical modeling framework for projecting future ozone levels and its health impacts under a changing climate. This is motivated by the continual effort to evaluate projection uncertainties to inform public health risk assessment. The proposed approach was applied to the 20-county Atlanta metropolitan area using regional climate model (RCM) simulations from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program. Future ozone levels and ozone-related excesses in asthma emergency department (ED) visits were examined for the period 2041–2070. The computationally efficient approach allowed us to consider 8 sets of climate model outputs based on different combinations of 4 RCMs and 4 general circulation models. Compared to the historical period of 1999–2004, we found consistent projections across climate models of an average 11.5% higher ozone levels (range: 4.8%, 16.2%), and an average 8.3% (range: −7% to 24%) higher number of ozone exceedance days. Assuming no change in the at-risk population, this corresponds to excess ozone-related ED visits ranging from 267 to 466 visits per year. Health impact projection uncertainty was driven predominantly by uncertainty in the health effect association and climate model variability. Calibrating climate simulations with historical observations reduced differences in projections across climate models. PMID:24764746

Impact of Transpacific Aerosol on Air Quality over the United States: A Perspective from Aerosol-Cloud-Radiation Interactions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tao, Zhining; Yu, Hongbin; Chin, Mian

2015-01-01

Observations have well established that aerosols from various sources in Asia, Europe, and Africa can travel across the Pacific and reach the contiguous United States (U.S.) at least on episodic bases throughout a year, with a maximum import in spring. The imported aerosol not only can serve as an additional source to regional air pollution (e.g., direct input), but also can influence regional air quality through the aerosol-cloud-radiation (ACR) interactions that change local and regional meteorology. This study assessed impacts of the transpacific aerosol on air quality, focusing on surface ozone and PM2.5, over the U.S. using the NASA Unified Weather Research Forecast model. Based on the results of 3- month (April to June of 2010) simulations, the impact of direct input (as an additional source) of transpacific aerosol caused an increase of surface PM2.5 concentration by approximately 1.5 micro-g/cu m over the west coast and about 0.5 micro-g/cu m over the east coast of the U.S. By influencing key meteorological processes through the ACR interactions, the transpacific aerosol exerted a significant effect on both surface PM2.5 (+/-6 micro-g/cu m3) and ozone (+/-12 ppbv) over the central and eastern U.S. This suggests that the transpacific transport of aerosol could either improve or deteriorate local air quality and complicate local effort toward the compliance with the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

Stratospheric ozone changes under solar geoengineering: implications for UV exposure and air quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowack, Peer Johannes; Abraham, Nathan Luke; Braesicke, Peter; Pyle, John Adrian

2016-03-01

Various forms of geoengineering have been proposed to counter anthropogenic climate change. Methods which aim to modify the Earth's energy balance by reducing insolation are often subsumed under the term solar radiation management (SRM). Here, we present results of a standard SRM modelling experiment in which the incoming solar irradiance is reduced to offset the global mean warming induced by a quadrupling of atmospheric carbon dioxide. For the first time in an atmosphere-ocean coupled climate model, we include atmospheric composition feedbacks for this experiment. While the SRM scheme considered here could offset greenhouse gas induced global mean surface warming, it leads to important changes in atmospheric composition. We find large stratospheric ozone increases that induce significant reductions in surface UV-B irradiance, which would have implications for vitamin D production. In addition, the higher stratospheric ozone levels lead to decreased ozone photolysis in the troposphere. In combination with lower atmospheric specific humidity under SRM, this results in overall surface ozone concentration increases in the idealized G1 experiment. Both UV-B and surface ozone changes are important for human health. We therefore highlight that both stratospheric and tropospheric ozone changes must be considered in the assessment of any SRM scheme, due to their important roles in regulating UV exposure and air quality.

Decreasing Lower Tropospheric Ozone over the North China Plain Observed by IASI: Looking for Explanations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dufour, G.; Eremenko, M.; Lachâtre, M.; Hauglustaine, D.; Fortems-Cheiney, A.; Cuesta, J.; Zhang, Y.; Cai, Z.; Liu, Y.; Xu, X.; Lin, W.; Cooper, O. R.

2017-12-01

China, and especially the North China Plain (NCP), is a highly polluted region. Emission reductions have been applied since about 10 years, starting with SO2 emissions in 2006 and with NOx emissions in 2010. Recent satellite observations series show a decrease of NO2 tropospheric columns since 2013 and attributed to the NOx emissions reduction. The question of the impact of such reduction on ozone is then arising. In this study, we use the capabilities of the IASI satellite instrument to retrieve 2 semi-independent columns of ozone in the lower (surface-6km asl) and the upper (6-12km) troposphere - the lower tropospheric (LT) column having a sensitivity maximum at 3-4 km - and we evaluate the variability and trend of LT ozone over the NCP for 2008-2016. Deseasonalized monthly timeseries show two distinct periods: a first period (2008-2012) with no significant trend (slope of the linear fit < -0.1 %/yr) and a second period (2013-2016) with a highly significant negative trend of -1.2 %/yr, leading to an overall trend of -0.77 %/yr for 2008-2016. A first temptation is to attribute this decrease to the NOx emissions changes. However, negative trends have not been reported from background surface measurements in this Chinese region. Furthermore recent work made within the framework of the TOAR initiative reveals discrepancies in the sign of the trends of tropospheric column ozone derived from infrared and ultraviolet satellite instruments. As yet there is no conclusive explanation for the discrepancy. We then investigate the IASI retrieval stability and robustness in terms of vertical sensitivity, interferences with large aerosol loading, and comparing with surface and ozonesonde measurements and the IASI instrument aboard the Metop-B satellite. One issue arises concerning the temporal sampling of IASI that may induce significant change in the trend derived from surface stations. We also explore the possible variables, other than emissions, which could explain the observed negative trends using both a statistical regression model and simulations from global and regional chemistry transport models.

Summary of aircraft results for 1978 southeastern Virginia urban plume measurement study of ozone, nitrogen oxides, and methane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gregory, G. L.; Wornom, D. E.; Mathis, J. J., Jr.; Sebacher, D. I.

1980-01-01

Ozone production was determined from aircraft and surface in situ measurements, as well as from an airborne laser absorption spectrometer. Three aircraft and approximately 10 surface stations provided air-quality data. Extensive meteorological, mixing-layer-height, and ozone-precursor data were also measured. Approximately 50 hrs (9 flight days) of data from the aircraft equipped to monitor ozone, nitrogen oxides, dewpoint temperature, and temperature are presented. In addition, each experiment conducted is discussed.

Photochemical Grid Modelling Study to Assess Potential Air Quality Impacts Associated with Energy Development in Colorado and Northern New Mexico.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parker, L. K.; Morris, R. E.; Zapert, J.; Cook, F.; Koo, B.; Rasmussen, D.; Jung, J.; Grant, J.; Johnson, J.; Shah, T.; Pavlovic, T.

2015-12-01

The Colorado Air Resource Management Modeling Study (CARMMS) was funded by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to predict the impacts from future federal and non-federal energy development in Colorado and Northern New Mexico. The study used the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions (CAMx) photochemical grid model (PGM) to quantify potential impacts from energy development from BLM field office planning areas. CAMx source apportionment technology was used to track the impacts from multiple (14) different emissions source regions (i.e. field office areas) within one simulation, as well as to assess the cumulative impact of emissions from all source regions combined. The energy development emissions estimates were for the year 2021 for three different development scenarios: (1) low; (2) high; (3) high with emissions mitigation. Impacts on air quality (AQ) including ozone, PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, and air quality related values (AQRVs) such as atmospheric deposition, regional haze and changes in Acid Neutralizing Capacity (ANC) of lakes were quantified, and compared to establish threshold levels. In this presentation, we present a brief summary of the how the emission scenarios were developed, we compare the emission totals for each scenario, and then focus on the ozone impacts for each scenario to assess: (1). the difference in potential ozone impacts under the different development scenarios and (2). to establish the sensitivity of the ozone impacts to different emissions levels. Region-wide ozone impacts will be presented as well as impacts at specific locations with ozone monitors.

Wintertime ozone fluxes and profiles above a subalpine spruce-fir forest

Treesearch

Karl Zeller

2000-01-01

High rural concentrations of ozone (O3) are thought to be stratospheric in origin, advected from upwind urban sources, or photochemically generated locally by natural trace gas emissions. Ozone is known to be transported vertically downward from the above-canopy atmospheric surface layer and destroyed within stomata or on other biological and mineral surfaces. However...

CONTRIBUTION TO INDOOR OZONE LEVELS OF AN OZONE GENERATOR

EPA Science Inventory

This report gives results of a study of a commonly used commercially available ozone generator, undertaken to determine its impact on indoor ozone levels. xperiment were conducted in a typical mechanically ventilated office and in a test house. he generated ozone and the in-room ...

Changes in tropospheric composition and air quality due to stratospheric ozone depletion.

PubMed

Solomon, Keith R; Tang, Xiaoyan; Wilson, Stephen R; Zanis, Prodromos; Bais, Alkiviadis F

2003-01-01

Increased UV-B through stratospheric ozone depletion leads to an increased chemical activity in the lower atmosphere (the troposphere). The effect of stratospheric ozone depletion on tropospheric ozone is small (though significant) compared to the ozone generated anthropogenically in areas already experiencing air pollution. Modeling and experimental studies suggest that the impacts of stratospheric ozone depletion on tropospheric ozone are different at different altitudes and for different chemical regimes. As a result the increase in ozone due to stratospheric ozone depletion may be greater in polluted regions. Attributable effects on concentrations are expected only in regions where local emissions make minor contributions. The vertical distribution of NOx (NO + NO2), the emission of volatile organic compounds and the abundance of water vapor, are important influencing factors. The long-term nature of stratospheric ozone depletion means that even a small increase in tropospheric ozone concentration can have a significant impact on human health and the environment. Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and chlorodifluoroacetic acid (CDFA) are produced by the atmospheric degradation of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). TFA has been measured in rain, rivers, lakes, and oceans, the ultimate sink for these and related compounds. Significant anthropogenic sources of TFA other than degradation HCFCs and HFCs have been identified. Toxicity tests under field conditions indicate that the concentrations of TFA and CDFA currently produced by the atmospheric degradation of HFCs and HCFCs do not present a risk to human health and the environment. The impact of the interaction between ozone depletion and future climate change is complex and a significant area of current research. For air quality and tropospheric composition, a range of physical parameters such as temperature, cloudiness and atmospheric transport will modify the impact of UV-B. Changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere including aerosols will also have an impact. For example, tropospheric OH is the 'cleaning' agent of the troposphere. While increased UV-B increases the OH concentration, increases in concentration of gases like methane, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds will act as sinks for OH in troposphere and hence change air quality and chemical composition in the troposphere. Also, changes in the aerosol content of the atmosphere resulting from global climate change may affect ozone photolysis rate coefficients and hence reduce or increase tropospheric ozone concentrations.

Solar Effects on Climate and the Maunder Minimum: Minimum Certainty

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rind, David

2003-01-01

The current state of our understanding of solar effects on climate is reviewed. As an example of the relevant issues, the climate during the Maunder Minimum is compared with current conditions in GCM simulations that include a full stratosphere and parameterized ozone response to solar spectral irradiance variability and trace gas changes. The GISS Global Climate/Middle Atmosphere Model coupled to a q-flux/mixed layer model is used for the simulations, which begin in 1500 and extend to the present. Experiments were made to investigate the effect of total versus spectrally-varying solar irradiance changes; spectrally-varying solar irradiance changes on the stratospheric ozone/climate response with both pre-industrial and present trace gases; and the impact on climate and stratospheric ozone of the preindustrial trace gases and aerosols by themselves. The results showed that: (1) the Maunder Minimum cooling relative to today was primarily associated with reduced anthropogenic radiative forcing, although the solar reduction added 40% to the overall cooling. There is no obvious distinguishing surface climate pattern between the two forcings. (2)The global and tropical response was greater than 1 C, in a model with a sensitivity of 1.2 C per W m-2. To reproduce recent low-end estimates would require a sensitivity 1/4 as large. (3) The global surface temperature change was similar when using the total and spectral irradiance prescriptions, although the tropical response was somewhat greater with the former, and the stratospheric response greater with the latter. (4) Most experiments produce a relative negative phase of the NAO/AO during the Maunder Minimum, with both solar and anthropogenic forcing equally capable, associated with the tropical cooling and relative poleward EP flux refraction. (5) A full stratosphere appeared to be necessary for the negative AO/NAO phase, as was the case with this model for global warming experiments, unless the cooling was very large, while the ozone response played a minor role and did not influence surface temperature significantly. (6) Stratospheric ozone was most affected by the difference between present day and preindustrial atmospheric composition and chemistry, with increases in the upper and lower stratosphere during the Maunder Minimum. While the estimated UV reduction led to ozone decreases, this was generally less important than the anthropogenic effect except in the upper middle stratosphere, as judged by two different ozone photochemistry schemes. (7) The effect of the reduced solar irradiance on stratospheric ozone and on climate was similar in Maunder Minimum and current atmospheric conditions.

Harvesting of Scenedesmus obliquus FSP-3 using dispersed ozone flotation.

PubMed

Cheng, Ya-Ling; Juang, Yu-Chuan; Liao, Guan-Yu; Tsai, Pei-Wen; Ho, Shih-Hsin; Yeh, Kuei-Ling; Chen, Chun-Yen; Chang, Jo-Shu; Liu, Jhy-Chern; Chen, Wen-Ming; Lee, Duu-Jong

2011-01-01

The Scenedesmus obliquus FSP-3, a species with excellent potential for CO(2) capture and lipid production, was harvested using dispersed ozone flotation. While air aeration does not, ozone produces effective solid-liquid separation through flotation. Ozone dose applied for sufficient algal flotation is similar to those used in practical drinking waterworks. The algae removal rate, surface charge, and hydrophobicity of algal cells, and fluorescence characteristics and proteins and polysaccharides contents of algogenic organic matter (AOM) were determined during ozonation. Proteins released from tightly bound AOM are essential to modifying the hydrophobicity of bubble surfaces for easy cell attachment and to forming a top froth layer for collecting floating cells. Humic substances in the suspension scavenge dosed ozone that adversely affects ozone flotation efficiency of algal cells. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Optimal Extraction of Tropospheric Ozone Column by Simultaneous Use of OMI and TES Data and the Surface Temperature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mobasheri, M. R.; Shirazi, H.

2015-12-01

This article aims to increase the accuracy of Ozone data from tropospheric column (TOC) of the OMI and TES satellite instruments. To validate the estimated amount of satellite data, Ozonesonde data is used. The vertical resolution in both instruments in the tropospheric atmosphere decreases so that the degree of freedom signals (DOFS) on the average for TES is reduced to 2 and for OMI is reduced to1. But this decline in accuracy in estimation of tropospheric ozone is more obvious in urban areas so that estimated ozone in both instruments alone in non-urban areas show a high correlation with Ozonesonde. But in urban areas this correlation is significantly reduced, due to the ozone pre-structures and consequently an increase on surface-level ozone in urban areas. In order to improve the accuracy of satellite data, the average tropospheric ozone data from the two instruments were used. The aim is to increase the vertical resolution of ozone profile and the results clearly indicate an increase in correlations, but nevertheless the satellite data have a positive bias towards the earth data. To reduce the bias, with the solar flux and nitrogen dioxide values and surface temperatures are calculated as factors of ozone production on the earth's surface and formation of mathematical equations based on coefficients for each of the mentioned values and multiplication of these coefficients by satellite data and repeated comparison with the values of Ozonesonde, the results showed that bias in urban areas is greatly reduced.

Reanalysis of and attribution to near-surface ozone concentrations in Sweden during 1990-2013

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andersson, Camilla; Alpfjord, Heléne; Robertson, Lennart; Karlsson, Per Erik; Engardt, Magnuz

2017-11-01

We have constructed two data sets of hourly resolution reanalyzed near-surface ozone (O3) concentrations for the period 1990-2013 for Sweden. Long-term simulations from a chemistry-transport model (CTM) covering Europe were combined with hourly ozone concentration observations at Swedish and Norwegian background measurement sites using retrospective variational data analysis. The reanalysis data sets show improved performance over the original CTM when compared to independent observations. In one of the reanalyses, we included all available hourly near-surface O3 observations, whilst in the other we carefully selected time-consistent observations. Based on the second reanalysis we investigated statistical aspects of the distribution of the near-surface O3 concentrations, focusing on the linear trend over the 24-year period. We show that high near-surface O3 concentrations are decreasing and low O3 concentrations are increasing, which is reflected in observed improvement of many health and vegetation indices (apart from those with a low threshold). Using the CTM we also conducted sensitivity simulations to quantify the causes of the observed change, focusing on three factors: change in hemispheric background concentrations, meteorology and anthropogenic emissions. The rising low concentrations of near-surface O3 in Sweden are caused by a combination of all three factors, whilst the decrease in the highest O3 concentrations is caused by European O3 precursor emissions reductions. While studying the impact of anthropogenic emissions changes, we identified systematic differences in the modeled trend compared to observations that must be caused by incorrect trends in the utilized emissions inventory or by too high sensitivity of our model to emissions changes.

Stratospheric ozone - Fragile shield. [SST exhausts and Freons impact

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hoffert, M. I.; Stewart, R. W.

1975-01-01

Atmospheric models that have been used in major studies on the possible impact of SST exhausts and Freons on stratospheric ozone are discussed and compared. An overview is given of ozone-reduction estimates that they produce, together with an assessment of possible effects of atmospheric testing of thermonuclear bombs in an attempt to find direct observational evidence for ozone depletion resulting from human activities. It is concluded that clear validation of atmospheric-model predictions is lacking.

Regional ozone impacts of increased natural gas use in the Texas power sector and development in the Eagle Ford shale.

PubMed

Pacsi, Adam P; Kimura, Yosuke; McGaughey, Gary; McDonald-Buller, Elena C; Allen, David T

2015-03-17

The combined emissions and air quality impacts of electricity generation in the Texas grid and natural gas production in the Eagle Ford shale were estimated at various natural gas price points for the power sector. The increased use of natural gas in the power sector, in place of coal-fired power generation, drove reductions in average daily maximum 8 h ozone concentration of 0.6-1.3 ppb in northeastern Texas for a high ozone episode used in air quality planning. The associated increase in Eagle Ford upstream oil and gas production nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions caused an estimated local increase, in south Texas, of 0.3-0.7 ppb in the same ozone metric. In addition, the potential ozone impacts of Eagle Ford emissions on nearby urban areas were estimated. On the basis of evidence from this work and a previous study on the Barnett shale, the combined ozone impact of increased natural gas development and use in the power sector is likely to vary regionally and must be analyzed on a case by case basis.

Kinetics of the heterogeneous photo oxidation of the pesticide bupirimate by OH-radicals and ozone under atmospheric conditions.

PubMed

Bouya, H; Errami, M; Chakir, A; Roth, E

2015-09-01

This article is concerned with the study of the photochemical degradation of bupirimate adsorbed on a quartz surface by atmospheric oxidants, namely ozone and OH radicals. OH oxidation experiments were conducted relative to two reference compounds, terbuthylazine and (4-chlorophenyl)(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl) methanone. Meanwhile, ozone oxidation experiments were performed in the absolute mode and were interpreted by both, the Surface Layer Reaction and the Gas Surface Reaction models of heterogeneous reactions. The obtained results show that the rate constants for the reactions between bupirimate and OH radicals and ozone are (cm(3)molecule(-1)s(-1)): (1.06 ± 0.87) × 10(-12) and (5.4 ± 0.3) × 10(-20), respectively. As a consequence, for the experimental conditions used in this study, the lifetime of bupirimate at quartz like surface/atmosphere interfaces is several months against ozone and a tenth of days against OH-radical. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of ozone and ozone/peroxide on trace organic contaminants and NDMA in drinking water and water reuse applications.

PubMed

Pisarenko, Aleksey N; Stanford, Benjamin D; Yan, Dongxu; Gerrity, Daniel; Snyder, Shane A

2012-02-01

An ozone and ozone/peroxide oxidation process was evaluated at pilot scale for trace organic contaminant (TOrC) mitigation and NDMA formation in both drinking water and water reuse applications. A reverse osmosis (RO) pilot was also evaluated as part of the water reuse treatment train. Ozone/peroxide showed lower electrical energy per order of removal (EEO) values for TOrCs in surface water treatment, but the addition of hydrogen peroxide increased EEO values during wastewater treatment. TOrC oxidation was correlated to changes in UV(254) absorbance and fluorescence offering a surrogate model for predicting contaminant removal. A decrease in N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) formation potential (after chloramination) was observed after treatment with ozone and ozone/peroxide. However, during spiking experiments with surface water, ozone/peroxide achieved limited destruction of NDMA, while in wastewaters net direct formation of NDMA of 6-33 ng/L was observed after either ozone or ozone/peroxide treatment. Once formed during ozonation, NDMA passed through the subsequent RO membranes, which highlights the significance of the potential for direct NDMA formation during oxidation in reuse applications. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Synoptic and meteorological drivers of extreme ozone concentrations over Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Otero, Noelia Felipe; Sillmann, Jana; Schnell, Jordan L.; Rust, Henning W.; Butler, Tim

2016-04-01

The present work assesses the relationship between local and synoptic meteorological conditions and surface ozone concentration over Europe in spring and summer months, during the period 1998-2012 using a new interpolated data set of observed surface ozone concentrations over the European domain. Along with local meteorological conditions, the influence of large-scale atmospheric circulation on surface ozone is addressed through a set of airflow indices computed with a novel implementation of a grid-by-grid weather type classification across Europe. Drivers of surface ozone over the full distribution of maximum daily 8-hour average values are investigated, along with drivers of the extreme high percentiles and exceedances or air quality guideline thresholds. Three different regression techniques are applied: multiple linear regression to assess the drivers of maximum daily ozone, logistic regression to assess the probability of threshold exceedances and quantile regression to estimate the meteorological influence on extreme values, as represented by the 95th percentile. The relative importance of the input parameters (predictors) is assessed by a backward stepwise regression procedure that allows the identification of the most important predictors in each model. Spatial patterns of model performance exhibit distinct variations between regions. The inclusion of the ozone persistence is particularly relevant over Southern Europe. In general, the best model performance is found over Central Europe, where the maximum temperature plays an important role as a driver of maximum daily ozone as well as its extreme values, especially during warmer months.

High Wintertime Ozone in the Uinta Basin: Diurnal Mixing and Ozone Production Measured by Tethered Ozonesondes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, B.; Cullis, P.; Schnell, R. C.; Oltmans, S. J.; Sterling, C. W.; Jordan, A. F.; Hall, E.

2016-12-01

Extreme high ozone mixing ratios, far exceeding U.S. National Air Quality Standards, were observed in the Uinta Basin in January-February 2013 under conditions highly favorable for wintertime ozone production. Hourly average ozone mixing ratios increased from regional background levels of 40-50 ppbv to >160 ppbv during several multi-day episodes of prolonged temperature inversions over snow-covered ground within air confining topography. Extensive surface and tethered balloon profile measurements of ozone, meteorology, CH4, CO2, NO2 and a suite of non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) link emissions from oil and natural gas extraction with the strong ozone production throughout the Basin. High levels of NMHCs that were well correlated with CH4 showed that abundant O3 precursors were available throughout the Basin where high ozone mixing ratios extended from the surface to the top of the inversion layer at 200 m above ground level. This layer was at a nearly uniform height across the Basin even though there are significant terrain variations. Tethered balloon measurements rising above the elevated levels of ozone within the cold pool layer beneath the inversion measured regional background O3 concentrations. Surface wind and direction data from tethered balloons showed a consistent diurnal pattern in the Basin that moved air with the highest levels of CH4 and ozone precursor NMHC's from the gas fields of the east-central portion of the Basin to the edges during the day, before draining back into the Basin at night.

Nicotiana tabacum as model for ozone - plant surface reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jud, Werner; Fischer, Lukas; Wohlfahrt, Georg; Tissier, Alain; Canaval, Eva; Hansel, Armin

2015-04-01

Elevated tropospheric ozone concentrations are considered a toxic threat to plants, responsible for global crop losses with associated economic costs of several billion dollars per year. The ensuing injuries have been related to the uptake of ozone through the stomatal pores and oxidative effects damaging the internal leaf tissue. A striking question of current research is the environment and plant specific partitioning of ozone loss between gas phase, stomatal or plant surface sink terms. Here we show results from ozone fumigation experiments using various Nicotiana Tabacum varieties, whose surfaces are covered with different amounts of unsaturated diterpenoids exuded by their glandular trichomes. Exposure to elevated ozone levels (50 to 150 ppbv) for 5 to 15 hours in an exceptionally clean cuvette system did neither result in a reduction of photosynthesis nor caused any visible leaf damage. Both these ozone induced stress effects have been observed previously in ozone fumigation experiments with the ozone sensitive tobacco line Bel-W3. In our case ozone fumigation was accompanied by a continuous release of oxygenated volatile organic compounds, which could be clearly associated to their condensed phase precursors for the first time. Gas phase reactions of ozone were avoided by choosing a high enough gas exchange rate of the plant cuvette system. In the case of the Ambalema variety, that is known to exude only the diterpenoid cis-abienol, ozone fumigation experiments yield the volatiles formaldehyde and methyl vinyl ketone (MVK). The latter could be unequivocally separated from isomeric methacrolein (MACR) by the aid of a Selective Reagent Ion Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (SRI-ToF-MS), which was switched every six minutes from H3O+ to NO+ primary ion mode and vice versa. Consistent with the picture of an ozone protection mechanism caused by reactive diterpenoids at the leaf surface are the results from dark-light experiments. The ozone loss obtained from the difference of ozone measured before and after the plant cuvette was investigated as a function of stomatal opening. Switching from dark to light conditions and thus opening the stomata only a small increase in ozone loss was observed for the Ambalema variety (25%). In the case of the 3H02 variety, a line known to emit almost no diterpenoids, the ozone loss increased by more than 100% when changing from dark to light conditions. It is anticipated that the described effect is of importance also for other plant species emitting low-volatility unsaturated organic compounds (e.g. in form of exudates or resins).

Surface ozone in the White Mountains of California

Treesearch

Joel Burley; Andrzej Bytnerowicz

2011-01-01

Surface ozone concentrations are presented for four high-elevation sites along a northesouth transect along the spine of the White Mountains and a fifth site located at lower elevation approximately 15 km to the west on the floor of the Owens Valley. The ozone data, which were collected from mid-June through mid-October of 2009, include results from two sites, White...

Water Reclamation Using a Ceramic Nanofiltration Membrane and Surface Flushing with Ozonated Water

PubMed Central

Hoang, Anh T.; Okuda, Tetsuji; Takeuchi, Haruka; Tanaka, Hiroaki; Nghiem, Long D.

2018-01-01

A new membrane fouling control technique using ozonated water flushing was evaluated for direct nanofiltration (NF) of secondary wastewater effluent using a ceramic NF membrane. Experiments were conducted at a permeate flux of 44 L/m2h to evaluate the ozonated water flushing technique for fouling mitigation. Surface flushing with clean water did not effectively remove foulants from the NF membrane. In contrast, surface flushing with ozonated water (4 mg/L dissolved ozone) could effectively remove most foulants to restore the membrane permeability. This surface flushing technique using ozonated water was able to limit the progression of fouling to 35% in transmembrane pressure increase over five filtration cycles. Results from this study also heighten the need for further development of ceramic NF membrane to ensure adequate removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) for water recycling applications. The ceramic NF membrane used in this study showed approximately 40% TOC rejection, and the rejection of PPCPs was generally low and highly variable. It is expected that the fouling mitigation technique developed here is even more important for ceramic NF membranes with smaller pore size and thus better PPCP rejection. PMID:29671797

Broad features of surface ozone variations over Indian region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shende, R. R.; Jayaraman, K.; Sreedharan, C. R.; Tiwari, V. S.

1994-01-01

Surface ozone concentration at three Indian stations - New Delhi (28.6 deg N), Pune (18.5 deg N) and Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum (8.3 deg N) - has been measured since 1973 with the help of an electrochemical continuous ozone recorder. These stations show diurnal, seasonal and annual cycles in surface ozone. Daily changes show that the minimum value occurs at sunrise and maximum in the afternoon. As regards seasonal variations, Thiruvananthapuram and Pune have a minimum value during monsoon season (June to August) while at New Delhi the minimum value occurs in January. However, New Delhi also records low ozone amount during monsoon season identical to the amounts show at Thiruvananthapuram and Pune. The annual cycles at these stations have been compared with similar measurements in the northern and southern hemispheres. The Indian measurements agree well with the annual cycles at these stations. Further, the analysis of the Indian data indicates that the major contribution in surface ozone comes from the natural sources like stratospheric-tropospheric exchange, turbulence, and mixing in the boundary layer; however, a small contribution from anthropogenic sources cannot be ruled out at Pune and probably at New Delhi, especially in winter and summer seasons.

Water Reclamation Using a Ceramic Nanofiltration Membrane and Surface Flushing with Ozonated Water.

PubMed

Fujioka, Takahiro; Hoang, Anh T; Okuda, Tetsuji; Takeuchi, Haruka; Tanaka, Hiroaki; Nghiem, Long D

2018-04-19

A new membrane fouling control technique using ozonated water flushing was evaluated for direct nanofiltration (NF) of secondary wastewater effluent using a ceramic NF membrane. Experiments were conducted at a permeate flux of 44 L/m²h to evaluate the ozonated water flushing technique for fouling mitigation. Surface flushing with clean water did not effectively remove foulants from the NF membrane. In contrast, surface flushing with ozonated water (4 mg/L dissolved ozone) could effectively remove most foulants to restore the membrane permeability. This surface flushing technique using ozonated water was able to limit the progression of fouling to 35% in transmembrane pressure increase over five filtration cycles. Results from this study also heighten the need for further development of ceramic NF membrane to ensure adequate removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) for water recycling applications. The ceramic NF membrane used in this study showed approximately 40% TOC rejection, and the rejection of PPCPs was generally low and highly variable. It is expected that the fouling mitigation technique developed here is even more important for ceramic NF membranes with smaller pore size and thus better PPCP rejection.

Atmospheric changes caused by galactic cosmic rays over the period 1960-2010

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jackman, Charles H.; Marsh, Daniel R.; Kinnison, Douglas E.; Mertens, Christopher J.; Fleming, Eric L.

2016-05-01

The Specified Dynamics version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (SD-WACCM) and the Goddard Space Flight Center two-dimensional (GSFC 2-D) models are used to investigate the effect of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) on the atmosphere over the 1960-2010 time period. The Nowcast of Atmospheric Ionizing Radiation for Aviation Safety (NAIRAS) computation of the GCR-caused ionization rates are used in these simulations. GCR-caused maximum NOx increases of 4-15 % are computed in the Southern polar troposphere with associated ozone increases of 1-2 %. NOx increases of ˜ 1-6 % are calculated for the lower stratosphere with associated ozone decreases of 0.2-1 %. The primary impact of GCRs on ozone was due to their production of NOx. The impact of GCRs varies with the atmospheric chlorine loading, sulfate aerosol loading, and solar cycle variation. Because of the interference between the NOx and ClOx ozone loss cycles (e.g., the ClO + NO2+ M → ClONO2+ M reaction) and the change in the importance of ClOx in the ozone budget, GCRs cause larger atmospheric impacts with less chlorine loading. GCRs also cause larger atmospheric impacts with less sulfate aerosol loading and for years closer to solar minimum. GCR-caused decreases of annual average global total ozone (AAGTO) were computed to be 0.2 % or less with GCR-caused column ozone increases between 1000 and 100 hPa of 0.08 % or less and GCR-caused column ozone decreases between 100 and 1 hPa of 0.23 % or less. Although these computed ozone impacts are small, GCRs provide a natural influence on ozone and need to be quantified over long time periods. This result serves as a lower limit because of the use of the ionization model NAIRAS/HZETRN which underestimates the ion production by neglecting electromagnetic and muon branches of the cosmic ray induced cascade. This will be corrected in future works.

The predicted impact of VOCs from Marijuana cultivation operations on ozone concentrations in great Denver, CO.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, C. T.; Vizuete, W.; Wiedinmyer, C.; Ashworth, K.

2016-12-01

Colorado is the first the marijuana legal states in the United States since 2014. As a result, thousands of legal Marijuana cultivation operations are at great Denver area now. Those Marijuana cultivation operations could be the potential to release a lot of biogenic VOCs, such as monoterpene(C10H16), alpha-pinene, and D-limonene. Those alkene species could rapidly increase the peroxy radicals and chemical reactions in the atmosphere, especially in the urban area which belong to VOC-limited ozone regime. These emissions will increase the ozone in Denver city, where is ozone non-attainment area. Some previous research explained the marijuana smoke and indoor air quality (Martyny, Serrano, Schaeffer, & Van Dyke, 2013) and the smell of marijuana chemical compounds(Rice & Koziel, 2015). However, there have been no studies discuss on identifying and assessing emission rate from marijuana and how those species impact on atmospheric chemistry and ozone concentration, and the marijuana emissions have been not considered in the national emission inventory, either. This research will use air quality model to identify the possibility of ozone impact by marijuana cultivation emission. The Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions, CAMx, are applied for this research to identify the impact of ozone concentration. This model is government regulatory model based on the Three-State Air Quality Modeling Study (3SAQS), which developed by UNC-Chapel Hill and ENVIRON in 2012. This model is used for evaluation and regulate the ozone impact in ozone non-attainment area, Denver city. The details of the 3SAQS model setup and protocol can be found in the 3SAQS report(UNC-IE, 2013). For the marijuana emission study scenarios, we assumed the monoterpene (C10H16) is the only emission species in air quality model and identify the ozone change in the model by the different quantity of emission rate from marijuana cultivation operations.

Ozone profiles retrieval from SCIAMACHY Chappuis-Wulf limb scattered spectra using MART

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, ZiJun; Chen, ShengBo; Jin, LiHua; Yang, ChunYan

2011-02-01

The Scanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric ChartographY (SCIAMACHY) instrument, launched on the Envisat satellite in March 2002, measures the earthshine radiance, simultaneously from the ultraviolet (UV) to the near infrared (NIR), in the three viewing geometries: nadir, limb, and occultation. These measurements are used to retrieve both the total amount and vertical profiles of a large number of atmospheric constituents. In this paper, stratospheric ozone profiles between 15 and 40 km altitude are retrieved on 3 km grids from SCIAMACHY limb scattered radiance in the Chappuis-Wulf band. The study employs a new multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique (MART) coupled with the radiative transfer model SCIATRAN. This technique is outstanding in that more than one measurement vector element can be used to retrieve the ozone density at any altitude. Furthermore, it is straightforward to understand, easy to implement and likely to produce stable results. Radiance normalization and wavelength pairing is applied to radiance as an intermediate step, using the wavelengths 525 nm, 600 nm and 675 nm. The sensitivity of ozone retrieval by this method to tangent altitude pointing, surface albedo, aerosol and cloud parameters is studied, and the results show that the retrieval impact due to tangent altitude pointing bias is the biggest up to 75% with 1 km shift, and the impact of albedo is limited within 5%. The effect of boundary visibility and cloud parameters can be ignored since their impact is too small. The effectiveness of the retrieval is demonstrated using a set of coincident SCIAMACHY products at Hefei that shows a mean bias of less than 12% between 15 and 40 km, and with a better accuracy of 5% from 16 to 36 km.

Intercomparison of planetary boundary layer parameterization and its impacts on surface ozone concentration in the WRF/Chem model for a case study in Houston/Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cuchiara, G. C.; Li, X.; Carvalho, J.; Rappenglück, B.

2014-10-01

With over 6 million inhabitants the Houston metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in the United States. Ozone concentration in this southeast Texas region frequently exceeds the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). For this reason our study employed the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF/Chem) to quantify meteorological prediction differences produced by four widely used PBL schemes and analyzed its impact on ozone predictions. The model results were compared to observational data in order to identify one superior PBL scheme better suited for the area. The four PBL schemes include two first-order closure schemes, the Yonsei University (YSU) and the Asymmetric Convective Model version 2 (ACM2); as well as two turbulent kinetic energy closure schemes, the Mellor-Yamada-Janjic (MYJ) and Quasi-Normal Scale Elimination (QNSE). Four 24 h forecasts were performed, one for each PBL scheme. Simulated vertical profiles for temperature, potential temperature, relative humidity, water vapor mixing ratio, and the u-v components of the wind were compared to measurements collected during the Second Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS-II) Radical and Aerosol Measurements Project (TRAMP) experiment in summer 2006. Simulated ozone was compared against TRAMP data, and air quality stations from Continuous Monitoring Station (CAMS). Also, the evolutions of the PBL height and vertical mixing properties within the PBL for the four simulations were explored. Although the results yielded high correlation coefficients and small biases in almost all meteorological variables, the overall results did not indicate any preferred PBL scheme for the Houston case. However, for ozone prediction the YSU scheme showed greatest agreements with observed values.

Intercomparison of Planetary Boundary Layer Parameterization and its Impacts on Surface Ozone Concentration in the WRF/Chem Model for a Case Study in Houston/Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cuchiara, Gustavo C.; Li, Xiangshang; Carvalho, Jonas; Rappenglück, Bernhard

2015-04-01

With over 6 million inhabitants the Houston metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in the United States. Ozone concentration in this southeast Texas region frequently exceeds the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). For this reason our study employed the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF/Chem) to quantify meteorological prediction differences produced by four widely used PBL schemes and analyzed its impact on ozone predictions. The model results were compared to observational data in order to identify one superior PBL scheme better suited for the area. The four PBL schemes include two first-order closure schemes, the Yonsei University (YSU) and the Asymmetric Convective Model version 2 (ACM2); as well as two turbulent kinetic energy closure schemes, the Mellor-Yamada-Janjic (MYJ) and Quasi-Normal Scale Elimination (QNSE). Four 24 h forecasts were performed, one for each PBL scheme. Simulated vertical profiles for temperature, potential temperature, relative humidity, water vapor mixing ratio, and the u-v components of the wind were compared to measurements collected during the Second Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS-II) Radical and Aerosol Measurements Project (TRAMP) experiment in summer 2006. Simulated ozone was compared against TRAMP data, and air quality stations from Continuous Monitoring Station (CAMS). Also, the evolutions of the PBL height and vertical mixing properties within the PBL for the four simulations were explored. Although the results yielded high correlation coefficients and small biases in almost all meteorological variables, the overall results did not indicate any preferred PBL scheme for the Houston case. However, for ozone prediction the YSU scheme showed greatest agreements with observed values.

Impact of Future Volcanic Eruptions on Stratospheric Ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilmouth, D. M.; Klobas, J. E.; Weisenstein, D.; Anderson, J. G.; Salawitch, R. J.

2017-12-01

Due to the anthropogenic release of chlorine-containing chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere in the twentieth century, a large volcanic eruption occurring today would initiate chemical reactions that reduce the thickness of the ozone layer. In the future, when atmospheric levels of chlorine are reduced, large volcanic eruptions are instead expected to increase the thickness of the ozone layer, but important details relevant to this shift in volcanic impact are not well known. Here we use the AER-2D chemical transport model to simulate a Pinatubo-like volcanic eruption in contemporary and future atmospheres. In particular, we explore the sensitivity of column ozone to volcanic eruption for four different climate change scenarios over the remainder of this century and also establish the importance of bromine-containing very short-lived substances (VSLS) in determining whether future eruptions will lead to ozone depletion. We find that the ozone layer will be vulnerable to volcanic perturbation for considerably longer than previously believed. Finally, we consider the impact on column ozone of inorganic halogens being co-injected into the stratosphere following future explosive eruptions using realistic hydrogen halide to sulfur dioxide ratios.

Particle Events as a Possible Source of Large Ozone Loss during Magnetic Polarity Transitions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

vonKoenig, M.; Burrows, J. P.; Chipperfield, M. P.; Jackman, C. H.; Kallenrode, M.-B.; Kuenzi, K. F.; Quack, M.

2002-01-01

The energy deposition in the mesosphere and stratosphere during large extraterrestrial charged particle precipitation events has been known for some time to contribute to ozone losses due to the formation of potential ozone destroying species like NO(sub x), and HO(sub x). These impacts have been measured and can be reproduced with chemistry models fairly well. In the recent past, however, even the impact of the largest solar proton events on the total amount of ozone has been small compared to the dynamical variability of ozone, and to the anthropogenic induced impacts like the Antarctic 'ozone hole'. This is due to the shielding effect of the magnetic field. However, there is evidence that the earth's magnetic field may approach a reversal. This could lead to a decrease of magnetic field strength to less than 25% of its usual value over a period of several centuries . We show that with realistic estimates of very large solar proton events, scenarios similar to the Antarctic ozone hole of the 1990s may occur during a magnetic polarity transition.

Effects of local meteorology and aerosols on ozone and nitrogen dioxide retrievals from OMI and pandora spectrometers in Maryland, USA during DISCOVER-AQ 2011.

PubMed

Reed, Andra J; Thompson, Anne M; Kollonige, Debra E; Martins, Douglas K; Tzortziou, Maria A; Herman, Jay R; Berkoff, Timothy A; Abuhassan, Nader K; Cede, Alexander

An analysis is presented for both ground- and satellite-based retrievals of total column ozone and nitrogen dioxide levels from the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, metropolitan area during the NASA-sponsored July 2011 campaign of D eriving I nformation on S urface CO nditions from Column and VER tically Resolved Observations Relevant to A ir Q uality (DISCOVER-AQ). Satellite retrievals of total column ozone and nitrogen dioxide from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite are used, while Pandora spectrometers provide total column ozone and nitrogen dioxide amounts from the ground. We found that OMI and Pandora agree well (residuals within ±25 % for nitrogen dioxide, and ±4.5 % for ozone) for a majority of coincident observations during July 2011. Comparisons with surface nitrogen dioxide from a Teledyne API 200 EU NO x Analyzer showed nitrogen dioxide diurnal variability that was consistent with measurements by Pandora. However, the wide OMI field of view, clouds, and aerosols affected retrievals on certain days, resulting in differences between Pandora and OMI of up to ±65 % for total column nitrogen dioxide, and ±23 % for total column ozone. As expected, significant cloud cover (cloud fraction >0.2) was the most important parameter affecting comparisons of ozone retrievals; however, small, passing cumulus clouds that do not coincide with a high (>0.2) cloud fraction, or low aerosol layers which cause significant backscatter near the ground affected the comparisons of total column nitrogen dioxide retrievals. Our results will impact post-processing satellite retrieval algorithms and quality control procedures.

Trends from the Long-term Data Record and Models: What Do They Tell Us About our Ability to Predict Ozone Recovery?

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strahan, Susan; Stolarski, Richard; Douglass, Anne; Steenrod, Stephen

2005-01-01

Our industrial society has performed an experiment on the stratospheric ozone layer over the last several decades. The initial part of this experiment was the rapidly increasing release of halogen-containing compounds that carry chlorine and bromine to the stratosphere where they can cause a loss of ozone. The present part of this experiment is the implementation of the Montreal Protocol, which has led to a leveling off of these halogen compounds and the beginning of their slow removal from the atmosphere. The observation and attribution of ozone response to the halogens has been a particularly important and difficult task because of the impact of solar cycle uv variation, two major volcanic eruptions (El Chichon and Pinatubo), and interannual dynamic variability of the stratosphere. We have run 3 different simulations of the chemistry and transport of ozone and the minor constituents that affect ozone to help evaluate our understanding of the causes of ozone change and to assess our ability to predict ozone recovery with the removal of halogens from the stratosphere. One simulation, using the Goddard chemical transport model (CTM), had interannual variability in the dynamics for the entire 50 years of simulation, which included the past 3 decades (1974-2004) and the next 2 decades to 2022. The other two simulations used the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) CTM with no dynamical variability: one used a the winds and temperatures from a repeating warm Arctic winter and the other used a repeating cold Arctic winter. All simulations included the effects of aerosol surfaces from volcanic eruptions on chemical reactions as well as the variation in UV over the 11-year solar cycle.

Ozone production process in pulsed positive dielectric barrier discharge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ono, Ryo; Oda, Tetsuji

2007-01-01

The ozone production process in a pulsed positive dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is studied by measuring the spatial distribution of ozone density using a two-dimensional laser absorption method. DBD occurs in a 6 mm point-to-plane gap with a 1 mm-thick glass plate placed on the plane electrode. First, the propagation of DBD is observed using a short-gated ICCD camera. It is shown that DBD develops in three phases: primary streamer, secondary streamer and surface discharge phases. Next, the spatial distribution of ozone density is measured. It is shown that ozone is mostly produced in the secondary streamer and surface discharge, while only a small amount of ozone is produced in the primary streamer. The rate coefficient of the ozone production reaction, O + O2 + M → O3 + M, is estimated to be 2.5 × 10-34 cm6 s-1.

Ozone kinetics in low-pressure discharges: vibrationally excited ozone and molecule formation on surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marinov, Daniil; Guerra, Vasco; Guaitella, Olivier; Booth, Jean-Paul; Rousseau, Antoine

2013-10-01

A combined experimental and modeling investigation of the ozone kinetics in the afterglow of pulsed direct current discharges in oxygen is carried out. The discharge is generated in a cylindrical silica tube of radius 1 cm, with short pulse durations between 0.5 and 2 ms, pressures in the range 1-5 Torr and discharge currents ˜40-120 mA. Time-resolved absolute concentrations of ground-state atoms and ozone molecules were measured simultaneously in situ, by two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence and ultraviolet absorption, respectively. The experiments were complemented by a self-consistent model developed to interpret the results and, in particular, to evaluate the roles of vibrationally excited ozone and of ozone formation on surfaces. It is found that vibrationally excited ozone, O_3^{*} , plays an important role in the ozone kinetics, leading to a decrease in the ozone concentration and an increase in its formation time. In turn, the kinetics of O_3^{*} is strongly coupled with those of atomic oxygen and O2(a 1Δg) metastables. Ozone formation at the wall does not contribute significantly to the total ozone production under the present conditions. Upper limits for the effective heterogeneous recombination probability of O atoms into ozone are established.

Changes in biologically active ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth's surface.

PubMed

McKenzie, Richard L; Björn, Lars Olof; Bais, Alkiviadis; Ilyasad, Mohammad

2003-01-01

Since publication of the 1998 UNEP Assessment, there has been continued rapid expansion of the literature on UV-B radiation. Many measurements have demonstrated the inverse relationship between column ozone amount and UV radiation, and in a few cases long-term increases due to ozone decreases have been identified. The quantity, quality and availability of ground-based UV measurements relevant to assessing the environmental impacts of ozone changes continue to improve. Recent studies have contributed to delineating regional and temporal differences due to aerosols, clouds, and ozone. Improvements in radiative transfer modelling capability now enable more accurate characterization of clouds, snow-cover, and topographical effects. A standardized scale for reporting UV to the public has gained wide acceptance. There has been increased use of satellite data to estimate geographic variability and trends in UV. Progress has been made in assessing the utility of satellite retrievals of UV radiation by comparison with measurements at the Earth's surface. Global climatologies of UV radiation are now available on the Internet. Anthropogenic aerosols play a more important role in attenuating UV irradiances than has been assumed previously, and this will have implications for the accuracy of UV retrievals from satellite data. Progress has been made inferring historical levels of UV radiation using measurements of ozone (from satellites or from ground-based networks) in conjunction with measurements of total solar radiation obtained from extensive meteorological networks. We cannot yet be sure whether global ozone has reached a minimum. Atmospheric chlorine concentrations are beginning to decrease. However, bromine concentrations are still increasing. While these halogen concentrations remain high, the ozone layer remains vulnerable to further depletion from events such as volcanic eruptions that inject material into the stratosphere. Interactions between global warming and ozone depletion could delay ozone recovery by several years, and this topic remains an area of intense research interest. Future changes in greenhouse gases will affect the future evolution of ozone through chemical, radiative, and dynamic processes In this highly coupled system, an evaluation of the relative importance of these processes is difficult: studies are ongoing. A reliable assessment of these effects on total column ozone is limited by uncertainties in lower stratospheric response to these changes. At several sites, changes in UV differ from those expected from ozone changes alone, possibly as a result of long-term changes in aerosols, snow cover, or clouds. This indicates a possible interaction between climate change and UV radiation. Cloud reflectance measured by satellite has shown a long-term increase at some locations, especially in the Antarctic region, but also in Central Europe, which would tend to reduce the UV radiation. Even with the expected decreases in atmospheric chlorine, it will be several years before the beginning of an ozone recovery can be unambiguously identified at individual locations. Because UV-B is more variable than ozone, any identification of its recovery would be further delayed.

Fungicide residue remediation on table grapes using ozone fumigation

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Ozone fumigation was explored as a means for degrading contemporary organic fungicides related to table grape production. Separate fumigations were conducted in a flow-through chamber on fungicides sorbed to model abiotic glass surfaces or to table grapes. Gaseous ozone at constant ozone concentrati...

Lusaka, Zambia, during SAFARI-2000: Convergence of local and imported ozone pollution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, Anne M.; Witte, Jacquelyn C.; Freiman, M. Tal; Phahlane, N. Agnes; Coetzee, Gert J. R.

2002-10-01

In August and September, throughout south central Africa, seasonal clearing of dry vegetation and other fire-related activities lead to intense smoke haze and ozone formation. The first ozone soundings in the heart of the southern African burning region were taken at Lusaka, Zambia (15.5S, 28E) in early September 2000. Maximum surface ozone was over 90 ppbv and column tropospheric ozone exceeded 50 DU. These values are higher than concurrent measurements over Nairobi (1S, 38E) and Irene (25S, 28E, near Pretoria). At least 30% of Lusaka surface ozone appears to be from local sources. A layer at 800-500 hPa has ozone >120 ppbv and originates from trans-boundary recirculation. Starting out over Zambia, Angola, and Namibia, ozone-rich air travels east to the Indian Ocean, before heading back toward Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Thus, Lusaka collects local and imported pollution, consistent with its location within the southern African gyre.

Ozone decomposition

PubMed Central

Batakliev, Todor; Georgiev, Vladimir; Anachkov, Metody; Rakovsky, Slavcho

2014-01-01

Catalytic ozone decomposition is of great significance because ozone is a toxic substance commonly found or generated in human environments (aircraft cabins, offices with photocopiers, laser printers, sterilizers). Considerable work has been done on ozone decomposition reported in the literature. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the literature, concentrating on analysis of the physico-chemical properties, synthesis and catalytic decomposition of ozone. This is supplemented by a review on kinetics and catalyst characterization which ties together the previously reported results. Noble metals and oxides of transition metals have been found to be the most active substances for ozone decomposition. The high price of precious metals stimulated the use of metal oxide catalysts and particularly the catalysts based on manganese oxide. It has been determined that the kinetics of ozone decomposition is of first order importance. A mechanism of the reaction of catalytic ozone decomposition is discussed, based on detailed spectroscopic investigations of the catalytic surface, showing the existence of peroxide and superoxide surface intermediates. PMID:26109880

Diverse policy implications for future ozone and surface UV in a changing climate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Butler, A. H.; Daniel, J. S.; Portmann, R. W.; Ravishankara, A. R.; Young, P. J.; Fahey, D. W.; Rosenlof, K. H.

2016-06-01

Due to the success of the Montreal Protocol in limiting emissions of ozone-depleting substances, concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane will control the evolution of total column and stratospheric ozone by the latter half of the 21st century. As the world proceeds down the path of reducing climate forcing set forth by the 2015 Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 21), a broad range of ozone changes are possible depending on future policies enacted. While decreases in tropical stratospheric ozone will likely persist regardless of the future emissions scenario, extratropical ozone could either remain weakly depleted or even increase well above historical levels, with diverse implication for ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The ozone layer’s dependence on future emissions of these gases creates a complex policy decision space for protecting humans and ecosystems, which includes unexpected options such as accepting nitrous oxide emissions in order to maintain historical column ozone and surface UV levels.

Impact of Flow-Dependent Error Correlations and Tropospheric Chemistry on Assimilated Ozone

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wargan, K.; Stajner, I.; Hayashi, H.; Pawson, S.; Jones, D. B. A.

2003-01-01

The presentation compares different versions of a global three-dimensional ozone data assimilation system developed at NASA's Data Assimilation Office. The Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet/2 (SBUV/2) total and partial ozone column retrievals are the sole data assimilated in all of the experiments presented. We study the impact of changing the forecast error covariance model from a version assuming static correlations with a one that captures a short-term Lagrangian evolution of those correlations. This is further combined with a study of the impact of neglecting the tropospheric ozone production, loss and dry deposition rates, which are obtained from the Harvard GEOS-CHEM model. We compare statistical characteristics of the assimilated data and the results of validation against independent observations, obtained from WMO balloon-borne sondes and the Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) III instrument. Experiments show that allowing forecast error correlations to evolve with the flow results in positive impact on assimilated ozone within the regions where data were not assimilated, particularly at high latitudes in both hemispheres. On the other hand, the main sensitivity to tropospheric chemistry is in the Tropics and sub-Tropics. The best agreement between the assimilated ozone and the in-situ sonde data is in the experiment using both flow-dependent error covariances and tropospheric chemistry.

Damages of surface ozone: evidence from agricultural sector in China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Fujin; McCarl, Bruce A.; Zhou, Xun; Jiang, Fei

2018-03-01

This study measures the damages that surface ozone pollution causes within the Chinese agricultural sector under 2014 conditions. It also analyzes the agricultural benefits of ozone reductions. The analysis is done using a partial equilibrium model of China’s agricultural sector. Results indicate that there are substantial, spatially differentiated damages that are greatest in ozone-sensitive crop growing areas with higher ozone concentrations. The estimated damage to China’s agricultural sector range is between CNY 1.6 trillion and 2.2 trillion, which for comparison is about one fifth of 2014 agricultural revenue. When considering concentration reduction we find a 30% ozone reduction yields CNY 678 billion in sectoral benefits. These benefits largely fall to consumers with producers losing as the production gains lead to lower prices.

Comparison of methylisoborneol and geosmin abatement in surface water by conventional ozonation and an electro-peroxone process.

PubMed

Yao, Weikun; Qu, Qiangyong; von Gunten, Urs; Chen, Chao; Yu, Gang; Wang, Yujue

2017-01-01

In this study methylisoborneol (MIB) and geosmin abatement in a surface water by conventional ozonation and the electro-peroxone (E-peroxone) process was compared. Batch tests with addition of ozone (O 3 ) stock solutions and semi-batch tests with continuous O 2 /O 3 gas sparging (simulating real ozone contactors) were conducted to investigate O 3 decomposition, •OH production, MIB and geosmin abatement, and bromate formation during the two processes. Results show that with specific ozone doses typically used in routine drinking water treatment (0.5-1.0 mg O 3 /mg dissolved organic carbon (DOC)), conventional ozonation could not adequately abate MIB and geosmin in a surface water. While increasing the specific ozone doses (1.0-2.5 mg O 3 /mg DOC) could enhance MIB and geosmin abatement by conventional ozonation, this approach resulted in significant bromate formation. By installing a carbon-based cathode to electrochemically produce H 2 O 2 from cathodic oxygen reduction, conventional ozonation can be conveniently upgraded to an E-peroxone process. The electro-generated H 2 O 2 considerably enhanced the kinetics and to a lesser extent the yields of hydroxyl radical (•OH) from O 3 decomposition. Consequently, during the E-peroxone process, abatement of MIB and geosmin occurred at much higher rates than during conventional ozonation. In addition, for a given specific ozone dose, the MIB and geosmin abatement efficiencies increased moderately in the E-peroxone (by ∼8-9% and ∼10-25% in the batch and semi-batch tests, respectively) with significantly lower bromate formation compared to conventional ozonation. These results suggest that the E-peroxone process may serve as an attractive backup of conventional ozonation processes during accidental spills or seasonal events such as algal blooms when high ozone doses are required to enhance MIB and geosmin abatement. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis of a 7 year tropospheric ozone vertical distribution at the Observatoire de Haute Provence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beekmann, Matthias; Ancellet, Gerard; Megie, Gerard

1994-01-01

A seven year (1984-90) climatology of tropospheric vertical ozone soundings, performed by electrochemical sondes at the OHP (44 deg N, 6 deg E, 700 m ASL) in Southern France, is presented. Its seasonal variation shows a broad spring/summer maximum in the troposphere. The contribution of photochemical ozone production and transport from the stratosphere to this seasonal variation are studied by a correlative analysis of ozone concentrations and meteorological variables, with emphasis on potential vorticity. This analysis shows the impact of dynamical and photochemical processes on the spatial and temporal ozone variability. In particular, a positive correlation (r = 04.0, significance greater than 99.9 percent) of ozone with potential vorticity is observed in the middle troposphere, reflecting the impact of stratosphere-troposphere exchange on the vertical ozone distribution.

Impact of biogenic very short-lived bromine on the Antarctic ozone hole during the 21st century

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez, Rafael Pedro; Kinnison, Douglas E.; Lamarque, Jean-Francois; Tilmes, Simone; Saiz-Lopez, Alfonso

2017-04-01

Active bromine released from the photochemical decomposition of biogenic very short-lived bromocarbons (VSLBr) enhances stratospheric ozone depletion. Based on a dual set of 1960-2100 coupled chemistry-climate simulations (i.e. with and without VSLBr), we show that the maximum Antarctic ozone hole depletion increases by up to 14% when natural VSLBr are considered, in better agreement with ozone observations. The impact of the additional 5 pptv VSLBr on Antarctic ozone is most evident in the periphery of the ozone hole, producing an expansion of the ozone hole area of 5 million km2, which is equivalent in magnitude to the recently estimated Antarctic ozone healing due to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. We find that the inclusion of VSLBr in CAM-Chem does not introduce a significant delay of the modelled ozone return date to 1980 October levels, but instead affect the depth and duration of the simulated ozone hole. Our analysis further shows that total bromine-catalysed ozone destruction in the lower stratosphere surpasses that of chlorine by year 2070, and indicates that natural VSLBr chemistry would dominate Antarctic ozone seasonality before the end of the 21st century. This work suggests a large influence of biogenic bromine on the future Antarctic ozone layer.

IMPACT OF AN OZONE GENERATOR AIR CLEANER ON STYRENE CONCENTRATIONS IN AN INDOOR AIR QUALITY RESEARCH CHAMBER

EPA Science Inventory

The paper gives results of an investigation of the impact of an ozone generator air cleaner on vapor-phase styrene concentrations in a full-scale indoor air quality test chamber. The time history of the concentrations of styrene and ozone is well predicted by a simulation model u...

The Ozone Problem | Ground-level Ozone | New England | US ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

2017-04-10

Many factors impact ground-level ozone development, including temperature, wind speed and direction, time of day, and driving patterns. Due to its dependence on weather conditions, ozone is typically a summertime pollutant and a chief component of summertime smog.

Future local and remote influences on Mediterranean ozone air quality and climate forcing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arnold, Steve; Martin, Maria Val; Emmons, Louisa; Rap, Alex; Heald, Colette; Lamarque, Jean-Francois; Tilmes, Simone

2013-04-01

The Mediterranean region is expected to display large increases in population over the coming decades, and to exhibit strong sensitivity to projected climate change, with increasing frequency of extreme summer temperatures and decreases in precipitation. Understanding of how these changes will affect atmospheric composition in the region is limited. The eastern Mediterranean basin has been shown to exhibit a pronounced summertime local maximum in tropospheric ozone, which impacts both local air quality and the atmospheric radiation balance. In summer, the region is subject to import of pollution from Northern Europe in the boundary layer and lower troposphere, from North American sources in the large-scale westerly flow of the free mid and upper-troposphere, as well as import of pollution lofted in the Asian monsoon and carried west to the eastern Mediterranean in anticyclonic flow in the upper troposphere over north Africa. In addition, interactions with the land-surface through biogenic emission sources and dry deposition play important roles in the Mediterranean ozone budget. Here we use the NCAR Community Earth System Model (CESM) to investigate how tropospheric ozone in the Mediterranean region responds to climate, land surface and global emissions changes between present day and 2050. We simulate climate and atmospheric composition for the year 2050, based on greenhouse gas abundances, trace gas and aerosol emissions and land cover and use from two representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios (RCP4.5 & RCP8.5), designed for use by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5(CMIP5) experiments in support of the IPCC. By comparing these simulations with a present-day scenario, we investigate the effects of predicted changes in climate and emissions on air quality and climate forcing over the Mediterranean region. The simulations suggest decreases in boundary layer ozone and sulfate aerosol throughout the tropospheric column over the Mediterranean under both RCP scenarios, and a significant increase in ozone between 5-10km. Using tagged regional NOy and tropospheric ozone tracers, we show that this ozone increase is coincident with an increase in easterly import of ozone and precursors in upper tropospheric outflow from Asian monsoon convection in 2050. We present a breakdown of the projected Mediterranean ozone changes by precursor source (anthropogenic and biogenic), and contributions due to changes in climate. Finally, we estimate the implications of the predicted changes in tropospheric composition for Mediterranean air quality and climate in 2050, and the consequences for the effectiveness of European policies aimed at protecting the region's climate and public health.

Effects and mechanism on Kapton film under ozone exposure in a ground near space simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Qiang; Yang, Guimin; Liu, Gang; Jiang, Haifu; Zhang, Tingting

2018-05-01

The effect on aircraft materials in the near space environment is a key part of air-and-space integration research. Ozone and aerodynamic fluids are important organizational factors in the near space environment and both have significant influences on the performance of aircraft materials. In the present paper a simulated ozone environment was used to test polyimide material that was rotated at the approximate velocity of 150-250 m/s to form an aerodynamic fluid field. The goal was to evaluate the performance evolution of materials under a comprehensive environment of ozone molecular corrosion and aerodynamic fluids. The research results show that corrosion and sputtering by ozone molecules results in Kapton films exhibiting a rugged "carpet-like" morphology exhibits an increase in surface roughness. The morphology after ozone exposure led to higher surface roughness and an increase in surface optical diffuse reflection, which is expressed by the lower optical transmittance and the gradual transition from light orange to brown. The mass loss test, XPS, and FTIR analysis show that the molecular chains on the surface of the Kapton film are destroyed resulting in Csbnd C bond breaking to form small volatile molecules such as CO2 or CO, which are responsible for a linear increase in mass loss per unit area. The Csbnd N and Csbnd O structures exhibit weakening tendency under ozone exposure. The present paper explores the evaluation method for Kapton's adaptability under the ozone exposure test in the near space environment, and elucidates the corrosion mechanism and damage mode of the polyimide material under the combined action of ozone corrosion and the aerodynamic fluid. This work provides a methodology for studying materials in the near-space environment.

Tobacco smoke aging in the presence of ozone: A room-sized chamber study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petrick, Lauren M.; Sleiman, Mohamad; Dubowski, Yael; Gundel, Lara A.; Destaillats, Hugo

2011-09-01

Exposure to tobacco pollutants that linger indoors after smoking has taken place ( thirdhand smoke, THS) can occur over extended periods and is modulated by chemical processes involving atmospheric reactive species. This study investigates the role of ozone and indoor surfaces in chemical transformations of tobacco smoke residues. Gas and particle constituents of secondhand smoke (SHS) as well as sorbed SHS on chamber internal walls and model materials (cotton, paper, and gypsum wallboard) were characterized during aging. After smoldering 10 cigarettes in a 24-m 3 room size chamber, gas-phase nicotine was rapidly removed by sorption to chamber surfaces, and subsequently re-emitted during ventilation with clean air to a level of ˜10% that during the smoking phase. During chamber ventilation in the presence of ozone (180 ppb), ozone decayed at a rate of 5.6 h -1 and coincided with a factor of 5 less nicotine sorbed to wallboard. In the presence of ozone, no gas phase nicotine was detected as a result of re-emission, and higher concentrations of nicotine oxidation products were observed than when ventilation was performed with ozone-free air. Analysis of the model surfaces showed that heterogeneous nicotine-ozone reaction was faster on paper than cotton, and both were faster than on wallboard. However, wallboard played a dominant role in ozone-initiated reaction in the chamber due to its large total geometric surface area and sink potential compared to the other substrates. This study is the first to show in a room-sized environmental chamber that the heterogeneous ozone chemistry of sorbed nicotine generates THS constituents of concern, as observed previously in bench-top studies. In addition to the main oxidation products (cotinine, myosmine and N-methyl formamide), nicotine-1-oxide was detected for the first time.

The Sensitivity of U.S. Surface Ozone Formation to NOx, and VOCs as Viewed from Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Duncan, Bryan N.; Yoshida, Yasuko; Sillman, Sanford; Retscher, Christian; Pickering, Kenneth E.; Martin, Randall V.; Celarier, Edward A.

2009-01-01

We investigated variations in the sensitivity of surface ozone formation in summer to precursor species concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NO(x)) as inferred from the ratio of tropospheric columns of formaldehyde and nitrogen dioxide from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). The data indicate that ozone formation became: 1. more sensitive to NO(x) over most of the U.S, from 2005 to 2007 because of substantial decreases in NO(x) emissions primarily from stationary sources, and 2. more sensitive to NO(x) with increasing temperature, in part because emissions of highly reactive, biogenic isoprene increase with temperature, thus increasing the total VOC reactivity. Based on our interpretation of the data, current strategies implemented to reduce unhealthy levels of surface ozone should focus more on reducing NO(x) emissions, except in some downtown areas which have historically benefited from reductions in VOC emissions.

Comparison of methods for the determination of NO-O3-NO2 fluxes and chemical interactions over a bare soil

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stella, P.; Loubet, B.; Laville, P.; Lamaud, E.; Cazaunau, M.; Laufs, S.; Bernard, F.; Grosselin, B.; Mascher, N.; Kurtenbach, R.; Mellouki, A.; Kleffmann, J.; Cellier, P.

2012-06-01

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is a known greenhouse gas responsible for impacts on human and animal health and ecosystem functioning. In addition, O3 plays an important role in tropospheric chemistry, together with nitrogen oxides. The determination of surface-atmosphere exchange fluxes of these trace gases is a prerequisite to establish their atmospheric budget and evaluate their impact onto the biosphere. In this study, O3, nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) fluxes were measured using the aerodynamic gradient method over a bare soil in an agricultural field. Ozone and NO fluxes were also measured using eddy-covariance and automatic chambers, respectively. The aerodynamic gradient measurement system, composed of fast response sensors, was capable to measure significant differences in NO and O3 mixing ratios between heights. However, due to local advection, NO2 mixing ratios were highly non-stationary and NO2 fluxes were, therefore, not significantly different from zero. The chemical reactions between O3, NO and NO2 led to little ozone flux divergence between the surface and the measurement height (less than 1% of the flux on average), whereas the NO flux divergence was about 10% on average. The use of fast response sensors allowed reducing the flux uncertainty. The aerodynamic gradient and the eddy-covariance methods gave comparable O3 fluxes. The chamber NO fluxes were down to 70% lower than the aerodynamic gradient fluxes, probably because of either the spatial heterogeneity of the soil NO emissions or the perturbation due to the chamber itself.

On the Effects of NOx Emission Control and Drought on an Ozone-Polluted Ecosystem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pusede, S.; Geddes, J.; Buysse, C. E.; Esperanza, A.; Najacht, E.; Anderson, J. F.; Bailey, C. B.; Munyan, J.

2017-12-01

Regulatory emission controls are typically designed to reduce ozone when ozone is highest. However, high ozone concentrations are often asynchronous with periods of the greatest ozone harm to plants and ecosystems, particularly during drought. Because ozone production chemistry is nonlinear, emissions reductions designed to be effective in polluted cities may have a range of effects on downwind ecosystems. Here, we investigate the influence of regional NOx emission controls on ozone pollution in Sequoia National Park (SNP). First, we show that steep declines in NOx throughout the region have had smaller impacts in SNP than in cities upwind, and that these reductions have been least effective at times of day and year when plants are most sensitive to ozone. Second, in recent years (2012-2015), California experienced the worst drought in recorded history. We present observational evidence of the ozone response in SNP to drought conditions, finding that the drought altered the chemical sensitivity of local ozone production to NOx emissions and, hence, the effectiveness of NOx emission controls. We show that drought impacts on the ozone sensitivity to NOx have persisted at least two years since the drought ended.

Simulation of Halocarbon Production and Emissions and Effects on Ozone Depletion

PubMed

Holmes; Ellis

1997-09-01

/ This paper describes an integrated model that simulates future halocarbon production/emissions and potential ozone depletion. Applications and historical production levels for various halocarbons are discussed first. A framework is then presented for modeling future halocarbon impacts incorporating differences in underlying demands, applications, regulatory mandates, and environmental characteristics. The model is used to simulate the potential impacts of several prominent issues relating to halocarbon production, regulation, and environmental interactions, notably: changes in agricultural methyl bromide use, increases in effectiveness of bromine for ozone depletion, modifications to the elimination schedule for HCFCs, short-term expansion of CFC demand in low use compliance countries, and delays in Russian Federation compliance. Individually, each issue does not unequivocally represent a significant likely increase in long-term atmospheric halogen loading and stratospheric ozone depletion. In combination, however, these impacts could increase peak halogen concentrations and long-term integral halogen loading, resulting in higher levels of stratospheric ozone depletion and longer exposure to increased levels of UV radiation.KEY WORDS: Halocarbons; Ozone depletion; Montreal Protocol; Integrated assessment

The effects of aircraft on climate and pollution. Part II: 20-year impacts of exhaust from all commercial aircraft worldwide treated individually at the subgrid scale.

PubMed

Jacobson, M Z; Wilkerson, J T; Naiman, A D; Lele, S K

2013-01-01

This study examines the 20-year impacts of emissions from all commercial aircraft flights worldwide on climate, cloudiness, and atmospheric composition. Aircraft emissions from each individual flight worldwide were modeled to evolve from the subgrid to grid scale with the global model described and evaluated in Part I of this study. Simulations with and without aircraft emissions were run for 20 years. Aircraft emissions were found to be responsible for -6% of Arctic surface global warming to date, -1.3% of total surface global warming, and -4% of global upper tropospheric warming. Arctic warming due to aircraft slightly decreased Arctic sea ice area. Longer simulations should result in more warming due to the further increase in CO2. Aircraft increased atmospheric stability below cruise altitude and decreased it above cruise altitude. The increase in stability decreased cumulus convection in favor of increased stratiform cloudiness. Aircraft increased total cloud fraction on average. Aircraft increased surface and upper tropospheric ozone by -0.4% and -2.5%, respectively and surface and upper-tropospheric peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) by -0.1% and -5%, respectively. Aircraft emissions increased tropospheric OH, decreasing column CO and CH4 by -1.7% and -0.9%, respectively. Aircraft emissions increased human mortality worldwide by -620 (-240 to 4770) deaths per year, with half due to ozone and the rest to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5).

Impacts of the Convective Transport Algorithm on Atmospheric Composition and Ozone-Climate Feedbacks in GEOS-CCM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pawson, S.; Nielsen, Jon E.; Oman, L.; Douglass, A. R.; Duncan, B. N.; Zhu, Z.

2012-01-01

Convective transport is one of the dominant factors in determining the composition of the troposphere. It is the main mechanism for lofting constituents from near-surface source regions to the middle and upper troposphere, where they can subsequently be advected over large distances. Gases reaching the upper troposphere can also be injected through the tropopause and play a subsequent role in the lower stratospheric ozone balance. Convection codes in climate models remain a great source of uncertainty for both the energy balance of the general circulation and the transport of constituents. This study uses the Goddard Earth Observing System Chemistry-Climate Model (GEOS CCM) to perform a controlled experiment that isolates the impact of convective transport of constituents from the direct changes on the atmospheric energy balance. Two multi-year simulations are conducted. In the first, the thermodynamic variable, moisture, and all trace gases are transported using the multi-plume Relaxed-Arakawa-Schubert (RAS) convective parameterization. In the second simulation, RAS impacts the thermodynamic energy and moisture in this standard manner, but all other constituents are transported differently. The accumulated convective mass fluxes (including entrainment and detrainment) computed at each time step of the GCM are used with a diffusive (bulk) algorithm for the vertical transport, which above all is less efficient at transporting constituents from the lower to the upper troposphere. Initial results show the expected differences in vertical structure of trace gases such as carbon monoxide, but also show differences in lower stratospheric ozone, in a region where it can potentially impact the climate state of the model. This work will investigate in more detail the impact of convective transport changes by comparing the two simulations over many years (1996-2010), focusing on comparisons with observed constituent distributions and similarities and differences of patterns of inter-annual variability caused by the convective transport algorithm. In particular, the impact on lower stratospheric composition will be isolated and the subsequent feedbacks of ozone on the climate forcing and tropopause structure will be assessed.

Not just about sunburn--the ozone hole's profound effect on climate has significant implications for Southern Hemisphere ecosystems.

PubMed

Robinson, Sharon A; Erickson, David J

2015-02-01

Climate scientists have concluded that stratospheric ozone depletion has been a major driver of Southern Hemisphere climate processes since about 1980. The implications of these observed and modelled changes in climate are likely to be far more pervasive for both terrestrial and marine ecosystems than the increase in ultraviolet-B radiation due to ozone depletion; however, they have been largely overlooked in the biological literature. Here, we synthesize the current understanding of how ozone depletion has impacted Southern Hemisphere climate and highlight the relatively few documented impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Reviewing the climate literature, we present examples of how ozone depletion changes atmospheric and oceanic circulation, with an emphasis on how these alterations in the physical climate system affect Southern Hemisphere weather, especially over the summer season (December-February). These potentially include increased incidence of extreme events, resulting in costly floods, drought, wildfires and serious environmental damage. The ecosystem impacts documented so far include changes to growth rates of South American and New Zealand trees, decreased growth of Antarctic mosses and changing biodiversity in Antarctic lakes. The objective of this synthesis was to stimulate the ecological community to look beyond ultraviolet-B radiation when considering the impacts of ozone depletion. Such widespread changes in Southern Hemisphere climate are likely to have had as much or more impact on natural ecosystems and food production over the past few decades, than the increased ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Ozone Depletion in the Arctic Lower Stratosphere; Timing and Impacts on the Polar Vortex.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rae, Cameron; Pyle, John

2017-04-01

There a strong link between ozone depletion in the Antarctic lower stratosphere and the strength/duration of the southern hemisphere polar vortex. Ozone depletion arising from enhanced levels of ODS in the lower stratosphere during the last few decades of the 20th century has been accompanied by a delay in the final warming date in the southern hemisphere. The delay in final warming is associated with anomalous tropospheric conditions. The relationship in the Arctic, however, is less clear as the northern hemisphere experiences relatively less intense ozone destruction in the Arctic lower stratosphere and the polar vortex is generally less stable. This study investigates the impacts of imposed lower stratospheric ozone depletion on the evolution of the polar vortex, particularly in the late-spring towards the end of its lifetime. A perpetual-year integration is compared with a series of near-identical seasonal integrations which differ only by an imposed artificial ozone depletion event, occurring a fixed number of days before the polar vortex final warming date each year. Any differences between the seasonal forecasts and perpetual year simulation are due to the timely occurrence of a strong ozone depletion event in the late-spring Arctic polar vortex. This ensemble of seasonal forecasts demonstrates the impacts that a strong ozone depletion event in the Arctic lower stratosphere will have on the evolution of the polar vortex, and highlights tropospheric impacts associated with this phenomenon.

Use of North American and European air quality networks to evaluate global chemistry-climate modeling of surface ozone

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schnell, J. L.; Prather, M. J.; Josse, B.

Here we test the current generation of global chemistry–climate models in their ability to simulate observed, present-day surface ozone. Models are evaluated against hourly surface ozone from 4217 stations in North America and Europe that are averaged over 1° × 1° grid cells, allowing commensurate model–measurement comparison. Models are generally biased high during all hours of the day and in all regions. Most models simulate the shape of regional summertime diurnal and annual cycles well, correctly matching the timing of hourly (~ 15:00 local time (LT)) and monthly (mid-June) peak surface ozone abundance. The amplitude of these cycles is lessmore » successfully matched. The observed summertime diurnal range (~ 25 ppb) is underestimated in all regions by about 7 ppb, and the observed seasonal range (~ 21 ppb) is underestimated by about 5 ppb except in the most polluted regions, where it is overestimated by about 5 ppb. The models generally match the pattern of the observed summertime ozone enhancement, but they overestimate its magnitude in most regions. Most models capture the observed distribution of extreme episode sizes, correctly showing that about 80 % of individual extreme events occur in large-scale, multi-day episodes of more than 100 grid cells. The models also match the observed linear relationship between episode size and a measure of episode intensity, which shows increases in ozone abundance by up to 6 ppb for larger-sized episodes. Lastly, we conclude that the skill of the models evaluated here provides confidence in their projections of future surface ozone.« less

Use of North American and European air quality networks to evaluate global chemistry-climate modeling of surface ozone

DOE PAGES

Schnell, J. L.; Prather, M. J.; Josse, B.; ...

2015-09-25

Here we test the current generation of global chemistry–climate models in their ability to simulate observed, present-day surface ozone. Models are evaluated against hourly surface ozone from 4217 stations in North America and Europe that are averaged over 1° × 1° grid cells, allowing commensurate model–measurement comparison. Models are generally biased high during all hours of the day and in all regions. Most models simulate the shape of regional summertime diurnal and annual cycles well, correctly matching the timing of hourly (~ 15:00 local time (LT)) and monthly (mid-June) peak surface ozone abundance. The amplitude of these cycles is lessmore » successfully matched. The observed summertime diurnal range (~ 25 ppb) is underestimated in all regions by about 7 ppb, and the observed seasonal range (~ 21 ppb) is underestimated by about 5 ppb except in the most polluted regions, where it is overestimated by about 5 ppb. The models generally match the pattern of the observed summertime ozone enhancement, but they overestimate its magnitude in most regions. Most models capture the observed distribution of extreme episode sizes, correctly showing that about 80 % of individual extreme events occur in large-scale, multi-day episodes of more than 100 grid cells. The models also match the observed linear relationship between episode size and a measure of episode intensity, which shows increases in ozone abundance by up to 6 ppb for larger-sized episodes. Lastly, we conclude that the skill of the models evaluated here provides confidence in their projections of future surface ozone.« less

A modeling study of the impact of urban trees on ozone

Treesearch

David J. Nowak; Kevin L. Civerolo; S. Trivikrama Rao; Gopal Sistla; Christopher J. Luley; Daniel E. Crane

2000-01-01

Modeling the effects of increased urban tree cover on ozone concentrations (July 13-15, 1995) from Washington, DC, to central Massachusetts reveals that urban trees generally reduce ozone concentrations in cities, but tend to increase average ozone concentrations in the overall modeling domain. During the daytime, average ozone reductions in urban areas (1 ppb) were...

Impact of chemical plant start-up emissions on ambient ozone concentration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ge, Sijie; Wang, Sujing; Xu, Qiang; Ho, Thomas

2017-09-01

Flare emissions, especially start-up flare emissions, during chemical plant operations generate large amounts of ozone precursors that may cause highly localized and transient ground-level ozone increment. Such an adverse ozone impact could be aggravated by the synergies of multiple plant start-ups in an industrial zone. In this paper, a systematic study on ozone increment superposition due to chemical plant start-up emissions has been performed. It employs dynamic flaring profiles of two olefin plants' start-ups to investigate the superposition of the regional 1-hr ozone increment. It also summaries the superposition trend by manipulating the starting time (00:00-10:00) of plant start-up operations and the plant distance (4-32 km). The study indicates that the ozone increment induced by simultaneous start-up emissions from multiple chemical plants generally does not follow the linear superposition of the ozone increment induced by individual plant start-ups. Meanwhile, the trend of such nonlinear superposition related to the temporal (starting time and operating hours of plant start-ups) and spatial (plant distance) factors is also disclosed. This paper couples dynamic simulations of chemical plant start-up operations with air-quality modeling and statistical methods to examine the regional ozone impact. It could be helpful for technical decision support for cost-effective air-quality and industrial flare emission controls.

Soybean Cultivar Variation in Response to Elevated Ozone Concentration

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Crop losses to ozone damage are conservatively estimated to cost $1 to $3 billion in the U.S. These costs will rise as surface-level ozone increases over this century. A critical step in maximizing soybean yield in a future of rising tropospheric ozone is identifying variation in cultivar responses,...

Multi-Model Comparison of Lateral Boundary Contributions to Surface Ozone Over the United States

EPA Science Inventory

As the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone become more stringent, there has been growing attention on characterizing the contributions and the uncertainties in ozone from outside the US to the ozone concentrations within the US. The third phase of the Air Qua...

Organic cloud condensation nuclei: the effect of phase, surface tension, trace soluble species, and oxidative processing on particle activation.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Broekhuizen, K. E.; Thornberry, T.; Abbatt, J. P.

2003-12-01

The ability of organic aerosols to act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) will be discussed. A variety of laboratory experiments will be presented which address several key questions concerning organic particle activation. Does the particle phase impact activation? How does surface tension play a role and can a trace amount of a surface active species impact activation? Does a trace amount of a highly soluble species impact the activation of organic particles of moderate to low solubility? Can the activation properties of organic aerosols be enhanced through oxidative processing? To systematically address these issues, the CCN activity of various diacids such as oxalic, malonic, succinic, adipic and azelaic acid have been studied, as well as the addition of trace amounts of nonanoic acid and ammonium sulfate to examine the roles of surface active and soluble species, respectively. The first examination of the role of oxidative processing on CCN activity has involved investigating the effect of ozone oxidation on the activity of oleic acid particles.

Ozone Variability and Anomalies Observed During SENEX and SEAC4RS Campaigns in 2013

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuang, Shi; Newchurch, Michael J.; Thompson, Anne M.; Stauffer, Ryan M.; Johnson, Bryan J.; Wang, Lihua

2017-10-01

Tropospheric ozone variability occurs because of multiple forcing factors including surface emission of ozone precursors, stratosphere-to-troposphere transport (STT), and meteorological conditions. Analyses of ozonesonde observations made in Huntsville, AL, during the peak ozone season (May to September) in 2013 indicate that ozone in the planetary boundary layer was significantly lower than the climatological average, especially in July and August when the Southeastern United States (SEUS) experienced unusually cool and wet weather. Because of a large influence of the lower stratosphere, however, upper tropospheric ozone was mostly higher than climatology, especially from May to July. Tropospheric ozone anomalies were strongly anticorrelated (or correlated) with water vapor (or temperature) anomalies with a correlation coefficient mostly about 0.6 throughout the entire troposphere. The regression slopes between ozone and temperature anomalies for surface up to midtroposphere are within 3.0-4.1 ppbv K-1. The occurrence rates of tropospheric ozone laminae due to STT are ≥50% in May and June and about 30% in July, August, and September suggesting that the stratospheric influence on free-tropospheric ozone could be significant during early summer. These STT laminae have a mean maximum ozone enhancement over the climatology of 52 ± 33% (35 ± 24 ppbv) with a mean minimum relative humidity of 2.3 ± 1.7%.

Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet) - Long-term Tropospheric Ozone and Aerosol Profiling for Satellite Continuity and Process Studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newchurch, M.; Al-Saadi, J. A.; Alvarez, R. J.; Burris, J.; Cantrell, W.; Chen, G.; De Young, R.; Hardesty, R.; Hoff, R. M.; Kaye, J. A.; kuang, S.; Langford, A. O.; LeBlanc, T.; McDermid, I. S.; McGee, T. J.; Pierce, R.; Senff, C. J.; Sullivan, J. T.; Szykman, J.; Tonnesen, G.; Wang, L.

2012-12-01

An interagency research initiative for ground-based ozone and aerosol lidar profiling recently funded by NASA has important applications to air-quality studies in addition to the goal of serving the GEO-CAPE and other air-quality missions. Ozone is a key trace-gas species, a greenhouse gas, and an important pollutant in the troposphere. High spatial and temporal variability of ozone affected by various physical and photochemical processes motivates the high spatio-temporal lidar profiling of tropospheric ozone for improving the simulation and forecasting capability of the photochemical/air-quality models, especially in the boundary layer where the resolution and precision of satellite retrievals are fundamentally limited. It is well known that there are large discrepancies between the surface and upper-air ozone due to titration, surface deposition, diurnal processes, free-tropospheric transport, and other processes. Near-ground ozone profiling has been technically challenging for lidars due to some engineering difficulties, such as near-range saturation, field-of-view overlap, and signal processing issues. This initiative provides an opportunity for us to solve those engineering issues and redesign the lidars aimed at long-term, routine ozone/aerosol observations from the near surface to the top of the troposphere at multiple stations (i.e., NASA/GSFC, NASA/LaRC, NASA/JPL, NOAA/ESRL, UAHuntsville) for addressing the needs of NASA, NOAA, EPA and State/local AQ agencies. We will present the details of the science investigations, current status of the instrumentation development, data access/protocol, and the future goals of this lidar network. Ozone lidar/RAQMS comparison of laminar structures.

Crystal-face-selective adsorption of Au nanoparticles onto polycrystalline diamond surfaces.

PubMed

Kondo, Takeshi; Aoshima, Shinsuke; Hirata, Kousuke; Honda, Kensuke; Einaga, Yasuaki; Fujishima, Akira; Kawai, Takeshi

2008-07-15

Crystal-face-selective adsorption of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) was achieved on polycrystalline boron-doped diamond (BDD) surface via the self-assembly method combined with a UV/ozone treatment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of crystal-face-selective adsorption on an inorganic solid surface. Hydrogen-plasma-treated BDD samples and those followed by UV/ozone treatment for 2 min or longer showed almost no adsorption of AuNP after immersion in the AuNP solution prepared by the citrate reduction method. However, the samples treated by UV/ozone for 10 s showed AuNP adsorption on their (111) facets selectively after the immersion. Moreover, the sample treated with UV/ozone for 40-60 s showed AuNP adsorption on the whole surface. These results indicate that the AuNP adsorption behavior can be controlled by UV/ozone treatment time. This phenomenon was highly reproducible and was applied to a two-step adsorption method, where AuNPs from different batches were adsorbed on the (111) and (100) surface in this order. Our findings may be of great value for the fabrication of advanced nanoparticle-based functional materials via bottom-up approaches with simple macroscale procedures.

Seasonal Changes in Tropospheric Ozone Concentrations over South Korea and Its Link to Ozone Precursors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jung, H. C.; Moon, B. K.; Wie, J.

2017-12-01

Concentration of tropospheric ozone over South Korea has steadily been on the rise in the last decades, mainly due to rapid industrializing and urbanizing in the Eastern Asia. To identify the characteristics of tropospheric ozone in South Korea, we fitted a sine function to the surface ozone concentration data from 2005 to 2014. Based on fitted sine curves, we analyzed the shifts in the dates on which ozone concentration reached its peak in the calendar year. Ozone monitoring sites can be classified into type types: where the highest annual ozone concentration kept occurring sooner (Esites) and those that kept occurring later (Lsites). The seasonal analysis shows that the surface ozone had increased more rapidly in Esites than in Lsites in the past decade during springtime and vice-versa during summertime. We tried to find the reason for the different seasonal trends with the relationship between ozone and ozone precursors. As a result, it was found that the changes in the ground-level ozone concentration in the spring and summer times are considerably influenced by changes in nitrogen dioxide concentration, and this is closely linked to the destruction (production) process of ozone by nitrogen dioxide in spring (summer). The link between tropospheric ozone and nitrogen dioxide discussed in this study will have to be thoroughly examined through climate-chemistry modeling in the future. Acknowledgements This research was supported by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) as "Climate Change Correspondence Program."

Ozone depletion - Ultraviolet radiation and phytoplankton biology in Antarctic waters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, R. C.; Prezelin, B. B.; Baker, K. S.; Bidigare, R. R.; Boucher, N. P.; Coley, T.; Karentz, D.; Macintyre, S.; Matlick, H. A.; Menzies, D.

1992-01-01

The near-50-percent thinning of the stratospheric ozone layer over the Antarctic, with increased passage of mid-UV radiation to the surface of the Southern Ocean, has prompted concern over possible radiation damage to the near-surface phytoplankton communities that are the bases of Antarctic marine ecosystems. As the ozone layer thinned, a 6-week study of the marginal ice zone of the Bellingshousen Sea in the austral spring of 1990 noted sea-surface and depth-dependent ratios of mid-UV irradiance to total irradiance increased, and mid-UV inhibition of photosynthesis increased. A 6-12 percent reduction in primary production associated with ozone depletion was estimated to have occurred over the course of the present study.

Marine and terrestrial sources of reactive volatile organic compounds and their impact on the tropospheric ozone chemistry of the earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riemer, Daniel David

Two areas integral to the global cycle of tropospheric ozone were studied. The first segment of this investigation involved the study of marine ecosystems to define the sources of nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) in the surface ocean. This included laboratory and field investigations conducted to determine the function and importance of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the abiotic photochemical production of nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) in surface seawater. Concurrently, phytoplankton were investigated as a biogenic source of NMHCs in the surface ocean. Low molecular weight alkenes, compounds observed in the greatest quantities in the surface ocean, are formed almost exclusively as a result of DOM-mediated photochemistry. Isoprene was found to be produced by all phytoplankton species investigated. The primary sink for NMHCs found in surface seawater was gas exchange. The second segment of this study focused on the prevalence of NMHCs and oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) in the rural southeastern United States. To characterize the importance of NMHCs and OVOCs to the process of atmospheric reactivity and tropospheric ozone chemistry, mixing ratios for a number of NMHCs and OVOCs were determined. Isoprene and its primary oxidation products, methacrolein and methyl vinyl ketone, were observed to be the dominant hydroxyl radical (OH) sink in the rural atmosphere. Certain OVOCs, namely methanol, acetone and acetaldehyde-although not as important on a reactivity basis-were the most prevalent in terms of mass. Methanol was the dominant OVOC measured in the rural atmosphere and serves as an important source of formaldehyde in the rural atmosphere. On the basis of the mixing ratio patterns exhibited by many of the OVOCs present in the rural atmosphere, considerable biogenic sources are likely.

Regional trend analysis of surface ozone observations from monitoring networks in eastern North America, Europe and East Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, K. L.; Petropavlovskikh, I. V.; Cooper, O. R.; Schultz, M.; Wang, T.

2017-12-01

Surface ozone is a greenhouse gas and pollutant detrimental to human health and crop and ecosystem productivity. The Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) is designed to provide the research community with an up-to-date observation-based overview of tropospheric ozone's global distribution and trends. The TOAR Surface Ozone Database contains ozone metrics at thousands of monitoring sites around the world, densely clustered across mid-latitude North America, western Europe and East Asia. Calculating regional ozone trends across these locations is challenging due to the uneven spacing of the monitoring sites across urban and rural areas. To meet this challenge we conducted a spatial and temporal trend analysis of several TOAR ozone metrics across these three regions for summertime (April-September) 2000-2014, using the generalized additive mixed model (GAMM). Our analysis indicates that East Asia has the greatest human and plant exposure to ozone pollution among investigating regions, with increasing ozone levels through 2014. The results also show that ozone mixing ratios continue to decline significantly over eastern North America and Europe, however, there is less evidence for decreases of daytime average ozone at urban sites. The present-day spatial coverage of ozone monitors in East Asia (South Korea and Japan) and eastern North America is adequate for estimating regional trends by simply taking the average of the individual trends at each site. However the European network is more sparsely populated across its northern and eastern regions and therefore a simple average of the individual trends at each site does not yield an accurate regional trend. This analysis demonstrates that the GAMM technique can be used to assess the regional representativeness of existing monitoring networks, indicating those networks for which a regional trend can be obtained by simply averaging the trends of all individual sites and those networks that require a more sophisticated statistical approach.

Rate and reaction probability of the surface reaction between ozone and dihydromyrcenol measured in a bench scale reactor and a room-sized chamber

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shu, Shi; Morrison, Glenn C.

2012-02-01

Low volatility terpenoids emitted from consumer products can react with ozone on surfaces and may significantly alter concentrations of ozone, terpenoids and reaction products in indoor air. We measured the reaction probability and a second-order surface-specific reaction rate for the ozonation of dihydromyrcenol, a representative indoor terpenoid, adsorbed onto polyvinylchloride (PVC), glass, and latex paint coated spheres. The reaction probability ranged from (0.06-8.97) × 10 -5 and was very sensitive to humidity, substrate and mass adsorbed. The average surface reaction probability is about 10 times greater than that for the gas-phase reaction. The second-order surface-specific rate coefficient ranged from (0.32-7.05) × 10 -15 cm 4 s -1 molecule -1and was much less sensitive to humidity, substrate, or mass adsorbed. We also measured the ozone deposition velocity due to adsorbed dihydromyrcenol on painted drywall in a room-sized chamber, Based on that, we calculated the rate coefficient ((0.42-1.6) × 10 -15 cm 4 molecule -1 s -1), which was consistent with that derived from bench-scale experiments for the latex paint under similar conditions. We predict that more than 95% of dihydromyrcenol oxidation takes place on indoor surfaces, rather than in building air.

Air quality impacts of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Texas: evaluating three battery charging scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, Tammy M.; King, Carey W.; Allen, David T.; Webber, Michael E.

2011-04-01

The air quality impacts of replacing approximately 20% of the gasoline-powered light duty vehicle miles traveled (VMT) with electric VMT by the year 2018 were examined for four major cities in Texas: Dallas/Ft Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) charging was assumed to occur on the electric grid controlled by the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and three charging scenarios were examined: nighttime charging, charging to maximize battery life, and charging to maximize driver convenience. A subset of electricity generating units (EGUs) in Texas that were found to contribute the majority of the electricity generation needed to charge PHEVs at the times of day associated with each scenario was modeled using a regional photochemical model (CAMx). The net impacts of the PHEVs on the emissions of precursors to the formation of ozone included an increase in NOx emissions from EGUs during times of day when the vehicle is charging, and a decrease in NOx from mobile emissions. The changes in maximum daily 8 h ozone concentrations and average exposure potential at twelve air quality monitors in Texas were predicted on the basis of these changes in NOx emissions. For all scenarios, at all monitors, the impact of changes in vehicular emissions, rather than EGU emissions, dominated the ozone impact. In general, PHEVs lead to an increase in ozone during nighttime hours (due to decreased scavenging from both vehicles and EGU stacks) and a decrease in ozone during daytime hours. A few monitors showed a larger increase in ozone for the convenience charging scenario versus the other two scenarios. Additionally, cumulative ozone exposure results indicate that nighttime charging is most likely to reduce a measure of ozone exposure potential versus the other two scenarios.

Sensitivity of U.S. surface ozone to future emissions and climate changes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, Zhining; Williams, Allen; Huang, Ho-Chun; Caughey, Michael; Liang, Xin-Zhong

2007-04-01

The relative contributions of projected future emissions and climate changes to U.S. surface ozone concentrations are investigated focusing on California, the Midwest, the Northeast, and Texas. By 2050 regional average ozone concentrations increase by 2-15% under the IPCC SRES A1Fi (``dirty'') scenario, and decrease by 4-12% under the B1 (relatively ``clean'') scenario. However, the magnitudes of ozone changes differ significantly between major metropolitan and rural areas. These ozone changes are dominated by the emissions changes in 61% area of the contiguous U.S. under the B1 scenario, but are largely determined by the projected climate changes in 46% area under the A1Fi scenario. In the ozone responses to climate changes, the biogenic emissions changes contribute strongly over the Northeast, moderately in the Midwest, and negligibly in other regions.

The Feasibility of Tropospheric and Total Ozone Determination Using a Fabry-perot Interferometer as a Satellite-based Nadir-viewing Atmospheric Sensor. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Larar, Allen Maurice

1993-01-01

Monitoring of the global distribution of tropospheric ozone (O3) is desirable for enhanced scientific understanding as well as to potentially lessen the ill-health impacts associated with exposure to elevated concentrations in the lower atmosphere. Such a capability can be achieved using a satellite-based device making high spectral resolution measurements with high signal-to-noise ratios; this would enable observation in the pressure-broadened wings of strong O3 lines while minimizing the impact of undesirable signal contributions associated with, for example, the terrestrial surface, interfering species, and clouds. The Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) provides high spectral resolution and high throughput capabilities that are essential for this measurement task. Through proper selection of channel spectral regions, the FPI optimized for tropospheric O3 measurements can simultaneously observe a stratospheric component and thus the total O3 column abundance. Decreasing stratospheric O3 concentrations may lead to an increase in biologically harmful solar ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth's surface, which is detrimental to health. In this research, a conceptual instrument design to achieve the desired measurement has been formulated. This involves a double-etalon fixed-gap series configuration FPI along with an ultra-narrow bandpass filter to achieve single-order operation with an overall spectral resolution of approximately .068 cm(exp -1). A spectral region of about 1 cm(exp -1) wide centered at 1054.73 cm(exp -1) within the strong 9.6 micron ozone infrared band is sampled with 24 spectral channels. Other design characteristics include operation from a nadir-viewing satellite configuration utilizing a 9 inch (diameter) telescope and achieving horizontal spatial resolution with a 50 km nadir footprint. A retrieval technique has been implemented and is demonstrated for a tropical atmosphere possessing enhanced tropospheric ozone amounts. An error analysis assessing the impact on retrieved O3 amounts of the most significant uncertainties associated with this particular measurement has been performed for several different types of atmospheres. Results show the proposed instrumentation to enable a good measurement of absolute ozone amounts and an even better determination of relative changes, with a range of accuracy to within 7.55 to 20.6 percent for integrated tropospheric amounts (and 1.99 to 4.02 percent for total O3 column abundance) and a corresponding range in precision to within 7.73 to 10.4 percent (and 3.30 to 3.95 percent for total O3 column abundance), for the atmospheric conditions considered.

A large ozone-circulation feedback and its implications for global warming assessments.

PubMed

Nowack, Peer J; Abraham, N Luke; Maycock, Amanda C; Braesicke, Peter; Gregory, Jonathan M; Joshi, Manoj M; Osprey, Annette; Pyle, John A

2015-01-01

State-of-the-art climate models now include more climate processes which are simulated at higher spatial resolution than ever 1 . Nevertheless, some processes, such as atmospheric chemical feedbacks, are still computationally expensive and are often ignored in climate simulations 1,2 . Here we present evidence that how stratospheric ozone is represented in climate models can have a first order impact on estimates of effective climate sensitivity. Using a comprehensive atmosphere-ocean chemistry-climate model, we find an increase in global mean surface warming of around 1°C (~20%) after 75 years when ozone is prescribed at pre-industrial levels compared with when it is allowed to evolve self-consistently in response to an abrupt 4×CO 2 forcing. The difference is primarily attributed to changes in longwave radiative feedbacks associated with circulation-driven decreases in tropical lower stratospheric ozone and related stratospheric water vapour and cirrus cloud changes. This has important implications for global model intercomparison studies 1,2 in which participating models often use simplified treatments of atmospheric composition changes that are neither consistent with the specified greenhouse gas forcing scenario nor with the associated atmospheric circulation feedbacks 3-5 .

Solar-QBO Interaction and Its Impact on Stratospheric Ozone in a Zonally Averaged Photochemical Transport Model of the Middle Atmosphere

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-08-28

Solar- QBO interaction and its impact on stratospheric ozone in a zonally averaged photochemical transport model of the middle atmosphere J. P...investigate the solar cycle modulation of the quasi-biennial oscillation ( QBO ) in stratospheric zonal winds and its impact on stratospheric ozone with an...updated version of the zonally averaged CHEM2D middle atmosphere model. We find that the duration of the westerly QBO phase at solar maximum is 3 months

Ozonation of 1,2-dihydroxybenzene in the presence of activated carbon.

PubMed

Zaror, C; Soto, G; Valdés, H; Mansilla, H

2001-01-01

This work aims at obtaining experimental data on ozonation of 1,2-dihydroxybenzene (DHB) in the presence of activated carbon, with a view to assessing possible changes in its surface chemical structure and adsorption capacity. Experiments were conducted in a 0.5 L reactor, loaded with 2 g Filtrasorb 400 granular activated carbon, and 1-5 mM DHB aqueous solution at pH 2-8. Ozone gas was generated with an Ozocav generator, and fed into the reactor for a given exposure time, in the range 0.5-240 min, at 25 degrees C and 1 atm. After each run, liquid and activated carbon samples were taken for chemical assays. Soluble organic groups present on the active carbon surface were desorbed and analysed by GC-MS and HPLC. Activated carbon chemical surface properties were analysed using TPD, FT-IR, and XPS techniques. Reactions between ozone and adsorbed DHB were shown to be fast, leading to formation of C-6, C-4 and C-2 by-products. Oxygenated surface groups, particularly, COOH and C = O, increased as a result of ozonation.

Recent changes in the ventilation of the southern oceans.

PubMed

Waugh, Darryn W; Primeau, Francois; Devries, Tim; Holzer, Mark

2013-02-01

Surface westerly winds in the Southern Hemisphere have intensified over the past few decades, primarily in response to the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole, and there is intense debate on the impact of this on the ocean's circulation and uptake and redistribution of atmospheric gases. We used measurements of chlorofluorocarbon-12 (CFC-12) made in the southern oceans in the early 1990s and mid- to late 2000s to examine changes in ocean ventilation. Our analysis of the CFC-12 data reveals a decrease in the age of subtropical subantarctic mode waters and an increase in the age of circumpolar deep waters, suggesting that the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole has caused large-scale coherent changes in the ventilation of the southern oceans.

Climate Response to the Increase in Tropospheric Ozone since Preindustrial Times: A Comparison between Ozone and Equivalent CO2 Forcings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mickley L. J.; Jacob, D. J.; Field, B. D.; Rind, D.

2004-01-01

We examine the characteristics of the climate response to anthropogenic changes in tropospheric ozone. Using a general circulation model, we have carried out a pair of equilibrium climate simulations with realistic present-day and preindustrial ozone distributions. We find that the instantaneous radiative forcing of 0.49 W m(sup -2) due to the increase in tropospheric ozone since preindustrial times results in an increase in global mean surface temperature of 0.28 C. The increase is nearly 0.4 C in the Northern Hemisphere and about 0.2 C in the Southern Hemisphere. The largest increases (greater than 0.8 C) are downwind of Europe and Asia and over the North American interior in summer. In the lower stratosphere, global mean temperatures decrease by about 0.2 C due to the diminished upward flux of radiation at 9.6 micrometers. The largest stratospheric cooling, up to 1.0 C, occurs over high northern latitudes in winter, with possibly important implications for the formation of polar stratospheric clouds. To identify the characteristics of climate forcing unique to tropospheric ozone, we have conducted two additional climate equilibrium simulations: one in which preindustrial tropospheric ozone concentrations were increased everywhere by 18 ppb, producing the same global radiative forcing as present-day ozone but without the heterogeneity; and one in which CO2 was decreased by 25 ppm relative to present day, with ozone at present-day values, to again produce the same global radiative forcing but with the spectral signature of CO2 rather than ozone. In the first simulation (uniform increase of ozone), the global mean surface temperature increases by 0.25 C, with an interhemispheric difference of only 0.03 C, as compared with nearly 0.2 C for the heterogeneous ozone increase. In the second simulation (equivalent CO2), the global mean surface temperature increases by 0.36 C, 30% higher than the increase from tropospheric ozone. The stronger surface warming from CO2 is in part because CO2 forcing (obscured by water vapor) is shifted relatively poleward where the positive ice-albedo feedback amplifies the climate response and in part because the magnitude of the CO2 forcing in the mid-troposphere is double that of ozone. However, we find that CO2 is far less effective than tropospheric ozone in driving lower stratospheric cooling at high northern latitudes in winter.

Synoptic meteorological conditions associated with high spring and summer ozone levels at a rural site in the Eastern Mediterranean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalabokas, Pavlos; Repapis, Christos; Mihalopoulos, Nikos; Zerefos, Christos

2017-04-01

For the identification of the nature of spring and summertime ozone episodes, rural ozone measurements from the Eastern Mediterranean station of Finokalia-Crete, Greece during the first 4-year period of its record (1998-2001) have been analyzed with emphasis on periods of high ozone concentrations, according to the daily variation of the afternoon (12:00 - 18:00) ozone values. For the 7% highest spring and summertime ozone episodes composite NOAA/ESRL reanalysis maps of various meteorological parameters and/or their anomalies (geopotential height, specific humidity, vertical wind velocity omega, vector wind speed and temperature) have been examined together with their corresponding HYSPLIT back trajectories. This work is a continuation of a previous first approach regarding summer highest and lowest surface ozone episodes in Finokalia and other Central and Eastern Mediterranean stations (Kalabokas et al., 2008), which is now extended to more meteorological parameters and higher pressure levels. The results show that the examined synoptic meteorological condition during springtime ozone episodes over the Eastern Mediterranean station of Finokalia are quite similar with those conditions during high ozone springtime episodes observed at rural stations over the Western Mediterranean (Kalabokas et al., 2016). On the other hand the summer time synoptic conditions corresponding to highest surface ozone episodes at Finokalia are comparable with the conditions encountered during highest ozone episodes in the lower troposphere following analysis of MOZAIC vertical profiles over the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean (Kalabokas et al., 2015 and references therein). During the highest ozone episodes, for both examined seasons, the transport of tropospheric ozone-rich air masses through atmospheric subsidence influences significantly the boundary layer and surface ozone concentrations. In particular, the geographic areas with observed tropospheric subsidence seem to be the transition regions between high and low pressure synoptic meteorological systems. References Kalabokas, P. D., Mihalopoulos, N., Ellul, R., Kleanthous, S., and Repapis, C. C., 2008. An investigation of the meteorological and photochemical factors influencing the background rural and marine surface ozone levels in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean, Atmos. Environ., 42, 7894-7906. Kalabokas P. D., Thouret V., Cammas J.-P., Volz-Τhomas A., Boulanger D., Repapis C.C., 2015. The geographical distribution of meteorological parameters associated with high and low summer ozone levels in the lower troposphere and the boundary layer over the eastern Mediterranean (Cairo case), Tellus B, 67, 27853, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v67.27853. Kalabokas P., J. Hjorth, G. Foret, G. Dufour, M. Eremenko, G. Siour, J. Cuesta, M. Beekmann, 2016. An investigation on the origin of regional spring time ozone episodes in the Western Mediterranean and Central Europe. Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., doi:10.5194/acp-2016-615.

Impact of biogenic very short-lived bromine on the Antarctic ozone hole during the 21st century

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandez, Rafael P.; Kinnison, Douglas E.; Lamarque, Jean-Francois; Tilmes, Simone; Saiz-Lopez, Alfonso

2017-02-01

Active bromine released from the photochemical decomposition of biogenic very short-lived bromocarbons (VSLBr) enhances stratospheric ozone depletion. Based on a dual set of 1960-2100 coupled chemistry-climate simulations (i.e. with and without VSLBr), we show that the maximum Antarctic ozone hole depletion increases by up to 14 % when natural VSLBr are considered, which is in better agreement with ozone observations. The impact of the additional 5 pptv VSLBr on Antarctic ozone is most evident in the periphery of the ozone hole, producing an expansion of the ozone hole area of ˜ 5 million km2, which is equivalent in magnitude to the recently estimated Antarctic ozone healing due to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. We find that the inclusion of VSLBr in CAM-Chem (Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry, version 4.0) does not introduce a significant delay of the modelled ozone return date to 1980 October levels, but instead affects the depth and duration of the simulated ozone hole. Our analysis further shows that total bromine-catalysed ozone destruction in the lower stratosphere surpasses that of chlorine by the year 2070 and indicates that natural VSLBr chemistry would dominate Antarctic ozone seasonality before the end of the 21st century. This work suggests a large influence of biogenic bromine on the future Antarctic ozone layer.

Ozone maxima over Southern Africa: A mid-latitude link

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barsby, Jane; Diab, Roseanne D.

1994-01-01

The relationship between patterns of total ozone and day-to-day weather was explored over South Africa for the period 1987 to 1988. Generally, there was a fairly poor relationship (variance less than 20 percent) between total ozone and the heights of the 100, 300 and 500 hPa geopotential heights at 5 South African stations. However, over a shorter period, October to December 1988, fluctuations in the height of the 300 hPa surface accounted for 53 percent of the variance in total ozone at Cape Town. High ozone amounts are associated with the lowering of the 300 hPa surface in the presence of an upper-air trough. The role of the mid-latitude westerly waves in this respect is discussed.

New Insights in Tropospheric Ozone and its Variability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oman, Luke D.; Douglass, Anne R.; Ziemke, Jerry R.; Rodriquez, Jose M.

2011-01-01

We have produced time-slice simulations using the Goddard Earth Observing System Version 5 (GEOS-5) coupled to a comprehensive stratospheric and tropospheric chemical mechanism. These simulations are forced with observed sea surface temperatures over the past 25 years and use constant specified surface emissions, thereby providing a measure of the dynamically controlled ozone response. We examine the model performance in simulating tropospheric ozone and its variability. Here we show targeted comparisons results from our simulations with a multi-decadal tropical tropospheric column ozone dataset obtained from satellite observations of total column ozone. We use SHADOZ ozonesondes to gain insight into the observed vertical response and compare with the simulated vertical structure. This work includes but is not limited to ENSO related variability.

Removal of sulfa drugs by sewage treatment in aqueous solution systems: activated carbon treatment and ozone oxidation.

PubMed

Ogata, Fumihiko; Tominaga, Hisato; Kangawa, Moe; Inoue, Kenji; Kawasaki, Naohito

2012-01-01

This study investigates the activated carbon (AC) treatment and ozone oxidation of the sulfa drugs--sulfamethoxazole (SMX), sulfamonomethoxine (SMM), sulfadimidine (SDD), and sulfadimethoxine (SDM)--in aqueous solution systems. Three AC samples were prepared from Shirasagi (AC1 and AC2) and coal (AC3), and the surface functional groups, solution pH, specific surface areas, pore volumes, and morphologies of the three samples were evaluated. The specific surface areas were in the following order: AC1 (1391 m²/g) > AC2 (1053 m²/g) > AC3 (807 m²/g). The pore volume and mean pore diameter of AC3 were greater than those of AC1 and AC2. The concentration of sulfa drugs adsorbed onto the AC samples reached equilibrium within 150 h. Experimental data of the adsorption rate were fitted to a pseudo-second-order model. The amount of sulfa drugs adsorbed onto the AC samples was in the order of SDM < SMM < SDD < SMX; the mechanism of adsorption of the sulfa drugs onto the AC samples depended on the hydrophobicity of the AC surface. The adsorption isotherm data were fitted to Freundlich and Langmuir models. Ozone was generated from oxygen gas using an A-27 ozone generator, and the complete degradation of the sulfa drugs by ozone treatment at 60 mL/min was achieved within 50 min. Ozone treatment caused the structure of the sulfa drugs to decompose via ozone oxidation.

The geographic distribution and economic value of climate change-related ozone health impacts in the United States in 2030.

PubMed

Fann, Neal; Nolte, Christopher G; Dolwick, Patrick; Spero, Tanya L; Brown, Amanda Curry; Phillips, Sharon; Anenberg, Susan

2015-05-01

In this United States-focused analysis we use outputs from two general circulation models (GCMs) driven by different greenhouse gas forcing scenarios as inputs to regional climate and chemical transport models to investigate potential changes in near-term U.S. air quality due to climate change. We conduct multiyear simulations to account for interannual variability and characterize the near-term influence of a changing climate on tropospheric ozone-related health impacts near the year 2030, which is a policy-relevant time frame that is subject to fewer uncertainties than other approaches employed in the literature. We adopt a 2030 emissions inventory that accounts for fully implementing anthropogenic emissions controls required by federal, state, and/or local policies, which is projected to strongly influence future ozone levels. We quantify a comprehensive suite of ozone-related mortality and morbidity impacts including emergency department visits, hospital admissions, acute respiratory symptoms, and lost school days, and estimate the economic value of these impacts. Both GCMs project average daily maximum temperature to increase by 1-4°C and 1-5 ppb increases in daily 8-hr maximum ozone at 2030, though each climate scenario produces ozone levels that vary greatly over space and time. We estimate tens to thousands of additional ozone-related premature deaths and illnesses per year for these two scenarios and calculate an economic burden of these health outcomes of hundreds of millions to tens of billions of U.S. dollars (2010$). Near-term changes to the climate have the potential to greatly affect ground-level ozone. Using a 2030 emission inventory with regional climate fields downscaled from two general circulation models, we project mean temperature increases of 1 to 4°C and climate-driven mean daily 8-hr maximum ozone increases of 1-5 ppb, though each climate scenario produces ozone levels that vary significantly over space and time. These increased ozone levels are estimated to result in tens to thousands of ozone-related premature deaths and illnesses per year and an economic burden of hundreds of millions to tens of billions of U.S. dollars (2010$).

Influence of enhanced Asian NOx emissions on ozone in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere in chemistry-climate model simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roy, Chaitri; Fadnavis, Suvarna; Müller, Rolf; Ayantika, D. C.; Ploeger, Felix; Rap, Alexandru

2017-01-01

The Asian summer monsoon (ASM) anticyclone is the most pronounced circulation pattern in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) during northern hemispheric summer. ASM convection plays an important role in efficient vertical transport from the surface to the upper-level anticyclone. In this paper we investigate the potential impact of enhanced anthropogenic nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions on the distribution of ozone in the UTLS using the fully coupled aerosol-chemistry-climate model, ECHAM5-HAMMOZ. Ozone in the UTLS is influenced both by the convective uplift of ozone precursors and by the uplift of enhanced-NOx-induced tropospheric ozone anomalies. We performed anthropogenic NOx emission sensitivity experiments over India and China. In these simulations, covering the years 2000-2010, anthropogenic NOx emissions have been increased by 38 % over India and by 73 % over China with respect to the emission base year 2000. These emission increases are comparable to the observed linear trends of 3.8 % per year over India and 7.3 % per year over China during the period 2000 to 2010. Enhanced NOx emissions over India by 38 % and China by 73 % increase the ozone radiative forcing in the ASM anticyclone (15-40° N, 60-120° E) by 16.3 and 78.5 mW m-2 respectively. These elevated NOx emissions produce significant warming over the Tibetan Plateau and increase precipitation over India due to a strengthening of the monsoon Hadley circulation. However, increase in NOx emissions over India by 73 % (similar to the observed increase over China) results in large ozone production over the Indo-Gangetic Plain and Tibetan Plateau. The higher ozone concentrations, in turn, induce a reversed monsoon Hadley circulation and negative precipitation anomalies over India. The associated subsidence suppresses vertical transport of NOx and ozone into the ASM anticyclone.

TOLNet ozone lidar intercomparison during the discover-aq and frappé campaigns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newchurch, Michael J.; Alvarez, Raul J.; Berkoff, Timothy A.; Carrion, William; DeYoung, Russell J.; Ganoe, Rene; Gronoff, Guillaume; Kirgis, Guillaume; Kuang, Shi; Langford, Andy O.; Leblanc, Thierry; McGee, Thomas J.; Pliutau, Denis; Senff, Christoph; Sullivan, John T.; Sumnicht, Grant; Twigg, Laurence W.; Wang, Lihua

2018-04-01

The Tropospheric Ozone Lidar Network (TOLNet) is a unique network of lidar systems that measure atmospheric profiles of ozone and aerosols, to contribute to air-quality studies, atmospheric modeling, and satellite validation efforts. The accurate characterization of these lidars is of critical interest, and is necessary to determine cross-instrument calibration uniformity. From July to August 2014, three lidars, the TROPospheric OZone (TROPOZ) lidar, the Tunable Optical Profiler for Aerosol and oZone (TOPAZ) lidar, and the Langley Mobile Ozone Lidar (LMOL), of TOLNet participated in the "Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality" (DISCOVER-AQ) mission and the "Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Éxperiment" (FRAPPÉ) to measure sub-hourly ozone variations from near the surface to the top of the troposphere. Although large differences occur at few individual altitudes in the near field and far field range, the TOLNet lidars agree with each other within ±4%. These results indicate excellent measurement accuracy for the TOLNet lidars that is suitable for use in air-quality and ozone modeling efforts.

Feasibility of Sensing Tropospheric Ozone with MODIS 9.6 Micron Observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prabhakara, C.; Iacovazzi, R., Jr.; Moon-Yoo, Jung

2004-01-01

With the infrared observations made by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) on board the EOS-Aqua satellite, which include the 9.73 micron channel, a method is developed to deduce horizontal patterns of tropospheric ozone in cloud free conditions on a scale of about 100 km. It is assumed that on such small scale, at a given instant, horizontal changes in stratospheric ozone are small compared to that in the troposphere. From theoretical simulations it is found that uncertainties in the land surface emissivity and the vertical thermal stratification in the troposphere can lead to significant errors in the inferred tropospheric ozone. Because of this reason in order to derive horizontal patterns of tropospheric ozone in a given geographic area a tuning of this method is necessary with the help of a few dependent cases. After tuning, this method is applied to independent cases of MODIS data taken over Los Angeles basin in cloud free conditions to derive horizontal distribution of ozone in the troposphere. Preliminary results indicate that the derived patterns of ozone resemble crudely the patterns of surface ozone reported by EPA.

Using Source Apportionment to Evaluate the Cross State Transport of Ozone in the Eastern United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldberg, D. L.; Canty, T. P.; Hembeck, L.; Vinciguerra, T.; Carpenter, S. F.; Anderson, D. C.; Salawitch, R. J.; Dickerson, R. R.

2014-12-01

The amount of air pollution crossing state lines has great policy implications. Using the ozone source apportionment tool (OSAT) in the Comprehensive Air-Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) version 6.10, we can quantify how much ozone is generated locally versus transported from upwind locations. Initial results show that up to 70% of the surface ozone in Maryland during poor air quality days in the summer of July 2011 can be attributed to pollution from outside of the state's borders. Modifications to the CB05 gas-phase chemistry mechanism, supported by literature recommendations and improve agreement with NASA's DISCOVER-AQ Maryland aircraft campaign, can further increase this percentage. Additionally, we show the role of upwind sources and background ozone has become increasingly important as local emissions of ozone precursors continue to drop, starting with the steep reductions imposed in 2002 in response to Maryland's State Implementation Plan submitted to EPA. This study suggests future efforts to control surface ozone must include a meaningful strategy for dealing with cross-state transport of ozone precursors.

Photochemical model evaluation of the ground-level ozone impacts on ambient air quality and vegetation health in the Alberta oil sands region: Using present and future emission scenarios

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vijayaraghavan, Krish; Cho, Sunny; Morris, Ralph; Spink, David; Jung, Jaegun; Pauls, Ron; Duffett, Katherine

2016-09-01

One of the potential environmental issues associated with oil sands development is increased ozone formation resulting from NOX and volatile organic compound emissions from bitumen extraction, processing and upgrading. To manage this issue in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) in northeast Alberta, a regional multi-stakeholder group, the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA), developed an Ozone Management Framework that includes a modelling based assessment component. In this paper, we describe how the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was applied to assess potential ground-level ozone formation and impacts on ambient air quality and vegetation health for three different ozone precursor cases in the AOSR. Statistical analysis methods were applied, and the CMAQ performance results met the U.S. EPA model performance goal at all sites. The modelled 4th highest daily maximum 8-h average ozone concentrations in the base and two future year scenarios did not exceed the Canada-wide standard of 65 ppb or the newer Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards of 63 ppb in 2015 and 62 ppb in 2020. Modelled maximum 1-h ozone concentrations in the study were well below the Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objective of 82 ppb in all three cases. Several ozone vegetation exposure metrics were also evaluated to investigate the potential impact of ground-level ozone on vegetation. The chronic 3-months SUM60 exposure metric is within the CEMA baseline range (0-2000 ppb-hr) everywhere in the AOSR. The AOT40 ozone exposure metric predicted by CMAQ did not exceed the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) threshold of concern of 3000 ppb-hr in any of the cases but is just below the threshold in high-end future emissions scenario. In all three emission scenarios, the CMAQ predicted W126 ozone exposure metric is within the CEMA baseline threshold of 4000 ppb-hr. This study outlines the use of photochemical modelling of the impact of an industry (oil sands) on ground-level ozone levels as an air quality management tool in the AOSR. It allows an evaluation of the relationships between the pollutants emitted to the atmosphere and potential ground level ozone concentrations throughout the AOSR thereby extending the spatial coverage of the results beyond the monitoring network and also allowing an assessment of the potential impacts of possible future emission cases.

Barriers and opportunities for passive removal of indoor ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gall, Elliott T.; Corsi, Richard L.; Siegel, Jeffrey A.

2011-06-01

This paper presents a Monte Carlo simulation to assess passive removal materials (PRMs) that remove ozone with no additional energy input and minimal byproduct formation. Distributions for air exchange rate in a subset of homes in Houston, Texas, were taken from the literature and combined with background ozone removal rates in typical houses and previous experimentally determined ozone deposition velocities to activated carbon cloth and gypsum wallboard PRMs. The median ratio of indoor to outdoor ozone was predicted to be 0.16 for homes with no PRMs installed and ranged from 0.047 to 0.12 for homes with PRMs. Median values of ozone removal effectiveness in these homes ranged from 22% to 68% for the conditions investigated. Achieving an ozone removal effectiveness above 50% in half of the homes would require installing a large area of PRMs and providing enhanced air speed to transport pollutants to PRM surfaces. Challenges associated with achieving this removal include optimizing indoor transport and aesthetic implications of large surface areas of PRM materials.

Tropospheric Ozone Profiling Using Simulated GEO-CAPE Measurement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Natraj, Vijay; Li, Xiong; Kulawik, Susan; Chance, Kelly; Chatfield, Robert; Edwards, David P .; Eldering, Annmarie; Francis, Gene; Kurosu, Thomas; Pickering, Kenneth;

Coagulation and oxidation for controlling ultrafiltration membrane fouling in drinking water treatment: Application of ozone at low dose in submerged membrane tank.

PubMed

Yu, Wenzheng; Graham, Nigel J D; Fowler, Geoffrey D

2016-05-15

Coagulation prior to ultrafiltration (UF) is widely applied for treating contaminated surface water sources for potable supply. While beneficial, coagulation alone is unable to control membrane fouling effectively in many cases, and there is continuing interest in the use of additional, complementary methods such as oxidation in the pre-treatment of raw water prior to UF. In this study, the application of ozone at low dose in the membrane tank immediately following coagulation has been evaluated at laboratory-scale employing model raw water. In parallel tests with and without the application of ozone, the impact of applied ozone doses of 0.5 mg L(-1) and 1.5 mg L(-1) (approximately 0.18 mg L(-1) and 0.54 mg L(-1) consumed ozone, respectively) on the increase of trans-membrane pressure (TMP) was evaluated and correlated with the quantity and nature of membrane deposits, both as a cake layer and within membrane pores. The results showed that a dose of 0.5 mgO3 L(-1) gave a membrane fouling rate that was substantially lower than without ozone addition, while a dose of 1.5 mgO3 L(-1) was able to prevent fouling effects significantly (no increase in TMP). Ozone was found to decrease the concentration of bacteria (especially the concentration of bacteria per suspended solid) in the membrane tank, and to alter the nature of dissolved organic matter by increasing the proportion of hydrophilic substances. Ozone decreased the concentration of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), such as polysaccharides and proteins, in the membrane cake layer; the reduced EPS and bacterial concentrations resulted in a much thinner cake layer, although the suspended solids concentration was much higher in the ozone added membrane tank. Ozone also decreased the accumulation and hydrophobicity of organic matter within the membrane pores, leading to minimal irreversible fouling. Therefore, the application of low-dose ozone within the UF membrane tank is a potentially important approach for fully mitigating membrane fouling. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impact of surface wettability on S-layer recrystallization: a real-time characterization by QCM-D.

PubMed

Iturri, Jagoba; Vianna, Ana C; Moreno-Cencerrado, Alberto; Pum, Dietmar; Sleytr, Uwe B; Toca-Herrera, José Luis

2017-01-01

Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) has been employed to study the assembly and recrystallization kinetics of isolated SbpA bacterial surface proteins onto silicon dioxide substrates of different surface wettability. Surface modification by UV/ozone oxidation or by vapor deposition of 1 H ,1 H ,2 H ,2 H -perfluorododecyltrichlorosilane yielded hydrophilic or hydrophobic samples, respectively. Time evolution of frequency and dissipation factors, either individually or combined as the so-called Df plots, showed a much faster formation of crystalline coatings for hydrophobic samples, characterized by a phase-transition peak at around the 70% of the total mass adsorbed. This behavior has been proven to mimic, both in terms of kinetics and film assembly steps, the recrystallization taking place on an underlying secondary cell-wall polymer (SCWP) as found in bacteria. Complementary atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments corroborate these findings and reveal the impact on the final structure achieved.

The characteristics of tropospheric ozone seasonality observed from ozone soundings at Pohang, Korea.

PubMed

Kim, Jae H; Lee, H J; Lee, S H

2006-07-01

This paper presents the first analysis of vertical ozone sounding measurements over Pohang, Korea. The main focus is to analyze the seasonal variation of vertical ozone profiles and determine the mechanisms controlling ozone seasonality. The maxima ozone at the surface and in the free troposphere are observed in May and June, respectively. In comparison with the ozone seasonality at Oki (near sea level) and Happo (altitude of 1840 m) in Japan, which are located at the same latitude as of Pohang, we have found that the time of the ozone maximum at the Japanese sites is always a month earlier than at Pohang. Analysis of the wind flow at the surface shows that the wind shifts from westerly to southerly in May over Japan, but in June over Pohang. However, this wind shift above boundary layer occurs a month later. This wind shift results in significantly smaller amounts of ozone because the southerly wind brings clean wet tropical air. It has been suggested that the spring ozone maximum in the lower troposphere is due to polluted air transported from China. However, an enhanced ozone amount over the free troposphere in June appears to have a different origin. A tongue-like structure in the time-height cross-section of ozone concentrations, which starts from the stratosphere and extends to the middle troposphere, suggests that the ozone enhancement occurs due to a gradual migration of ozone from the stratosphere. The high frequency of dry air with elevated ozone concentrations in the upper troposphere in June suggests that the air is transported from the stratosphere. HYSPLIT trajectory analysis supports the hypothesis that enhanced ozone in the free troposphere is not likely due to transport from sources of anthropogenic activity.

Ozone-vegetation interaction in the Earth system: implications for air quality, ecosystems and agriculture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tai, A. P. K.; Lombardozzi, D.; Val Martin, M.; Heald, C. L.

2015-12-01

Surface ozone is one of the most significant air pollutants due to its damaging effects not only on human health, but also on vegetation and crop productivity. Chronic ozone exposure has been shown to reduce photosynthesis and interfere with gas exchange in plants, which in turn affect the surface energy balance, carbon sink and other biogeochemical fluxes. Ozone damage on vegetation can thus have major ramifications on climate and atmospheric composition, including possible feedbacks onto ozone itself (see figure) that are not well understood. The damage of ozone on crops has been well documented, but a mechanistic understanding is not well established. Here we present several results pertaining to ozone-vegetation interaction. Using the Community Earth System Model, we find that inclusion of ozone damage on plants reduces the global land carbon sink by up to 5%, while simulated ozone is modified by -20 to +4 ppbv depending on the relative importance of competing mechanisms in different regions. We also perform a statistical analysis of multidecadal global datasets of crop yields, agroclimatic variables and ozone exposures to characterize the spatial variability of crop sensitivity to ozone and temperature extremes, specifically accounting for the confounding effect of ozone-temperature covariation. We find that several crops exhibit stronger sensitivity to ozone than found by previous field studies, with a strong anticorrelation between the sensitivity and average ozone levels that reflects biological adaptive ozone resistance. Our results show that a more complete understanding of ozone-vegetation interaction is necessary to derive more realistic future projections of climate, air quality and agricultural production, and thereby to formulate optimal strategies to safeguard public health and food security.

Atmospheric changes caused by galactic cosmic rays over the period 1960–2010

DOE PAGES

Jackman, Charles H.; Marsh, Daniel R.; Kinnison, Douglas E.; ...

2016-05-13

The Specified Dynamics version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (SD-WACCM) and the Goddard Space Flight Center two-dimensional (GSFC 2-D) models are used to investigate the effect of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) on the atmosphere over the 1960–2010 time period. The Nowcast of Atmospheric Ionizing Radiation for Aviation Safety (NAIRAS) computation of the GCR-caused ionization rates are used in these simulations. GCR-caused maximum NO x increases of 4–15 % are computed in the Southern polar troposphere with associated ozone increases of 1–2 %. NO x increases of ~1–6 % are calculated for the lower stratosphere with associated ozone decreasesmore » of 0.2–1 %. The primary impact of GCRs on ozone was due to their production of NO x. The impact of GCRs varies with the atmospheric chlorine loading, sulfate aerosol loading, and solar cycle variation. Because of the interference between the NO x and ClO x ozone loss cycles (e.g., the ClO + NO 2+ M → ClONO 2+ M reaction) and the change in the importance of ClO x in the ozone budget, GCRs cause larger atmospheric impacts with less chlorine loading. GCRs also cause larger atmospheric impacts with less sulfate aerosol loading and for years closer to solar minimum. GCR-caused decreases of annual average global total ozone (AAGTO) were computed to be 0.2 % or less with GCR-caused column ozone increases between 1000 and 100 hPa of 0.08 % or less and GCR-caused column ozone decreases between 100 and 1 hPa of 0.23 % or less. Although these computed ozone impacts are small, GCRs provide a natural influence on ozone and need to be quantified over long time periods. This result serves as a lower limit because of the use of the ionization model NAIRAS/HZETRN which underestimates the ion production by neglecting electromagnetic and muon branches of the cosmic ray induced cascade. Furthermore, this will be corrected in future works.« less

Atmospheric changes caused by galactic cosmic rays over the period 1960–2010

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jackman, Charles H.; Marsh, Daniel R.; Kinnison, Douglas E.

The Specified Dynamics version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (SD-WACCM) and the Goddard Space Flight Center two-dimensional (GSFC 2-D) models are used to investigate the effect of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) on the atmosphere over the 1960–2010 time period. The Nowcast of Atmospheric Ionizing Radiation for Aviation Safety (NAIRAS) computation of the GCR-caused ionization rates are used in these simulations. GCR-caused maximum NO x increases of 4–15 % are computed in the Southern polar troposphere with associated ozone increases of 1–2 %. NO x increases of ~1–6 % are calculated for the lower stratosphere with associated ozone decreasesmore » of 0.2–1 %. The primary impact of GCRs on ozone was due to their production of NO x. The impact of GCRs varies with the atmospheric chlorine loading, sulfate aerosol loading, and solar cycle variation. Because of the interference between the NO x and ClO x ozone loss cycles (e.g., the ClO + NO 2+ M → ClONO 2+ M reaction) and the change in the importance of ClO x in the ozone budget, GCRs cause larger atmospheric impacts with less chlorine loading. GCRs also cause larger atmospheric impacts with less sulfate aerosol loading and for years closer to solar minimum. GCR-caused decreases of annual average global total ozone (AAGTO) were computed to be 0.2 % or less with GCR-caused column ozone increases between 1000 and 100 hPa of 0.08 % or less and GCR-caused column ozone decreases between 100 and 1 hPa of 0.23 % or less. Although these computed ozone impacts are small, GCRs provide a natural influence on ozone and need to be quantified over long time periods. This result serves as a lower limit because of the use of the ionization model NAIRAS/HZETRN which underestimates the ion production by neglecting electromagnetic and muon branches of the cosmic ray induced cascade. Furthermore, this will be corrected in future works.« less

Impact of enhanced ozone deposition and halogen chemistry on tropospheric ozone over the Northern Hemisphere

EPA Science Inventory

Fate of ozone in marine environments has been receiving increased attention due to the tightening of ambient air quality standards. The role of deposition and halogen chemistry is examined through incorporation of an enhanced ozone deposition algorithm and inclusion of halogen ch...

USE OF AUXILIARY DATA FOR SPATIAL INTERPOLATION OF OZONE EXPOSURE IN SOUTHEASTERN FORESTS

EPA Science Inventory

In order to assess the impact of tropospheric ozone on forests, it is necessary to quantify ozone exposure on regional scales. Since ozone monitoring stations are widely scattered and mostly concentrate in urban and suburban areas, some form of spatial interpolation is necessary ...

Effects of Exposure to Ozone on the Ocular Surface in an Experimental Model of Allergic Conjunctivitis

PubMed Central

Lee, Hun; Kim, Eung Kweon; Kim, Hee Young; Kim, Tae-im

2017-01-01

Based on previous findings that ozone can induce an inflammatory response in the ocular surface of an animal model and in cultured human conjunctival epithelial cells, we investigated whether exposure to ozone exacerbates symptoms of allergic conjunctivitis. We evaluated the effects of exposure to ozone on conjunctival chemosis, conjunctival injection, corneal and conjunctival fluorescein staining scores, production of inflammatory cytokines in tears, and aqueous tear production in a mouse model of allergic conjunctivitis. To validate our in vivo results, we used interleukin (IL)-1α-pretreated conjunctival epithelial cells as an in vitro substitute for the mouse model. We evaluated whether exposure to ozone increased the inflammatory response and altered oxidative status and mitochondrial function in IL-1α-pretreated conjunctival epithelial cells. In the in vivo study, ozone induced increases in conjunctival chemosis, conjunctival injection, corneal and conjunctival fluorescein staining scores, and production of inflammatory cytokines, accompanied by a decrease in tear volume. In the in vitro study, exposure to ozone led to additional increases in IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α mRNA levels, which were already induced by treatment with IL-1α. Ozone did not induce any changes in cell viability. Pretreatment with IL-1α increased the expression of manganese superoxide dismutase, and exposure to ozone led to additional increments in the expression of this antioxidant enzyme. Ozone did not induce any changes in mitochondrial activity or expression of mitochondrial enzymes and proteins related to mitochondrial function, with the exception of phosphor-mammalian target of rapamycin. Treatment with butylated hydroxyanisole, a free radical scavenger, attenuated the ozone-induced increases in IL-6 expression in IL-1α-pretreated conjunctival epithelial cells. Therefore, we conclude that exposure to ozone exacerbates the detrimental effects on the integrity of the ocular surface caused by conjunctival allergic reactions, and further increases the inflammatory response in IL-1α-pretreated conjunctival epithelial cells. PMID:28046113

The impact of climate change on ozone-related mortality in Sydney.

PubMed

Physick, William; Cope, Martin; Lee, Sunhee

2014-01-13

Coupled global, regional and chemical transport models are now being used with relative-risk functions to determine the impact of climate change on human health. Studies have been carried out for global and regional scales, and in our paper we examine the impact of climate change on ozone-related mortality at the local scale across an urban metropolis (Sydney, Australia). Using three coupled models, with a grid spacing of 3 km for the chemical transport model (CTM), and a mortality relative risk function of 1.0006 per 1 ppb increase in daily maximum 1-hour ozone concentration, we evaluated the change in ozone concentrations and mortality between decades 1996-2005 and 2051-2060. The global model was run with the A2 emissions scenario. As there is currently uncertainty regarding a threshold concentration below which ozone does not impact on mortality, we calculated mortality estimates for the three daily maximum 1-hr ozone concentration thresholds of 0, 25 and 40 ppb. The mortality increase for 2051-2060 ranges from 2.3% for a 0 ppb threshold to 27.3% for a 40 ppb threshold, although the numerical increases differ little. Our modeling approach is able to identify the variation in ozone-related mortality changes at a suburban scale, estimating that climate change could lead to an additional 55 to 65 deaths across Sydney in the decade 2051-2060. Interestingly, the largest increases do not correspond spatially to the largest ozone increases or the densest population centres. The distribution pattern of changes does not seem to vary with threshold value, while the magnitude only varies slightly.

MARs Color Imager (MARCI) Daily Global Ozone Column Mapping from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO): A Survey of 2006-2010 Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clancy, R. T.; Wolff, M. J.; Malin, M. C.; Cantor, B. A.

2010-12-01

MARCI UV band imaging photometry within (260nm) and outside (320nm) the Hartley ozone band absorption supports daily global mapping of Mars ozone column abundances. Key retrieval issues include accurate UV radiometric calibrations, detailed specifications of surface and atmospheric background reflectance (surface albedo, atmospheric Raleigh and dust scattering/absorption), and simultaneous cloud retrievals. The implementation of accurate radiative transfer (RT) treatments of these processes has been accomplished (Wolff et al., 2010) such that daily global mapping retrievals for Mars ozone columns have been completed for the 2006-2010 period of MARCI global imaging. Ozone retrievals are most accurate for high column abundances associated with mid-to-high latitude regions during fall, winter, and spring seasons. We present a survey of these MARCI ozone column retrievals versus season, latitude, longitude, and year.

The Response of Tropical Tropospheric Ozone to ENSO

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oman, L. D.; Ziemke, J. R.; Douglass, A. R.; Waugh, D. W.; Lang, C.; Rodriguez, J. M.; Nielsen, J. E.

2011-01-01

We have successfully reproduced the Ozone ENSO Index (OEI) in the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) chemistry-climate model (CCM) forced by observed sea surface temperatures over a 25-year period. The vertical ozone response to ENSO is consistent with changes in the Walker circulation. We derive the sensitivity of simulated ozone to ENSO variations using linear regression analysis. The western Pacific and Indian Ocean region shows similar positive ozone sensitivities from the surface to the upper troposphere, in response to positive anomalies in the Nino 3.4 Index. The eastern and central Pacific region shows negative sensitivities with the largest sensitivity in the upper troposphere. This vertical response compares well with that derived from SHADOZ ozonesondes in each region. The OEI reveals a response of tropospheric ozone to circulation change that is nearly independent of changes in emissions and thus it is potentially useful in chemistry-climate model evaluation.

Description of the surface water filtration and ozone treatment system at the Northeast Fishery Center

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

A water filtration and ozone disinfection system was installed at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Northeast Fishery Center in Lamar, Pennsylvania to treat a surface water supply that is used to culture sensitive and endangered fish. The treatment system first passes the surface water through dr...

Anthropogenic changes in the surface all-sky UV-B radiation through 1850-2005 simulated by an Earth system model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watanabe, S.; Takemura, T.; Sudo, K.; Yokohata, T.; Kawase, H.

2012-06-01

The historical anthropogenic change in the surface all-sky UV-B (solar ultraviolet: 280-315 nm) radiation through 1850-2005 is evaluated using an Earth system model. Responses of UV-B dose to anthropogenic changes in ozone and aerosols are separately evaluated using a series of historical simulations including/excluding these changes. Increases in these air pollutants cause reductions in UV-B transmittance, which occur gradually/rapidly before/after 1950 in and downwind of industrial and deforestation regions. Furthermore, changes in ozone transport in the lower stratosphere, which is induced by increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, increase ozone concentration in the extratropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. These transient changes work to decrease the amount of UV-B reaching the Earth's surface, counteracting the well-known effect increasing UV-B due to stratospheric ozone depletion, which developed rapidly after ca. 1980. As a consequence, the surface UV-B radiation change between 1850 and 2000 is negative in the tropics and NH extratropics and positive in the SH extratropics. Comparing the contributions of ozone and aerosol changes to the UV-B change, the transient change in ozone absorption of UV-B mainly determines the total change in the surface UV-B radiation at most locations. On the other hand, the aerosol direct and indirect effects on UV-B play an equally important role to that of ozone in the NH mid-latitudes and tropics. A typical example is East Asia (25° N-60° N and 120° E-150° E), where the effect of aerosols (ca. 70%) dominates the total UV-B change.

Anthropogenic changes in the surface all-sky UV-B radiation through 1850-2005 simulated by an Earth system model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watanabe, S.; Takemura, T.; Sudo, K.; Yokohata, T.; Kawase, H.

2012-02-01

The historical anthropogenic change in the surface all-sky UV-B (solar ultraviolet: 280-315 nm) radiation through 1850-2005 is evaluated using an Earth system model. Responses of UV-B dose to anthropogenic changes in ozone and aerosols are separately evaluated using a series of historical simulations including/excluding these changes. Increases in these air pollutants cause reductions in UV-B transmittance, which occur gradually/rapidly before/after 1950 in and downwind of industrial and deforestation regions. Furthermore, changes in ozone transport in the lower stratosphere, which is induced by increasing greenhouse gas concentrations, increase ozone concentration in the extratropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. These transient changes work to decrease the amount of UV-B reaching the Earth's surface, counteracting the well-known effect increasing UV-B due to stratospheric ozone depletion, which developed rapidly after ca. 1980. As a consequence, the surface all-sky UV-B radiation change between 1850 and 2000 is negative in the tropics and NH extratropics and positive in the SH extratropics. Comparing the contributions of ozone and aerosol changes to the UV-B change, the transient change in ozone absorption of UV-B mainly determines the total change in the surface all-sky UV-B radiation at most locations. On the other hand, the aerosol direct and indirect effects on UV-B play an equally important role to that of ozone in the NH mid-latitudes and tropics. A typical example is East Asia (25° N-60° N and 120° E-150° E), where the effect of aerosols (ca. 70%) dominates the total UV-B change.

Use of North American and European Air Quality Networks to Evaluate Global Chemistry-Climate Modeling of Surface Ozone

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schnell, J. L.; Prather, M. J.; Josse, B.; Naik, V.; Horowitz, L. W.; Cameron-Smith, P.; Bergmann, D.; Zeng, G.; Plummer, D. A.; Sudo, K.;

Applications of Satellite Remote Sensing Products to Enhance and Evaluate the AIRPACT Regional Air Quality Modeling System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herron-Thorpe, F. L.; Mount, G. H.; Emmons, L. K.; Lamb, B. K.; Jaffe, D. A.; Wigder, N. L.; Chung, S. H.; Zhang, R.; Woelfle, M.; Vaughan, J. K.; Leung, F. T.

2013-12-01

The WSU AIRPACT air quality modeling system for the Pacific Northwest forecasts hourly levels of aerosols and atmospheric trace gases for use in determining potential health and ecosystem impacts by air quality managers. AIRPACT uses the WRF/SMOKE/CMAQ modeling framework, derives dynamic boundary conditions from MOZART-4 forecast simulations with assimilated MOPITT CO, and uses the BlueSky framework to derive fire emissions. A suite of surface measurements and satellite-based remote sensing data products across the AIRPACT domain are used to evaluate and improve model performance. Specific investigations include anthropogenic emissions, wildfire simulations, and the effects of long-range transport on surface ozone. In this work we synthesize results for multiple comparisons of AIRPACT with satellite products such as IASI ammonia, AIRS carbon monoxide, MODIS AOD, OMI tropospheric ozone and nitrogen dioxide, and MISR plume height. Features and benefits of the newest version of AIRPACT's web-interface are also presented.

Factors affecting ozone removal rates in a simulated aircraft cabin environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tamás, Gyöngyi; Weschler, Charles J.; Bakó-Biró, Zsolt; Wyon, David P.; Strøm-Tejsen, Peter

Ozone concentrations were measured concurrently inside a simulated aircraft cabin and in the airstream providing ventilation air to the cabin. Ozone decay rates were also measured after cessation of ozone injection into the supply airstream. By systematically varying the presence or absence of people, soiled T-shirts, aircraft seats and a used HEPA filter, we have been able in the course of 24 experiments to isolate the contributions of these and other factors to the removal of ozone from the cabin air. In the case of this simulated aircraft, people were responsible for almost 60% of the ozone removal occurring within the cabin and recirculation system; respiration can only have been responsible for about 4% of this removal. The aircraft seats removed about 25% of the ozone; the loaded HEPA filter, 7%; and the other surfaces, 10%. A T-shirt that had been slept in overnight removed roughly 70% as much ozone as a person, indicating the importance of skin oils in ozone removal. The presence of the used HEPA filter in the recirculated airstream reduced the perceived air quality. Over a 5-h period, the overall ozone removal rate by cabin surfaces decreased at ˜3% h -1. With people present, the measured ratio of ozone's concentration in the cabin versus that outside the cabin was 0.15-0.21, smaller than levels reported in the literature. The results reinforce the conclusion that the optimal way to reduce people's exposure to both ozone and ozone oxidation products is to efficiently remove ozone from the air supply system of an aircraft.

Probabilistic Forecasting of Surface Ozone with a Novel Statistical Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Balashov, Nikolay V.; Thompson, Anne M.; Young, George S.

2017-01-01

The recent change in the Environmental Protection Agency's surface ozone regulation, lowering the surface ozone daily maximum 8-h average (MDA8) exceedance threshold from 75 to 70 ppbv, poses significant challenges to U.S. air quality (AQ) forecasters responsible for ozone MDA8 forecasts. The forecasters, supplied by only a few AQ model products, end up relying heavily on self-developed tools. To help U.S. AQ forecasters, this study explores a surface ozone MDA8 forecasting tool that is based solely on statistical methods and standard meteorological variables from the numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. The model combines the self-organizing map (SOM), which is a clustering technique, with a step wise weighted quadratic regression using meteorological variables as predictors for ozone MDA8. The SOM method identifies different weather regimes, to distinguish between various modes of ozone variability, and groups them according to similarity. In this way, when a regression is developed for a specific regime, data from the other regimes are also used, with weights that are based on their similarity to this specific regime. This approach, regression in SOM (REGiS), yields a distinct model for each regime taking into account both the training cases for that regime and other similar training cases. To produce probabilistic MDA8 ozone forecasts, REGiS weighs and combines all of the developed regression models on the basis of the weather patterns predicted by an NWP model. REGiS is evaluated over the San Joaquin Valley in California and the northeastern plains of Colorado. The results suggest that the model performs best when trained and adjusted separately for an individual AQ station and its corresponding meteorological site.

On the origin of regional spring time ozone episodes in the Western Mediterranean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kalabokas, Pavlos; Hjorth, Jens; Foret, Gilles; Dufour, Gaëlle; Eremenko, Maxim; Siour, Guillaume; Cuesta, Juan; Beekmann, Matthias

2017-04-01

For the identification of regional spring time ozone episodes, rural EMEP ozone measurements from countries surrounding the Western Mediterranean (Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Malta) have been examined with emphasis on periods of high ozone, according to the daily variation of the afternoon (12:00 - 18:00) ozone. For two selected high ozone episodes in April-May 2008, composite NCEP/NCAR reanalysis maps of various meteorological parameters and/or their anomalies (geopotential height, specific humidity, vertical velocity omega, vector wind speed and temperature) at various tropospheric pressure levels have been examined together with the corresponding satellite IASI ozone measurements (at 3 and 10 km), CHIMERE simulations, vertical ozone soundings and HYSPLIT back trajectories (Kalabokas et al., 2016). The results show that high surface ozone is measured at several countries simultaneously over several days. Also, the examined spring ozone episodes in Western Mediterranean and Central Europe are linked to synoptic meteorological conditions very similar to those recently observed in summertime ozone episodes over the Eastern Mediterranean (Doche et al., 2014; Kalabokas et al., 2015 and references therein), where the transport of tropospheric ozone-rich air masses through atmospheric subsidence influences significantly the boundary layer and surface ozone concentrations. In particular, the geographic areas with observed tropospheric subsidence seem to be the transition regions between high pressure and low pressure systems. IASI satellite measurements show extended areas of high tropospheric ozone over the low pressure systems adjacent to the anticyclones, which influence significantly the boundary layer and surface ozone concentrations within the anticyclones by subsidence and advection, in addition to the photochemically produced ozone there, resulting to exceedances of the 60 ppb standard for human health protection over extended geographical areas. References Doche, C., Dufour, G., Foret, G., Eremenko, M., Cuesta, J., Beekmann, M., and Kalabokas, P., 2014. Summertime tropospheric-ozone variability over the Mediterranean basin observed with IASI, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10589-10600. Kalabokas P. D., Thouret V., Cammas J.-P., Volz-Τhomas A., Boulanger D., Repapis C.C., 2015. The geographical distribution of meteorological parameters associated with high and low summer ozone levels in the lower troposphere and the boundary layer over the eastern Mediterranean (Cairo case), Tellus B, 67, 27853, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v67.27853. Kalabokas P., J. Hjorth, G. Foret, G. Dufour, M. Eremenko, G. Siour, J. Cuesta, M. Beekmann, 2016. An investigation on the origin of regional spring time ozone episodes in the Western Mediterranean and Central Europe. Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., doi:10.5194/acp-2016-615.

Global ozone and air quality: a multi-model assessment of risks to human health and crops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellingsen, K.; Gauss, M.; van Dingenen, R.; Dentener, F. J.; Emberson, L.; Fiore, A. M.; Schultz, M. G.; Stevenson, D. S.; Ashmore, M. R.; Atherton, C. S.; Bergmann, D. J.; Bey, I.; Butler, T.; Drevet, J.; Eskes, H.; Hauglustaine, D. A.; Isaksen, I. S. A.; Horowitz, L. W.; Krol, M.; Lamarque, J. F.; Lawrence, M. G.; van Noije, T.; Pyle, J.; Rast, S.; Rodriguez, J.; Savage, N.; Strahan, S.; Sudo, K.; Szopa, S.; Wild, O.

2008-02-01

Within ACCENT, a European Network of Excellence, eighteen atmospheric models from the U.S., Europe, and Japan calculated present (2000) and future (2030) concentrations of ozone at the Earth's surface with hourly temporal resolution. Comparison of model results with surface ozone measurements in 14 world regions indicates that levels and seasonality of surface ozone in North America and Europe are characterized well by global models, with annual average biases typically within 5-10 nmol/mol. However, comparison with rather sparse observations over some regions suggest that most models overestimate annual ozone by 15-20 nmol/mol in some locations. Two scenarios from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and one from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (IPCC SRES) have been implemented in the models. This study focuses on changes in near-surface ozone and their effects on human health and vegetation. Different indices and air quality standards are used to characterise air quality. We show that often the calculated changes in the different indices are closely inter-related. Indices using lower thresholds are more consistent between the models, and are recommended for global model analysis. Our analysis indicates that currently about two-thirds of the regions considered do not meet health air quality standards, whereas only 2-4 regions remain below the threshold. Calculated air quality exceedances show moderate deterioration by 2030 if current emissions legislation is followed and slight improvements if current emissions reduction technology is used optimally. For the "business as usual" scenario severe air quality problems are predicted. We show that model simulations of air quality indices are particularly sensitive to how well ozone is represented, and improved accuracy is needed for future projections. Additional measurements are needed to allow a more quantitative assessment of the risks to human health and vegetation from changing levels of surface ozone.

Impacts of Oil and Gas Production on Winter Ozone Pollution in the Uintah Basin Using Model Source Apportionment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tran, H. N. Q.; Tran, T. T.; Mansfield, M. L.; Lyman, S. N.

2014-12-01

Contributions of emissions from oil and gas activities to elevated ozone concentrations in the Uintah Basin - Utah were evaluated using the CMAQ Integrated Source Apportionment Method (CMAQ-ISAM) technique, and were compared with the results of traditional budgeting methods. Unlike the traditional budgeting method, which compares simulations with and without emissions of the source(s) in question to quantify its impacts, the CMAQ-ISAM technique assigns tags to emissions of each source and tracks their evolution through physical and chemical processes to quantify the final ozone product yield from the source. Model simulations were performed for two episodes in winter 2013 of low and high ozone to provide better understanding of source contributions under different weather conditions. Due to the highly nonlinear ozone chemistry, results obtained from the two methods differed significantly. The growing oil and gas industry in the Uintah Basin is the largest contributor to the elevated zone (>75 ppb) observed in the Basin. This study therefore provides an insight into the impact of oil and gas industry on the ozone issue, and helps in determining effective control strategies.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide and chlorofluoromethanes - Combined effects on stratospheric ozone, temperature, and surface temperature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callis, L. B.; Natarajan, M.

1981-01-01

The effects of combined CO2 and CFCl3 and CF2Cl2 time-dependent scenarios on atmospheric O3 and temperature are described; the steady-state levels of O3 and surface temperature, to which the chlorofluoromethane scenario tends in the presence of twice and four time ambient CO2, are examined; and surface temperature changes, caused by the combined effects, are established. A description of the model and of the experiments is presented. Results indicate that (1) the total ozone time history is significantly different from that due to the chlorofluoromethane alone; (2) a local ozone minimum occurs in the upper stratosphere about 45 years from the present with a subsequent ozone increase, then decline; and (3) steady-state solutions indicate that tropospheric temperature and water vapor increases, associated with increased infrared opacity, cause significant changes in tropospheric ozone levels for 2 x CO2 and 4 x CO2, without the addition of chlorofluoromethanes.

Ozone destruction through heterogeneous chemistry following the eruption of El Chichon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hofmann, David J.; Solomon, Susan

1989-01-01

The results of ozone observations at northern midlatitudes in late 1982 through 1983, following the eruption of El Chichon are discussed, together with the observations of other trace gases which may be linked to possible variations in ozone chemistry. These results are related to the in situ aerosol observations following the El Chicon eruption, with particular attention given to data relevant to heterogeneous reactions, such as the aerosol surface area and weight percent H2SO4. It is shown that, at midlatitudes, the observed volcanic-particle surface area reached a maximum of about 50 sq microns/cu m (above a typical background value of about 0.75) at an altitude of 18-20 km in early 1983; this enhancement of surface area is about the same as that encountered in stratospheric clouds in the Antarctic, suggesting a possible basis for ozone depletion through heterogeneous chemistry. The fraction of ozone reduction that may have occurred as a result of heterogeneous chemicl effects is estimated.

CAMx Ozone Source Attribution in the Eastern United States using Guidance from Observations during DISCOVER-AQ Maryland

PubMed Central

Goldberg, Daniel L.; Vinciguerra, Timothy P.; Anderson, Daniel C.; Hembeck, Linda; Canty, Timothy P.; Ehrman, Sheryl H.; Martins, Douglas K.; Stauffer, Ryan M.; Thompson, Anne M.; Salawitch, Ross J.; Dickerson, Russell R.

2018-01-01

A Comprehensive Air-Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) version 6.10 simulation was assessed through comparison with data acquired during NASA’s 2011 DISCOVER-AQ Maryland field campaign. Comparisons for the baseline simulation (CB05 chemistry, EPA 2011 National Emissions Inventory) show a model overestimate of NOy by +86.2% and an underestimate of HCHO by −28.3%. We present a new model framework (CB6r2 chemistry, MEGAN v2.1 biogenic emissions, 50% reduction in mobile NOx, enhanced representation of isoprene nitrates) that better matches observations. The new model framework attributes 31.4% more surface ozone in Maryland to electric generating units (EGUs) and 34.6% less ozone to on-road mobile sources. Surface ozone becomes more NOx-limited throughout the eastern United States compared to the baseline simulation. The baseline model therefore likely underestimates the effectiveness of anthropogenic NOx reductions as well as the current contribution of EGUs to surface ozone. PMID:29618849

CAMx Ozone Source Attribution in the Eastern United States using Guidance from Observations during DISCOVER-AQ Maryland.

PubMed

Goldberg, Daniel L; Vinciguerra, Timothy P; Anderson, Daniel C; Hembeck, Linda; Canty, Timothy P; Ehrman, Sheryl H; Martins, Douglas K; Stauffer, Ryan M; Thompson, Anne M; Salawitch, Ross J; Dickerson, Russell R

2016-03-16

A Comprehensive Air-Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) version 6.10 simulation was assessed through comparison with data acquired during NASA's 2011 DISCOVER-AQ Maryland field campaign. Comparisons for the baseline simulation (CB05 chemistry, EPA 2011 National Emissions Inventory) show a model overestimate of NO y by +86.2% and an underestimate of HCHO by -28.3%. We present a new model framework (CB6r2 chemistry, MEGAN v2.1 biogenic emissions, 50% reduction in mobile NO x , enhanced representation of isoprene nitrates) that better matches observations. The new model framework attributes 31.4% more surface ozone in Maryland to electric generating units (EGUs) and 34.6% less ozone to on-road mobile sources. Surface ozone becomes more NO x -limited throughout the eastern United States compared to the baseline simulation. The baseline model therefore likely underestimates the effectiveness of anthropogenic NO x reductions as well as the current contribution of EGUs to surface ozone.

Highly elevated atmospheric levels of volatile organic compounds in the Uintah Basin, Utah.

PubMed

Helmig, D; Thompson, C R; Evans, J; Boylan, P; Hueber, J; Park, J-H

2014-05-06

Oil and natural gas production in the Western United States has grown rapidly in recent years, and with this industrial expansion, growing environmental concerns have arisen regarding impacts on water supplies and air quality. Recent studies have revealed highly enhanced atmospheric levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from primary emissions in regions of heavy oil and gas development and associated rapid photochemical production of ozone during winter. Here, we present surface and vertical profile observations of VOC from the Uintah Basin Winter Ozone Studies conducted in January-February of 2012 and 2013. These measurements identify highly elevated levels of atmospheric alkane hydrocarbons with enhanced rates of C2-C5 nonmethane hydrocarbon (NMHC) mean mole fractions during temperature inversion events in 2013 at 200-300 times above the regional and seasonal background. Elevated atmospheric NMHC mole fractions coincided with build-up of ambient 1-h ozone to levels exceeding 150 ppbv (parts per billion by volume). The total annual mass flux of C2-C7 VOC was estimated at 194 ± 56 × 10(6) kg yr(-1), equivalent to the annual VOC emissions of a fleet of ∼100 million automobiles. Total annual fugitive emission of the aromatic compounds benzene and toluene, considered air toxics, were estimated at 1.6 ± 0.4 × 10(6) and 2.0 ± 0.5 × 10(6) kg yr(-1), respectively. These observations reveal a strong causal link between oil and gas emissions, accumulation of air toxics, and significant production of ozone in the atmospheric surface layer.

The chemical and radiative effects of the Mount Pinatubo eruption

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kinneson, Douglas E.; Grant, Keith E.; Connell, Peter S.; Rotman, Douglas A.; Wuebbles, Donald J.

1994-01-01

To clarify the mechanisms leading to effects on stratospheric ozone, time-dependent stratospheric aerosol and gas experiment II (SAGE II) and cryogenic limb array elaton spectrometer (CLAES) aerosol optical extinction data and SAGE II surface area density are used as parameters in a two-dimensional (2-D) zonally averaged chemical radiative transport model. The model was integrated with time from before the eruption through December 1993. The modeled impact on global ozone results from increased rates of heterogeneous reactions on sulfate aerosols and from the increased radiative heating and scattering caused by these aerosols. When the aerosol heating is allowed to modify the temperature distribution, the maximum change calculated in equatorial column ozone is -1.6%. The calculated equatorial temperature change and peak local ozone change in October 1991 are +6K and -4%, respectively. When aerosol heating perturbs the circulation in the model, the maximum change in equatorial column ozone is -6%. Increased heterogeneous processing on sulfate aerosols is calculated to have changed equatorial column ozone in late 1991 by -1.5%. Global column ozone in the model in 1992 and 1993 changed by -2.8% and -2.4%, respectively. The relationship of ozone-controlling processes in the lower stratosphere is altered as well; HO(x) becomes the most important catalytic cycle, followed by ClO(x) and NO(x). This is driven by significant changes in trace gas concentrations. In October 1991, lower stratospheric, equatorial NO(x) decreased by 40%, ClO(x) increased by 60%, and HO(x) increased by 25%. When the effect of heterogeneous chemical processing on sulfate aerosols is combined with aerosol heating, modifying either circulation or temperature, dramatically different ozone fingerprints with time and latitude are predicted. Model-derived changes in the equatorial region in column ozone best represented the observed data when perturbed circulation was combined with heterogeneous chemical effects. However, at high latitudes, the increased ozone production from the strengthening of the mean circulation tends to cancel the heterogeneous reduction of ozone. This is not in good agreement with observed data, especially in 1992 and 1993. When the circulation is held fixed and the temperature allowed to change, and heterogeneous chemical effects are included, the equatorial ozone decrease predicted was too small for 1991. However, the mid- to high-latitude decrease in 1992 and 1993 is in better agreement with observed data.

Multi-Decadal Global Cooling and Unprecedented Ozone Loss Following a Regional Nuclear Conflict

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mills, M. J.; Toon, O. B.; Lee-Taylor, J. M.; Robock, A.

2014-12-01

We present the first study of the global impacts of a regional nuclear war with an Earth system model including atmospheric chemistry, ocean dynamics, and interactive sea-ice and land models (Mills et al., 2014). A limited, regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan in which each side detonates 50 15-kt weapons could produce about 5 Tg of black carbon. This would self-loft to the stratosphere, where it would spread globally, producing a sudden drop in surface temperatures and intense heating of the stratosphere. Using the Community Earth System Model with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (CESM1(WACCM)), we calculate an e-folding time of 8.7 years for stratospheric black carbon, compared to 4-6.5 years for previous studies (figure panel a). Our calculations show that global ozone losses of 20-50% over populated areas, levels unprecedented in human history, would accompany the coldest average surface temperatures in the last 1000 years (figure panel c). We calculate summer enhancements in UV indices of 30-80% over Mid-Latitudes, suggesting widespread damage to human health, agriculture, and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Killing frosts would reduce growing seasons by 10-40 days per year for 5 years. Surface temperatures would be reduced for more than 25 years, due to thermal inertia and albedo effects in the ocean and expanded sea ice. The combined cooling and enhanced UV would put significant pressures on global food supplies and could trigger a global nuclear famine. Knowledge of the impacts of 100 small nuclear weapons should motivate the elimination of the more than 17,000 nuclear weapons that exist today. Mills, M. J., O. B. Toon, J. Lee-Taylor, and A. Robock (2014), Multidecadal global cooling and unprecedented ozone loss following a regional nuclear conflict, Earth's Future, 2(4), 161-176, doi:10.1002/2013EF000205.

Seasonal prediction of US summertime ozone using statistical analysis of large scale climate patterns.

PubMed

Shen, Lu; Mickley, Loretta J

2017-03-07

We develop a statistical model to predict June-July-August (JJA) daily maximum 8-h average (MDA8) ozone concentrations in the eastern United States based on large-scale climate patterns during the previous spring. We find that anomalously high JJA ozone in the East is correlated with these springtime patterns: warm tropical Atlantic and cold northeast Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs), as well as positive sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies over Hawaii and negative SLP anomalies over the Atlantic and North America. We then develop a linear regression model to predict JJA MDA8 ozone from 1980 to 2013, using the identified SST and SLP patterns from the previous spring. The model explains ∼45% of the variability in JJA MDA8 ozone concentrations and ∼30% variability in the number of JJA ozone episodes (>70 ppbv) when averaged over the eastern United States. This seasonal predictability results from large-scale ocean-atmosphere interactions. Warm tropical Atlantic SSTs can trigger diabatic heating in the atmosphere and influence the extratropical climate through stationary wave propagation, leading to greater subsidence, less precipitation, and higher temperatures in the East, which increases surface ozone concentrations there. Cooler SSTs in the northeast Pacific are also associated with more summertime heatwaves and high ozone in the East. On average, models participating in the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project fail to capture the influence of this ocean-atmosphere interaction on temperatures in the eastern United States, implying that such models would have difficulty simulating the interannual variability of surface ozone in this region.

Does ozone enhance the remineralizing potential of nanohydroxyapatite on artificially demineralized enamel? A laser induced fluorescence study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Srinivasan, Samuelraj; Prabhu, Vijendra; Chandra, Subhash; Koshy, Shalini; Acharya, Shashidhar; Mahato, Krishna K.

2014-02-01

The present era of minimal invasive dentistry emphasizes the early detection and remineralization of initial enamel caries. Ozone has been shown to reverse the initial demineralization before the integrity of the enamel surface is lost. Nano-hydroxyapatite is a proven remineralizing agent for early enamel caries. In the present study, the effect of ozone in enhancing the remineralizing potential of nano-hydroxyapatite on artificially demineralized enamel was investigated using laser induced fluorescence. Thirty five sound human premolars were collected from healthy subjects undergoing orthodontic treatment. Fluorescence was recorded by exciting the mesial surfaces using 325 nm He-Cd laser with 2 mW power. Tooth specimens were subjected to demineralization to create initial enamel caries. Following which the specimens were divided into three groups, i.e ozone (ozonated water for 2 min), without ozone and artificial saliva. Remineralization regimen was followed for 3 weeks. The fluorescence spectra of the specimens were recorded from all the three experimental groups at baseline, after demineralization and remineralization. The average spectrum for each experimental group was used for statistical analysis. Fluorescence intensities of Ozone treated specimens following remineralization were higher than that of artificial saliva, and this difference was found to be statistically significant (P<0.0001). In a nutshell, ozone enhanced the remineralizing potential of nanohydroxyapatite, and laser induced fluorescence was found to be effective in assessing the surface mineral changes in enamel. Ozone can be considered an effective agent in reversing the initial enamel caries there by preventing the tooth from entering into the repetitive restorative cycle.

Seasonal prediction of US summertime ozone using statistical analysis of large scale climate patterns

PubMed Central

Mickley, Loretta J.

2017-01-01

We develop a statistical model to predict June–July–August (JJA) daily maximum 8-h average (MDA8) ozone concentrations in the eastern United States based on large-scale climate patterns during the previous spring. We find that anomalously high JJA ozone in the East is correlated with these springtime patterns: warm tropical Atlantic and cold northeast Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs), as well as positive sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies over Hawaii and negative SLP anomalies over the Atlantic and North America. We then develop a linear regression model to predict JJA MDA8 ozone from 1980 to 2013, using the identified SST and SLP patterns from the previous spring. The model explains ∼45% of the variability in JJA MDA8 ozone concentrations and ∼30% variability in the number of JJA ozone episodes (>70 ppbv) when averaged over the eastern United States. This seasonal predictability results from large-scale ocean–atmosphere interactions. Warm tropical Atlantic SSTs can trigger diabatic heating in the atmosphere and influence the extratropical climate through stationary wave propagation, leading to greater subsidence, less precipitation, and higher temperatures in the East, which increases surface ozone concentrations there. Cooler SSTs in the northeast Pacific are also associated with more summertime heatwaves and high ozone in the East. On average, models participating in the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project fail to capture the influence of this ocean–atmosphere interaction on temperatures in the eastern United States, implying that such models would have difficulty simulating the interannual variability of surface ozone in this region. PMID:28223483

Urban greening impacts on tropospheric ozone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grote, R.; Churkina, G.; Butler, T. M.; Morfopoulos, C.

2013-12-01

Cities are characterized by elevated air temperatures as well as high anthropogenic emissions of air pollutants. Cities' greening in form of urban parks, street trees, and vegetation on roofs and walls of buildings is supposed to generally mitigate negative impacts on human health and well-being. However, high emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) from certain popular urban plants in combination with the elevated concentrations of NOx have the potential to increase ground-level ozone concentrations - with negative impacts on health, agriculture, and climate. Policies targeting reduction of ground-level ozone in urban and suburban areas therefore must consider limiting BVOC emissions along with measures for decreasing NOx and VOC from anthropogenic sources. For this, integrated climate/ chemistry models are needed that take into account the species-specific physiological responses of urban plants which in turn drive their emission behavior. Current models of urban climate and air quality 1) do not account for the feedback between ozone concentrations, productivity, and BVOC emission and 2) do not distinguish different physiological properties of urban tree species. Instead environmental factors such as light, temperature, carbon dioxide, and water supply are applied disregarding interactions between such influences. Thus we may not yet be able to represent the impacts of air pollution under multiple changed conditions such as climate change, altered anthropogenic emission patterns, and new urban structures. We present here the implementation of the new BVOC emission model (Morfopolous et al., in press) that derives BVOC emissions directly from the electron production potential and consumption from photosynthesis calculation that is already supplied by the CLM land surface model. The new approach has the advantage that many environmental drivers of BVOC emissions are implicitly considered in the description of plant photosynthesis and phenology. We investigate the tradeoff between vegetation driven ozone -reduction and -formation processes in dependence on temperature, radiation, CO2 and O3 concentrations. We have parameterized suitable plant functional types for different urban greening structures, currently focusing on central European vegetation. The modified CLM model is applied in a global (CESM) and a regional climate/ air quality model (WRF-Chem) to calculate realistic ozone concentrations in the influence zones of urban conglomerations. BVOC emissions and their impacts are also calculated with the standard MEGAN2.1 approach for comparison. The simulation results are analyzed and discussed in view of the models suitability for air quality scenario estimates under simultaneously changing climate, anthropogenic emissions and plant species composition. References Morfopoulos, C., Prentice, I.C., Keenan T.F., Friedlingstein, P., Medlyn, B., Penuelas, J., Possel, M. (in press): A unifying conceptual model for the environmental responses of isoprene emission by plants. Annals of Botany

Scientific assessment of ozone depletion: 1991

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

Over the past few years, there have been highly significant advances in the understanding of the impact of human activities on the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer and the influence of changes in chemical composition of the radiative balance of the climate system. Specifically, since the last international scientific review (1989), there have been five major advances: (1) global ozone decreases; (2) polar ozone; (3) ozone and industrial halocarbons; (4) ozone and climate relations; and (5) ozone depletion potentials (ODP's) and global warming potentials (GWP's). These topics and others are discussed.

Impact of climate change on ozone-related mortality and morbidity in Europe.

PubMed

Orru, Hans; Andersson, Camilla; Ebi, Kristie L; Langner, Joakim; Aström, Christofer; Forsberg, Bertil

2013-02-01

Ozone is a highly oxidative pollutant formed from precursors in the presence of sunlight, associated with respiratory morbidity and mortality. All else being equal, concentrations of ground-level ozone are expected to increase due to climate change. Ozone-related health impacts under a changing climate are projected using emission scenarios, models and epidemiological data. European ozone concentrations are modelled with the model of atmospheric transport and chemistry (MATCH)-RCA3 (50×50 km). Projections from two climate models, ECHAM4 and HadCM3, are applied under greenhouse gas emission scenarios A2 and A1B, respectively. We applied a European-wide exposure-response function to gridded population data and country-specific baseline mortality and morbidity. Comparing the current situation (1990-2009) with the baseline period (1961-1990), the largest increase in ozone-associated mortality and morbidity due to climate change (4-5%) have occurred in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK. Comparing the baseline period and the future periods (2021-2050 and 2041-2060), much larger increases in ozone-related mortality and morbidity are projected for Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal, with the impact being stronger using the climate projection from ECHAM4 (A2). However, in Nordic and Baltic countries the same magnitude of decrease is projected. The current study suggests that projected effects of climate change on ozone concentrations could differentially influence mortality and morbidity across Europe.

N-fixation in legumes--An assessment of the potential threat posed by ozone pollution.

PubMed

Hewitt, D K L; Mills, G; Hayes, F; Norris, D; Coyle, M; Wilkinson, S; Davies, W

2016-01-01

The growth, development and functioning of legumes are often significantly affected by exposure to tropospheric ozone (O3) pollution. However, surprisingly little is known about how leguminous Nitrogen (N) fixation responds to ozone, with a scarcity of studies addressing this question in detail. In the last decade, ozone impacts on N-fixation in soybean, cowpea, mung bean, peanut and clover have been shown for concentrations which are now commonly recorded in ambient air or are likely to occur in the near future. We provide a synthesis of the existing literature addressing this issue, and also explore the effects that may occur on an agroecosystem scale by predicting reductions in Trifolium (clovers) root nodule biomass in United Kingdom (UK) pasture based on ozone concentration data for a "high" (2006) and "average" ozone year (2008). Median 8% and 5% reductions in clover root nodule biomass in pasture across the UK were predicted for 2006 and 2008 respectively. Seasonal exposure to elevated ozone, or short-term acute concentrations >100 ppb, are sufficient to reduce N-fixation and/or impact nodulation, in a range of globally-important legumes. However, an increasing global burden of CO2, the use of artificial fertiliser, and reactive N-pollution may partially mitigate impacts of ozone on N-fixation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical effect on ozone deposition over seawater

EPA Science Inventory

Surface layer resistance plays an important role in determining ozone deposition velocity over seawater. Recent studies suggest that surface layer resistance over sea-water is influenced by wind-speed and chemical interaction at the air-water interface. Here, we investigate the e...

Chemical Controls of Ozone Dry Deposition to the Sea Surface Microlayer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carpenter, L.; Chance, R.; Tinel, L.; Saint, A.; Sherwen, T.; Loades, D.; Evans, M. J.; Boxhall, P.; Hamilton, J.; Stolle, C.; Wurl, O.; Ribas-Ribas, M.; Pereira, R.

2017-12-01

Oceanic dry deposition of atmospheric ozone (O3) is both the largest and most uncertain O3 depositional sink, and is widely acknowledged to be controlled largely by chemical reactions in the sea surface microlayer (SML) involving iodide (I-) and dissolved organic material (DOM). These reactions not only determine how quickly O3 can be removed from the atmosphere, but also result in emissions of trace gases including volatile organic compounds and may constitute a source of secondary organic aerosols to the marine atmosphere. Iodide concentrations at the sea surface vary by approximately an order of magnitude spatially, leading to more than fivefold variation in ozone deposition velocities (and volatile iodine fluxes). Sea-surface temperature is a reasonable predictor of [I-], however two recent parameterisations for surface I- differ by a factor of two at low latitudes. The nature and reactivity of marine DOM to O3 is almost completely unknown, although studies have suggested approximately equivalent chemical control of I- and DOM on ozone deposition. Here we present substantial new measurements of oceanic I- in both bulk seawater and the overlying SML, and show improved estimates of the global sea surface iodide distribution. We also present analyses of water-soluble DOM isolated from the SML and bulk seawater, and corresponding laboratory studies of ozone uptake to bulk and SML seawater, with the aim of characterizing the reactivity of O3 towards marine DOM.

Air-quality implications of widespread adoption of cool roofs on ozone and particulate matter in southern California

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ban-Weiss, G. A.; Lee, S. M.; Katzenstein, A. S.; Carreras-Sospedra, M.; Zhang, X.; Farina, S.; Vahmani, P.; Fine, P.; Epstein, S. A.

2017-12-01

The installation of roofing materials with increased solar reflectance (i.e., "cool roofs") can mitigate the urban heat island effect and reduce energy use. In addition, meteorological changes, along with the possibility of enhanced UV reflection from these surfaces, can have complex impacts on ozone and PM2.5 concentrations. We aim to evaluate the air-quality impacts of widespread cool-roof installations prescribed by building energy efficiency standards within the heavily populated and polluted South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) in Southern California. Development of a comprehensive rooftop area database and evaluation of spectral reflectance measurements of roofing materials allows us to predict potential future changes in solar and UV reflectance for simulations using the Weather Research Forecast and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models. Meteorological simulations indicate a decrease in daily maximum temperatures, daily maximum boundary layer heights, and ventilation coefficients throughout the SoCAB upon widespread installation of cool roofs. CMAQ simulations show significant increases in PM2.5 concentrations and policy-relevant design values. Changes in 8-h ozone concentrations depend on the potential change in UV reflectance, ranging from a decrease in population-weighted concentrations when UV reflectance remains unchanged to an increase when changes in UV reflectance are at an upper bound. However, 8-h policy-relevant ozone design values increase in all cases. Although the other benefits of cool roofs could outweigh small air-quality penalties, UV reflectance standards for cool roofing materials could mitigate these negative consequences. Results of this study motivate the careful consideration of future rooftop and pavement solar reflectance modification policies.

Impact of biogenic very short-lived bromine on the Antarctic ozone hole during the 21st century

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fernandez, Rafael P.; Kinnison, Douglas E.; Lamarque, Jean -Francois

Active bromine released from the photochemical decomposition of biogenic very short-lived bromocarbons (VSL Br) enhances stratospheric ozone depletion. Based on a dual set of 1960–2100 coupled chemistry–climate simulations (i.e. with and without VSL Br), we show that the maximum Antarctic ozone hole depletion increases by up to 14 % when natural VSL Br are considered, which is in better agreement with ozone observations. The impact of the additional 5 pptv VSL Br on Antarctic ozone is most evident in the periphery of the ozone hole, producing an expansion of the ozone hole area of ~5 million km 2, which is equivalentmore » in magnitude to the recently estimated Antarctic ozone healing due to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. We find that the inclusion of VSL Br in CAM-Chem (Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry, version 4.0) does not introduce a significant delay of the modelled ozone return date to 1980 October levels, but instead affects the depth and duration of the simulated ozone hole. Our analysis further shows that total bromine-catalysed ozone destruction in the lower stratosphere surpasses that of chlorine by the year 2070 and indicates that natural VSL Br chemistry would dominate Antarctic ozone seasonality before the end of the 21st century. As a result, this work suggests a large influence of biogenic bromine on the future Antarctic ozone layer.« less

Impact of biogenic very short-lived bromine on the Antarctic ozone hole during the 21st century

DOE PAGES

Fernandez, Rafael P.; Kinnison, Douglas E.; Lamarque, Jean -Francois; ...

2017-02-03

Active bromine released from the photochemical decomposition of biogenic very short-lived bromocarbons (VSL Br) enhances stratospheric ozone depletion. Based on a dual set of 1960–2100 coupled chemistry–climate simulations (i.e. with and without VSL Br), we show that the maximum Antarctic ozone hole depletion increases by up to 14 % when natural VSL Br are considered, which is in better agreement with ozone observations. The impact of the additional 5 pptv VSL Br on Antarctic ozone is most evident in the periphery of the ozone hole, producing an expansion of the ozone hole area of ~5 million km 2, which is equivalentmore » in magnitude to the recently estimated Antarctic ozone healing due to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. We find that the inclusion of VSL Br in CAM-Chem (Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry, version 4.0) does not introduce a significant delay of the modelled ozone return date to 1980 October levels, but instead affects the depth and duration of the simulated ozone hole. Our analysis further shows that total bromine-catalysed ozone destruction in the lower stratosphere surpasses that of chlorine by the year 2070 and indicates that natural VSL Br chemistry would dominate Antarctic ozone seasonality before the end of the 21st century. As a result, this work suggests a large influence of biogenic bromine on the future Antarctic ozone layer.« less

The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction: A lethal mechanism involving anhydrite target rocks

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brett, R.

1992-01-01

The Chicxulub Crater, Yucatan, Mexico, is a leading contender as the site for the impact event that caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinctions. A considerable thickness of anhydrite (CaSO4) forms part of the target rock. High temperatures resulting from impact would drive SO2 off from the anhydrite. Hundreds of billions of tonnes of sulfuric acid aerosol would thus enter the stratosphere and cause considerable cooling of the Earth's surface, decrease photosynthesis by orders of magnitude, deplete the ozone layer, and permit increased UV radiation to reach the Earth's surface. Finally, the aerosol would fall back to Earth as acid rain and devastate land and some lacustrine biota and near-surface marine creatures. The presence of anhydrite in the Chicxulub target rock may thus help explain the many extinctions observed at the K-T boundary. ?? 1992.

Surface ozone measurements in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula (Huelva, Spain).

PubMed

Carnero, Jose A Adame; Bolívar, Juan P; de la Morena, Benito A

2010-02-01

Photochemical ozone pollution of the lower troposphere (LT) is a very complex process involving meteorological, topographic emissions and chemical parameters. Ozone is considered the most important air pollutant in rural, suburban and industrial areas of many sites in the world since it strongly affects human health, vegetation and forest ecosystems, and its increase during the last decades has been significant. In addition, ozone is a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. For these reasons, it is necessary to carry out investigations that determine the behaviour of ozone at different locations. The aim of this work is to understand the levels and temporal variations of surface ozone in an industrial-urban region of the Southwest Iberian Peninsula. The study is based on ozone hourly data recorded during a 6-year period, 2000 to 2005 at four stations and meteorological data from a coastal station. The stations used were El Arenosillo and Cartaya--both coastal stations, Huelva--an urban site and Valverde--an inland station 50 km away from the coastline. The general characteristics of the ozone series, seasonal and daily ozone cycles as well as number of exceedances of the threshold established in the European Ozone Directive have been calculated and analysed. Analysis of the meteorological data shows that winter-autumn seasons are governed by the movement of synoptic weather systems; however, in the spring-summer seasons, both synoptic and mesoescale conditions exist. Average hourly ozone concentrations range from 78.5 +/- 0.1 microg m(-3) at Valverde to 57.8 +/- 0.2 microg m(-3) at Huelva. Ozone concentrations present a seasonal variability with higher values in summer months, while in wintertime, lower values are recorded. A seasonal daily evolution has also been found with minimum levels around 08:00 UTC, which occurs approximately 1-1.5 h after sunrise, whereas the maximum is reached at about 16:00 UTC. Furthermore, during summer, the maximum value at El Arenosillo and Valverde stations remains very uniformed until 20:00 UTC. These levels could be due to the photochemical production in situ and also to the horizontal and vertical ozone transport at El Arenosillo from the reservoir layers in the sea and in the case of Valverde, the horizontal transport, thanks to the marine breeze. Finally, the data have been evaluated relative to the thresholds defined in the European Ozone Directive. The threshold to protect human health has been exceeded during the spring and summer months mainly at El Arenosillo and Valverde. The vegetation threshold has also been frequently exceeded, ranging from 131 days at Cartaya up to 266 days at Valverde. The results in the seasonal and daily variations demonstrate that El Arenosillo and Valverde stations show higher ozone concentrations than Cartaya and Huelva during the spring and summer months. Under meteorological conditions characterized by land-sea breeze circulation, the daytime sea breeze transports the emissions from urban and industrial sources in the SW further inland. Under this condition, the area located downwind to the NE is affected very easily by high ozone concentrations, which is the case for the Valverde station. Nevertheless, according to this circulation model, the El Arenosillo station located at the coast SE from these sources is not directly affected by their emissions. The ozone concentrations observed at El Arenosillo can be explained by the ozone residual layer over the sea, similar to other coastal sites in the Mediterranean basin. The temporal variations of the ozone concentrations have been studied at four measurement sites in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The results obtained point out that industrial and urban emissions combined with specific meteorological conditions in spring and summer cause high ozone levels which exceed the recommended threshold limits and could affect the vegetation and human health in this area. This work is the first investigation related to surface ozone in this region; therefore, the results obtained may be a useful tool to air quality managers and policy-makers to apply possible air control strategies towards a reduction of ozone exceedances and the impact on human health and vegetation. Due to the levels, variability and underlying boundary layer dynamics, it is necessary to extend this research in this geographical area with the purpose of improving the understanding of photochemical air pollution in the Western Mediterranean Basin and in the south of the Iberian Peninsula.

Ozone bioindicator sampling and estimation

Treesearch

Gretchen C, Smith; William D. Smith; John W. Coulston

2007-01-01

Ozone is an important forest stressor that has been measured at known phytotoxic levels at forest locations across the United States. The percent forest exhibiting negative impacts from ozone air pollution is one of the Montreal Process indicators of forest health and vitality. The ozone bioindicator data of the U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Program...

The Impact of Ozone Depleting Substances on Tropical Upwelling, as Revealed by the Absence of Lower Stratospheric Cooling since the Late 1990s

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polvani, L. M.; Wang, L.; Aquila, V.; Waugh, D.

2016-12-01

The impact of ozone depleting substances on global lower stratospheric temperature trends is widely recognized. In the tropics, however, understanding lower stratospheric temperature trends has proven more challenging. While the tropical lower stratospheric cooling observed from 1979 to 1997 has also been shown to result almost entirely from ozone decreases, those ozone trends cannot be of chemical origin, as active chlorine is not abundant in the tropical lower stratosphere. The 1979-1997 tropical ozone trends are believed to originate from enhanced upwelling which, it is often stated, would be driven by increasing concentrations of well mixed greenhouse gases. In this study, using simple arguments based on observational evidence after 1997, combined with model integrations with incrementally added single forcings, we argue that ozone depleting substances, not well mixed greenhouse gases, have been the primary driver of temperature and ozone trends in the tropical lower stratosphere until 1997, and this has occurred because ozone depleting substances affect tropical upwelling and the entire Brewer-Dobson circulation.