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Three years of high time-resolution air pollution monitoring in the complex multi-source harbor of New York and New Jersey
Citation:
Hagler, G., D. Birkett, R. Henry, AND R. Peltier. Three years of high time-resolution air pollution monitoring in the complex multi-source harbor of New York and New Jersey. AEROSOL AND AIR QUALITY RESEARCH . Chinese Association for Aerosol Research in Taiwan, , Taiwan, Province Of China, 21(2):NA, (2020). https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.02.0069
Impact/Purpose:
This study describes a multi-year air monitoring study to observe air quality near the Port during this period of emissions transition. High time-resolution multipollutant and meteorology measurements were conducted during the study timeframe, supporting in-depth analysis of air quality variability in a complex environment. This study demonstrates the novel insights that can be gained through continuous high-time resolution monitoring using a single monitoring location in a near-source area.
Description:
As in many areas worldwide, the port areas in the New York and New Jersey harbor are densely developed, with a significant human population located within several kilometers of numerous sources of emissions. Under these conditions, relating measured air quality changes to source emissions is particularly challenging, given the geographic density of sources without distinguishing gaseous or particulate composition source signatures. To better understand air quality during a time period of increasing emission controls at the Port of New York and New Jersey (“Port”), a research air monitoring station was situated to maximize the discernment of air pollution variability and source area influences. The study area includes a major airport, interstate highway, multiple port terminals and shipping lanes, and industrial sources, as well as more typical urban emissions of a large city. In order to use wind direction to separate the impact of these sources, the air monitoring station was sited to minimize collinearity of sources along ordinal directions from the site. Because air flow travel time from sources to the monitor were usually much less than one hour, minute-by-minute data were collected for three years (2013-2015), for sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NO, NO2), black carbon (BC), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and meteorology (wind speed, wind direction, temperature, humidity). For a one-year duration, hourly metals data were also collected. In comparison to the official ambient monitoring network in the United States measuring during the same time frame, the study-wide mean concentrations were low for most measured parameters (CO, NO2, and SO2 at or below the 10th percentile) and PM2.5 was slightly below the 90th percentile. However, variation related to proximate direct emissions was evident in the higher hourly average coefficient of variation for NO (2.65), SO2 (1.45) and BC (1.21), as well as high percentile values associated with wind directions from areas associated with the port terminals (NE and SSW of site) and power generation facilities (S/SW of site). During the third year of sampling, although median concentrations did not shift significantly, SO2 exhibited a decline in upper percentile concentrations and reduction of excursions in high time-resolution data; 95th percentiles declined by over half and wind-directional analyses indicated decreased influence by the port terminal area to the NE of the site. This study demonstrated the value of sustained high-time resolution, accurate monitoring data along with careful siting of a monitoring station to understand source area influences.
URLs/Downloads:
DOI: Three years of high time-resolution air pollution monitoring in the complex multi-source harbor of New York and New Jersey