Citation:

Gantt, B., G. Sarwar, J. Xing, H. Simon, D. Schwede, Bill Hutzell, R. Mathur, AND A. Saiz-Lopez. The Impact of Iodide-Mediated Ozone Deposition and Halogen Chemistry on Surface Ozone Concentrations Across the Continental United States. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 51(3):1458-1466, (2017). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b03556

Impact/Purpose:

The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Computational Exposure Division (CED) develops and evaluates data, decision-support tools, and models to be applied to media-specific or receptor-specific problem areas. CED uses modeling-based approaches to characterize exposures, evaluate fate and transport, and support environmental diagnostics/forensics with input from multiple data sources. It also develops media- and receptor-specific models, process models, and decision support tools for use both within and outside of EPA.

Description:

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 marine halogen chemistry accounted for in both the lateral boundary conditions and coastal waters surrounding the continental U.S. is examined using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Several nested simulations are conducted in which these halogen processes are implemented separately in the continental U.S. and hemispheric CMAQ domains, the latter providing lateral boundary conditions for the former. Overall, it is the combination of these processes within both the continental U.S. domain and from lateral boundary conditions that lead to the largest reductions in modeled surface O3 concentrations. Predicted reductions in surface O3 concentrations occur mainly along the coast where CMAQ typically has large overpredictions. These results suggest that a realistic representation of halogen processes in marine regions can improve model prediction of O3 concentrations near the coast.

URLs/Downloads:

Record Details: