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MODELING THE EFFECT OF CHLORINE EMISSIONS ON ATMOSPHERIC OZONE AND SECONDARY ORGANIC AEROSOL CONCENTRATIONS ACROSS THE UNITED STATES
Citation:
SARWAR, G. AND P. BHAVE. MODELING THE EFFECT OF CHLORINE EMISSIONS ON ATMOSPHERIC OZONE AND SECONDARY ORGANIC AEROSOL CONCENTRATIONS ACROSS THE UNITED STATES. Presented at NOAA/EPA Golden Jubilee Symposium , Durham, NC, September 20 - 21, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
The objective of this research is to develop chemical mechanisms that accurately represent the complex atmospheric chemistry involved in the formation of ozone and other, related, photochemically- produced pollutants such as secondary air toxics and organic aerosol precursors. This task will produce updated, state-of-the-art photochemical mechanisms, support the evaluation of these mechanisms with experimental data, and apply these mechanisms for regulatory and research purposes in emissions and observations-based models. The application of the models to provide scientific support for VOC-reactivity based ozone control policies will be a major focus of this task. The dissemination of results of model applications in this area (both ours and those from outside agencies) via the US German workshop agreement, are also supported as a small portion of this task. While this task primarily focuses on ozone-related issues, our mechanism development and evaluation will consider that these mechanisms should also be able to adequately predict the concentrations of other related photochemical species. This task is being performed in close collaboration with Task 12043, "Reducing Uncertainty in the Chemical Mechanisms of Aromatic and Biogenic Hydrocarbons" and Task 20461, "FY05 CMAQ Release."
Description:
This paper presents the modeled effects of natural and anthropogenic chlorine emissions on the atmospheric concentrations of ozone and secondary organic aerosol across the United States. The model calculations include anthropogenic molecular chlorine emissions, anthropogenic hypochlorous acid emissions from cooling towers and swimming pools, and natural molecular chlorine released from sea-salt aerosol. Air quality model simulations are performed for a selected summer period in 2001 and the results obtained with and without chlorine emissions are analyzed. The net effect of chlorine emissions on atmospheric ozone and secondary organic aerosol concentrations is presented in the accompanying article.