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Need and potential benefits of improving aloft air pollution characterization: A modeling perspective
Citation:
Mathur, R., C. Hogrefe, J. Szykman, G. Hagler, A. Hakami, AND S. Zhao. Need and potential benefits of improving aloft air pollution characterization: A modeling perspective. ITM 2019 - 37th International Technical Meeting on Air Pollution Modelling and its Application, Hamburg, GERMANY, September 23 - 27, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
We demonstrate that improvements in ozone distribution characterization at 400-500m altitude from aloft measurements are 3-4 times more effective in characterizing the surface-level daily maximum 8-hour average ozone (DM8O3) than improvements from surface measurements, since they directly quantify the amount of pollution imported to a location, and furnish key-missing information on processes and sources regulating background ozone and its modulation of ground-level concentrations.
Description:
Changing amounts of non-local (or background) air pollution contributions is cited as a key challenge for many regions in demonstrating compliance with the air quality standards, but feasible strategies to overcome associated knowledge gaps have been lacking. Applying our classical understanding of air pollution dynamics to widespread surface-level and aloft ozone measurements, in conjunction with process-based interpretation from Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system and detailed backward-sensitivity calculations that quantitatively link surface-level and aloft pollution, we show that quantitative characterization of the amount of ozone in the air entrained from aloft every morning as the atmospheric boundary layer grows in response to surface heating is a key component for characterizing background or the non-local contribution of ozone pollution at a location. We will discuss how continuous aloft air pollution measurements can cost-effectively be achieved through leveraging recent technological advances. Analysis of detailed calculations with the CMAQ-Adjoint model will be presented which show that improvements in ozone distribution characterization at 400-500m altitude from such measurements are 3-4 times more effective in characterizing the surface-level daily maximum 8-hour average ozone (DM8O3) than improvements from surface measurements, since they directly quantify the amount of pollution imported to a location, and furnish key-missing information on processes and sources regulating background ozone and its modulation of ground-level concentrations. Results from preliminary chemical data “nudging” experiments will be presented to further demonstrate the potential utility of aloft measurements in improving model-based next day air quality forecasts.