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Figure 1. Map of ozone measurements on August 2, 2001.
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NEAQS: New England Air Quality Study
Why?
New England can experience unhealthy levels of air pollution,
especially during the summer months. For example, figure 1 shows a
color-coded map of ozone pollution recorded on August 2, 2001. Areas
shaded with orange experienced ozone concentrations (measured in parts
per billion or ppb) that are considered unhealthy for people with
respiratory problems. Areas shaded in red had ozone levels that pose
health risks to everyone.
Note that on this day the worst ozone
pollution occurred in the coastal regions extending from Connecticut
into northeastern Maine. This distribution is believed to be caused by
long-range transport of pollutants from the East Coast metroplex
extending from Washington D.C. to Boston, long-range transport from the
industrial Midwest, local pollution from sources along the I-95
corridor, and coastal wind patterns associated with a meteorological
phenomenon known as the land-sea breeze circulation.
Aside from identifying the sources of pollution and pathways for
horizontal transport of pollutants, we must also understand the physical
processes that mix and distribute pollution vertically in the
atmosphere.
To help scientists
to understand New England's air quality better, the U.S. Congress funded
the New England Air Quality Study. Summer 2004 activities served as
a pilot study for a larger study that may occur in 2004. The overarching
goal of this program is to gain a better understanding of what causes
bad air quality in New England and, ultimately, to improve air quality
forecasts. Research at the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory
focuses on increasing our knowledge of the meteorological processes
that control air quality in the Northeast.
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Locations of instrumentation deployed for NEAQS and a sister project,
The New England Temperature and Air Quality Pilot Study. Profiler Data.
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What?
ETL deployed a
suite of sophisticated instruments to measure meteorological and air
chemistry profiles above land and at sea.
By Land
A scanning Doppler lidar was
situated at Rye Harbor State Park on the coast of New Hampshire. This
instrument provided detailed measurements of the sea breeze
circulation.
An integrated wind profiling observing system was deployed
at the Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island. This system
provided wind and temperature measurements from the surface to 2-4 km
above the surface for winds and 0.5-1.5 km above the surface for
temperature, depending on atmospheric conditions.
These wind and
temperature profiles observed maritime conditions offshore from the
lidar at Rye Harbor.
By Sea
On the NOAA research vessel Ron Brown, ETL
deployed a vertically pointing ozone lidar, a 915-MHz Doppler wind
profiler, and a GPS rawinsonde system. The lidar provides ozone and
aerosol backscatter intensity profiles from 200 to 2000 m above the
surface.
The wind profiler provides maritime wind conditions on a continuous
basis over the same altitude range as the lidar.
Together, these instruments assisted scientists in determining
the best course for the ship to follow in order to meet specific
scientific objectives. Standard meteorological soundings were
taken with the rawinsonde system to help characterize the marine
boundary layer. These soundings provided initial conditions
over the data sparse Atlantic for numerical modeling studies
conducted after the experiment. The locations of
instrumentation deployed for NEAQS and a sister project,
the New England
Temperature and Air Quality Pilot Study, are shown in the map.
Results
Scientists will use the datasets collected during the Summer 2004 to
quantify numerical model performance as a function of the
physical parameterizations contained in the models. The
ultimate goal of this work is to improve the meteorological
models used for air quality and temperature forecasting.
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