Diurnal and seasonal variability of surface ozone and NOxat a tropical coastal site: Association with mesoscale and synoptic meteorological conditions

Seasonal variability of hydrodynamics in the Vistula Estuary in 1994The Vistula Estuary is a coastal water body boasting free connection with the open sea, where mixing processes of marine and fluvial waters are maintained by local conditions. Based on results from a hydrodynamic model, applied to represent conditions in the year 1994, and using salinity as a tracer, it was found that fluvial water has a tendency to spread westward from the river mouth. This is in contradiction with the dominant wind direction in the region. Model results confirmed field observations of specific hydrological and meteorological conditions required to transport fluvial water northward, towards the Hel Peninsula.

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Ice nucleating particles at a coastal marine boundary layer site: correlations with aerosol type and meteorological conditions

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ◽

10.5194/acpd-15-16273-2015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (12) ◽

pp. 16273-16323 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

R. H. Mason ◽

M. Si ◽

J. Li ◽

C. Chou ◽

R. Dickie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Size Distribution ◽

Marine Boundary Layer ◽

Aerosol Particles ◽

Meteorological Conditions ◽

Marine Aerosols ◽

Coastal Site ◽

Carbon Particles ◽

Biological Particles ◽

Ice Nuclei ◽

Coastal Marine

Abstract. Information on what aerosol particle types are the major sources of ice nucleating particles (INPs) in the atmosphere is needed for climate predictions. To determine which aerosol particles are the major sources of immersion-mode INPs at a coastal site in Western Canada, we investigated correlations between INP number concentrations and both concentrations of different atmospheric particles and meteorological conditions. We show that INP number concentrations are strongly correlated with the number concentrations of fluorescent bioparticles between −15 and −25 °C, and that the size distribution of INPs is most consistent with the size distribution of fluorescent bioparticles. We conclude that biological particles were likely the major source of ice nuclei at freezing temperatures between −15 and −25 °C at this site for the time period studied. At −30 °C, INP number concentrations are also well correlated with number concentrations of the total aerosol particles ≥ 0.5 μm, suggesting that non-biological particles may have an important contribution to the population of INPs active at this temperature. As we found that black carbon particles were unlikely to be a major source of ice nuclei during this study, these non-biological INPs may include mineral dust. Furthermore, correlations involving tracers of marine aerosols and marine biological activity indicate that the majority of INPs measured at the coastal site likely originated from terrestrial rather than marine sources. Finally, six existing empirical parameterizations of ice nucleation were tested to determine if they accurately predict the measured INP number concentrations. We found that none of the parameterizations selected are capable of predicting INP number concentrations with high accuracy over the entire temperature range investigated.

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Sensitivity of Surface Ozone Simulation to Cumulus Parameterization

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology ◽

10.1175/2007jamc1780.1 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 47 (5) ◽

pp. 1456-1466 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Zhining Tao ◽

Allen Williams ◽

Ho-Chun Huang ◽

Michael Caughey ◽

Xin-Zhong Liang

Keyword(s):

Cloud Cover ◽

Surface Ozone ◽

Meteorological Conditions ◽

Cumulus Parameterization ◽

Daily Maximum ◽

Boundary Layer Height ◽

Ozone Concentrations ◽

Simulated Precipitation ◽

Cumulus Schemes ◽

The Impact

Abstract Different cumulus schemes cause significant discrepancies in simulated precipitation, cloud cover, and temperature, which in turn lead to remarkable differences in simulated biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions and surface ozone concentrations. As part of an effort to investigate the impact (and its uncertainty) of climate changes on U.S. air quality, this study evaluates the sensitivity of BVOC emissions and surface ozone concentrations to the Grell (GR) and Kain–Fritsch (KF) cumulus parameterizations. Overall, using the KF scheme yields less cloud cover, larger incident solar radiation, warmer surface temperature, and higher boundary layer height and hence generates more BVOC emissions than those using the GR scheme. As a result, the KF (versus GR) scheme produces more than 10 ppb of summer mean daily maximum 8-h ozone concentration over broad regions, resulting in a doubling of the number of high-ozone occurrences. The contributions of meteorological conditions versus BVOC emissions on regional ozone sensitivities to the choice of the cumulus scheme largely offset each other in the California and Texas regions, but the contrast in BVOC emissions dominates over that in the meteorological conditions for ozone differences in the Midwest and Northeast regions. The result demonstrates the necessity of considering the uncertainty of future ozone projections that are identified with alternative model physics configurations.

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Impacts of meteorology and emissions on surface ozone increases over Central Eastern China between 2003 and 2015

10.5194/acp-2018-723 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Lei Sun ◽

Likun Xue ◽

Yuhang Wang ◽

Longlei Li ◽

Jintai Lin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Control Strategies ◽

Process Analysis ◽

Surface Ozone ◽

Eastern China ◽

Meteorological Conditions ◽

Transboundary Transport ◽

Anthropogenic Nitrogen ◽

Central Eastern ◽

Emission Changes

Abstract. Recent studies have shown that surface ozone (O3) concentrations over Central Eastern China (CEC) have increased significantly during the past decade. We quantified the effects of changes in meteorological conditions and O3 precursor emissions on surface O3 levels over CEC between July 2003 and July 2015 using the GEOS-Chem model. The simulated monthly mean maximum daily 8-h average O3 concentration (MDA8 O3) in July increased by approximately 13.6 %, from 65.5 ± 7.9 ppbv (2003) to 74.4 ± 8.7 ppbv (2015), comparable to the observed results. The change in meteorology led to an increase of MDA8 O3 of 5.8 ± 3.9 ppbv over the central part of CEC, in contrast to a decrease of about −0.8 ± 3.5 ppbv over the eastern part of the region. In comparison, the MDA8 O3 over the central and eastern parts of CEC increased by 3.5 ± 1.4 ppbv and 5.6 ± 1.8 ppbv due to the increased emissions. The increase in regional averaged O3 resulting from the emission increase (4.0 ± 1.9 ppbv) was higher than that caused by meteorological changes (3.1 ± 4.9 ppbv) relative to the 2003 standard simulation, while the regions with larger O3 increases showed a higher sensitivity to meteorological conditions than to emission changes. Sensitivity tests indicate that increased levels of anthropogenic non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) dominate the O3 increase over the eastern part of CEC, and anthropogenic nitrogen oxides (NOx) mainly increase O3 concentrations over the central and western parts, while decrease O3 in a few urban areas in the eastern part. Process analysis showed that net photochemical production and meteorological conditions (transport in particular) are two important factors that influence O3 levels over the CEC. The results of this study suggest a need to further assess the effectiveness of control strategies for O3 pollution in the context of regional meteorology, transboundary transport, and anthropogenic emission changes.

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