Title: Analysis of Ozone Production Data from the San Antonio Field Study
Institution(s) Represented: Drexel University - Ezra Wood
Lead PI: Ezra Wood
AQRP Project Manager: Elena McDonald-Buller
TCEQ Project Liaison: Mark Estes
Awarded Amount: $130,264.00
Abstract
San Antonio experiences ozone (O3) concentrations very close to the National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 70 ppb. Regulators will likely need to make science-based decisions on effective O3 mitigation strategies in the current environment of declining urban nitrogen oxide emissions and variable oil and gas exploration activity. Much less is known about the mechanisms and rates of ozone formation in San Antonio than for Houston, which has been studied for decades. To address this paucity of knowledge, researchers from Drexel University, Aerodyne Research, Inc., the University of Houston, Rice University, and Baylor University deployed a large suite of analytical instrumentation to the greater San Antonio area as part of the 3-week "San Antonio Field Study" (SAFS) during May 2017. During SAFS, a large dataset of chemical composition and supporting parameters was acquired at four locations in the greater San Antonio area, from Lake Corpus Christi (150 km Southeast of San Antonio) to the University of Texas at San Antonio (20 km Northwest of the city center).
The proposed research directly responds to the first of the seven priority research areas identified in the AQRP Strategic Research Plan FY 18-19: "2017 San Antonio Field Study (SAFS) data analysis". Our work comprises the following analysis tasks, which will elucidate and quantify the contribution of emission sources to ozone concentrations in San Antonio:
- Quantify the dependence of the ozone production rate on the concentrations of NOx, VOCs, and other measurements at the three SAFS sites where peroxy radical concentrations were measured.
- Conduct 0-D photochemical modeling constrained by the Aerodyne/Drexel and Rice/U. Houston measurements with several model chemical mechanisms for four SAFS measurement sites, spanning a large range of NOx values, and compare modeled P(O3) rates to those calculated using the peroxy radical measurements where available.
- Apportion ozone concentrations to location-specific emission sources using 3-D air quality modeling with the instrumented Community Multiscale Air Quality model (CMAQ).
These three tasks will quantify which emission source categories affect O3 formation in the greater San Antonio area and address the relative importance of upwind and urban emission sources.
Work Plan: projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 Scope.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 MTR Oct 2018.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 MTR Nov 2018.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 MTR Dec 2018.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 MTR Jan 2019.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 MTR Feb 2019.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 MTR Mar 2019.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 MTR Apr 2019.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 MTR Jun 2019.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 MTR Jul 2019.pdf
QAPP: projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 QAPP.pdf
Final Report: projectinfoFY18_19\19-040\19-040 Final Report.pdf
