Using Ozone Aircraft Data to Help Inform Air Quality Standards: A Case Study in Briggsdale, Colorado

Lee, A., Petropavlovskikh, I., Effertz, P., Ngo, N., Stell, M., et al. (2023). Using Ozone Aircraft Data to Help Inform Air Quality Standards: A Case Study in Briggsdale, Colorado.

Title Using Ozone Aircraft Data to Help Inform Air Quality Standards: A Case Study in Briggsdale, Colorado
Genre Manuscript
Author(s) Alexis Lee, Irina Petropavlovskikh, P. Effertz, Nicole Ngo, Meghan Stell, Matthew Paulus, Brittany Lazzaro
Abstract Tropospheric ozone has adverse human and ecological health impacts, making it one of the six criteria pollutants regulated by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The objective of this study is to assess how the Global Monitoring Laboratory's aircraft ozone data, which measures the vertical profiles of ozone throughout the troposphere, could help inform ozone policy, which is based on data from ground-level monitors that only capture surface-level ozone. We use two different approaches. First, we interview professionals working in ozone research and policy to assess how or if the ozone aircraft data could be used to inform ozone regulatory standards. Second, we compare the aircraft ozone data with data from ground-level monitors. Our study setting is in Briggsdale, CO, where aircraft ozone and greenhouse gas data were analyzed from 2011 to 2015. Given our interest in ozone-related policies, we focused on days when ground-level measurements exceeded 70 parts per billion, the NAAQS for ozone. Preliminary results from our interviews show a consensus that a more holistic approach is needed to measure ozone, suggesting that spatial limitations in the ground-level monitors could be offset by the aircraft's ozone vertical profiles. However, our results comparing aircraft to ground-level ozone measurements suggest the scope of the aircraft data in Briggsdale, CO, as well as our methods for comparison, could be improved for further study.
Publication Title
Publication Date Aug 1, 2023
Publisher's Version of Record
OpenSky Citable URL https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7d79grb
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EOL Affiliations ISF, SND

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