Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society - LMOS 2017 Overview

from the Lake Michigan Ozone Study 2017 Team....

https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-20-0061.1

Aircraft mapping and profiling for 2 June. (a) NO2 tropospheric vertical columns (molec cm-2) collected by GeoTASO (GT) with the Scientific Aviation (SA) flight track overlaid (orange). White circles indicate the five locations where surface-to-3-km spirals were executed to collect vertical profiles. Coincident SA and GT columns are labeled (molec cm-2) along with the difference in time in minutes (SA minus GT). North-to-south transect (southbound legs) observations of ozone (ppb, b) and NO2 (log10 (ppb), c) from SA are overlaid on WRF-Chem modeled O3 and NO2. South-to-north transect (northbound legs) observations of O3 (ppb, d) and NO2 (log10 (ppb), e) from SA are overlaid on simulated O3 and NO2 mixing ratios from WRF-Chem. Figure credits: Laura Judd (NASA), Brad Pierce, Maryam Abdi-Oskouei.

ABSTRACT: The Lake Michigan Ozone Study 2017 (LMOS 2017) was a collaborative multi-agency field study targeting ozone chemistry, meteorology, and air quality observations in the southern Lake Michigan area. The primary objective of LMOS 2017 was to provide measurements to improve air quality modeling of the complex meteorological and chemical environment in the region. LMOS 2017 science questions included spatiotemporal assessment of nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emission sources and their influence on ozone episodes, the role of lake breezes, contribution of new remote sensing tools such as GeoTASO, Pandora, and TEMPO to air quality management, and evaluation of photochemical grid models. The observing strategy included GeoTASO on board the NASA UC-12 capturing NO2 and formaldehyde columns, an in situ profiling aircraft, two ground-based coastal enhanced monitoring locations, continuous NO2 columns from coastal Pandora instruments, and an instrumented research vessel. Local photochemical ozone production was observed on 2 June, 9–­12 June, and 14–16 June, providing insights on the processes relevant to state and federal air quality management. The LMOS 2017 aircraft mapped significant spatial and temporal variation of NO2 emissions as well as polluted layers with rapid ozone formation occurring in a shallow layer near the Lake Michigan surface. Meteorological characteristics of the lake breeze were observed in detail and measurements of ozone, NOx, nitric acid, hydrogen peroxide, VOC, oxygenated VOC (OVOC), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) composition were conducted. This article summarizes the study design, directs readers to the campaign data repository, and presents a summary of findings.