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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDAQ-2024-008383 1 Attachment B Utah Summer Ozone Study 2024 (USOS) Steven S. Brown1, Caroline C. Womack1,2, Brian C. McDonald1 1NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory 2Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado The NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL) proposes to conduct a study of summertime ozone in the Wasatch Front region of northern Utah in the summer of 2024. This region (population of 2.5 million and growing), exhibits regular exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone. Measurements of the spatial distribution and speciation of major ozone precursors (NOx and VOCs), together with additional chemical measurements and meteorological data, will enable better understanding of the factors that lead to high ozone. NOAA CSL has a long history of conducting air quality field measurement campaigns in support of state and local efforts to develop ozone and particulate matter mitigation strategies. This proposal is in response to a request from the Utah Division of Air Quality (UDAQ) to assist in the design and execution of a study to support the science needed for a State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the Wasatch Front region. Such as study falls within the mission and scientific objectives of the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory. Scientific Objectives UDAQ has provided a set of scientific objectives to NOAA CSL to be addressed as part of a summer ozone study. The NOAA CSL summary of these objectives is below. 1. Determine spatial distributions, speciation and sources of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the Wasatch Front region. Sources and VOC classes to investigate will include, but not be limited to the following. a. Volatile Chemical Products (VCPs) from sources such as household chemicals, consumer products, cooking, etc. b. Biogenic hydrocarbons (BVOCs), including their transport from vegetated mountain regions and canyons surrounding the urban areas. c. Petroleum refineries in North Salt Lake and Davis Counties. d. Pyrogenic VOCs during wildfire impacted periods. 2. Determine spatial distributions, speciation and sources of nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO+NO2) and total reactive nitrogen, NOy. Areas of interest include the following. a. Mobile source emissions from vehicles b. Industrial sources, including mining operations associated with Bingham Copper c. Soil NOx from agricultural regions adjacent to the urban areas 2 3. Determine spatial distributions, speciation and sources of halogens, including chlorine, bromine and potentially iodine compounds. Emphasis on the following topics. a. Emissions, transport and chemical transformation from the US Magnesium facility b. Aerosolization and heterogeneous chemistry associated with the Great Salt Lake and surrounding playas 4. Characterize of important processes affecting the planetary boundary layer and transport of pollutants within and between basins within the region. 5. Determine the sensitivity of local O3 formation to NOx and VOCs, and potentially halogens, based on modeling of the observations listed above. 6. Determine of the influence of wildfire emissions on O3 formation in the urban areas of the Wasatch Front. Operations and Logistics NOAA CSL proposes to carry out the required observations through a combination of mobile laboratory (i.e., instrumented vehicle) measurements and augmentation of fixed ground sites with research grade instruments. This section also describes collaborative efforts, including additional aircraft proposed through other agencies and satellite remote sensing capabilities. NOAA CSL Mobile Laboratory NOAA CSL has conducted recent air quality studies in U.S. urban areas using its mobile laboratory. These include the 2021 Southwest Urban NOx and VOC Experiment (SUNVEx) and the 2018 New York Investigations of Consumer product Emissions (NYICE). CSL is in the process of upgrading the current mobile laboratory to increase instrument capacity and versatility. Figure 1 and Table 1 describe the mobile laboratory and proposed instrument suite for USOS. We anticipate the mobile laboratory would conduct a series of 10-15 drives through the Wasatch region during the 5 week study period (see calendar below) for a total of approximately 100-120 drive hours. The mobile lab would conduct fixed ground site observations at a strategic location during non-drive periods. We expect the drives to consist of repeat tracks through the urban regions and around major emission sources, to be defined in consultation with the UDAQ. Figure 1: Photograph and planned layout of the CSL mobile laboratory 3 Table 1: Proposed CSL mobile laboratory instrument package. All instruments operate at 1 second time resolution except for the discrete WAS canister samples. All instruments are available from NOAA CSL and represent a research grade instrument suite for addressing ozone air quality. Rack Instrument Species Measured 1 Met package T, P, RH, Winds, GPS Position 1 Nitrogen Oxide Cavity Ring Down Spectrometer (NOxCaRD) NO, NO2, NOy, O3 1 Picarro GHG analyzer CO, CH4, CO2, H2O 1 Filter Radiometer Actinic flux / NO2 phot. Rate. 2 Iodide time of flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer (I- ToF CIMS) Speciated reactive N Speciated halogens Oxygenated VOC 3 Whole Air Sampler (WAS) Speciated VOC analyzed by GC-MS 3 Ultra High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer (UHSAS, tentative) Particle size distributions, surface area, PM mass 3 Formaldehyde Instrument (CRDS or LIF, tentative and only if available) CH2O 4 Proton transfer reaction time of flight mass spectrometer (PTR ToF CIMS) In-situ speciated VOC Fixed Ground Site Operations NOAA CSL does not propose to instrument a fixed ground site in the Wasatch Front region. However, CSL intends to work with UDAQ to define the requirements and capabilities for such a site and to pursue resources to support such measurements. Preliminary discussions with Monika Kopacz at the NOAA Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4) program indicate that this program may support proposals from academic or other investigators to conduct measurements in conjunction with CSL in the event that CSL deploys for USOS 2024. Such support remains to be confirmed. EPA Region 8 and the EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) have expressed interest in participating and / or supporting ground-based measurements as well. The specific facility for fixed site operation with research grade instruments needs to be identified by UDAQ. A proposed instrument suite could include some or all of the instruments listed above for the mobile laboratory, but could also include additional species of interest, such as speciated aerosol composition, formaldehyde, ammonia and / or those Figure 2: Map of Northern Wasatch Front ozone non-attainment area. Map courtesy of UDAQ 4 species measured by a multi-axis differential optical absorption spectrometer (MAX- DOAS). Figure 2 shows map of the Northern Wasatch Front ozone non-attainment area (NAA) with existing monitoring sites that could be considered for augmented ground-based measurements as well as planning of CSL mobile laboratory drives. NOAA Twin Otter aircraft NOAA CSL does not propose to request a Twin Otter aircraft in support of this study at this time. The window of opportunity for such a request extends through January of 2023, but no request is currently planned. In the event of a change in planning before that time, the Twin Otter aircraft would be in place of, rather than in addition to, the CSL mobile laboratory and would carry a smaller instrument payload than shown in Table 1. NSF King Air aircraft Colleagues at Colorado State University (CSU) have requested the NSF King Air for participation in a 2024 study. This aircraft is comparable to but slightly smaller than the Twin Otter. NOAA CSL supports this request and will seek to collaborate with CSU and NSF investigators in the event of a successful outcome to organize joint measurement efforts. Lidar Instruments That Atmospheric Remote Sensing Group (ARS) at NOAA CSL has considerable capability and depth of experience in atmospheric dynamics measurements using lidar instrumentation. For example, the mobile PUMAS instrument was a key component of the recent SUNVEx and CalFiDE field studies. This instrument would contribute to the meteorological goals outlined above. Deployment of PUMAS is outside of the scope and budget of this proposal. In the event of a decision to proceed with the 2024 study, CSL will assess the feasibility of the deployment of this resource through another funding source. TEMPO Satellite The Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument is expected to be fully operational in the summer of 2024. It is an ultraviolet / visible spectrometer in geostationary orbit that measures atmospheric composition, including NO2, CH2O and CHOCHO (glyoxal), proxies for NOx and VOCs that are relevant to ozone formation. It may also provide measurements of BrO to constrain halogen species. NOAA CSL is planning a major airborne field intensive (AEROMMA) for 2023 that will assist with the validation of TEMPO. NOAA CSL plans to request special operations of TEMPO to coordinate with measurements during USOS in 2024 in order to explore the use of this new remote sensing tool to define the spatial distribution of NOx and VOC sensitivity in ozone photochemistry, as well as to constrain halogen emissions and their role in ozone production. NOAA CSL may also work with additional remote sensing data in support of analysis for USOS. 5 Schedule In accordance with the requested period of operations specified by UDAQ, NOAA CSL proposes to conduct 5 weeks of field measurements, from July 15 to August 16, 2024. These dates span the periods of greatest frequency of ozone exceedance events in July and the most probable occurrence of wildfire influence in August. Proposed dates are subject to modification pending further discussion with UDAQ. The proposed dates pertain to the deployment of the mobile laboratory. NOAA CSL anticipates that these dates would also apply to coordinated ground site measurements. In the event of a request for the Twin Otter aircraft as an alternate to mobile laboratory, NOAA CSL would attempt to maintain the same sampling period, but the dates would be subject to the schedule for allocation of aircraft calendar days and hours. Modeling Support In addition to the field intensive and observations, NOAA CSL proposes to conduct analysis and modeling of the data. NOAA CSL proposes performing three-dimensional chemical transport modeling utilizing WRF-Chem. The three-dimensional modeling allows for simulation of chemistry with meteorology, and to directly assess heatwaves, biogenic and wildfire emissions, and interstate transport of air pollution on the Wasatch Front Region. Figure 3 shows the NOAA CSL WRF-Chem setup, which includes a 12 km x 12 km contiguous US simulation that provides boundary conditions for a nested 4 km x 4 km regional domain over the Mountain West. We will simulate the entire period of the measurement campaign. The NOAA CSL WRF-Chem settings are listed in Table 2. The WRF-Chem model will be evaluated with the field-intensive atmospheric observations, routine air quality monitoring, and satellite remote sensing data, including analysis of formaldehyde columns and point source VOC emissions. Figure 3. Map of WRF-Chem model domain including an outer domain (D1) of the contiguous US at 12 km x 12 km horizontal spatial resolution that feeds an inner domain (D2) of the Mountain West at 4 km x 4 km horizontal spatial resolution. The Wasatch Front Region is denoted by the dark black outline. 6 Table 2. NOAA CSL WRF-Chem Model Configuration.a Settings Description Horizontal Resolution Vertical Resolution Meteorology Surface Layer Planetary Boundary Layer Cumulus Scheme Land Surface Microphysics Short- and Long-Wave Radiation Gas-Phase Chemistry Photolysis 12 km x 12 km + nested Western US 4 km x 4km domain 50 levels (up to 50 hPa) North American Mesoscale Model Mellor-Yamada Nakanishi and Niino Mellor-Yamada Nakanishi and Niino Level 2.5 Grell-Devenyi (GD) Ensemble Cumulus Noah Land Surface Model WRF Single Moment 5-Class Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for General Circulation Models RACM-ESRL-VCP (updated oxy-VCP chemistry) Madronich Photolysis (TUV) a. See http://www2.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/users/docs/user_guide_V3/contents.html for full description of model options. NOAA CSL proposes to augment the WRF Chem modeling with 1-D chemical box modeling, similar to CSL’s analysis used for the 2017 Utah Winter Fine Particulate Study (UWFPS). The goal of USOS box modeling will be to assess NOx and VOC sensitivities, the influence of halogens on summer ozone, and the influence of wildfires on locally produced and transported ozone. Budget The proposed budget for the NOAA deployment of the mobile laboratory and support of modeling and analysis activities is shown in Table 2 below. Steven Brown and Caroline Womack will be the principal investigators for the measurements from the mobile laboratory and coordination with other assets, such as fixed ground site measurements supported by NOAA AC4 or NSF King Air aircraft measurements. Steven Brown is a federal scientist and requests no salary support. Caroline Womack is a scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), a joint institute between NOAA and the University of Colorado. We request 8 months of support for her management of the observations, execution of the measurements and overseeing the analysis and reporting of the data. We further request one year of support for a CIRES scientist or post-doc to conduct measurements and data analysis. Brian McDonald will be the principal investigator for the modeling. He is a federal 7 scientist and requests no salary support. We request 9 months of support for a CIRES scientist to conduct modeling and data analysis. NOAA CSL will provide considerable in-kind support to this project. This includes salary support for federal scientists and additional CIRES scientists involved in the project; data management and archiving; support of facilities and scientific instruments to be used to conduct the measurements; interagency coordination between NOAA, NASA, NSF and EPA; and reporting of data at scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed papers. Estimates of these in-kind costs are available upon request, but are likely to be equal to or greater than the project cost requested below. In addition, NOAA AC4 may commit to funding external investigators through competitive grants. The cost of that support may be approximately $2M over three years. Table 2: Proposed USOS budget for mobile laboratory measurements and modeling Deliverables NOAA CSL will adhere to reporting requirements as specified in agreement with UDAQ. The goal of reporting and analysis will be to provide timely information in support of the schedule for the Utah SIP requirements. We anticipate the following deliverables. • Archiving of quality-controlled data from the NOAA study and collaborators on a publicly accessible, NOAA CSL maintained web site. • Archiving of model results, as appropriate, accessible to UDAQ • A preliminary report of findings, to be delivered at a time to be agreed upon by UDAQ and CSL • A final report and executive summary, to be delivered as agreed upon by UDAQ and CSL • Peer reviewed publications in the scientific literature describing major results from the study over a period of 1-3 years after conclusions of the field intensive • Presentations at scientific conferences, such as the American Meteorological Society and American Geophysical Union 8 • A data and science meeting, to be held approximately 1 year after the study to discuss scientific results with UDAQ, regional stakeholders, air quality managers and scientists.