A32D-08
Lidar-derived Correlations Between Lower-tropospheric Column and Surface Ozone: Implications for Satellite Observations
Wednesday, 16 December 2015: 12:05
3009 (Moscone West)
Christoph J Senff1, Andrew O'Neil Langford2, Raul J Alvarez II II2, Guillaume Kirgis3, Aditya Choukulkar1, Alan Brewer4, Robert M Banta5, Ann M Weickmann3, Scott Sandberg2 and Erik Olson6, (1)NOAA, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)NOAA ESRL, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)CIRES/NOAA ESRL, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)NOAA Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, Madison, WI, United States
Abstract:
One of the data products that will be provided by the TEMPO satellite mission is 0-2 km ozone column concentration. To make inferences about surface air quality from this data product, the relationship between lower-tropospheric column and surface ozone concentrations and their diurnal, seasonal, and spatial variations have to be well understood. To characterize these relationships, we have used ozone profile observations obtained with NOAA’s truck-based, scanning TOPAZ ozone lidar from several recent field campaigns including Discover-AQ Houston and Colorado, the Uintah Basin Wintertime Ozone Study (UBWOS), and the Las Vegas Ozone Study (LVOS). The TOPAZ lidar is ideally suited for this kind of study because it provides ozone profiles from about 15 m above ground level (AGL) up to 3 km AGL at high spatial and temporal resolution. We have used the lidar observations closest to the ground as a proxy for surface ozone and compared them to the 0-2 km AGL average column ozone concentrations measured with the lidar. Results from the Discover-AQ Colorado campaign show that in the afternoon, when the boundary layer (BL) was deep and well mixed, ozone column and surface concentrations agreed quite well. However, during the morning hours, ozone column concentrations were significantly higher than those at the surface, because ozone was depleted in a shallow surface layer due to titration and deposition, whereas ozone levels in the residual layer aloft remained moderately high. The analysis of column and surface ozone correlations using ozone lidar observations from the Discover-AQ Houston, UBWOS and LVOS campaigns is currently underway. The results from these studies will provide additional insights into the relationship between column and surface ozone, in particular their variation as a function of measurement location and season, and their dependence on BL processes such as mixed layer height evolution, land-sea breeze circulation, and terrain-induced flows.
