HR: 0800h
AN: A51E-0134 [Abstracts]
TI: Continental Outflow from the Northeastern United States as Observed by Airborne Ozone Lidar
AU: * Banta, R M
EM: robert.banta@noaa.gov
AF: Environmental Technology Laboratory / NOAA, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
United States
AU: Senff, C J
EM: christoph.senff@noaa.gov
AF: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
United States
AU: Darby, L S
EM: lisa.darby@noaa.gov
AF: Environmental Technology Laboratory / NOAA, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
United States
AU: White, A B
EM: allen.b.white@noaa.gov
AF: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
United States
AU: Trainer, M
EM: michael.k.trainer@noaa.gov
AF: Aeronomy Laboratory / NOAA, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
United States
AU: Alvarez, R J
EM: raul.alvarez@noaa.gov
AF: Environmental Technology Laboratory / NOAA, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
United States
AU: Hardesty, R M
EM: michael.hardesty@noaa.gov
AF: Environmental Technology Laboratory / NOAA, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
United States
AB:
A continental outflow of pollutants, which represents an accumulation plume of pollutants from major cities and other sources
from Washington DC to New York and Boston is often produced by summertime southwesterly synoptic flow along the East Coast
of the United States, according to numerical weather prediction (NWP) modeling studies. Observational evidence of these
effects is provided using measurements from NOAA's airborne ozone-profiling lidar, which measures a vertical
curtain of height-resolved ozone concentrations from the surface to ~3 km above sea level (ASL) along the aircraft flight
track. The daytime plume of a major source, the New York City urban-complex, was shown to be carried eastward over Long
Island by late afternoon, while maintaining ozone concentrations exceeding 120 ppb. Flights several hundred kilometers
offshore characterized the continental outflow, which consisted of a 75-ppb outflow with embedded plumes, which maintained
concentrations of > 90 ppb and widths of ~100 km. Airborne ozone lidar data were combined with trajectory data from
profiler networks, dropsonde data from the lidar aircraft (a DC-3), and air chemistry data from the NOAA P-3, to characterize
the plume and the atmospheric transport. This combined analysis showed that the origins of the offshore plumes were the
Philadelphia and Washington DC-Baltimore areas. Comparison of plume location and peak ozone concentrations with NWP model
output will also be performed and presented.
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 0345 Pollution: urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251)
DE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005