The Role of Vertical Mixing in the Temporal Evolution of Ground-Level Ozone Concentrations

Abstract

Aircraft measurements taken during the North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone-Northeast field study reveal the presence of ozone concentration levels in excess of 80 ppb on a regional scale in the nocturnal residual layer during ozone episodes. The air mass containing increased concentrations of ozone commonly is found on a horizontal spatial scale of about 600 km over the eastern United States. The diurnal variation in ozone concentrations at different altitudes, ozone flux measurements, and vertical profiles of ozone suggest that ozone and its precursors trapped aloft in the nocturnal residual layer can influence the ground-level ozone concentrations on the following day as the surface-based inversion starts to break up. A simple one-dimensional model, treating both meteorological and chemical processes, has been applied to investigate the relative contributions of vertical mixing and photochemical reactions to the temporal evolution of the ground-level ozone concentration during the daytime. The results demonstrate that the vertical mixing process contributes significantly to the ozone buildup at ground level in the morning as the mixing layer starts to grow rapidly. When the top of the mixing layer reaches the ozone-rich layer aloft, high ozone concentrations are brought down into the mixing layer, rapidly increasing the ground-level ozone concentration because of fumigation. As the mixing layer grows further, it contributes to dilution while the chemical processes continue to contribute to ozone production. Model simulations also were performed for an urban site with different amounts of reduction in the ground-level emissions as well as a 50% reduction in the concentration levels of ozone and its precursors aloft. The results reveal that a greater reduction in the ground-level ozone concentration can be achieved by decreasing the concentrations of ozone and precursors aloft than can be achieved from a reduction of local emissions. Given the regional extent of the polluted dome aloft during a typical ozone episode in the northeastern United States, these results demonstrate the necessity and importance of implementing emission reduction strategies on the regional scale; such regionwide emission controls would reduce effectively the long-range transport of pollutants in the Northeast.