New insights into the Houston air quality problem I. Introduction II. History of Houston air quality III. Ozone pollution impacts IV. Basics of ozone chemistry V. Results and lessons learned from TexAQS 2006 VI. Future Plans Outline

“Good” ozone and “Bad” ozone I. Introduction

II. History of Houston air quality Historical Improvements (1 hr Ozone > 120 ppbv) II. History of Houston air quality Source: TCEQ, CARB

II. History of Houston air quality Houston Ozone Trend II. History of Houston air quality 1

III. Air pollution impacts Air Pollution Facts - 2008 More than 31 percent of the U.S. population—92.5 million people—live in areas with unhealthful levels of ozone. Which places them at risk for decreased lung function, respiratory infection, lung inflammation and aggravation of respiratory illness. http://www.lungusa2.org/sota/SOTA2008.pdf III. Air pollution impacts

III. Ozone pollution impacts Where is ozone a problem? III. Ozone pollution impacts

III. Ozone pollution impacts Where is ozone a problem? III. Ozone pollution impacts

Some basic reactions Organic-C + O2 → CO2 + H2O + heat H2O + CO2 → C6H12O6+ O2 Organic-C + O2 → CO2 + H2O + heat + NO + SO2 NO → HNO3 SO2 → H2SO4 → sulfate aerosol NO + Organic-C + sunlight → O3 IV. Chemistry

New Site Added for 2006 TexAQS II TexAQS-II Atmospheric Radical Measurement Project (TRAMP) UH Moody Tower 70 m a.g.l. 5 km SSE of downtown Houston V. Results from TexAQS 2006 1

What was the 2006 photochemical environment? V. Results from TexAQS 2006

What were the meteorological conditions? V. Results from TexAQS 2006

What were the “background” conditions? V. Results from TexAQS 2006

HCHO commonly 1-10 ppbv at Moody Tower V. Results from TexAQS 2006

HONO commonly > 500 pptv at Moody Tower V. Results from TexAQS 2006

Atmospheric Chemistry and Composition

Air Quality Modeling

Satellites and Air Quality Data

Satellites and Air Quality Data http://www.temis.nl/airpollution/no2col/no2regioomimonth_col3.php?Region=2&Year=2009&Month=01 http://www.temis.nl/airpollution/ch2o/ch2omonthgome2.php?Year=2008&Month=07 http://sacs.aeronomie.be/archive/month.php?Year=2010&Month=04&Region=000 http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov/maps/satellite_feed/ http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/aerosol_web/loop_html/globaer_noramer_loop.html# http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/AIRS/additional/gallery/african-dust-storms http://www.firedetect.noaa.gov/viewer.htm http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/modeleval/ca10/cmc/loop2_co_pbl.html http://campaign.arm.gov/cares/forecast

Satellites and Air Quality Data http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/nav/data/ozone_data.html http://airnow.gov/ http://www.nws.noaa.gov/aq/

Satellites and Air Quality Data Alaskan and Canadian forest fires exacerbate ozone pollution over Houston, Texas, on 19 and 20 July 2004” Morris, G., S. Hersey, A.M. Thompson, O.R. Cooper, A. Stohl, P.R. Colarco, W.W. McMillan, J. Warner, B.J. Johnson, J.C. Witte, T.L. Kucsera, D.E. Larko, and S.J. Oltmans, J. Geophys. Res., 111(D24S03), doi:101029/2006JD007090 (2006).