Variability and Sources of Surface Ozone at Rural Sites in Nevada, USA: Results from Two Years of the Nevada Rural Ozone Initiative

SMC Author

Joel Burley

SMC Affiliated Work

1

Status

Faculty

School

School of Science

Department

Chemistry

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-15-2015

Publication / Conference / Sponsorship

Science of the Total Environment

Description/Abstract

Ozone (O3) has been measured at Great Basin National Park (GBNP) since September 1993. GBNP is located in a remote, rural area of eastern Nevada. Data indicate that GBNP will not comply with a more stringent National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for O3, which is based upon the 3-year average of the annual 4th highest Maximum Daily 8-h Average (MDA8) concentration. Trend analyses for GBNP data collected from 1993 to 2013 indicate that MDA8 O3 increased significantly for November to February, and May. The greatest increase was for May at 0.38, 0.35, and 0.46 ppb yr− 1 for the 95th, 50th, and 5th percentiles of MDA8 O3 values, respectively. With the exception of GBNP, continuous O3 monitoring in Nevada has been limited to the greater metropolitan areas. Due to the limited spatial detail of O3 measurements in rural Nevada, a network of rural monitoring sites was established beginning in July 2011. For a period ranging from July 2011 to June 2013, maximum MDA8 O3 at 6 sites occurred in the spring and summer, and ranged from 68 to 80 ppb. Our analyses indicate that GBNP, in particular, is ideally positioned to intercept air containing elevated O3 derived from regional and global sources. For the 2 year period considered here, MDA8 O3 at GBNP was an average of 3.1 to 12.6 ppb higher than at other rural Nevada sites. Measured MDA8 O3 at GBNP exceeded the current regulatory threshold of 75 ppb on 7 occasions. Analyses of synoptic conditions, model tracers, and air mass back-trajectories on these days indicate that stratospheric intrusions, interstate pollution transport, wildfires, and Asian pollution contributed to elevated O3 observed at GBNP. We suggest that regional and global sources of ozone may pose challenges to achieving a more stringent O3 NAAQS in rural Nevada.

Keywords

Ozone air quality, Long-range transport, Interstate transport, Stratospheric intrusions, Wildfires, National Ambient Air Quality Standards

Scholarly

yes

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.12.027

Volume

530-531

First Page

471

Last Page

482

Disciplines

Chemistry

Original Citation

Joel Burley (Chemistry): “Variability and sources of surface ozone at rural sites in Nevada, USA: Results from two years of the Nevada Rural Ozone Initiative,” by Fine, R., Miller, M.B., Burley, J., Jaffe, D.A., Pierce, R.B., Lin, M., Gustin, M.S., in Science of the Total Environment 530, pp. 471-482 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.12.027

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