A study of ozone in the Colorado mountains

Abstract

The seasonal and diurnal variations of ozone mixing ratios have been observed at Niwot Ridge. Colorado. The ozone mixing ratios have been correlated with the NO x (NO+NO2) mixing ratios measured concurrently at the site. The seasonal and diurnal variations in O3 can be reasonably well understood by considering photochemistry and transport. In the winter there is no apparent systematic diurnal variation in the O3 mixing ratio because there is little diurnal change of transport and a slow photochemistry. In the summer, the O3 levels at the site are suppressed at night due to the presence of a nocturnal inversion layer that isolated ozone near the surface, where it is destroyed. Ozone is observed to increase in the summer during the day. The increases in ozone correlate with increasing NO x levels, as well as with the levels of other compounds of anthropogenic origin. We interpret this correlation as in-situ or in-transit photochemical production of ozone from these precursors that are transported to our site. The levels of ozone recorded approach 100 ppbv at NO x mixing ratios of approximately 3 ppbv. Calculations made using a simple clean tropospheric chemical model are consistent with the NO x -related trend observed for the daytime ozone mixing ratio. However, the chemistry, which does not include nonmethane hydrocarbon photochemistry, underestimates the observed O3 production.