Abstract
One of the central problems in large cities is air pollution, mainly caused by vehicular emissions. Tropospheric ozone is an atmospheric oxidizing gas that forms in minimal amounts naturally, affecting peoples’ health. This pollutant is formed by the NO2 photolysis, creating a main peak during the day. Nighttime secondary peaks occur in several parts of the world, but their intensity and frequency depend on the local condition. In this sense, this works aims to study the local characteristics for tropospheric nocturnal ozone levels in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo, in Brazil, using the Simple Photochemical Module coupled to the Brazilian Developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System. For this, three different situations of nocturnal occurrence were studied. The results show that the nocturnal maximum of ozone concentrations is related to the vertical transport of this pollutant from higher levels of the atmosphere to the surface and is not related to the synoptic condition.
Highlights
In recent years, large cities’ main problem is excessive air pollution, resulting in several economic and public health problems [1,2,3,4]
To study the local characteristics that contribute to an increase in ozone concentrations at nighttime in the MASP, three cases were simulated: when no increase was observed (0E), when the increase was observed in some stations (GP), and when the secondary peak was observed in all air quality stations (7E)
The model represented the nocturnal evolution of ozone concentrations close to the surface at stations located in the MASP
Summary
Large cities’ main problem is excessive air pollution, resulting in several economic and public health problems [1,2,3,4]. Tropospheric ozone (O3 ) is an atmospheric oxidizing gas that forms in minimal amounts naturally. This secondary photochemical pollutant is formed in the atmosphere by photodissociation of nitrogen dioxide (NO2 ) by ultra-violet light. Ground-level ozone concentration can affect people’s health (especially children, the elderly, and people in outdoor activities), worsen pre-existent diseases and increasing hospitalizations for respiratory diseases in risk groups [14]. In the United States, ozone contributes to increasing the mortality rate associated with respiratory diseases; an increment of 10 ppb in ground-level concentrations increases by 3% death risk associated with exposure [16]. Since the change in ozone concentrations is a consequence of changes
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