Abstract
Coastal regions have historically represented a significant challenge for air quality investigations due to water-land boundary transition characteristics and a paucity of measurements available over water. Prior studies have identified the formation of high levels of ozone over water bodies, such as the Chesapeake Bay, that can potentially recirculate back over land to significantly impact populated areas. Earth-observing satellites and forecast models face challenges in capturing the coastal transition zone where small-scale meteorological dynamics are complex and large changes in pollutants can occur on very short spatial and temporal scales. An observation strategy is presented to synchronously measure pollutants 'over-land' and 'over-water' to provide a more complete picture of chemical gradients across coastal boundaries for both the needs of state and local environmental management and new remote sensing platforms. Intensive vertical profile information from ozone lidar systems and ozonesondes, obtained at two main sites, one over land and the other over water, are complemented by remote sensing and in-situ observations of air quality from ground-based, airborne (both personned and unpersonned), and shipborne platforms. These observations, coupled with reliable chemical transport simulations, such as the NOAA National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC), are expected to lead to a more fully characterized and complete land-water interaction observing system that can be used to assess future geostationary air quality instruments, such as the NASA Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) as well as current low earth orbiting satellites, such as the European Space Agency's Sentinel 5-Precursor (S5-P) with its Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI).
Highlights
Measurements of pollution have been historically difficult to obtain in regions of complex terrain and/or directly over bodies of water—for example, within the Chesapeake Bay watershed
We present an intensive set of observations that have been strategically positioned to reduce uncertainties and improve understanding of pollutant transport within complex terrain, within the Chesapeake Bay watershed
The framework for the Ozone Water–Land Environmental Transition Study (OWLETS) prototype to investigate the interactions between emissions/pollutants and the complex coastline has been described in detail
Summary
Measurements of pollution have been historically difficult to obtain in regions of complex terrain and/or directly over bodies of water—for example, within the Chesapeake Bay watershed This poses a challenge for air quality managers and scientists responsible for monitoring the air quality of approximately 40% of the total U.S population living within 100 miles of the U.S coast (www .oceanservice.noaa.gov). Previous investigations into understanding pollution events at the land–water interface, near major urban centers, have taken place in several U.S regions with poor air quality Examples of these are the Lake Michigan Ozone Study in 1991 (Dye et al 1995; Shafran et al 2000) and 2017 (www-air .larc.nasa.gov/missions/lmos/), the Texas Air Quality
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