ROUND-THE-CLOCK MONITORING
BY UH CONTRIBUTES TO AIR QUALITY STUDY
Solutions to Pollution, Ozone Explored by Atmospheric Scientists
Collaborating on TexAQS-II Initiative
HOUSTON, Sept. 12, 2006 – University of Houston scientists
are joining more than 200 researchers from 60 institutions in the
Texas Air Quality Study-II (TexAQS-II) to help alleviate the negative
impact of air pollution on public health and economic development.
A scientific investigation into the key air quality issues of the
eastern half of Texas, TexAQS-II is an initiative led by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), using $2 million
appropriated to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to collect
and model data in order to develop a more accurate profile of the
region’s atmosphere. UH’s measurement and modeling programs
in the department of geosciences are playing a large role in TexAQS-II,
leading the way to create a Gulf Coast Air Quality Model.
With one of the most comprehensive measurement ground sites, UH
is home to the Moody Tower Atmospheric Chemistry Facility –
one of three super sites that offer the most all-inclusive chemical
and meteorological measurement platforms measuring more than 50
variables. During the TexAQS-II initiative, the UH scientists running
the Moody Tower facility are collaborating with more than 40 visiting
scientists from several different universities and national labs.
As the only ground site of the three super sites, the Moody Tower
facility is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week and offers
the most representative sample of what the average person typically
breathes in on a daily basis. The other two super sites are NOAA-owned
planes and boats, offering observation from the air and water.
“Since we are high up at 18 stories on the roof of UH’s
Moody Tower dormitory, we can offer a larger footprint of what is
actually going on,” said Bernhard Rappenglueck, associate
professor of atmospheric science at UH. “From up here, we
avoid local influences on the ground, such as cars and trucks driving
by that would skew results, and can also detect pollutants not just
from the Houston area, but even as far away as Mexico.”
The Moody Tower vantage point also allows UH scientists to observe
and measure the land and sea breeze effects, where during the course
of a day aged pollution from the Port of Houston floats to Galveston
and then blows back to Houston. The amount and diversity of chemicals
measured from this UH super site number in the hundreds, including
hydrocarbons from factories burning fossil fuel and from vegetation
under environmental stress, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde from
vehicle exhaust and a wide range of other harmful elements. The
several combinations of these compounds that come together to form
ozone, however, receive the most focus from researchers.
“Houston is ripe for ozone,” said Barry Lefer, assistant
professor of atmospheric science at UH. “Very basically, sunlight,
nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons react to make ozone, and water vapor
helps that process along. So, with no short supply of sun and humidity,
combined with all the exotic compounds of the chemical industry,
Houston is not surprisingly one of the worst with regard to ozone
noncompliance levels across the country.”
Lefer stresses that the efforts of TexAQS-II will be a good test
to see how industry has cleaned up since the first TexAQS initiative
six years ago. In this second air quality study, he said, UH scientists
are determining what the photochemical processes are, which ones
are most important and what the best strategy is to solve the problems.
Along with the myriad measurement tools, gauges and computers on
the roof of Moody Tower, weather balloons containing instruments
to monitor ozone and other air quality factors are being launched
through the end of September and are transmitting data electronically
back to labs at UH before parachuting to the ground. From the UH
super site, Rappenglueck’s students are launching two to six
of them each day, while Lefer’s graduate students will launch
45 of these weather balloons near various refinery and petrochemical
facilities. These balloon launches are a first for Houston, with
Lake Charles, La., being the closest until now, and will help with
ozone and weather forecasting.
Complementing Lefer and Rappenglueck’s Atmospheric Chemistry
Measurement Group, UH’s modeling and forecasting arm –
the Institute for Multi-dimensional Air Quality Studies –
will extend the Moody Tower super site measurements by running them
through UH atmospheric science professor Daewon Byun’s sophisticated
computational models to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t.
(See a related release on Byun’s recently unveiled ozone forecaster
at http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/nr/2006/08aug/082106imaqs_ozone_forecaster.html.)
If Byun’s models accurately work to forecast ozone and other
air quality conditions with his measurement colleagues’ data,
then the existing UH super site and balloon efforts can be applied
to other sites. However, if the model does not work properly, then
Byun can find out what to fix – either on the measurement
or modeling side – to perfect the process, such as getting
the correct balance of chemistry, emissions and weather measurements.
“The complementary nature of modeling and measurement is key
to atmospheric science,” Byun said. “One of UH’s
main goals in the TexAQS-II initiative is for my modeling to extend
the measurement efforts of my colleagues so that we can work together
to reduce dangerous ozone levels and air pollution.”
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
About the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
The UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, with nearly
400 faculty members and approximately 4,000 students, offers bachelors,
masters and doctoral degrees in the natural sciences, computational
sciences and mathematics. Faculty members in the departments of
biology and biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, geosciences,
mathematics and physics have internationally recognized collaborative
research programs in association with UH interdisciplinary research
centers, Texas Medical Center institutions and national laboratories.
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For more information about UH visit the universitys Newsroom at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.
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