Title: Analysis of Airborne Formaldehyde Data Over Houston Texas Acquired During the 2013 DISCOVER-AQ and SEAC4RS Campaigns
Institution(s) Represented: University of Colorado - Boulder - Alan Fried, University of Maryland - Christopher Loughner
Lead PI: Alan Fried
AQRP Project Manager: Gary McGaughey
TCEQ Project Liaison: Jim Smith
Awarded Amount: $199,895.00
Abstract
Analysis of Airborne Formaldehyde Data Over Houston Texas
Acquired During the 2013 DISCOVER-AQ and SEAC4RS Campaigns
During summer months the greater Houston-Galveston-Brazoria Metropolitan Area (HGBMA) often experiences elevated levels of ozone exceeding federal standards, particularly during hot and stagnant wind conditions. Although significant progress has been achieved understanding the major causes of these events over the past 10 years, there are still major unanswered questions related to sources of ozone from highly reactive volatile organic compounds (HRVOC's) emitted by large petrochemical facilities throughout the HGBMA. The toxic trace gas formaldehyde (CH2O) is produced as an intermediate when these HRVOC's breakdown in the atmosphere, and ozone and radicals are formed when CH2O further breaks down. Therefore a comprehensive understanding of CH2O emissions, photochemical production rates, and transport processes is needed. Unfortunately, despite extensive efforts and advances from past studies, there are still major gaps in understanding related to the importance of directly emitted CH2O from sources such as petrochemical flaring operations and automotive emissions relative to secondarily produced CH2O from HRVOC's produced downwind, affecting large geographic areas far removed from the petrochemical facilities. Updating the emission inventories and temporal trends for CH2O and its HRVOC precursors are two additional areas requiring attention.
To address these issues, a collaborative team, comprised of scientists from the University of Colorado, the University of Maryland, and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Facility, will analyze ambient measurements of CH2O they acquired on the NASA P3 and DC-8 aircraft during the 2013 DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality) and 2013 SEAC4RS (Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys) studies, respectively.
The analysis will rely on the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with Process Analysis, in very high-resolution mode (1 km resolution), driven by the WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) meteorological model. The analysis will begin by identifying favorable time periods, such as Sept. 25, 2013, when sampling large petrochemical and refinery plumes under favorable meteorological conditions as well as other clearly identifiable sources (e.x., ship plumes, etc.) close to their source and downwind. The high resolution WRF-CMAQ model results will be compared with observations downwind at various times to arrive at updated emission rates for CH2O and to help in validating the model meteorology and chemistry. The CMAQ model will be run in the Process Analysis Mode to quantify the relative importance of the major CH2O sources. The analysis will conclude with an effort to compare select airborne CH2O measurements with 24-hour averaged cartridge measurements acquired by The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) every 6th day at the Clinton, Deer Park and Channelview sites as a means to further validate and/or provide error bounds, for such long-term CH2O data in the greater HGBMA.
Executive Summary: projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 Executive Summary.pdf
Work Plan: projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 Scope.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR Oct 2014.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR Nov 2014.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR Dec 2014.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR Jan 2015.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR Feb 2015.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR Mar 2015.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR Apr 2015.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR May 2015.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR Jun 2015.pdf
Technical Report(s): projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 MTR Jul 2015.pdf
QAPP: projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 QAPP.pdf
Final Report: projectinfoFY14_15\14-002\14-002 Final Report.pdf
