Discipline: Ecology Environmental and Earth Sciences
Subcategory: Chemistry (not Biochemistry)
Chi Yan Rachel Li - CUNY New York City College of Technology
Co-Author(s): Owen Parker, CUNY The City College of New York, New York, NY; Maria Tzortziou, CUNY The City College of New York, New York, NY
The transport and atmospheric dynamics of air pollutants play a vital role in human and environmental health. Of particular concern to us are nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions in urbanized and coastal areas, as well as tropospheric ozone (O3). Elevated levels of tropospheric NO2 and O3 pose can impact human health, local and regional biogeochemical balance and ecosystem fitness. Our research focuses on the use of ground-based and satellite products to study the spatial and temporal variability of NO2 and O3 in urban and coastal South Korea. Data sets are derived from remotely sensed direct-sun irradiance measurements of TCNO2 and TCO3 using Pandora spectrometers located at 8 ground sites and 1 boat-mounted sensor, as well as satellite observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the Aura satellite. The study focuses on the dates of the KORUS-AQ/KORUS-OC campaigns, which took place between May 18, 2016 through June 2, 2016, and provided coastal and off-shore measurements of atmospheric composition and coastal ocean biogeochemistry. The Pandora instrument offers continuous coverage of the local area, providing a detailed understanding of NO2 and O3 temporal variability. Ground-based stations allowed monitoring of small-scale diurnal variability in urban and near-urban environments, while the ship-board Pandora deployed on the Onnuri research vessel provided valuable data on off-shore behavior of trace gases. Collected data was subjected to statistical and GIS (Geographic Information System) analysis, quantifying and mapping, respectively, the spatial and temporal variability of total column amounts of NO2 and O3 along the Korean Peninsula. Results are shown for the eight sites where different Pandora instruments are used. There is a notable difference in TCNO2 variability which correlates with population and land use.
Not SubmittedFunder Acknowledgement(s): This project is supported by the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Grant # 1560050, under the direction of Dr. Reginald A. Blake, Dr. Janet Liou-Mark, and Ms. Laura Yuen-Lau and NOAA-CREST Bridge program under the direction of Dr. Reza Khanvilbardi and Dr. Shakila Merchant. The authors are solely responsible for the content of this article, and it does not necessarily represent the view of the NSF or of NOAA-CREST.
Faculty Advisor: Owen Parker, mtzortziou@ccny.cuny.edu
Role: For this research, I have used total column amounts of NO2 and O3 Pandora data collected from AVDC and previous KORUS-AQ/KORUS-OC campaigns, as well as TCNO2 and TCO3 Aura-OMI data collected from Earthdata to assess the spatiotemporal variability in urban and coastal South Korea. By creating codes through MATLAB, I was able to import and sanitize the collected data. Furthermore, MATLAB software allowed me to create figures, which showed the diurnal variability at the eight different sites where the Pandora spectrometers were located. Comparisons between Aura-OMI and Pandora TCNO2 and TCO3 data retrievals have also been done.