Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
emissions controls that will help achieve desired air quality goals in a cost
effective manner
Key accomplishments in the planning area include the acquisition of sufficient
funding to support a major integrated field measurement, data analysis, and air
quality modeling program for ozone for central and northern California. The success
of such a complex endeavor hinges on the development of a carefully designed
plan for the conduct of each component. This helps assure that information needed
in data analysis and modeling efforts is collected at appropriate times and
locations. Planning was carried out in two-steps. First, a conceptual plan was
developed that clearly delineates the goals and technical objectives of the study,
and describes alternative experimental, modeling, and data analysis approaches for
addressing the study objectives. After a consensus was reached on the conceptual
plan, the second step involved the development of an operational plan for the
field measurement study. The operational plan describes the details of the field
measurement program in a manner that enabled the large number of participants
making the measurements to do so in an effective and coordinated manner.
The summer 2000 field measurement program and the associated meteoro-
logical, emissions, and air quality database is a key accomplishment of CCOS.
The main elements of this measurement program include: (1) implementation of
forecast and decision-making protocols to decide whether or not to declare an
Intensive Operating Period; (2) collection of surface-based meteorological data
(primarily wind speed, wind direction, temperature, relative humidity, and solar
and ultraviolet radiation) from a large array of sites; (3) operation of an array of
radar wind profilers (several with RASS), SODARS, and radiosondes to measure
meteorological conditions aloft; (4) deployment of a commercial ozonesonde to
observe ozone profiles to about 2,000 m AGL; (5) conduct of aloft air quality
measurements from fixed towers; (6) measurements of spectrally-resolved actinic
flux at three sites and solar radiation measurements at several sites; (7) operation
of 186 surface air quality monitoring stations that variously collect measurements
of ozone, NOx, CO, and hydrocarbons; (8) expansion of PAMS monitoring of
speciated hydrocarbons and carbonyls at 11 sites; (9) implementation of additional
surface and aloft measurements designed to increase the understanding of high
ozone in the Livermore Valley; (10) coordination of data collection activities with
those of the California Regional PM10/PM2.5 Air Quality Study (CRPAQS); (11)
operation of five instrumented aircraft to collect data pertaining to boundary
conditions along western edge of the modeling domain, intra-valley transport
within the San Joaquin Valley by eddies and slope flows, boundary conditions
along the northern edge of the modeling domain, and measurements in power
plant plumes for use in evaluating the plume-in-grid parameterizations used in air
quality models. Upon completion of the field measurement program, the data
collected were subject to quality control checks and scrutiny. Quality assurance
efforts examined these activities to assure they were carried out in accordance
with procedures established at the outset of the program.
