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TexAQS II Tetroon Campaign
| Project Period: | 01/21/2005 - 08/31/2005 |
| Total Budget: | $263,683 |
| Sub-Contractors: | Batelle - Carl Berkowitz ($263,683)
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The objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate improved strategies for tracking the transport and evolution of pollutants emitted in the Houston-Galveston area using newly developed controlled meteorological balloons in conjunction with an instrumented aircraft.
Repeated in situ chemical observations made within a tagged segment of an advecting pollutant plume can be used to rigorously constrain and evaluate air quality models. Locating and following such plume segments in real-time, however, is difficult due to wind shear and turbulent mixing. This project will demonstrate an improved strategy for tagging a plume segment using Controlled Meteorological (COMET) balloons and repeatedly sampling the segment with an instrumented chase aircraft. COMET balloons are small lightweight altitude-controlled platforms that can remain airborne for multiple days while following various trajectories (adiabatic, constant level, terrain), responding to altitude commands via satellite, or performing repeated soundings as they move with the plume. These are major advantages over traditional constant-altitude balloons used in the past.
In the initial phase of the project we will use archived wind fields produced by a mesoscale model for the Houston-Galveston area to test and optimize different balloon deployment strategies. The focus of this study will be to develop and test algorithms that will use quasi-Lagrangian soundings to quantify dispersion in real time. In the next phase, we will conduct a pilot study in the Houston-Galveston area (during the HEAT campaign in 2005) to demonstrate the proposed quasi-Lagrangian balloon-aircraft sampling strategies. The field study will consist of one mission to demonstrate safe operations to the FAA and two missions designed to test different aspects of the sampling strategy for daytime and nighttime conditions. In each of the two science missions, two COMET balloons will be launched approximately 5 km downwind of the Houston Ship Channel under strong southerly flow conditions. One balloon will be programmed to make repeated soundings of wind velocity while the other will be operated in constant-altitude mode (during the day) or constant-potential-temperature mode (during the night). The position and geometry of the tagged plume segment will be calculated in real time based on the balloon soundings and position data. This information will be used to guide the aircraft in making repeated measurements of NOx, NOy, O3, CO, and VOCs within the same segment of the moving plume over a period ranging from 12 to 24 hours. Flight tracks will be staggered to avoid sampling air contaminated by the aircraft exhaust.
This work has the potential to support many aspects of the 2006 Texas campaign including studies of the magnitude and timing of peak ozone concentrations, nighttime aerosol-oxidant interactions, and the long-range transport and dispersion of ozone and its precursors.
Related Categories
Below is a list of categories that this project belongs to.
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| Page Updated/Reviewed: 05/24/2006 11:55 AM |
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