|
|
| |
Study of Houston Atmospheric Radical precursors (SHARP)
| Start Date: | 04/01/2008 |
| Total Budget: | $410,000 |
| Sub-Contractors: | University of Houston
|
Projects H78 and H86 have identified major uncertainties in our understanding of the radical budget in Houston. These include primary emissions of nitrous acid (HONO) and formaldehyde (HCHO) from point sources as well as from area sources including surface related processes for the formation of HONO. Another important uncertainty was found in daytime HONO levels. A better quantification of these OH sources is needed to improve the description of ozone (O3) chemistry in air quality models in Houston. The accurate description of ozone chemistry is required to develop efficient strategies to reduce pollution in Houston and to develop the Houston-SIP.
The SHARP project is designed to address the following issues identified as a result of projects H78 and H86: 1) Direct emissions of the OH radical precursors HCHO and HONO from flares, smoke stacks, and other point sources, as well as from mobile sources, are currently not well quantified. 2) Surface-induced formation of HONO has not yet been sufficiently investigated. 3)Daytime HONO levels and its sources are not well understood
These uncertainties lead to limitations in our current ability to model radicals and ozone formation, and affect the simulated effectiveness of control strategies.
The SHARP project will consist of the following components:
1) Further analysis of TexAQS II TRAMP data;
2) Inter-comparison of different methods to measure ambient HONO;
3) Measurement of traffic emissions of HONO and HCHO;
4) Measurement of surface fluxes of HONO;
5) Support of measurements of primary HCHO using I-DOAS (see project 104C);
In order to address these research issues both in-depth data analysis of TRAMP leading to peer reviewed publications in 2008 and a couple of focused field studies within the time frame October 2008 – May 2009 will be performed. These field studies will include in-situ and remote sensing instrumentation for HCHO and HONO to characterize specific emission sources as well as an intercomparison of multiple HONO instrumentation in order to evaluate ambient HONO – levels in Houston, in particular during daytime.
Related Categories
Below is a list of categories that this project belongs to.
|
|
| Page Updated/Reviewed: 08/11/2008 1:49 PM |
|
© 2005 - 2008 Texas Environmental Research Consortium
|
