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Although most measurements of pollutants take place on solid ground,
most pollutant transport takes place aloft. Understanding
the movement of ozone and its precursors in the upper levels of
the atmosphere is vital to accurate modeling and data interpretation.
Measurements of ozone and NOx have been collected aloft in the
Lake Michigan region since 1987. Since 1994, measurements
have been collected routinely during summer ozone episodes by two
aircraft. Shown at left is the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources Cessna 337 Skymaster. This aircraft flies every
sixth day in a regular pattern over Lake Michigan, Lake Superior,
and the urban/rural boundary of the Chicago/Milwaukee metro areas.
Additional flights are made on forecast ozone episode days.
A Cessna 210 Turbo Centurion is operated by Bob Jacko of R.B. Jacko
Associates of West Lafayette, Indiana. This aircraft flies
and identical schedule as the WDNR plane but covers the southern
portion of LADCO's states, flying from Lafayette west to St. Louis
and east as far as Dolly Sods National Park in West Virginia.
For more details on the aircraft measurements, click here.
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Presenting data that has 5 dimensions
(concentration, time, latitude, longitude, and altitude) can be
tricky. Matt Harrell and Pam Brooks of Illinois EPA have applied
their GIS wizardry to the 2001aircraft data and produced a set of
ArcView projects that map the many air quality and meteorology parameters
collected -- ozone, NOx, wind speed, wind direction, temperature,
humidity, pressure, altitude, and light extinction. At left
is a plot from a July afternoon flight showing boundary ozone concentrations
as they vary from Oshkosh, WI, to St. Louis, MO. The complete
set of aircraft maps is available on cd (contact Donna
Kenski). LADCO currently has a contract with Sonoma
Technology to analyze the historic aircraft data, which includes
the task of building a comprehensive database of measurements from
all years and all flights. The database and
analysis is due to be finalized in June 2004.
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