ALBERT

Description: The Pan and Parapan American Games (PA15) are the third largest sporting event in the world and were held in Toronto in the summer of 2015 (10–26 July and 7–15 August). This was used as an opportunity to coordinate and showcase existing innovative research and development activities related to weather, air quality (AQ), and health at Environment and Climate Change Canada. New observational technologies included weather stations based on compact sensors that were augmented with black globe thermometers, two Doppler lidars, two wave buoys, a 3D lightning mapping array, two new AQ stations, and low-cost AQ and ultraviolet sensors. These were supplemented by observations from other agencies, four mobile vehicles, two mobile AQ laboratories, and two supersites with enhanced vertical profiling. High-resolution modeling for weather (250 m and 1 km), AQ (2.5 km), lake circulation (2 km), and wave models (250-m, 1-km, and 2.5-km ensembles) were run. The focus of the science, which guided the design of the observation network, was to characterize and investigate the lake breeze, which affects thunderstorm initiation, air pollutant transport, and heat stress. Experimental forecasts and nowcasts were provided by research support desks. Web portals provided access to the experimental products for other government departments, public health authorities, and PA15 decision-makers. The data have been released through the government of Canada’s Open Data Portal and as a World Meteorological Organization’s Global Atmospheric Watch Urban Research Meteorology and Environment dataset.

Description: We report simultaneous measurements of volatile organic compound (VOC) mixing ratios including C6 to C8 aromatics, isoprene, monoterpenes, acetone and organic aerosol mass loadings at a rural location in Southwestern Ontario, Canada by Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS) and Aerosol Mass Spectrometry (AMS), respectively. During the three-week-long Border Air Quality and Meteorology Study in June–July 2007, air was sampled from a range of sources, including aged air from the polluted US Midwest, direct outflow from Detroit 50 km away, and clean air with higher biogenic input. After normalization to the diurnal profile of CO, a long-lived tracer, diurnal analyses show clear photochemical loss of reactive aromatics and production of oxygenated VOCs and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) during the daytime. Biogenic VOC mixing ratios increase during the daytime in accord with their light- and temperature-dependent sources. Long-lived species, such as hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol and benzene show little to no photochemical reactivity on this timescale. From the normalized diurnal profiles of VOCs, an estimate of OH concentrations during the daytime, measured O3 concentrations, and laboratory SOA yields, we calculate integrated organic aerosol production amounts associated with each measured SOA precursor. Depending on whether the SOA formation is occurring in a low- or high-NOx regime, we estimate that the biogenic gases contribute between 10 to 36 times as much SOA as do the aromatic precursors, making this a highly biogenically dominated region for SOA formation. The conclusion that biogenic SOA formation is of significance to air quality in this region is supported by detailed air quality modeling during this period (Stroud et al., 2010).

Description: A parameterization scheme for calculating gaseous dry deposition velocities in air-quality models is revised based on recent study results on non-stomatal uptake of O3 and SO2 over 5 different vegetation types. Non-stomatal resistance, which includes in-canopy aerodynamic, soil and cuticle resistances, for SO2 and O3 is parameterized as a function of friction velocity, relative humidity, leaf area index, and canopy wetness. Non-stomatal resistance for other chemical species is scaled to those of SO2 and O3 based on their chemical and physical characteristics. Stomatal resistance is calculated using a two-big-leaf stomatal resistance sub-model for all gaseous species of interest. The improvements in the present model compared to its earlier version include a newly developed non-stomatal resistance formulation, a realistic treatment of cuticle and ground resistance in winter, and the handling of seasonally-dependent input parameters. Model evaluation shows that the revised parameterization can provide more realistic deposition velocities for both O3 and SO2, especially for wet canopies. Example model output shows that the parameterization provides reasonable estimates of dry deposition velocities for different gaseous species, land types and diurnal and seasonal variations. Maximum deposition velocities from model output are close to reported measurement values for different land types. The current parameterization can be easily adopted into different air-quality models that require inclusion of dry deposition processes.

Description: Regional-scale chemical transport model predictions of urban organic aerosol to date tend to be biased low relative to observations, a limitation with important implications for applying such models to human exposure health studies. We used a nested version of Environment Canada's AURAMS model (42- to- 15- to- 2.5-km nested grid spacing) to predict organic aerosol concentrations for a temporal and spatial domain corresponding to the Border Air Quality and Meteorology Study (BAQS-Met), an air-quality field study that took place in the southern Great Lakes region in the summer of 2007. The use of three different horizontal grid spacings allowed the influence of this parameter to be examined. A domain-wide average for the 2.5-km domain and a matching 15-km subdomain yielded very similar organic aerosol averages (4.8 vs. 4.3 μg m−3, respectively). On regional scales, secondary organic aerosol dominated the organic aerosol composition and was adequately resolved by the 15-km model simulation. However, the shape of the organic aerosol concentration histogram for the Windsor urban station improved for the 2.5-km simulation relative to those from the 42- and 15-km simulations. The model histograms for the Bear Creek and Harrow rural stations were also improved in the high concentration "tail" region. As well the highest-resolution model results captured the midday 4 July organic-aerosol plume at Bear Creek with very good temporal correlation. These results suggest that accurate simulation of urban and large industrial plumes in the Great Lakes region requires the use of a high-resolution model in order to represent urban primary organic aerosol emissions, urban VOC emissions, and the secondary organic aerosol production rates properly. The positive feedback between the secondary organic aerosol production rate and existing organic mass concentration is also represented more accurately with the highest-resolution model. Not being able to capture these finer-scale features may partly explain the consistent negative bias reported in the literature when urban-scale organic aerosol evaluations are made using coarser-scale chemical transport models.

Description: Observations from the 2007 Border Air Quality and Meteorology Study (BAQS-Met 2007) in Southern Ontario, Canada, were used to evaluate predictions of primary organic aerosol (POA) and two other carbonaceous species, black carbon (BC) and carbon monoxide (CO), made for this summertime period by Environment Canada's AURAMS regional chemical transport model. Particle component-based factor analysis was applied to aerosol mass spectrometer measurements made at one urban site (Windsor, ON) and two rural sites (Harrow and Bear Creek, ON) to derive hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol (HOA) factors. A novel diagnostic model evaluation was performed by investigating model POA bias as a function of HOA mass concentration and indicator ratios (e.g. BC/HOA). Eight case studies were selected based on factor analysis and back trajectories to help classify model bias for certain POA source types. By considering model POA bias in relation to co-located BC and CO biases, a plausible story is developed that explains the model biases for all three species. At the rural sites, daytime mean PM1 POA mass concentrations were under-predicted compared to observed HOA concentrations. POA under-predictions were accentuated when the transport arriving at the rural sites was from the Detroit/Windsor urban complex and for short-term periods of biomass burning influence. Interestingly, the daytime CO concentrations were only slightly under-predicted at both rural sites, whereas CO was over-predicted at the urban Windsor site with a normalized mean bias of 134%, while good agreement was observed at Windsor for the comparison of daytime PM1 POA and HOA mean values, 1.1 μg m−3 and 1.2 μg m−3, respectively. Biases in model POA predictions also trended from positive to negative with increasing HOA values. Periods of POA over-prediction were most evident at the urban site on calm nights due to an overly-stable model surface layer. This model behaviour can be explained by a combination of model under-estimation of vertical mixing at the urban location, under-representation of PM emissions for on-road traffic exhaust along major urban roads and highways, and a more structured allocation of area POA sources such as food cooking and dust emissions to urban locations. A downward trend in POA bias was also observed at the urban site as a function of the BC/HOA indicator ratio, suggesting a possible association of POA under-prediction with under-representation of diesel combustion sources. An investigation of the emission inventories for the province of Ontario and the nearby US state of Indiana also suggested that the top POA area emission sources (food cooking, organic-bound to dust, waste disposal burning) dominated over mobile and point sources, again consistent with a mobile under-estimation. We conclude that more effort should be placed at reducing uncertainties in the treatment of several large POA emission sources, in particular food cooking, fugitive dust, waste disposal burning, and on-road traffic sources, and especially their spatial surrogates and temporal profiles. This includes using higher spatial resolution model grids to better resolve the urban road network and urban food cooking locations. We also recommend that additional sources of urban-scale vertical mixing in the model, such as a stronger urban heat island effect and vehicle-induced turbulence, would help model predictions at urban locations, especially at night time.

Description: Multi-AXis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) measurements were performed in a rural location of southwestern Ontario during the Border Air Quality and Meteorology Study. Slant column densities (SCDs) of NO2 and O4 were determined using the standard DOAS technique. Using a radiative transfer model and the O4 SCDs, aerosol optical depths were determined for clear sky conditions and compared to OMI, MODIS, AERONET, and local PM2.5 measurements. This aerosol information was input to a radiative transfer model to calculate NO2 air mass factors, which were fit to the measured NO2 SCDs to determine tropospheric vertical column densities (VCDs) of NO2. The method of determining NO2 VCDs in this way was validated for the first time by comparison to composite VCDs derived from aircraft and ground-based measurements of NO2. The new VCDs were compared to VCDs of NO2 determined via retrievals from the satellite instruments SCIAMACHY and OMI, for overlapping time periods. The satellite-derived VCDs were higher, with a mean bias of +0.5–0.9×1015 molec cm−2. This last finding is different from previous studies whereby MAX-DOAS geometric VCDs were higher than satellite determinations, albeit for urban areas with higher VCDs. An effective boundary layer height, BLHeff, is defined as the ratio of the tropospheric VCD and the ground level concentration of NO2. Variations of BLHeff can be linked to time of day, source region, stability of the atmosphere, and the presence or absence of elevated NOx sources. In particular, a case study is shown where a high VCD and BLHeff were observed when an elevated industrial plume of NOx and SO2 was fumigated to the surface as a lake breeze impacted the measurement site. High BLHeff values (~1.9 km) were observed during a regional smog event when high winds from the SW and high convection promoted mixing throughout the boundary layer. During this event, the regional line flux of NO2 through the region was estimated to be greater than 112 kg NO2 km−1 h−1.

Description: Meteorological observations from the BAQS-Met field experiment during the summer months of 2007 were integrated and manually analyzed in order to identify and characterize lake breezes in the southern Great Lakes region of North America, and assess their potential impact on air quality. Lake breezes occurred frequently, with one or more lake breezes identified on 90 % of study days. They affected all parts of the study region, including southwestern Ontario and nearby portions of southeast Lower Michigan and northern Ohio, with lake-breeze fronts occasionally penetrating from 100 km to over 200 km inland. Occurrence rates and penetration distances were found to be higher than previously reported in the literature. This comprehensive depiction of observed lake breezes allows an improved understanding of their influence on the transport, dispersion, and production of pollutants in this region. The observational analyses were compared with output from subsequent runs of a high-resolution numerical weather prediction model. The model accurately predicted lake breeze occurrence and type in a variety of synoptic wind regimes, but selected cases showed substantial differences in the detailed timing and location of lake-breeze fronts, and with the initiation of deep moist convection. Knowledge of such strengths and weaknesses aids in the interpretation of results from air quality models driven by this meteorological model.