Wintertime ozone is a serious air quality issue in Utah’s Uinta Basin. The situation is unique and requires improvements to photochemical models, such as the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) used by Utah’s Division of Air Quality, to simulate wintertime ozone. High concentrations of wintertime ozone occur over snow-covered surfaces. Snow cover influences wintertime ozone by increasing surface albedo and thus increasing photolysis rates, inhibiting the surface deposition of ozone and other chemical species, and possibly introducing important chemistry processes onto the snow surface. Modern photochemical models need to improve their treatment of snow cover in their simulations.
In addition, the chemical mechanisms used in CAMx will benefit from modifications that can better handle cold temperature chemical reactions. Current chemical mechanisms account for only some of the temperature dependency of the chemical products formed by reactions of organic molecules that are emitted by oil and gas operations.
- Principal Investigator:
- Greg Yarwood, RAMBOLL-ENVIRON
- Chris Emery, RAMBOLL-ENVIRON
- DAQ Contact: Chris Pennell ([email protected])