The Chemical and Meteorological Conditions Associated with High and Low Ozone Concentrations in Southeastern Michigan and Nearby Areas of Ontario

Abstract

This analysis represents the first characterization of the photochemistry and transport of ozone in the Detroit metropolitan area and provides a basis for comparing data for Detroit to that for other cities. The characterization is based on a comprehensive set of meteorological and chemical measurements obtained at a site in the urban core of Detroit during the summer of 1981, together with measurements of O3, nitrogen oxides (NO X ), and nonmethane organic compounds (NMOC) from rural, suburban, and urban areas in southeastern Michigan and adjacent areas of Ontario. For the quartile (23 days) with highest ozone maxima (97-180 ppb), the maxima occurred 10-70 km north-northeast of the city on days that were warm and hazy with light southsouthwest winds. On such days there was a marked accumulation of ozone precursors (NMOC and NOX) in the early morning, as well as a rapid chemical removal of NO X (NO X half-life of ∼5 h) from morning to midday. The timing of the daily ozone increase across the study region suggests that local photochemical generation in a moving plume was responsible for more than half of the ozone measured downwind. However, there was also evidence that ozone transported into Detroit as part of the regional background was a significant part of the O3 maxima on high ozone days. The average contributions of photochemistry and transport for the 23 days with the highest ozone maxima were estimated to be 57 ppb and 47 ppb, respectively.