Estimating Ground-level NO2 Concentrations from OMI Observations Lok Lamsal, Dalhousie University Randall Martin, Dalhousie and Harvard-Smithsonian Aaron van Donkelaar, Dalhousie University Martin Steinbacher, Empa Edward Celarier, SGT Inc. Eric Bucsela, NASA GSFC Edward Dunlea, CIRES Joseph Pinto, EPA Ruud Dirksen, KNMI Folkert Boersma, KNMI
Two Major Applications of OMI Tropospheric NO2 Columns Estimates of Surface Air Quality Top-down NOx Emissions Based on PM2.5, O3, and NO2
Large Regions Have Insufficient In Situ NO2 Measurements for Air Quality NO2 Associated with Mortality (Brook et al. 2007) In Situ Monitors Contaminated with Reactive Nitrogen Highest NO2 maximum quarterly mean by county, 2001 NO2 strongly associated with other toxic gases. Current U.S. standard 0.5 ppm annual average. long-term cohert studies have difficulty contrasting polluted vs rural areas
OMI Tropospheric NO2 Column Proxy for Surface Concentration NO/NO2 with altitude Satellite more representative for Exposure OMI Standard Product: October 2004 – September 2007 Inclusive
Simulated Concentrations (GEOS-Chem) over North America Strong Correlation Between Modeled NO2 Column and Surface NO2 Concentration Simulated Concentrations (GEOS-Chem) over North America Day (March 5, 2005) Annual Mean (2005) r2=0.96 n=652 r2=0.86 n=652
Promising Relationship Between Modeled and In-Situ NO2 Profiles GEOS-Chem Texas AQS Martin et al., 2004 Eastern North America New England Mixed layer can comprise 60-75% of tropospheric column In Situ GEOS-Chem ICARTT Martin et al., 2006
General Approach to Estimate Surface NO2 Coincident Model NO2 Profile Daily OMI Tropospheric NO2 Column In Situ GEOS-Chem S → Surface NO2 Ω → Tropospheric NO2 column
Tropospheric NO2 Column (1015 molec cm-2) Specific Approach to Estimate Surface NO2 Use OMI to Infer Sub-Grid Variation in NO2 Profile OMI (2o x 2.5o) OMI (0.1o x0.1o) Tropospheric NO2 Column (1015 molec cm-2) O S → Surface NO2 Ω → Tropospheric NO2 column ΩF → Free tropospheric NO2 Specific approach changes result by 10-30%
Surface NO2 for 2005 Inferred from OMI MAM DJF JJA SON
Sample Comparison of In-situ and OMI-derived Surface NO2
Significant Correlation Between In Situ and OMI-derived Surface NO2 Standard Product Near-Real-Time Correlation of Coincident Observations over 2005
Comparison of In Situ and OMI-derived Surface NO2 for 2005 Indirect Validation of OMI DJF MAM JJA SON OMI (STD) r=0.76 OMI (NRT) r=0.78 In situ
Seasonal Comparison by Land Type
Conclusions Future Directions Promising satellite-based surface NO2 estimate Surface measurements provide indirect validation of NO2 columns Need to understand seasonal differences Future Directions High resolution profile information (nested and regional models) Evaluate with ground-based measurements of “true NO2” More sophisticated algorithms for emission inversions (i.e. adjoint) Supported by NASA and NSERC