air quality study over chesapeake bay seeks to understand pollution - laser light measurement device

Sky Above Hart
This summer, Miller Island, east of Baltimore, became a busy lab where researchers fired balloons, drones and planes to better understand the complex air pollution swirls over Chesapeake Bay.
State and federal agencies have launched a program to provide more
Detailed data on how and why the Chesapeake Bay seems to be a magnet for ozone pollution, before the smoke is blown back from land, it will amplify the smoke.
"This research is an exciting example of cutting --
"On the edge of the land and water interface," said Ben Grumbles, Maryland's environment minister . ".
This study is trying to understand in three words.
Once power plants, cars, and other pollutants gather over the bay, what happens to the emissions.
These results may help Maryland defend the need to force state air pollution sources to better control emissions.
Officials in Maryland have accused the country of more than double air pollution.
Three degrees of smog in Baltimore and Washington.
In the hot summer months, sunlight and heat cause chemical reactions between pollutants and other compounds in the air, multiplying substances known as the groundlevel ozone.
Ozone is an oxygen that naturally exists in the upper atmosphere and can protect the Earth from ultraviolet radiation, but the ground
Ozone, a key component of smog, can cause or aggravate breathing or heart problems in humans.
Eight days this year, Baltimore has surpassed the United States in air quality. S.
Environmental Protection Agency standards.
Ozone is produced by chemical reactions between pollutants known as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.
Nitrogen oxides come from the burning of fossil fuels in cars and power plants.
With the production of ozone, nitrogen is usually discharged from the air.
Ariel Solaski, a litigation lawyer for staff at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said that about the third nitrogen pollution in the Bay came from air and landed on land and water.
Excessive nitrogen in the bay can lead to algae reproduction and death.
Due to the decrease in nutrients such as nitrogen in rivers and streams flowing into the bay, the water quality of the bay has improved significantly.
Solaski said that although the bay has a large watershed, it has a ventilation shed of nine times its size and covers an area of 570,000 square miles.
As a result, pollution sources in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and other states can cause harm to the Gulf.
"For the Gulf Foundation, any research to quantify and identify sources of nitrogen oxide pollution is important to understand how to minimize the nitrogen load in the Gulf Basin most effectively," Solaski said . ".
Maryland and Delaware filed a petition in 2016 asking the EPA to force 19
Power plants in five states run pollution control devices every day in the summer rather than on selected days.
The two states say they cannot reduce air pollution if other states do not have a reduction in headwinds.
The EPA said in early June that it would reject the request, noting that Maryland and Delaware did not demonstrate that the degree of pollution of these plants violated the so-called "good neighbor" provisions of the Clean Air Act.
Maryland is pushing the EPA to revoke the decision, but complains that the state may take legal action if EPA does not take action.
He said the state's study of air pollution is the basis of the petition.
Scientists have been relying on computer models to predict the whereabouts of pollutants in the atmosphere.
According to NASA researcher John Sullivan, by measuring and analyzing the results, the researchers will have a clearer understanding of what is going on.
It is known, Sullivan said, that during the summer, Baltimore's emissions are submerged on the surface of the water, where they gather at higher concentrations and produce a smoke mixture.
Later in the afternoon, when the wind blows from the east to the west, the smog blows back from the land.
The study was conducted by the Maryland Department of Environment, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in collaboration with several colleges, including the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the University of Maryland and Howard University.
Measurements of balloons, drones, aircraft and lasers
The radar, known as LiDAR, has been completed and the data will be available in the coming months.
UMBC researchers helped complete the project using lidar
Or laser pulse-
Ruben Delgado, an assistant research professor at UMBC, said to measure atmospheric and wind from the Earth's surface to three kilometers high.
"The measurement of wind allows us to have a better understanding of the airflow in the Chesapeake Bay," he said . ".
Because the measurements are carried out at different heights, scientists will get three
The size map of the atmosphere, and the mixing that occurs.
These more accurate measurements allow researchers to more accurately predict where emissions from different sources will end up.
The information will be used for science and regulatory enforcement, complained.
"It turns out Maryland's investment in science, people and hardware is leading," says Grumbles . ".
"The information we collect will benefit other countries that have a large body of water. ”—