Ozone Water-Land Environmental Transition Study (OWLETS)

Significant land-water pollution gradients within complex coastal terrain can occur due to differences in surface deposition, boundary layer height, and cloud coverage. Furthermore, in the absence of strong synoptic forcing, pollution that originated from traditional on-land emission sources can be advected over the water; and in some cases, recirculated back over land under mesoscale wind shifts. In the past, studies have examined the Chesapeake air-shed with respect to various harmful air pollutants, including tropospheric ozone and particulate matter (PM); however, surface measurements and vertical profiles over water are scarce. With the lack of historical or operational measurements under various air quality conditions, it is difficult to quantify and characterize boundary layer pollutant gradients. OWLETS (Ozone Water-Land Environmental Transition Study) is a month-long intensive field study to investigate spatiotemporal gradients in tropospheric ozone and PM throughout the Hampton Roads/Newport News region. In collaboration with NASA (LaRC and GSFC), NOAA, EPA, and university partners, we have provided high-resolution vertical ozone profiles simultaneously over land and water during various air quality events by using remotely sensed (e.g. lidar) and balloon-borne instrumentation. These vertical, horizontal, and temporal measurements will be used to describe complex scenes in order to improve and validate forecast models and air quality satellite retrievals, such as from the upcoming TEMPO satellite.