lake champlain & the adirondacks from burlington vt camnet fastnet event report: 040203nenitrate...
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Lake Champlain & the Adirondacks from Burlington VT CAMNET
FASTNET Event Report: 040203NENitrate
Winter PM Event over the Northeast and Quebec:
Nitrate? Sulfate?
Contributed by the FASNET Community
Correspondence to R Poirot, R Husar
Recent PM 2.5 Events in Burlington, VT on 2/19-20/04 & 3/1/04
(by FDMS TEOM which includes Volatile PM missed by SES TEOMs)
Note:
Volatile Fine Mass of 15-25 ug/m3 on
event days
VT FDMS TEOMs have generally shown good agreement with FRM Mass (but not on 3/1/04 FRM day, when TEOM > FRM by about 10 ug/m3).
One possible interpretation could be loss of volatile Nitrate from FRM filters.
Burlington, VT AQI > 100 was New England Max on 2/19 (& 3/1), although similar (& even higher) PM 2.5 was reported in Southern Quebec.
At L’Acadie, Quebec (SE of Montreal), collocated BAM and 30 deg SES TEOM showed BAM > TEOM by 15-30 ug/m2 (data from Michel Bisson)
Tom Dann observed similar differences of 15-25 ug/m3 for colo BAM & SES TEOM in Ottawa on 2/19/03
High Fine Mass in Gt. Lakes on 2/29 and then in VT on 3/1
Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) PM-2.5 & NOx, 2/28-3/1/04
Continuous Nitrate of 15 to 20 ug/m3 observed in Toronto on 2/19 & 2/29 (data from Jeff Brook)
Similarly High Nitrate of 15 to 20 ug/m3 in Chicago on 2/18/03 (data from Donna Kenski & Chris Price
Extreme Haze observed by ASOS in BTV on 2/19 & 20 and 3/1/04
(these data are not RH-adjusted - from STI & CAPITA FASTNET)
Note Similar conditions all along Eastern
US/Canada border.
Over the Upper Midwest, between Feb. 15-19, the dew point temperature increased from –20 to
+30 F
Similarly, the temperature rose from –10 to +40 F.
the over four days, causing a rapid taw
through out the region
Interestingly, the rise in aerosol Bext during Feb 16-19 coincided with the rising temperatures and
humidity.
Is there a causality??
Possible nitrate release?
Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) PM-2.5 & NOx, 2/18-20/04
Transport generally parallels US/Canada Border for both events
(Note: low HY-SPLIT start heights employed because Mx Ht was very low for both events. Transport Plus Local Stagnation were likely contributors)
NRL NAAPS global forecast
model patterns for Dust & SO4 (no
NO3 modeled) are consistent with
surface Obs from RH-adjusted Bext.
How much of Northern event
was SO4 or NO3?
Did the dust contribute too?
What will STN, IMPROVE &
Canadian filters show?
SOUTHLAND, Texas (AP) -- Thick, reddish-brown dust swirled over parts of West Texas, contributing to a series of traffic accidents that killed two people and injured dozens of others. As many as 30 vehicles crashed Thursday (2/19) on U.S. Highway 84 between Southland and Post, about 20 miles southeast of Lubbock, said Cpl. John Gonzalez with the Department of Public Safety.
Real-time Surface Meteorology provided a rich met context.Link to the Animation of the period Feb 19-21