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Next generation technology being used to understand interaction
of air pollution and climate change. 

Release 10-38
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 28, 2010 	
	
NOAA
Jana Goldman
202-365-6068 (cell)

ARB
Stanley Young
916-322-1309 desk
916-956-9409 cell
www.arb.ca.gov

ARB and NOAA in $20 million research project on California’s air
pollution

Next generation technology being used to understand interaction
of air pollution and climate change

LOS ANGELES— The California Air Resources Board and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are taking to land, sea
and air to address the most challenging aspects of California’s
air quality problem: measuring greenhouse gases and air
pollutants.

NOAA's ship Atlantis
The $20 million CalNex project is employing an unprecedented
number of airplanes, ships and researchers to examine the nexus
between air pollution and climate change.

"Combining resources with NOAA will give California new data to
link our clean air and global warming protection efforts,” said
ARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols. “The scale and sophistication of
CalNex represents a milestone in ARB's 40-year history of
groundbreaking air pollution research."

“The goal is to provide decision makers with the information
they need to develop win/win strategies that address both climate
and air quality,” said Director of NOAA’s Chemical Sciences
Division, A.R. Ravishankara.

CalNex is the culmination of three years’ preparation and more
than $20 million in funding.  Started in early May continuing
through most of June, the project will involve four airplanes, an
ocean-going research ship, two land-based air monitoring super
sites and more than 150 highly trained scientists.

The project builds upon the idea that air quality and climate
change issues are linked through ‘one atmosphere,’ an approach
that demands coordination and multi-tiered approaches.  

Along with recent efforts to address climate change, ARB
provides its leadership in air pollution studies with decades of
baseline air quality data, an on-going atmospheric monitoring
capacity and existing research capabilities.  NOAA brings its
ability to rapidly study the atmosphere over large areas of ocean
and land by employing large, richly instrumented, long-range
aircraft, a fully capable oceanographic vessel and their
experienced scientists.  

The scale of the operation is unprecedented for an atmospheric
research project in
California. The project is employing:

    * Four aircraft
          o NOAA: WP-3D, Twin Otter and CIRPAS’ Twin Otter
          o NASA: King Air
    * A research vessel (NOAA’s Atlantis)
          o Provide data about the emissions and impacts of
shipping off California’s coast
    * Two ground air monitoring super sites
          o Caltech with over 40 investigators 
                + will focus on organic or carboneous PM and
nighttime chemistry
          o Arvin (Kern County) with 18 investigators.
                + Provide comprehensive suite of chemical
measurements that will significantly improve our understanding of
ozone and PM formation of in the San Joaquin Valley

 
NOAA’s contribution of hardware and expertise is estimated at
$15 million.  California is contributing $5 million, as well as
the expertise of their meteorological, modeling, monitoring and
research staff.  Researchers from all over the United States and
Europe will also be on the teams collecting data.

The data collected will give scientists a better understanding
of atmospheric-chemical transformations, climate processes,
transport and meteorology. This will improve ARB’s methodologies
for measuring greenhouse gases, traditional air pollutants and
their precursors. In addition, the study will improve ARB’s
understanding of the atmospheric formation of ground-level ozone
and PM that will improve air-quality models which in turn enables
ARB to develop more effective control strategies.

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Specific Benefits of CalNex California

Refining methods for determining greenhouse gas and
air-pollutant emissions:
The teams will look to interpret ambient CO2 measurements to
provide feedback to the emissions inventory. They are able to
avoid complications from background concentrations, multiplicity
of sources and the absorption and release of CO2 by the
biosphere. The use of aircrafts’ spatial coverage and resolution
will provide valuable information on CO2 and other gases.  Such
data can be used to analyze emission trends, and develop methods
to evaluate the effectiveness and potential of carbon
sequestration, including natural, agricultural and forestry
methods.

Improvement of Air Quality Modeling:
ARB depends on air quality models to prepare strategies for
reducing air pollution and complying with federal clean air
standards. The State Implementation Plan is the compendium of
strategies that must be submitted to the federal government.
CalNex can provide key data that will benefit the state’s air
quality models with three-dimensional, complementary measurements
collected by the aircrafts, ship and ground sites.  Each aircraft
is not only a mobile monitoring platform and vertical profiler,
but also a “supersite” with an extensive complement of technology
that can characterize collected gas and particle chemicals. The
quality of instrumentation and the advantages of range, speed and
vertical profiling that an aircraft can accommodate will provide
highly valuable information to refine air-quality models and
ensure that upcoming SIPs are based on the best science.  

Mobile Platforms

P-3 Aircraft – The P-3 carries three and half tons of scientific
equipment that takes measurements of gaseous and aerosol species
as quickly as every second.  Its range of 1300 km allows it to
cover the entire state as well as out to sea.

Twin Otter – Air pollution is a three-dimensional problem and
yet measurements of the vertical distribution of pollutants such
as ozone are rare.  This aircraft will provide vertical sampling
of ozone and other pollutants.

CIRPAS Twin Otter – This aircraft will concentrate on the
composition and physical and optical properties of aerosols.  The
data collected will help in understanding aerosol changes in the
atmosphere which affect both health and climate.

Atlantis - The Atlantis is a heavily-instrumented ocean-going
vessel that can examine emissions and chemical process off
California’s coast.  This will improve ARB’s air quality modeling
and estimation of the impacts of shipping on the state’s air
quality.  

Air Monitoring Supersites

Caltech Supersite
Over 40 research groups are collecting data at the California
Institute of Technology site.  The numerous gaseous and aerosol
measurements will improve our understanding of how particles form
and change in the atmosphere and how nighttime chemical processes
occur and impact pollution formation.  

San Joaquin Valley Supersite
A second air monitoring supersite is located on the University
of California, Agricultural Extension site south of Bakersfield,
in Arvin.  This southern San Joaquin Valley area has not shown
the reductions in ambient ozone of other localities in the state.
 More than 10 research groups will collect volatile organic
compound and nitrogen species data collected at a ground site
near Bakersfield.  


The Air Resources Board is a department of the California
Environmental Protection Agency.  ARB’s mission is to promote and
protect public health, welfare, and ecological resources through
effective reduction of air pollutants while recognizing and
considering effects on the economy.  The ARB oversees all air
pollution control efforts in California to attain and maintain
health based air quality standards.


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