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ATMOSPHERIC & WATER CHEMISTRY Projects... PI: Mainelis Co-PI: None Agency: NSF Title: Inactivation of Airborne Microorganisms Using Electrical Fields: A Feasibility Study Abstract: Exposure to airborne microorganisms in agricultural, industrial, indoor and health-care environments causes over 100 million episodes of various health complications and disorders in the U.S. each year. Moreover, there is an increased threat that certain microorganisms, such as anthrax, could be used as bio-warfare agents. Thus, it is very important to develop new tools and techniques for monitoring and/or controlling the microorganisms that are airborne. This research proposes to investigate the efficiency of bioaerosol control (inactivation) when using electrical fields. Electrical fields have been applied to kill various bacteria, yeast and spores in buffer solutions and liquid foodstuff. However, this method has not been used to inactivate the microorganisms that are airborne. In this research, three microorganism species, ranging from sensitive to hardy ones, will be aerosolized and exposed to electric fields of different magnitude and polarity. The exposure time will also be varied to achieve the maximum inactivation efficiency. One of the proposed test microorganisms, Bacillus subtilis var. niger spores, is used by the U.S. Armed Forces in testing new biosensors for their ability to respond to particles of biological threat, such as airborne anthrax spores. Success in this research will increase the arsenal of tools for controlling various airborne microorganisms. Satisfactory results in this research would lead to simple and cost-effective devices for air sanitation.
PI: J. Reinfelder Co-PI: None Agency: Enviropian Consulting Title: Wet Deposition of Mercury in Warren County Abstract: Wet deposition of Hg will be measured in Belvedere, NJ (Warren County) in conjunction with Environplan Consulting. Samples will be collected over 12 or 24 days for a three year period following the methods of the New Jersey Atmospheric Deposition Network. Mercury concentrations will be measured in integrated precipitation samples and wet deposition fluxes will be estimated based on the amounts of Hg and precipitation volumes collected during each time period.
PI: J. Reinfelder Co-PI: Totten, Stenchikov, Korfiatis, and Hires Agency: NJMSC Title: Monitoring of PCB Air Emissions in Sites Receiving Stabilized Harbor Sediment Abstract: The objectives of this study are to quantify through laboratory experiments the magnitude of PCB and Hg volatilization from stabilized dredge materials (SDM), quantify the fraction of PCBs (and possibly Hg) adsorbed to airborne particles in samples previously collected at sediment disposal and NJDEP trailer sites in Bayonne, NJ in order to assess the importance of aerosol sorption of gas-phase PCBs and Hg emitted from SDM, and to utilize a RAMS/HYPACT model with measured PCB and Hg concentrations to characterize air circulation patterns and estimate the fluxes of PCBs and Hg from SDM during our previous field sampling campaigns.
PI: Totten Co-PI: J. Reinfelder, Eisenreich Agency: DRBC Title: Delaware River Estuary Air, Water & Sediment Field Study: 2001-2003 Abstract: The overall objective of this study is to quantify the air, water and sediment concentrations and fluxes of organic (PBTs, especially PCBs, PAHs and organochlorine pesticides) and inorganic pollutants (Hg and selected trace metals) in and around the Delaware River Estuary (DRE). The effort consists of four tasks: 1. The quantification of air-water exchange fluxes of PCBs and PAHs in the DRE; 2. Determination of sediment concentrations and accumulations of PCBs, organochlorine pesticides, trace metals and Hg in three cores spanning the depositional zones of the DRE; 3. Establish and operate four atmospheric PCB sites in Pennsylvania to complement the atmospheric monitoring and research being conducted in the New Jersey Atmospheric Deposition Network (NJADN); and, 4. Evaluate the bioavailability of atmospheric Hg and PCBs deposited in the Delaware River Estuary.
PI: Totten Co-PI: Eisenreich, Holsen Agency: EPA Title: Atmospheric Dry Particle Deposition of POPs and Trace Metals in an Urban- and Industrially-Impacted Mid-Atlantic Estuary (AEOLOS Mid-Atlantic) Abstract: Specific Project Objectives are: (1) To determine the dry depositional flux of coarse and fine particles, and selected Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and trace metals to the lower Hudson River Estuary (HRE) using surrogate depositional surfaces; (2) To determine the seasonal particle-size distribution of mass, selected POPs and trace metals in the lower HRE; (3) To model the dry particle depositional fluxes of particle mass, selected POPs and trace metals to the HRE based on the particle size distribution; (4) to provide a field evaluation of the surrogate surface and models to estimate dry particle depositional fluxes; (5) to provide an assessment of the dry depositional component of the atmospheric deposition of selected POPs and trace metals to the lower HRE.
PI: Totten Co-PI: Eisenreich Agency: Hudson River Foundation Title: Measurement of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers in the Air and Water of the Hudson River Estuary Abstract: The overall goal of this research is to provide a preliminary assessment of the fate and transport of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) in the air and water of the Hudson River Estuary. This entails developing a preliminary understanding of: the partitioning of PBDEs between gas, aerosol, dissolved, and suspended sediment phases; the factors which may drive temporal variations in PBDE concentrations in air (such as temperature and wind direction); and the magnitude of atmospheric deposition fluxes of PBDEs to the Hudson River Estuary. These results, combined with our understanding of the air/water/phytoplankton exchange process, will allow us to estimate the levels of PBDEs in the phytoplankton of the estuary, providing a starting point for the understanding of their cycling in the food chain.
PI: Totten Co-PI: None Agency: NJDEP Title: Community Based Air Toxics Monitoring Studies Abstract: The Bureau of Air Monitoring is seeking the services of a contractor to conduct several community based air toxics monitoring studies. These studies will be used to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of short term, targeted monitoring programs in addressing local concerns about air toxics. There will be two phases to the project. In the first the contractor will design, build and field-test a transportable air monitoring platform. The platform will be set up at one of the states existing permanent air toxics sites and the contractor will evaluate the overall performance and comparability of the their system to the states. In the second phase the state will conduct short-term, community based monitoring projects. The exact number of studies, target compounds to be identified and duration of sampling will be determined in consultation with the state and be based on the objectives of each project and the overall contract budget. The projects will address a variety of local air toxics concerns, including potential problem areas identified in the United States Environmental Protection Agencys (EPA) Cumulative Exposure Project (CEP) and National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA). A sampling program will be devised specifically for each site/deployment and carried out over a one to several month period. The contractor will provide a report, with a complete evaluation of the results, for each deployment.
PI: Turpin Co-PI: Seitzinger Agency: EPA Title: Secondary and Regional Contributions to Organic PM: A Mechanistic Investigation of Organic PM in the Eastern and Southern United States Abstract: Atmospheric (secondary) formation and regional transport are responsible for a large portion of PM2.5 mass in the eastern United States, even in urban areas. In addition, there is growing evidence suggesting that, as for sulfate, organic PM can be formed not only by homogeneous gas phase reactions, but also by heterogeneous (including aqueous-phase) reactions. We hypothesize that atmospheric chemistry and transport models underestimate secondary OC and the regional contribution to OC in the eastern and southern United States because substantial organic PM is formed heterogeneous processes (i.e., cloud processing) during regional transport. We propose to provide a better understanding of fundamental atmospheric (i.e., aqueous/heterogeneous) processes needed to predict organic (OC) particulate matter (PM) concentration, organic species composition, and effects from emissions of particles and precursor species (i.e. improve predictive models). Further, we will examine evidence indicating the importance of these secondary processes in the eastern US using EPA Supersite data and samples. We expect that this initial work will lead to the identification of secondary source tracers or process indicators that can be used in data analysis efforts and receptor modeling to identify the importance of primary vs. secondary, local vs. transport, and/or homogeneous vs. heterogeneous processes. Additionally, this work will improve predictive models and therefore lead to the development of more effective air pollution control strategies. Approach: The specific aims are: 1. Conduct controlled laboratory experiments investigating the secondary formation of organic particulate matter through cloud/fog processing (i.e., kinetics). Results will provide critical information needed to refine predictive model, to identify potential secondary OC source tracers or process indicators for data analysis and receptor modeling, and to guide the study of regional and local contributions to organic PM concentrations. 2. Analyze samples from the Pittsburgh Supersite for products identified in #1, and examine eastern Supersite data for evidence of heterogeneous formation, to assess the relative importance of this formation process, and to identify conditions conducive to secondary formation through cloud processing. 3. Examine the suitability of tracers/process indicators suggested above for estimation of primary vs. secondary, local vs. regional, and/or heterogeneous vs. homogeneous contributions to ambient organic PM. Expected Results and Benefits: This work will provide a better understanding of the contribution of regional transport and secondary formation to ambient organic PM concentrations. It will provide critical scientific knowledge that is needed to accurately PM2.5 concentrations and identify effective air quality management strategies.
PI: Stenchikov Co-PI: None Agency: NASA (subcontract through UMD) Title: Tropospheric Convection and Stratosphere-Tropospheric Exchange: Effects on Photochemistry, Aerosols, and Climate Abstract: This project focuses on gaining a better understanding of vertical transport processes in the atmosphere, the resulting effects on trace gas and aerosol distributions, the subsequent changes in radiative forcing, and possible climate feedbacks. We have been developing many of the modeling tools necessary for such analyses: Stretched-grid Chemical Transport Model (SG-CTM), a Single-Column Chemical Transport Model (SCCTM) with chemistry, a 3-D CTM with chemistry, a coupled SCCTM - Climate Model, and a cloud-scale CTM. Our SG-CTM allows us to compute global distributions of atmospheric constituents, but also provides regional downscaling of the transport processes. Using these models we have performed several case-study simulations containing major convective episodes and/or stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) events. We will continue the further development of these models, but shift to a greater emphasis on case-study analyses of events found in EOS satellite data and in additional aircraft field missions. We will examine data from the MOPITT instrument on the EOS/Terra platform to locate major convective and STE episodes which we will simulate with our SG-CTM, driven by GEOS SG-DAS data. The same cases will also be simulated using our cloud-scale CTM driven by the 3-D Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) model, thereby providing an evaluation of the vertical transport process in the larger-scale model. Coupling of the SG-CTM with the GEOS SG-GCM will allow calculation of regional effects on the dynamics produced by changes in radiative forcing that are induced by altered atmospheric constituent profiles resulting from vertical transport. The results of this work were presented at the numerous national and international meetings, one paper is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, one PhD dissertation is completed.
PI: Stenchikov Co-PI: None Agency: NASA (subcontract through UMD) Title: Chemical Tracer Transport in Crystal-Face: Mesoscale Forecasts and Cloud Model Analysis Abstract: In this project we support the CRYSTAL-FACE field program by providing chemical tracer (CO, Rn 222, and ozone) forecasts generated with a mesoscale meteorological model, MM5. This effort will require development of source emission data sets and functions, as well as initial condition files. The chemical forecasts will be run daily during the field deployment for periods of 36 hours. We plan to be present in the field for interpretation of the forecast output for flight planning and for evaluation of the forecasts with measured data from project aircraft. Following the field mission we will select cases of deep convection that were sampled by the aircraft for more detailed simulation with the 3-D Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) Model. MM5 fields will be used as initial conditions for the GCE simulations. The cloud-resolved simulations will be useful for analysis of the transport of water vapor in deep convection and in the region of the storm anvil near the tropopause. Wind fields from the GCE model will be used in our offline cloud-scale chemical transport model for detailed analyses of tracer transport which will help elucidate air parcel history and transport through the convection, in the anvil and across the tropopause.
PI: Stenchikov Co-PI: Georgopoulos and Lioy Agency: UMDNJ Title: Reconstruction of dust/smoke plume that resulted from the collapse of the Twin Towers and the fires that burned at the site of the WTC Abstract: In this study we calculate fine-resolution meteorological fields and aerosol transport in NYC and nearby areas of New Jersey and New York to study environmental and health effects of pollutants released by the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and subsequent fires of the debris. In order to downscale meteorological fields we employed Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) using three nested grid with the spatial resolution 4km, 1 km, and 250 m, respectively. For this study we implemented in RAMS improved data bases of Land Elevation and Vegetation Cover with 30 m resolution as well as high-resolution sea surface temperature from multi-channel AVHRR retrievals. We produced meteorological fields for a month following the September 11 event and then used them as input in the aerosol transport calculations using Hybrid Particle and Concentration Transport model (HYPACT). The simulated winds and concentrations are compared favorably with observations. The simulated pollutant distributions were provided to an exposure assessment group for analysis of the environmental and health impact. This project is funded by EPA trough subcontract to Environmental and Occupational health Science Institute (EOHSI).
PI: Stenchikov Co-PI: None Agency: NSF Title: Three-Dimensional Cloud-Resolved Simulations of Trace Gas Transport, Lightning NOx Production and Photochemistry in Observed Deep Convection Abstract: This interdisciplinary collaborative study is based at the University of Maryland and Rutgers University, but includes contributions from colleagues from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, National Center of Atmospheric Research, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, DLR-Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, and Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. The major focus of the project is to understand better the effect of strong thunderstorms on regional and global chemical processes accounting for the whole complexity of the event that includes complex atmospheric dynamics, lightning NOx production, transport and chemical transformations of chemically active constituents, formation of ice and snow in the cloud anvil, and stratosphere-troposphere exchange. We base our study on American (STERAO-A-Stratosphere-Troposphere Experiments: Radiation, Aerosols, and Ozone) and European (EULINOX-European Lightning NOx project) observation campaigns and use the 3-D cloud-resolved Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model to build a complete scientific picture of the observed convective events, quantify major processes, and conduct analyses. We are specifically interested in quantifying contributions of cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud flashes in NOx production and further effect on ozone production in the upper troposphere. The results of this work were presented at the numerous national and international meetings, one paper is published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, one PhD dissertation is completed. In our simulations we were able to reproduce the observed complex spatial structure and temporal evolution of STERAO-A and EULINOX storms. The terrain and mesoscale circulation affect the fine structure and long term evolution of the storms. Our results suggest that NOx production in cloud-to-cloud flashes is almost an order of magnitude greater than previously assumed. The significantly greater net photochemical ozone production was computed in the upper tropospheric outflow of the storm when NOx from lightning is considered indicating the importance of this process.
PI: Stenchikov Co-PI: None Agency: NASA (subcontract through UMD) Title: Tropospheric Transport Processes for Trace Gases and Aerosols: Regional-to-Global Chemical and Climate Consequences Abstract: The focus of this project is on computation of export fluxes for trace gases and aerosols from the continents especially North American outflow. We will use a stretched-grid chemical transport model with fine resolution over central and eastern North America and the Western Atlantic. The simulated periods will correspond to the summers in which previous field programs (ABLE-3B, NARE, TARFOX) were conducted. Aircraft data will be used to evaluate the model as well as TOMS tropospheric ozone, TOMS aerosol index, GOME NO2, AVHRR AOD, and MODIS aerosol products. Interannual variations in export flux associated with variations in North American biomass burning will be examined.
PI: Turpin Co-PI: Seitzinger, Lim Agency: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey Title: Secondary and Regional Contributions to Organic PM: A Mechanistic Investigation of Organic PM in the Eastern and Southern United States Abstract: Atmospheric (secondary) formation and regional transport are responsible for a large portion of PM2.5 mass in the eastern United States, even in urban areas. In addition, there is growing evidence suggesting that, as for sulfate, organic PM can be formed not only by homogeneous gas phase reactions, but also by heterogeneous (including aqueous-phase) reactions. We hypothesize that atmospheric chemistry and transport models underestimate secondary OC and the regional contribution to OC in the eastern and southern United States because substantial organic PM is formed through heterogeneous processes (i.e., cloud processing) during regional transport. We propose to provide a better understanding of fundamental atmospheric (i.e. aqueous/ heterogeneous) processes needed to predict organic (OC) particulate matter (PM) concentration, organic species composition, and effects from emissions of particles and precursor species (i.e. improve predictive models). Further, we will examine evidence indicating the importance of these secondary processes in the eastern US using EPA Supersite data and samples. We expect that this initial work will lead to the identification of secondary source tracers or process indicators that can be used in data analysis efforts and receptor modeling to identify the importance of primary vs. secondary, local vs. transport, and/or homogeneous vs. heterogeneous processes. Additionally, this work will improve predictive models and therefore lead to the development of more effective air pollution control strategies.
The specific aims are:
This work will provide a better understanding of the contribution of regional transport and secondary formation to ambient organic PM concentrations. It will provide critical scientific knowledge that is needed to accurately predict PM2.5 concentrations and identify effective air quality management strategies.
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