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O3, CH4, CO2, CO, NO2 and NMHC aircraft measurements in the Uinta Basin oil and gas region under low and high ozone conditions in winter 2012 and 2013
- Source :
- Elem Sci Anth; Vol 4 (2016); 000132, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene (2016)
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- University of California Press, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Instrumented aircraft measuring air composition in the Uinta Basin, Utah, during February 2012 and January-February 2013 documented dramatically different atmospheric ozone (O3) mole fractions. In 2012 O3 remained near levels of ∼40 ppb in a well-mixed 500–1000 m deep boundary layer while in 2013, O3 mole fractions >140 ppb were measured in a shallow (∼200 m) boundary layer. In contrast to 2012 when mole fractions of emissions from oil and gas production such as methane (CH4), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and combustion products such as carbon dioxide (CO2) were moderately elevated, in winter 2013 very high mole fractions were observed. Snow cover in 2013 helped produce and maintain strong temperature inversions that capped a shallow cold pool layer. In 2012, O3 and CH4 and associated NMHCs mole fractions were not closely related. In 2013, O3 mole fractions were correlated with CH4 and a suite of NMHCs identifying the gas field as the primary source of the O3 precursor NMHC emissions. In 2013 there was a strong positive correlation between CH4 and CO2 suggesting combustion from oil and natural gas processing activities. The presence of O3 precursor NMHCs through the depth of the boundary layer in 2013 led to O3 production throughout the layer. In 2013, O3 mole fractions increased over the course of the week-long episodes indicating O3 photochemical production was larger than dilution and deposition rates, while CH4 mole fractions began to level off after 3 days indicative of some air being mixed out of the boundary layer. The plume of a coal-fired power plant located east of the main gas field was not an important contributor to O3 or O3 precursors in the boundary layer in 2013.
- Subjects :
- Atmospheric Science
Environmental Engineering
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
010501 environmental sciences
Oceanography
Combustion
Mole fraction
01 natural sciences
Methane
chemistry.chemical_compound
lcsh:Environmental sciences
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Hydrology
lcsh:GE1-350
Ecology
Geology
Uinta Basin
Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
Plume
Natural gas field
Boundary layer
ozone
Deposition (aerosol physics)
chemistry
Environmental chemistry
Carbon dioxide
Trace Gases
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 23251026
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....546d28331bc8b6bd246c55c396f9c867