Dynamic Characteristics of Positive Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharge for Ozone Generation in Air

A comprehensive dynamic model consisting of 66 reactions and 24 species is developed to investigate the dynamic characteristics of ozone generation by positive pulsed dielectric barrier discharge（DBD） using parallel-plate reactor in air.The electron energy conservation equation is coupled to the electron continuity equation,the heavy species continuity equation,and Poisson＇s equation for a better description.The reliability of the model is experimentally confirmed.The model can be used to predict the temporal and spatial evolution of species,as well as streamer propagation.The simulation results show that electron density increases nearly exponentially in the direction to the anode at the electron avalanche.Streamer propagation velocity is about 5.26×104m/s from anode to cathode in the simulated condition.The primary positive ion,negative ion,and excited species are O_2~＋,O_3^-and O_2（1？g） in pulsed DBD in air,respectively.N_2 O has the largest density among nitrogen oxides.e and N_2~＋densities in the streamer head increase gradually to maximum values with the development of the streamer.Meanwhile,the O_2~＋,O,O_3,N_2（A^3Σ） and N_2 O densities reach maximum values in the vicinity of the anode.

Analysis of Ozone Behaviour in the City of Puebla-Mexico Using Non-Homogeneous Poisson Models with Multiple Change-Points

In this work, some non-homogeneous Poisson models are considered to study the behaviour of ozone in the city of Puebla, Mexico. Several functions are used as the rate function for the non-homogeneous Poisson process. In addition to their dependence on time, these rate functions also depend on some parameters that need to be estimated. In order to estimate them, a Bayesian approach will be taken. The expressions for the distributions of the parameters involved in the models are very complex. Therefore, Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms are used to estimate them. The methodology is applied to the ozone data from the city of Puebla, Mexico.

Comparing the Adequacy of Some Non-Homogeneous Poisson Models to Estimate Ozone Exceedances in Mexico City

We consider some non-homogeneous Poisson models to estimate the mean number of times that a given environmental threshold of interest is surpassed by a given pollutant. Seven different rate functions for the Poisson processes describing the models are taken into account. The rate functions considered are the Weibull, exponentiated-Weibull, and their generalisation the Beta-Weibull rate function. We also use the Musa-Okumoto, the Goel-Okumoto, a generalised Goel- Okumoto and the Weibull-geometric rate functions. Whenever thought justifiable, the model allowing the presence of change-points is also going to be considered. The different models are applied to the daily maximum ozone measurements data provided by the monitoring network of the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City. The aim is to compare the adjustment of different rate functions to the data. Even though, some of the rate functions have been considered before, now we are applying them to the same data set. In previous works they were used in different data sets and therefore a comparison of the adequacy of those models were not possible. The measurements considered here were obtained after a series of environmental measures were implemented in Mexico City. Hence, the data present a different behaviour from that of earlier studies.

Impact of emission control on regional air quality: An observational study of air pollutants before, during and after the Beijing Olympic Games

An observational study on trace gases and PM2.5 was conducted at three sites in and around Beijing, during the Olympic season from 2007 to 2009. Air quality improved significantly during the Olympic Games due to the special emission control measures. However, concentrations of the primary pollutants and PM were found to have risen significantly after the Games. Although the major O3 precursors （NOx and VOCs） were well controlled during the Olympic season, O3 was still found to be the highest in 2008, based on the data of ground-based observation. All this information suggests that while control of regional emissions for the Beijing Olympic Games did improved the air quality in Beijing, more efforts will be needed for the continuous improvement of regional air quality, especially for significant reductions of O3 and fine particulate pollution, and not only in Beijing, but also in the B eijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Impact of 4DVAR Assimilation of AIRS Total Column Ozone Observations on the Simulation of Hurricane Earl

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder（AIRS） provides twice-daily global observations of brightness temperature, which can be used to retrieve the total column ozone with high spatial and temporal resolution.In order to apply the AIRS ozone data to numerical prediction of tropical cyclones, a four-dimensional variational（4DVAR） assimilation scheme on selected model levels is adopted and implemented in the mesoscale non-hydrostatic model MM5. Based on the correlation between total column ozone and potential vorticity（PV）, the observation operator of each level is established and five levels with highest correlation coefficients are selected for the 4DVAR assimilation of the AIRS total column ozone observations. The results from the numerical experiments using the proposed assimilation scheme for Hurricane Earl show that the ozone data assimilation affects the PV distributions with more mesoscale information at high levels first and then influences those at middle and low levels through the so-called asymmetric penetration of PV anomalies.With the AIRS ozone data being assimilated, the warm core of Hurricane Earl is intensified, resulting in the improvement of other fields near the hurricane center. The track prediction is improved mainly due to adjustment of the steering flows in the assimilation experiment.

Protecting the photosynthetic performance of snap bean under free air ozone exposure

Tropospheric ozone（O3） is a major air pollutant and causes serious injury to vegetation. To protect sensitive plants from O3 damage, several agrochemicals have been assessed,including cytokinin（e.g., kinetin, KIN） and ethylenediurea（EDU） with cytokinin-like activity.In higher plant, leaves are primarily injured by O3 and protective agrochemicals are often applied by leaf spraying. To our knowledge, the mitigating abilities of EDU and KIN have not been compared directly in a realistic setup. In the present research, impacts of elevated O3（2 × ambient O3, 24 hr per day, for 8 days） on an O3 sensitive line（S156） of snap bean（Phaseolus vulgaris）, which is often used for biomonitoring O3 pollution, were studied in a free air controlled exposure system. The day before starting the O3 exposure, plants were sprayed with a solution of EDU（300 ppm）, KIN（1 mmol/L） or distilled water, to compare their protective abilities. The results demonstrated that 2 × ambient O3 inhibited net photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance, increased the minimal fluorescence yield of the dark-adapted state, decreased the maximal quantum yield of PSII photochemistry, and led to visible injury. KIN and EDU alleviated the reduction of the photosynthetic performance, and visible injury under O3 fumigation. The plants sprayed with EDU showed greater ability to mitigate the O3 damage than those sprayed with KIN. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging may have detected more precisely the differences in O3 response across the leaf than the conventional fluorometer.

Quality control of AIRS total column ozone data within tropical cyclones

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder （AIRS） provides infrared radiance observations twice daily, which can be used to retrieve total column ozone with high spatial resolution. However, it was found that almost all of the ozone data within typhoons and hurricanes were flagged to be of bad quality by the AIRS original quality control （QC） scheme. This determination was based on the ratio of total precipitable water （TPW） error divided by TPW value, where TPW was an AIRS retrieval product. It was found that the difficulty in finding total column ozone data that could pass AIRS QC was related to the low TPW employed in the AIRS QC algorithm. In this paper, a new two-step QC scheme for AIRS total column ozone is developed. A new ratio is defined which replaces the AIRS TPW with the zonal mean TPW retrieved from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit. outliers when the new The first QC step is to remove ratio exceeds 33%. Linear regression models between total column ozone and mean potential vorticity are subsequently developed with daily updates, which are required for future applications of the proposed total ozone QC algorithm to vortex initialization and assimilation of AIRS data. In the second QC step, observations that significantly deviate from the models are further removed using a biweighting algorithm. Numerical results for two typhoon cases and two hurricane cases show that a large amount of good quality AIRS total ozone data is kept within Tropical Cyclones after implementing the proposed QC algorithm.

Multiyear analyses of ground-level air contaminants over Paris metropolitan region using real-time observations and air mass backward trajectories

For the years 2008-2013, particles of diameter 〈 10 and 2.5 μm （PM10 and PM2.5, respectively）, NOx, SO2, and O3 concentrations at urban, suburban, rural, and traffic sites in the Paris metropolitan area were analyzed. Strong spatial variability at traffic and rural sites and relatively uniform profiles at urban and suburban sites for PM10, PM2.5, and O3 were observed. The O3 weekend effect was induced by lower NOx emissions during the weekend, and favored volatile organic compounds （VOCs）-limited atmospheric conditions. In conJunction with low ambient temperature, these conditions could also favor increased formation of secondary particulate nitrates in winter. Winter air pollution events were associated with multiple pollutants, whereas those observed in spring were caused by high PM10 and PM2.5 levels. Back- ward trajectory analyses showed the contribution of sources in Western and Central Europe on days with high PM10, PM2.5, and O3, and a local/national comvonent for NOx and SO2.