Highlights Inside

· News Hounds Needed for Plan-It stories · Postcards from the edge - Williams Tower report · Possible flow reversal - precipitation chances on the rise · Upcoming Events · DC-3 and Electra up today, Twin Otter & G-1 tomorrow · Thoughts for the day

The TexAQS 2000 Field Study Newsletter Issue 6 The Daily Plan-it August 20, 2000

A View from Williams Tower - Latest Downtown Happenings light west-southwest wind in the probabilities for clouds and morning backing around to the south- precipitation for tomorrow and Reporters Needed southeast by late morning/early Tuesday. afternoon. Ozone hot spots under As Editor of the Daily Plan-It it is these conditions should be around the Electra N308D my privilege to assemble new and ship channel. exciting news-you-can-use items for Following a hard down day The continental cool front to the yesterday, the NOAA/NCAR Electra our scientists and other folks who east has withered away and a high- wonder what we’re up to here in is flying this evening beginning at 5:00 pressure ridge has formed across the PM and ending at 10:00 PM . However, I cannot even south from the South Carolina coast all hope to do a good job without your the way to east . Our dew The flight plans call for a day-into- help - in the form of written news points are climbing and bring increased night tracking of the Houston plume items, pictures, personal to the north and east of the interest stories, restaurant Houston area. reviews, etc. Today we are indebted to G-1 N701BN the Williams Tower Crew - The G-1 crew is enjoying particularly Carl Berkowitz a well-deserved “hard” down and Chet Spicer - for taking day today. the time to let us know a little bit about what’s happening at Initial results from their impressive high- yesterday’s flight are quite elevation sampling site. interesting. The DOE G-1 left Ellington at about 2:20 Tomorrow’s Weather PM for an 2.75 hour flight to characterize the Houston According to the weather plume. Flying at 1500 feet forecasters, tomorrows msl, the G-1 flew two-thirds weather should be much the circular patterns (southwest to same as today with northeast) around the somewhat higher winds aloft Houston downtown area at and lighter surface winds - 15, 20, and 30 mile distances. bringing the possibility of a Background ozone ranged flow reversal situation over from 85 to 100 ppb with the Galveston Bay. Surface Image provided by David Allen, based on work of highest levels occurring temperatures should Dr. ChristineWiedinmyer (Ph.D. Universityof Texas 1999) northeast of the city in the moderate a bit (95o F) with urban area plume. The 15 mile circle yielded a maximum ozone Today, another urban plume Tower Team,” setting up shop on the of 175 ppbv, the 20 mile circle yielded mission is being done by the DC-3 62nd floor of the Williams Tower in 200 ppbv, and 165 for the 30 mile and the intrepid NOAA-ETL Lidar area of . circle. The location and pattern of crew. The flight pattern consists of Working in air-conditioned comfort at these maxima were consistent with multiple E-W transects starting about a height of approximately 900 feet contemporaneous surface level ozone 20 nautical miles south of Houston and above ground level, they've set up 20 readings at Mont Belvieu (146 ppbv the ship channel and extending well to instruments sampling 24-hours a day, 7 hourly average), Aldine (124 ppbv), the north and east of the Houston days a week. Key to the successful and Conroe (121 ppbv). Carbon metro area. The pattern will be flown start up of the site has been the Hines monoxide levels remained in the high twice. The nominal flight level is Management Corporation, which has 200’s to low 300’s for the entire flight. 10500 feet msl. Takeoff was at 12:00 provided outstanding support. PM and the duration of the flight will A morning and afternoon flight are This site makes several be 5-6 hours. planned for the G-1 on Monday important contributions to TexAQS August, 21. The morning flight will 2000. First, a rather complete suite of have a 10:00 takeoff with sampling Twin Otter N153BU gas and aerosol measurements taken concentrated to the south and west of here will be used to characterize the Ellington including several traverses The Twin Otter crew is enjoying a well-deserved “hard” down day today. Houston air west of the major over Galveston Bay and the ship emission sources. The elevated channel. The G-1 will also pass by the Tomorrow, conditions willing, they measurement site also contribute to Williams Tower and cross the I-10 will fly two bay breeze characterization studies of air chemistry above and corridor. Profiles will be done over flights - one in the morning to within the nocturnal boundary layer. the Bay and over land. The expected characterize inflow and one in the Finally, the measurements will be used flight duration is 2:45 hours. The afternoon to characterize flow reversal. in the analysis of the role of regional afternoon flight scale transport (pending a during favorable up-to- meteorological date weather periods associated report) will start as with strong soon as the flight advection. attendants can replace the snacks, The Tall fluff the pillows Tower Team has and make sure that filled two rooms the magazines are at the tower. The all current. We small north room expect that takeoff contains primarily will be about 2:30 gas-phase PM. The flight instruments being pattern will be operated under similar to that run the watchful eye on Saturday, of Chet Spicer August 18th and and his colleagues will include two- from Battelle and Showing the rugged working conditions of scientists at the tall tower site. Standing in air Pacific Northwest third arcs around conditioned comfort are (from left to right): Carl Berkowitz (PNNL), Alex Laskin (PNNL), Houston Barbara Hillery (SUNY/Old Westbury), Chet Spicer (Battelle), Dan Imre (BNL), Judy Lloyd National (SUNY/Old Westbury), Alla Zelenyuk (BNL), Rob Disselkamp (PNNL) and Laboratory International Tom Cahill (UC/Davis). designed to capture (PNNL). Key the plumes from the urban area and measurements include O3, NO/NOY, Williams Tower ship channel. PAN, SO2, CO, CH2O, HNO3, HONO, temperature and moisture. As part of TexAQS 2000, scientists DC-3 N56KS Asked about observations made from six research organizations have during the first few days of operation, banded together to form “The Tall Chet told Daily Plan-it reporters that Daily Plan-it makes its way to Science Overview Meeting - peak ozone levels have been in the 60- newsstands across the country. Tuesday, August 22nd - 8:00 PM 70 ppb range, formaldehyde in the 10- (Ellington, CapRock Building) Judy Lloyd (State University of 12 ppb range, PAN 1.0-1.5, and NOY New York at Old Westbury) is making Media Day - Thursday, August 24th - up to 50 ppb. There's been little peroxide measurements at the tower; 2:00 PM (Ellington, Southwest evidence that the site has been Paul Doskey, Heather Price and Jeff Services) decoupled from the surface at night Gaffney (from Argonne National during the first few nights of the study. VIP Day - Wednesday, August 30th Laboratory) are measuring VOCs, (Ellington, Southwest Services) Scientists in the south room are NO2 and PAN; and Karsten Baumann focusing more on aerosol and Danny DiPasquale have their The Garrulous Gourmet - characterization. Alex Laskin (PNNL) TEOMS/ozone system up and is deploying a new aerosol collector running. But for some reason, these Jason’s Delicatessen system that has a time resolution on the scientists have not yet had a chance to order of minutes. The collected look at their data. Our reporters have If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, samples will be analyzed back at determined that this could this be please give Jason’s Deli - on Bay Area PNNL using scanning electron because they are splitting their time Boulevard between Galveston and I45 microscopy with energy dispersed X- between the skyscraper, the G-1, Deer - a try real soon. An excellent selection ray analysis and time of flight Park, La Porte, Rice University and of all kinds of Deli food that should secondary ionization mass (most significantly) Houston traffic. please all but the most discriminating spectrometer, among other techniques. palate - I’d not take Lenny Newman Last, and possibly least, visitors In an exclusive interview with the Daily there, for example - but the rest of us should look around for the official Plan-it, Alex said that preliminary should enjoy it just fine. TexAQS 2000 pendulum, which results from a LASAIR counter provides a quantitative measurement Real value, too. They have a no-fat suggest that 0.1 to 0.5 micron aerosols of building sway. When asked to Turkey Rueben that’s pretty tasty and increase throughout the afternoon, comment on peak values of sway, one comes with some fruit salad to boot followed by an abrupt fall-off after distinguished scientist replied “Oh, I for only $4.95 plus tax. Those allowed sunset. The opposite pattern was donno....couple or three inches. You more tasty, higher fat fare have sung its observed in particles between 0.5 to 2 can sure feel it rock'n rollin' when the praises as well. Eat there and as a microns. winds come up, though.” bonus you can get free frozen yogurt The Brookhaven National as well. Hard to beat a deal like that! Call Carl (713 850-7180) or Chet Laboratory single particle time of flight Three and one half (out of four) stars. (713 850-7189) to book your own mass spectrometer is quickly personal tour. recovering from its rocky ride from Long Island thanks to the efforts of Thoughts for the Day Upcoming Events Alla Zelenyuk, Barbara Hillery, and “The opposite of a correct statement is Dan Imre. Single particle size and Aerosol Group Meeting - Every a false statement. The opposite of a composition data should be available Tuesday at 2:00 PM (Ellington, profound truth may well be another by press time. BNL scientists Fred CapRock Building) profound truth.” Brechtel and Gintautas Buzorius also expect their Scanning Electrical LaPorte Team Meeting - Every - Niels Bohr (1885-1962) Mobility (SEM) Particle Size Tuesday at 3:00 PM (Ellington, CapRock Building) “The graveyards are full of Distribution system to be fully indispensable men.” operational by the time this issue of the - Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970)