Studies of Oxidant Production at the Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory in Summer and Winter Conditions

Detailed studies have been made of the behaviour of gases and radicals involved in the production of oxidants at the Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory in both summertime and wintertime conditions. In June 1995 the range of meteorological conditions experienced varied such that ozone destruction was observed in clean northerly air flows reaching Weybourne down the North Sea from the Arctic, and ozone production was observed in varying degrees in air with different loadings of nitrogen oxides and other precursors. The transition point for ozone destruction to ozone production occurred at a nitric oxide concentration of the order of 50 pptv. Plumes of polluted air from various urban areas in the U.K. were experienced in the June campaign at Weybourne. Quantitative studies of ozone production in a plume from the Birmingham conurbation on 18 June 1995 showed that the measurement of ozone production agreed well with calculated production rates from the product of the nitric oxide and peroxy radical concentrations (r2=0.9). In wintertime conditions (October–November 1994) evidence was also found for oxidant production, defined as the sum of O3+NO2. At this time of year the peroxy radical concentrations (RO2) were much lower than observed in the summertime and the nitric oxide (NO) was much higher. There was still sufficient RO2 during the day, however, for a slow accumulation of oxidant. Confirmatory evidence for this comes from the diurnal co-variance of (O3+NO2) with PAN, an excellent tracer of tropospheric photochemistry. The same type of covariance occurs in summer between PAN and ozone. The results obtained in these series of measurements are pertinent to understanding the measures necessary to control production of regional photochemical air pollution, and to the production of ozone throughout the northern hemisphere in winter.