Albuquerque Community Air Toxics Project

Ilias Kavouras, Dave DuBois, George Nikolich, Vic Etyemezian
Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas, NV
and
Ken Lieneman
City of Albuquerque, Air Quality Division, Albuquerque, NM

Sponsor: US EPA

The study is part of the Community Air Toxics Monitoring Program in which 24-hour concentrations of HAPs are measured in a 1-in-6 day schedule at three sites in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The goal of this effort is to determine the health risk associated with exposures to air toxics in the City of Albuquerque. The specific objectives are:
1. identify the temporal variation of VOCs within specific community settings and geographic and demographic regions in the city of Albuquerque;
2. determine the vertical profile of VOCs;
3. understand the local air circulation and evaluate the contribution of transport aloft;
4. identify and evaluate the impact of local HAPs sources;
5. quantify the relative contributions from local sources and long-range transport to HAPs;
6. determine the impact of meteorological conditions on diurnal, daily, and seasonal time scales;
7. assess adverse health impacts from exposure using risk assessment models.
Upon completion of the study, a detailed dataset will provide important information on to what extend exposures to air toxics can pose acute or long-term health risks and if action is required.
 

To help with objective 6, we employed several techniques to obtain and analyze meteorological data useful for this project.

Profiling with a Tethered Balloon
We used our Vaisala DigiCora Tethersonde system, consisting of a meteorological sensor package suspended below a tethered helium-filled balloon. In one configuration we used a 9-cubic meter balloon that provided lift to raise instruments up to maximum height of 450 meters above ground level. The system gave us a detailed profile of the atmospheric boundary layer at high time resolution. The tetherline was controlled by a winch to raise or lower the instruments as they collect continuous vertical measurements of wind speed and direction, temperature, and relative humidity.



Vertical aerosol profiling
We also used our Vaisala ceilometer (CL31) to collect aerosol vertical profiles via backscatter during the summer study. This was
collocated with our tethered balloon soundings for comparison with meteorological parameters during a few days.

 
Vertical profiling with a tram
We took advantage of the Sandia Peak Tramway get soundings of temperature, relative humidity, VOCs, and light scattering during the study.



Wind field modeling with CALMET
The CALMET meteorological model is being used to map boundary layer meteorology during the intensive monitoring periods.

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