Paso del Norte Cielometer Network

project Description

The immediate proximity of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, together with a complex topography, makes apportionment of air pollution challenging. Ceilometer data, which provides planetary boundary layer heights (PBLHs), in conjunction with other meteorological and air quality data (e.g. aerosol backscatter), help determine the local transport of pollutants across the border and support future required meteorological modeling. Measuring the PBLHs, together with other meteorological parameters, is key to understanding and ultimately mitigating ground-level ozone.

A ceilometer measures the cloud-base height and the PBLHs. The PBLH data are important for understanding air pollution development, transport and dispersion, which are integral to modeling and forecasting of ozone and particulate matter.

“The Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) is that part of the troposphere that is directly influenced by the presence of the Earth’s surface, and responds to surface forcings with a timescale of about an hour or so.”

A picture of an industrial city (Shangai, China) illustrating how the PBL traps pollutants below it.

Map of Paso del NORTE NETWORK Ceilometer LOCATION

oUR CEILOMETERS

Vaisala C51 located in UTEP, El Paso, Texas

Ceilometer C31 located in Juárez, Chihuahua

PUBLICATIONS

pbl impacts

Aerosol backscatter plot for all four high ozone days showing the shallow aerosol layer, June 4-7, 2017.

Aerosol backscatter during all three low ozone days showing the deep aerosol layer, June 11-13, 2017

Meteorological Drivers of Ozone Episodes

1. Daily hourly ozone concentration in ppbv (top, 1); 2. downward solar radiation (Sdw), photolysis frequencies of NO2 (red) and O3 (green) , 3. maximum daily PBLH in (km), and 4. afternoon average wind speeds in black and daily maximum air temperature in red, for the year 2019. The blue line at the top marks the 71 ppbv of ozone level.

Virga Studies Using Ceilometers

MODEL SIMULATIONS

Publication:
Suhail Mahmud, Nakul Karle, Rosa M. Fitzgerald, Duanjun Lu, Nicholas Nalli, William R. Stockwell, Intercomparison of Sonde, WRF/CAMx and Satellite Sounder Profile Data for the Paso Del Norte Region”, Aerosol Science and Engineering,4, 277-292, 2020.