2006 TexAQS / GoMACCS

Transport of polluted air within the Gulf of Mexico plays an important role in shaping the air quality in coastal Texas. These same pollutants can also affect the regional radiation budget, as well as precipitation and the lifetime and extent of clouds. The polluted air is a result of both re-circulation of pollution from urban areas within Texas and long-range transport. Over the Gulf of Mexico the marine boundary layer (MBL) can act as a huge chemical reactor, converting primary pollutants like nitrogen oxides and organics into more toxic secondary pollutants like ozone and fine particles, which can be transported back onto shore by the land-sea breeze circulation.

An instrumented ship is an ideal platform to study the meteorological and chemical processes occurring off the coast of Texas and along the Houston and Galveston Ship channels. A ship can be used to sample polluted air masses as they move offshore or onshore and study the chemical transformations in the polluted marine boundary layer. Indeed, deployment of NOAA R/V Ronald H. Brown during NEAQS 2002 and NEAQS/ITCT 2004 demonstrated unequivocally the value of this platform for providing unique sampling opportunities, unlike those from on-shore sites, which yield data that are frequently difficult to interpret due to contamination by local land-based sources, and unlike those from aircraft, which have short duration and result in limited data sets.

April 2007 Data Workshop (standard texaqs2006 password required)

NOAA's Atmospheric Research Campaign
Combining Climate Change and Air Quality Research