A case study of ozone diurnal variation in the convective boundary layer in the Southeastern United States using multiple observations and large-eddy simulation

We investigated the diurnal ozone variation on 6 September 2013 in a midsize urban environment using multiple in situ and remote-sensing measurements along with the Dutch atmospheric large-eddy simulation (DALES) model coupled with a chemical module and a dry deposition module that we added for this study. Our study area was Huntsville, Alabama, USA, a typical midsize city in the Southeastern United States. The ozone variation in the convective boundary layer (CBL) resulted mainly from local emissions and photochemical production stemming from weather conditions controlled by an anticyclonic system on that day. Local chemical production contributes approximately two thirds of the ozone enhancement in the CBL and, in this case, dynamical processes including ozone transport from the free troposphere (FT) to the CBL through the entrainment processes contributed the remainder. The numerical experiments performed by the large-eddy simulation (LES) model showed acceptable agreement with the TOLNet (The tropospheric ozone lidar network)/RO ₃ QET (Rocket-city ozone quality evaluation in the troposphere) ozone DIAL (differential absorption lidar) observations. This study indicated the need for fine-scale, three-dimensional ozone observations with high temporal and spatial resolution for air quality studies at the urban scale and smaller.