Urban atmosphere
To better understand the urban atmosphere, its most recent changes, and to provide decision makers relevant measurements on which to base their decisions, AC4 has continued its focus on measuring and modeling across urban areas in the United States. In Fiscal Year 2020, AC4 funded nine new projects that focus on several cities across the United States: New York, Boston, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Missoula, and Fairbanks. Fairbanks is part of the upcoming Alaskan Layered Pollution and Chemical Analysis (ALPACA) field campaign. These projects will involve multiple ground based-measurements of several trace gases and aerosols, regional modeling, and inventory development–all either across seasons or in a focused field campaign.
In addition, AC4 has also funded 10 new 3-year projects and 1 new 2-year project in Fiscal Year 2021 that aim to increase our understanding of emissions and chemical transformation in the urban atmosphere. To improve our understanding of emissions and chemical reactions that affect urban air quality and climate, the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory is planning the Atmospheric Emissions and Reactions Observed from Megacities to Marine Areas (AEROMMA) aircraft based field campaign to collect new observations from megacities to marine environments, currently scheduled for the summer of 2022 and 2023.
List of funded projects in FY20 and FY21 focussed on urban areas.