TexAQS 2000

Texas Air Quality Study

a photochemical oxidant and aerosol field program

Where: Houston/Galveston and East Texas

When: August - September 2000

What: The focus of NOAA's component of field study includes airborne measurements using the NCAR Electra aircraft based out of Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, and surface measurements from a ground-based sampling site located at the La Porte Municipal Airport facility.

Who: Investigators in this project include researchers from universities, private industry, and federal laboratories. Participating institutions include the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC), University of Texas at Austin (UT), and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL).

The Texas 2000 field program is one in a series of oxidant/aerosol studies which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and a number of university scientists have cooperatively conducted under the umbrella of the Southern Oxidants Study (SOS) in affiliation with NARSTO. This location was selected because the eastern half of Texas includes major urban areas with significant ozone pollution problems and possible difficulties meeting new national particulate matter standards, and because of the unique chemical and meteorological features in this area that make it important from a scientific perspective. The goal of the study is to provide a better understanding of the basic chemical, meteorological, and atmospheric transport processes that determine ozone and fine particle distributions, and to develop new scientific understanding that will assist policy-makers in devising optimal ozone and PM management strategies.

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