Using Our Site to Find Ozone and Nitrous Oxides

Location and the right conditions can be everything. Locating atmospheric dilution is nothing to ignore. As ground level air can be shifting rapidly through different chemical reactions and cycling. At the Metz Road Conventional Well area on June 30th and July 1st, we were looking for Ozone production and Nitrous Oxides activity due to high flow emissions coming from the well head. Very generally, this ground level ozone comes from sunlight, nitrous oxides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as methane reacting together.

Source: http://www.drishtiias.com/upsc-exam-gs-resources-Ground-Level-Ozone-Pollution

How could we find something as elusive as the air around us? Well, we set up different stations at varied distances from the well and kept our sampler’s tube aimed at the same location of the well head. We are still processing the data of the sites during that day and other days. We hope to find locations of dilutions and speciation of ground level ozone and nitrous oxides. In addition to the distance away from the well, we looked at differing the sampling height of our sampling tube that was tied up to the tripod. By raising or lowering the tripod tower, we are able to observe the die off of methane and production of ozone near the immediate proximity of the well head with a vertical difference in distance. Once we compile more data on these sites, then we will be able to find this die off.

Our next step is a campaign at Beaver Run Reservoir. We spent today preparing Dr. Deanna Donohoue’s car for sampling by running 2 calibrations and securing our sampling lines. ARROW, our wagon vehicle for atmospheric modeling that we use at the Metz Road Well site, will not be coming with us. Having a wagon model would not prove useful at this new site as the distances of sampling would be too far to sample efficiently. We plan to use the tripod on the side of the van or having the sampling tubes out of the window for sampling and this model keeps mobility for us for longer distances.