C. Warneke, C. E. Stockwell, J. Peischl, J. B. Gilman, A. Lamplugh, L. Xu, K. Zuraski, S. S. Brown, S. Baidar, R. Marchbanks, W. A. Brewer, M. Li, B. McDonald, M. M. Coggon
{"title":"Air Quality Field Measurements in Las Vegas: Ozone Formation and Its Sensitivity to NOx and VOCs","authors":"C. Warneke, C. E. Stockwell, J. Peischl, J. B. Gilman, A. Lamplugh, L. Xu, K. Zuraski, S. S. Brown, S. Baidar, R. Marchbanks, W. A. Brewer, M. Li, B. McDonald, M. M. Coggon","doi":"10.1029/2025JD043787","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Las Vegas, Nevada is an urban center in the southwest US where the population is rapidly growing. In Las Vegas, surrounded by the Mojave Desert, biogenic emissions are low, but anthropogenic emissions, especially along the Las Vegas Strip, are a large source of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NO + NO<sub>2</sub> = NO<sub>x</sub>) from volatile chemical products, cooking, and fossil fuel usage. This makes Las Vegas an ideal place to study anthropogenic VOC emissions and oxidation in the absence of a strong biogenic signal. The urban air quality in Las Vegas was measured at a stationary site and with a mobile laboratory. Biogenic VOC influence, VOC enhancement ratios, and weekday-weekend effects were evaluated. An Eulerian box model was constructed to evaluate the chemical processes impacting air quality in Las Vegas. The model showed that the daily ozone (O<sub>3</sub>) enhancement, taken as the maximum O<sub>3</sub> produced midday above background, was approximately 30 ppb. The O<sub>3</sub> sensitivities to VOCs and NO<sub>x</sub> showed that reductions in both would reduce O<sub>3</sub> production. Reducing NO<sub>x</sub> or VOCs by half would reduce O<sub>3</sub> by 10.5 and 11.5 ppb, respectively. Reducing both NO<sub>x</sub> and VOCs together would decrease O<sub>3</sub> by 15 ppb. The O<sub>3</sub> contribution from biogenic VOCs was ∼3.5 ppb, which is about 10% of the total produced O<sub>3</sub>. This differs from other regions of the US, such as New York or Los Angeles, where biogenic VOCs contribute significantly to urban ozone.</p>","PeriodicalId":15986,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres","volume":"130 19","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2025JD043787","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025JD043787","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"METEOROLOGY & ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Las Vegas, Nevada is an urban center in the southwest US where the population is rapidly growing. In Las Vegas, surrounded by the Mojave Desert, biogenic emissions are low, but anthropogenic emissions, especially along the Las Vegas Strip, are a large source of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NO + NO2 = NOx) from volatile chemical products, cooking, and fossil fuel usage. This makes Las Vegas an ideal place to study anthropogenic VOC emissions and oxidation in the absence of a strong biogenic signal. The urban air quality in Las Vegas was measured at a stationary site and with a mobile laboratory. Biogenic VOC influence, VOC enhancement ratios, and weekday-weekend effects were evaluated. An Eulerian box model was constructed to evaluate the chemical processes impacting air quality in Las Vegas. The model showed that the daily ozone (O3) enhancement, taken as the maximum O3 produced midday above background, was approximately 30 ppb. The O3 sensitivities to VOCs and NOx showed that reductions in both would reduce O3 production. Reducing NOx or VOCs by half would reduce O3 by 10.5 and 11.5 ppb, respectively. Reducing both NOx and VOCs together would decrease O3 by 15 ppb. The O3 contribution from biogenic VOCs was ∼3.5 ppb, which is about 10% of the total produced O3. This differs from other regions of the US, such as New York or Los Angeles, where biogenic VOCs contribute significantly to urban ozone.
期刊介绍:
JGR: Atmospheres publishes articles that advance and improve understanding of atmospheric properties and processes, including the interaction of the atmosphere with other components of the Earth system.