A characterization of the spatiotemporal variability of non-urban ozone concentrations over the eastern United States

Abstract

The spatial and temporal variability of the daily 1-h maximum O₃ concentrations over non-urban areas of the eastern United States of America was examined for the period 1985–1990 using principal component analysis. Utilization of Kaiser's Varimax orthogonal rotation led to the delineation of six contiguous subregions or “influence regimes” which together accounted for 64.02% of the total variance. Each subregion displayed statistically unique O₃ characteristics and corresponded well with the path and frequency of anticyclones. When compared to the entire domain, the mid-Atlantic and south subregions observe higher mean daily 1-h maximum concentrations. Concentrations are near the domain average for the northeast and southwest subregions and are lowest in the Great Lakes and Florida subregions. The percentage of observations exceeding 120 ppb were greates in the mid-Atlantic and southwest subregions, near the domain average in the northeast and south subregions, and lowest in the Great Lakes and Florida subregions.

Examination of the time series of the principal component scores associated with the subregions indicated that Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic subregions tend to observe a stronger seasonal cycle, with maximum concentrations occurring during the last week in June and first week in July, respectively. The strength of this seasonality is weakened for the northeast and south subregions and its timing delayed, until the end of July and the first of August, respectively. The southwest subregion experiences a greatly diminished seasonality, with maximum concentrations delayed until the middle of August. The seasonality found in the Florida subregion is unique in both its strength and timing, as the highest concentrations consistently occur during the months of April and May. The time series were then deseasonalized and autocorrelations and spectral density estimates calculated, revealing that persistence is much more prevalent in the Florida (autocorrelation significant to a lag of 4 days), south (3 days) and southwest (3 days) subregions. Conversely, autocorrelations are only significant to a lag of one day in the northeast and two days for the Great Lakes and mid-Atlantic subregions.