Data wrangling and visualization of the relationship between solar radiance, NOx, and ozone in Chicagoland using Python.
Location
Poster #16
Department
Environmental Science
Abstract
Ozone occurs in the stratosphere blocking harmful UV radiation but when it occurs at high levels near the surface, it is a respiratory irritant and can harm plant and animal life. Ozone is produced near the earth's surface when sunlight reacts with nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). Exposure to ozone can be exacerbated by lake and land breezes: water has high thermal inertia so in the morning the relatively warm lake heats air above it, causing it to rise and pull air containing ozone precursors from land and form ozone over the lake. This ozone is then drawn onto land in the afternoon when the land warms during the day. Because Chicago often experiences ozone concentrations in the summer that exceed EPA standards, we explored diurnal patterns of ozone concentration and the (NOx) precursor to illustrate their inverse relationship. We accessed data from air monitoring instruments at Northeastern Illinois University and from the EPA’s air quality system (AQS) application programming interface (API), and used Python to visualize solar radiation & NOx concentrations, ozone concentration, and ozone vs NOx concentrations during the summer of 2023 in Chicago.
Faculty Sponsor
Greg Anderson
Data wrangling and visualization of the relationship between solar radiance, NOx, and ozone in Chicagoland using Python.
Poster #16
Ozone occurs in the stratosphere blocking harmful UV radiation but when it occurs at high levels near the surface, it is a respiratory irritant and can harm plant and animal life. Ozone is produced near the earth's surface when sunlight reacts with nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). Exposure to ozone can be exacerbated by lake and land breezes: water has high thermal inertia so in the morning the relatively warm lake heats air above it, causing it to rise and pull air containing ozone precursors from land and form ozone over the lake. This ozone is then drawn onto land in the afternoon when the land warms during the day. Because Chicago often experiences ozone concentrations in the summer that exceed EPA standards, we explored diurnal patterns of ozone concentration and the (NOx) precursor to illustrate their inverse relationship. We accessed data from air monitoring instruments at Northeastern Illinois University and from the EPA’s air quality system (AQS) application programming interface (API), and used Python to visualize solar radiation & NOx concentrations, ozone concentration, and ozone vs NOx concentrations during the summer of 2023 in Chicago.