FRAPPÉ / DISCOVER-AQ 2014

What Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Éxperiment (FRAPPÉ) / Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality (DISCOVER-AQ)

When 15 July - 15 August 2014

Where Erie, CO 40.0500°N, 105.0039°W

HowVarious ground-based instruments located at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO), a continuously instrumented tall tower operated by NOAA ESRL researchers.

Who Investigators in this project include researchers from NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Division and Global Monitoring Division, and the University of Colorado.


Photo: Andy Langford, NOAA

The NASA P-3 flies by the BAO tower carriage on 2 August 2014.

The NSF sponsored Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Éxperiment (FRAPPÉ) and the NASA sponsored Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality (DISCOVER-AQ) mission take place in Summer 2014. Three aircraft, including the NASA P-3 and King Air and the NSF / NCAR C-130 will make observations characterizing the local to regional chemical environment including photochemistry, oxidant and aerosol formation and fate, flow and recirculation patterns and large-scale inflow. Instruments at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) tower site will provide both ground-based measurements and vertical profiles of a suite of compounds that contribute to aerosol and ground level ozone.

The BAO tower site is operated by NOAA ESRL. A wide variety of instruments and investigators from multiple national laboratories and universities will be based at this site. LIDAR instruments will provide measurements of ozone, aerosols and meteorological data. Ground-based instruments will provide measurements of volatile organic compounds, peroxyacetyl nitrates, sulfur dioxide and ozone production rates. In-situ instruments on the 300 m tower will provide vertical profiles of ozone, reactive nitrogen species, gas phase acids and oxygenated VOCs, ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, aerosol size distributions and extinction. In addition, the BAO will provide one base of operations for mobile laboratories that can make chemical and aerosol measurements across the Front Range domain. The overall goal of this effort is to understand sources, transport and chemical transformations of air pollutants, particularly those that lead to ground level ozone.