Ground Sites: Toronto
Toronto Halogens, Emissions, Contaminants, and Inorganics eXperiment (THE CIX)
Experimental Plan
Toronto has a metropolitan population exceeding seven million and regional population approaching ten million. Although precursors to ground-level ozone have been reduced in Toronto over past decades, exceedances of the 8-hour ozone Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standard are still common. The Toronto Halogens, Emissions, Contaminants, and Inorganics eXperiment (THE CIX) will be located in an urban/suburban transition zone that is not impacted by any large local sources (i.e., >500 m from any major roads, Figure 32). At 20 km north of downtown Toronto and Lake Ontario, the site is ~2-3 hours transport time from major sources in downtown Toronto and is typically not impacted by lake breeze fronts until late in the afternoon during summer.
Measurements during THE CIX will target several areas of uncertainty in urban air quality, grouped into four themes (Halogens, Emissions, Contaminants, and Inorganics). Examples include: 1) improved understanding of reactive chlorine chemistry in a summertime continental environment (Halogens); 2) improved understanding of emissions of organics and greenhouse gases (Emissions); 3) understanding the sources and sinks of haloacetic and perfluorocarboxylic acids (Contaminants); and 4) a comprehensive nitrogen budget with a suite of instruments will be targeted along with source apportionment (Inorganics). There will be several unique instruments and measurements at THE CIX, including two gas-phase measurements of HCl (CRDS and TILDAS), measurement of total gaseous chlorine, an ambient ion monitor-ion chromatograph-mass spectrometer (AIM-IC-MS), measurement of total nitrogen, and a real-time measurement of perfluorocarboxylic acids using negative ion proton transfer CIMS (NI-PT-CIMS).
Potential instruments for THE CIX
| Species measured | Technique | PI and Institution |
|---|---|---|
| Halogens: ClNO2, Cl2, N2O5, HCl, pCl-, total Cl | I-ToF-CIMS, CRDS, TILDAS, Total Cl, AIM-IC-MS | Nadine Borduas-Dedekind (University of British Columbia) Pete Edwards (University of York) Rob McLaren (York University) Jennifer Murphy (University of Toronto) Trevor VandenBoer (York University) Cora Young (York University) |
| Emissions: VOCs, VCPs, CO, CO2, CH4, N2O, NOx, NH3, particle size/number distribution, organic acids | Vocus PTR, CRDS, SMPS, OPS, I-ToF-CIMS, QCL, NI-PT-CIMS | |
| Contaminants: Haloacetic acids, perfluorocarboxylic acids | AIM-IC-MS, NI-PT-CIMS, precipitation sampler | |
| Inorganics: NH3, HCl, HNO3, HONO, pNO3-, pCl-, pNO2-, pSO42-, pNH4+, pNa+, pK+, pMg2+, pCa2+, total N | AIM-IC-MS, QCL, NI-PT-CIMS, CRDS, TILDAS, nanoMOUDI, total N |