Date of Award
2016-01-01
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Computational Science
Advisor(s)
Rosa Firtzgerald
Abstract
The photolysis of nitrogen dioxide is one of the most influential chemical processes in the formation of photochemical air pollution. In this study, we compared simulated and measured nitrogen dioxide photolysis rate coefficients (J_(NO_2 )) for the Paso Del Norte (PdN) region. The Tropospheric Ultraviolet-Visible (TUV) radiation transfer model was used to calculate J_(NO_2 ) values. The measurements of hemi-spherically integrated, spectrally resolved solar photon flux between the wavelengths 400 and 700 nm were used to obtain the photolysis rate coefficients for ã??NOã??_2. Results are presented for a selected episode on July, 2015. The work investigated the use of measured actinic flux to improve the ã??NOã??_2 photolysis rate coefficients used by air quality models in order to predict more accurately nitrogen dioxide concentrations for the PdN Region.
Complimentary to this work, simulated irradiances at visible wavelengths for the PdN region were inter-compared with Multi-filter Rotating ShadowBand radiometer irradiances data. TUV program was successfully enhanced to tailor it for the PdN region which results in an improved methodology in optimizing the photolysis rate coefficients to increase the accuracy of air quality and forecasting capability.
Language
en
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
Copyright Date
2016
File Size
51 pages
File Format
application/pdf
Rights Holder
Pema Wangchuk
Recommended Citation
Wangchuk, Pema, "Study of NO2 Photolysis Rate Coefficients for the Paso Del Norte Region" (2016). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 779.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/open_etd/779
Included in
Atmospheric Sciences Commons, Environmental Sciences Commons, Physical Chemistry Commons