The map's color key is based on the categories of the Air Quality Index (AQI) (see Patient Exposure and the Air Quality Index ). county for 2009, showing where high ambient ozone concentrations were found in the continental United States. This map depicts ozone concentrations by U.S. counties with high ozone concentrations in 2009. Thus, high ozone concentrations can occur in remote areas and at various times of day, including during the early evening or night.įigure 1: U.S. However, areas downwind of major sources of VOC and NOx may experience ozone peaks in the afternoon and evening, after wind has carried ozone and its VOC and NOx precursors many miles from their sources. Where ozone is formed, peak concentrations usually occur during afternoon hours, when sunlight is the most intense. It is also formed in smaller cities like Raleigh, NC and Cincinnati, OH, and it is transported hundreds of miles downwind from where it is created to affect ambient air quality in other urban and rural areas. Ozone formation is not limited to big cities like Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, and New York City. Many people mistakenly believe that tropospheric ozone concentrations are high only in major urban areas, but high ambient ozone concentrations can and do occur anywhere. Significant sources are power plants, industrial furnaces and boilers, and motor vehicles.Īre high ambient ozone concentrations found only in heavily urbanized areas? Nitrogen oxides result primarily from high temperature combustion.
Significant sources of VOC are chemical plants, gasoline pumps, oil-based paints, autobody shops, and print shops. Ozone contributes to what we typically experience as "smog" or haze, which still occurs most frequently in the summertime, but can occur throughout the year in some southern and mountain regions.Īlthough some stratospheric ozone is transported into the troposphere, and some VOC and NOx occur naturally, the majority of ground-level ozone is the result of reactions of man-made VOC and NOx. with high levels of local VOC and NOx emissions have formed ozone when snow is on the ground and temperatures are near or below freezing. Within the last decade, however, high ozone concentrations have also been observed under specific circumstances in cold months, where a few high elevation areas in the Western U.S. These reactions have traditionally been viewed as depending upon the presence of heat and sunlight, resulting in higher ambient ozone concentrations in summer months. Tropospheric or ground-level ozone – what we breathe – is formed primarily from photochemical reactions between two major classes of air pollutants, volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx).
The "ozone layer," approximately 6 through 30 miles above the Earth's surface, reduces the amount of harmful UV radiation reaching the Earth's surface. Stratospheric ozone is formed naturally through the interaction of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation with molecular oxygen (O2). Depending on where it is in the atmosphere, ozone affects life on Earth in either good or bad ways. (the stratosphere) and lower atmosphere (the troposphere).
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