June 27, 2007
Inhomogeneous Boundary Layer And Unhealthy AQI Levels
The nightly ELF observations will be carried out this week to support ozone and PM2.5 measurements of Maryland's Department of the Enviroment. Hot, humid, and hazy skies prevailed during today's observations. An active, inhomogeneous boundary layer with aloft aerosol layers (yellow and light blue returns) can be observed throughout today's timeseries. There were some clouds (above 8 km and not shown in today's plot) ocasionally advecting over ELF today. Hourly PM 2.5 concentrations in the range of 27.4 to 60.1 ug/m3 [AQI Levels: 73 (Moderate)-139 (Unhealthy)] were recorded at Oldtown site in Baltimore during ELF's operation. The dark red counts (around 0:00 UTC) near the surface (300-700m) on today's extinction timeseries correspond to the time of date when the highest Unhealthy AQI Levels were reached. The Key Bridge is not visible from UMBC. Good AQI levels should be reached by Thursday evening, as a cold front is expected to move to the area.
Posted by Ruben Delgado at June 27, 2007 11:29 AM