Why are the carbon monoxide levels high in the Mid-Atlantic region?
February 23, 2023 6:17 AM Subscribe
The CO levels are really high in the mid- Atlantic region, see here. What's going on?
Here's a direct link to the CO levels.
posted by ambrosen at 6:31 AM on February 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ambrosen at 6:31 AM on February 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Temps are pretty low. I'm guessing there are a lot of buildings operating some kind of combustion heating inside that converging zone.
posted by flabdablet at 6:41 AM on February 23, 2023
posted by flabdablet at 6:41 AM on February 23, 2023
First, I'm 95% sure (based on the info text) that what windy is showing is tropospheric CO, e.g. measured at an altitude of 12000ft. For more context on this measurement, assuming this is correct, see: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/global-maps/MOP_CO_M. I would actually guess that windy is even pulling from NASA's satellite for that data.
posted by advil at 6:55 AM on February 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
In the United States, Europe, and eastern China, on the other hand, the highest carbon monoxide concentrations occur around urban areas as a result of vehicle and industrial emissions. Fires burning over large areas in North America and Russia in some years can be an important source. The MOPITT observations often show that pollution emitted on one continent can travel across oceans to have a big impact on air quality on other continents.The current readings in the mid-atlantic do indeed look extremely high for tropospheric CO; but it could be useful (though I'm not sure the two can be meaningfully compared) to keep in mind that this is showing numbers in parts per billion by volume, which is several orders of magnitude smaller than any CO measure you might be familiar with for measurements in the home.
posted by advil at 6:55 AM on February 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Yes, I was just wondering if the CO levels are high for a particular reason. The temp in our area is due to get up to 71 F today - quite high for February 23rd around here.
posted by erattacorrige at 7:34 AM on February 23, 2023
posted by erattacorrige at 7:34 AM on February 23, 2023
The surrounding winds are(almost) all blowing into the Mid-Atlantic, especially from the Atlantic ocean which isnt helping any co dilute in the atmosphere.
posted by TheAdamist at 7:46 AM on February 23, 2023
posted by TheAdamist at 7:46 AM on February 23, 2023
In addition to surface level convergence in the Mid-Atlantic there was also a deep inversion layer this morning, so the air was just piling up with no place to go. These aren't direct measurements but are modeled using NASA's Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) satellite data and look to be from fossil fuel burning (In case that direct link doesn't work go here and click on the GEOS-FP Weather Products button). Combining the morning rush hour with an inversion will allow the pollution level to increase.
posted by plastic_animals at 9:46 AM on February 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by plastic_animals at 9:46 AM on February 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
If you check the "info" button on Windy, you find this info:
If you look at the page that plastic_animals kindly provided, and play around a bit there, you can get a pretty good idea of how it works.
The different views you can see there are quite helpful. For each one, I suggest selecting that type, then click "animate" to get an idea of what it shows. For some reason, I have to click around on some of the buttons before it will actually animate. For example, here is the animation for "CO Surface".
What those different buttons show:
- CO Surface is the CO concentration at the surface. Here you can see the main SOURCES of the CO, which in the main are large cities. For example, I can easily see the NY-Baltimore-DC megalopolis, Chicago, Houston & Dallas, Mexico City, Bogota, etc. Also, this shows a really clear 24-hour cycle - presumably linked to human sources, like transportation, heating, and electricity use. Beyond that, you can see how the surface winds blow the CO from the source, and how this varies over time.
- CO FF N America: This is the amount of CO sourced from Fossil Fuels from North America. Again, you can see the main sources of the CO and how it is blown about over time. You can also click "CO FF Asia" "Europe" "Africa" etc to see how much CO on this map stems from those other parts of the world.
- CO BB N America and the other similar buttons show CO from "Biomass Burning" that comes from various parts of the world. Biomass burning would be things like forest fires, cooking fires, burning off fields, pastures, etc.
The FF and BB estimations must be based on some calculations and are a bit of an estimate. But it gives you an idea.
- Finally, CO Column gives you a summary of CO concentration through the entire atmosphere (ie, all altitudes).
If you spend some time looking at those animations, you can pretty well see how the CO levels start at ground level from various sources - most prominently, large cities - then diffuse both horizontally and vertically via the winds.
So for example, if the surface AND high-level winds are blowing towards the east off the eastern seaboard, then the CO plume from the NY-DC corridor dissapates quite quickly.
But over the past few days it looks like the opposite has happened: Surface winds have been moderately blowing towards the west, which takes the CO plume over eastern PA and surrounding area. As the plume dissipates upwards, the prevailing winds at the higher altitudes are blowing towards the east, which brings the CO right back over the area it originally came from, but at a higher altitude.
The end result is a sort of a "plume" of high CO that hangs around the same general area for a couple of days, instead of briskly blowing off into the Atlantic.
If you watch the animations over an extended period of time, you can see this is one of a few patterns that recur quite often. At this latitude, the prevailing winds at higher altitudes are usually from the west, but the surface winds are more variable. So it's just an interaction between those factors, whether you end up with the CO plume blowing west and then coming back on itself towards the east, or all blowing east (and generally dissipating quite quickly), or blowing north or south, perhaps combining with other existing plumes coming (typically) from the west, etc. etc.
posted by flug at 12:32 AM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
Forecast model: GEOS-5 22kmSo this is the CO concentration in the troposphere, and also it is updated at a fairly slow rate. The Windy screen is IMHO a bit misleading in that it shows the CO concentration (as of about 10 hours ago) together with the current surface winds. The surface winds are only one input into what might cause a CO concentration in the troposphere, and the current surface winds might be pretty much irrelevant to what caused a CO concentration in the troposphere half a day ago (the CO concentration is quite variable and depends on both the source AND the winds all the way from the surface to the troposphere over the past several hours through couple of days).
Provider: NASA
Updated 10h ago (ref 12Z)
Next update expected at: 10:41 PM, in 1 days 20h 47m 13s
Update interval: 54 - 55 hrs
Reference time: 2023-02-23T12:00:00Z
CO concentration
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly less dense than air. The level of CO concentration in the troposphere is measured by a system called Parts Per Billion by Volume (PPBV).
If you look at the page that plastic_animals kindly provided, and play around a bit there, you can get a pretty good idea of how it works.
The different views you can see there are quite helpful. For each one, I suggest selecting that type, then click "animate" to get an idea of what it shows. For some reason, I have to click around on some of the buttons before it will actually animate. For example, here is the animation for "CO Surface".
What those different buttons show:
- CO Surface is the CO concentration at the surface. Here you can see the main SOURCES of the CO, which in the main are large cities. For example, I can easily see the NY-Baltimore-DC megalopolis, Chicago, Houston & Dallas, Mexico City, Bogota, etc. Also, this shows a really clear 24-hour cycle - presumably linked to human sources, like transportation, heating, and electricity use. Beyond that, you can see how the surface winds blow the CO from the source, and how this varies over time.
- CO FF N America: This is the amount of CO sourced from Fossil Fuels from North America. Again, you can see the main sources of the CO and how it is blown about over time. You can also click "CO FF Asia" "Europe" "Africa" etc to see how much CO on this map stems from those other parts of the world.
- CO BB N America and the other similar buttons show CO from "Biomass Burning" that comes from various parts of the world. Biomass burning would be things like forest fires, cooking fires, burning off fields, pastures, etc.
The FF and BB estimations must be based on some calculations and are a bit of an estimate. But it gives you an idea.
- Finally, CO Column gives you a summary of CO concentration through the entire atmosphere (ie, all altitudes).
If you spend some time looking at those animations, you can pretty well see how the CO levels start at ground level from various sources - most prominently, large cities - then diffuse both horizontally and vertically via the winds.
So for example, if the surface AND high-level winds are blowing towards the east off the eastern seaboard, then the CO plume from the NY-DC corridor dissapates quite quickly.
But over the past few days it looks like the opposite has happened: Surface winds have been moderately blowing towards the west, which takes the CO plume over eastern PA and surrounding area. As the plume dissipates upwards, the prevailing winds at the higher altitudes are blowing towards the east, which brings the CO right back over the area it originally came from, but at a higher altitude.
The end result is a sort of a "plume" of high CO that hangs around the same general area for a couple of days, instead of briskly blowing off into the Atlantic.
If you watch the animations over an extended period of time, you can see this is one of a few patterns that recur quite often. At this latitude, the prevailing winds at higher altitudes are usually from the west, but the surface winds are more variable. So it's just an interaction between those factors, whether you end up with the CO plume blowing west and then coming back on itself towards the east, or all blowing east (and generally dissipating quite quickly), or blowing north or south, perhaps combining with other existing plumes coming (typically) from the west, etc. etc.
posted by flug at 12:32 AM on February 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
NO2 looks higher, but it looks to be higher in a region where there's likely to be higher levels of it (automobiles, industry) and where surface level winds are converging, possibly concentrating it.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:29 AM on February 23, 2023