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Beginning in 2005, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) changed the location of one of its most instrument intensive air quality monitoring stations. Enjoying a good working partnership, the air quality monitoring station was located at the military facility in Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County, but MDE relocated their air monitoring shelters and equipment to Howard University.
The search for a new location brought positive results. Howard University has a research campus approximately nine miles away in Beltsville, Maryland (Prince George’s County) and was looking for partners. “This is an ideal representation of how MDE works well with other same-interest professionals, and we feel that Howard University’s ongoing ozone research was a good fit,” said MDE Secretary Kendl P. Philbrick.
“Increased security precautions after 9/11 made Fort Meade a difficult location for our employees to gain access to the equipment,” says David Krask, Program Manager of the Air Monitoring Program. “The land that our monitoring shelters occupied was needed to build a recreation center for its military personnel.”
“Another concern,” says Krask, “was that one of our instruments, an upper air profiler that uses radio waves to measure temperature, wind speed and wind direction in the upper atmosphere, caused quite a bit of noise and sound wave disturbances. Not good for a military facility.”
“Our equipment from Fort Meade found a new home. Howard University was already doing research on air quality,” explains Michael Woodman, an MDE meteorologist. “We have a full suite of instrumentation at Beltsville and it’s a good place to conduct our ozonesonde launches.”
What's an Ozonesonde?
An ozonesonde is a collection of instruments that measure ozone concentrations, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction. The instruments are mounted in a lightweight Styrofoam container, then tied to a helium-filled weather balloon and launched into the sky. The instruments collect data from just above ground level to about two-to-three kilometers above the earth’s surface and transmit it back to the ground-based scientists.
“We perform the launches when high concentrations of ozone pollution are forecast,” says David Krask. “Upper level measurements help us learn how much ozone is transported with the low-level jet stream from out of state sources.”
The low-level jet stream is a current of air that moves south to north between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean during late night and early morning hours. This phenomena occurs during certain meteorological conditions and can bring ozone and other pollutants (ozone precursors) into Maryland from sources several hundred miles away.
The ozonesondes require clearance from the Federal Aviation Commission before their release. They can be released during the pre-dawn, late afternoon, early evening or late night hours.
“The staff at Howard University is a tremendous help in this research,” says Michael Woodman. “Professors Dr. Everette Joseph and Dr. Demetrius Venable of the Department of Physics & Astronomy, and their graduate assistants, perform the launches and collect the data.”
“This research performed by MDE and Howard University will help formulate more effective pollution control strategies and regional policy-making that will improve air quality for Maryland citizens,” said Secretary Philbrick.
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