A novel approach for monitoring vertical profiles of boundary-layer pollutants: Utilizing routine news helicopter flights

Abstract

Air quality varies greatly in space and time across urban locales. However, criteria pollutants are 2 typically monitored routinely at a relatively small number of surface sites within each 3 metropolitan area, and routine vertical profiles of pollution are typically unavailable. We 4 illustrate that a news helicopter provides an effective sensor platform to provide spatiotemporal 5 analyses and vertical profiles of pollutant concentrations. We are unaware of any other air 6 quality study that has utilized routine helicopter flights, despite the ubiquity of helicopters in 7 urban environments across the world. Particulate and ozone concentration profiles have been 8 collected since 2015 from sensors installed on a news helicopter that travels primarily over the 9 metropolitan areas of northern Utah. The air quality data are retrieved in real time, archived, combined with surface-based observations, and disseminated in terms of time series and maps on a website for research, forecasting, and public awareness. Large vertical variations in particulate pollution concentrations were observed during the 2015-2016 winter associated with meteorological cold-air pool episodes. During the 2015 and 2016 summer seasons, ozone concentrations frequently exhibited complex spatial and temporal variations arising from many interrelated factors, including local terrain-forced circulations, lake breezes, and distant wildfires.

A Review of Low Altitude Manned Aviation Operations

“…Strikingly, some of the best publications for aviation research where published outside of the aviation community, such as Grubb et al [65], Stoll et al [78], and Crosman et al [141]. Expanding this review beyond the aviation community yielded significant information for some use cases, such as for the Animal Sciences discussed in Section III-A.…”

Atmospheric Chemistry Analysis: A Review

“…Such approaches may avoid sampling artifacts arising from volatilization, degradation, or reaction of analytes during sample collection and storage. An approach to online atmospheric sampling in metropolitan areas that provides cost saving synergies is the deployment of monitoring equipment (such as particulate matter (PM) and O 3 monitors) on news helicopters 8 or electrified light-rail public trains. 9 The spatial and time-resolved air quality data is retrieved in real-time and may be combined with ground based observations to provide useful information for both research and public awareness.…”

Air quality observations onboard commercial and targeted Zeppelin flights in Germany – a platform for high-resolution trace-gas and aerosol measurements within the planetary boundary layer

“…Such 60 measurements provide regular data on the PBL dynamics but are limited to areas in proximity to airport locations during the aircraft's landing and take-off (Boschetti et al, 2015). Commercial airborne measurements have also been extended to routine helicopter flights to monitor vertical profiles for pollutant concentrations in Utah, USA (Crosman et al, 2017). Balloon-borne (e.g.…”