Quantifying the impact of biogenic and anthropogenic fluxes on the atmospheric composition of the New York City Metro Area

The overarching goal of the project is to understand the link between the CO2 and ozone (O3) cycles by improving our knowledge of the fluxes from anthropogenic and biogenic sources in urban areas. The proposed observations in the New York Metropolitan Area (NYMA), the most populous urban center in the United States, will allow us to quantify the biogenic contribution of the CO2 and volatile organic compound (VOC) budgets on daily, seasonal and interannual time scales using field observations and model estimates. The project will quantify the atmospheric loading due to anthropogenic CO2 and O3 precursors over the NYMA using a range of existing inventories.

The PIs will couple a year-round CO2 observation network around the New York Metro Area with targeted field studies to quantify fluxes of CO2 and VOCs and improve our understanding of the processes driving spatiotemporal variability in this region. They expect the insights gained through this project will apply in some other mid-latitude urban settings. They will use a range of modeling approaches to calculate the impact of these processes on the composition and chemistry of the urban atmosphere.