Ozone Research and Monitoring in Canada

1
Ozone Research and Monitoring in Canada

• L.J. Bruce McArthur
• Atmospheric Science and Technology Directorate
• Science and Technology Branch
• Environment Canada
• 7th Meeting or the Ozone Research Managers
• 19 21 May 2008
• Geneva, Switzerland

2
Contents

• Canadians and their environment
• Ozone / UV monitoring program (successes from
  chaos)
• Research Associated Activities
• WMO Activities
• WOUDC
• WMO Brewer Activities
• Future activities and issues

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Most Important Problem Past 6 Months
Canadians and their Environment
In your opinion, what is the most important
problem facing Canadians today? Top 4 issues

• includes mentions of environment / pollution
  climate change / global warming

Environics Canadian Environmental Barometer,
March 2008
4
Canadians and their Environment
(Unprompted) In your view, what is the most
important environmental issue we face in Canada
today?
Environics Canadian Environmental Barometer,
March 2008
5
Awareness of Environmental Laws/Initiatives
Which of the following environmental laws or
initiatives have you ever heard about? How about
Ipsos Reid, Environment Canadas Corporate
Communications Survey, Spring 2007
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Environment Canadas Role
From what you may have heard, seen or read about
Environment Canada, what roles do you think this
federal government department currently plays in
serving the Canadian public?
Ipsos Reid Environment Canadas Corporate
Communications Survey, Spring 2007
7
Ozone and UV Monitoring in Canada
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Columnar Ozone and UV Network

• Duplication of Brewers in all northern locations
• Major Life-cycle management plan to replace all
  network instruments with MK IIIs
• Upgrades in operating software (including AOD and
  trace gas algorithms) and hardware
• Changes in funding envelope protects operational
  funding for present network

9
Ozonesonde Network

• Increase in total number of ozonesonde stations
  to 10
• New stations are funded for tropospheric
  observations and pollution related activities
• Transboundary flows
• UTLS observations
• Move to GPS sondes
• International requests to operationalize network
  and increase frequency and number of stations
• Present departmental review of priorities places
  3 sonde stations in jeopardy

10
FTIR Operations Making a network

• EC Presently operates two Bomem DA8 Fourier
  Transform Spectrometers Eureka, Nunavut and
  Egbert, Ontario
• University of Toronto has an operational FTIR in
  downtown Toronto
• Canadian Network for the Detection of Atmospheric
  Change (CANDAC) has purchased new Bruker
  instrument for Eureka facility making DA8
  redundant
• EC has funded project to refurbish Eureka DA8 and
  install this instrument at Bratts Lake,
  Saskatchewan
• CSA and Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS are
  collaborating to put a CSA FTIR at Dalhousie

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Long-term FTIR observations from Eureka FTIR
Part of NDACC Network
12
Eureka DIAL LIDAR Observations Polar Sunrise
2008

• Arctic observational research is becoming
  increasingly expensive and therefore difficult to
  justify in a funding limited world
• New MOU with CANDAC for increased operation of
  LIDAR
• Collaborative efforts have succeeded in funding
  significant system upgrades

13
20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol

• Meeting in Montreal, QC provided increased
  opportunities
• Completion of a Canadian Ozone Assessment
• Special addition of the Canadian Meteorological
  and Oceanographic Society journal
  Atmosphere-Ocean
• Executive summary document released on MOP in
  Montreal now on web http//www.msc-smc.ec.gc.c
  a/saib/ozone/ozone_e.html.
• Provision of two Brewer Users Workshops as part
  of 20th anniversary celebration Manchester UK
  and Seoul Korea information available at
  www.woudc.org

14
IPY Installation of a Brewer at S. Pole

• Collaborative effort between NOAA / NSF and EC
• Installation of Brewer MK III at Amundsen-Scott
  Base
• Additional means of measuring ozone beyond Dobson
  already at site.
• Addition of a Brewer MK III Spectrophotmeter
  gives
• Improved uncertainty characteristics at low solar
  elevations
• Ability to obtain columnar ozone using moon as
  the source

• Collaborative effort provides cross-training of
  NOAA staff on the operation of the Brewer and
  NOAAs agreeing to operate the instrument
• Data is being archived in the WOUDC first obs.
  Feb. 12

15
IPY Collaboration on Arctic Chemistryand Ozone

• Increased ozonesonde launches in conjunction with
  the IPY MATCH program
• Additional ozonesonde launches associated with
  NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the
  Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS)
  April component completed, second stage in July
• Airborne spectrometer on Alfred Wegener Institute
  Research Aircraft POLAR 5 flights across
  various parts of Canadian Arctic in search of BrO

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WMO WOUDC
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WMO Brewer Ozone Activities

• Two Brewer Workshops held in conjunction with
  20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol
• Mini-workshop to be held at QOS
• EC continuing to maintain the reference triad
• Participating in international comparisons
• SAUNA
• Izania
• Received funding to upgrade the present ozone
  triad from MK II to MK III instruments will
  select new instruments from most stable
  instruments either already purchased or in
  process of purchasing

18
Future Activities

• EC is moving away from looking at the
  stratosphere as a specific entity - BUT
• UV radiation remains important, particularly as
  it relates to human health activities moving
  toward data fusion and use of satellite and
  surface data to obtain health related information
  (e.g. cancer rates)
• Interest is increasing on the use of vertical
  ozone obs for data assimilation going back to
  Canadian ozone obs roots this may protect
  ozonesonde stations for the long term and provide
  increased funding of ozone LIDAR development
• Model efforts are continuing and even increasing
  as data assimilation becomes more important in
  weather and air quality forecasting includes
  universities and international collaborations

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Future Activities

• Moving in two directions within the atmosphere
• a one atmosphere approach where interest is in
  how various parts of the atmosphere interact
• Tropospheric air pollution activities highly
  directed to mesh with governmental regulatory
  activities
• Use of surface-based remote sensing as a means
  of understanding tropospheric processes and
  understanding background constituent levels is
  increasing
• Increased interest in the Arctic and a lack of
  observations in this region opens possibilities
  for increased UV/Ozone monitoring particularly
  as it pertains to ecosystems.

20
Issues

• Mandate driven research (3 4 years) is reducing
  ability to continue instrument development
  projects
• On-going loss of highly qualified personnel
• Inability to maintain scientific research
  facilities because of decreasing discretionary
  funding levels
• Global data archiving and observing for the
  purpose of satellite validation are no longer
  seen as important with respect to the
  departmental mandate