Urban emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) drive the production of ozone in the troposphere, which can be hazardous to human and plant health. These reactive species are emitted into an atmospheric volume determined by the height of the surface mixed layer. It is the combination of emissions and mixed layer height that control the surface concentrations of ozone. This study analyzes vertical profiles of data collected on June 17th, 2016 on the NASA DC-8 during the 2016 NASA Student Airborne Research Program (SARP). Several atmospheric species important to ozone production, as well as a number of unreactive chemical species suggestive of atmospheric mixing, were analyzed in order to describe the effect of smoke from the Sherpa fire in Santa Barbara County on ozone production at various altitudes in the Los Angeles region. These findings support and improve our understanding of the rates of ozone production in highly urbanized areas that are affected by biomass burning emissions.

Presentation Slides: https://www.scribd.com/document/321272141/Utilization-of-Vertical-Profiles-to-Analyze-Ozone-Production-in-the-Los-Angeles-Basin#fullscreen&from_embed