Ozone Research and Monitoring in Canada L.J. Bruce McArthur Atmospheric Science and Technology Directorate Science and Technology Branch Environment Canada.

Ozone Research and Monitoring in Canada

L.J. Bruce McArthurAtmospheric Science and Technology DirectorateScience and Technology BranchEnvironment Canada

7th Meeting or the Ozone Research Managers19 – 21 May 2008Geneva, Switzerland

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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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4%5%

4% 4%5%

4%

7%

4% 4%

11%12%

18%

16%15%

14%15% 15%

17%18% 18%

16%15%

5%

19%

Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08

Unemployment

Economy

Health Care

Environment *

Most Important Problem – Past 6 MonthsIn 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

Canadians and their Environment

4

23%

31%

4%

7%9%

20%22%

21%

9%

4%

11%

24%

1998 1999 2001 2003 2004 2005 2007 2008

Climate Change

Air Pollution / AirQuality

Water Pollution /Drinking Water

(Unprompted) In your view, what is the most important environmental issue we face in Canada today?

Environics Canadian Environmental Barometer, March 2008

Canadians and their Environment

5

Awareness of Environmental Laws/Initiatives

83%

75%

73%

49%

26%

20%

16%

25%

27%

51%

74%

80%

The Kyoto Accord

The Canadian Environmental Protection Act

The Clean Air Act

The Species at Risk Act

The Montreal Protocol

Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan

Yes No

Which of the following environmental laws or initiatives have you ever heard about? How about:

Ipsos Reid, Environment Canada’s Corporate Communications Survey, Spring 2007

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Environment Canada’s Role

12%

9%

8%

7%

4%

4%

3%

2%

2%

6%

5%

30%

23%

Educates/informs/creates awareness

Monitors/protects environment/resources (non-specific)

Develops/enforces environmental law

Monitors pollution/pollution sources (general catch-all)

Provides weather related information

Protects species and habitat

Public safety/public health

Conducts scientific research

Cleans up contaminated sites

A major/significant role (non-specific)

Does a poor job serving the Canadian public (non-specific)

No role/not enough/nothing

Don't know/Refused

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 Canada’s Corporate Communications Survey, Spring 2007

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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

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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

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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 Bratt’s 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

52 56 60 64 68 72 76 80 84 88 92 96 100 104 108 112 116

Ju lian D ay

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7

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1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Eureka Sunrise 1997-2006 HCl

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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

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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.ca/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

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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 NOAA’s agreeing to operate the instrument

• Data is being archived in the WOUDC – first obs. Feb. 12

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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

Data Category Number of Platforms Number of Files Representative Years

Lidar 2 675 1991-1998

Ozonesonde 124 55,826 1962-2008

Total column ozone 280 58, 718 (monthly) 1924-2008

Umkehr 64 10,000 monthly records, >50,000 retrievals

1951-2008

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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

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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.

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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