Investigating Ozone Ambient Levels: Case Study of the Fahaheel Urban Area, State of Kuwait

Abstract

Continuously monitored ambient concentrations of ozone (O3), nitrogen monoxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) for the years 2004-2005 and 2014-2015 are used to understand the relationships and photochemical rections between ozone (O3) and nitrogen oxides (NOX ≈ NO+NO2) in one of Kuwait's major urban areas (Fahaheel). The objective of the study is to investigate the fate of O3 as a secondary pollutant and to determine the chemical coupling and mixing ratio of NO2 to O3. The variation of total atmopsheric oxides (OX = O3+NO2) concentrations with NO2 is also assessed to gain an insight into the atmospheric sources of OX. In addition, the diurnal variations of NO, NO2, NOX, O3, and OX along with variation of regional and local Ox are examined. The daytime and night-time relationships between O3 and NOX and the ozone weekend effect in Fahaheel area are also reported in this communication. This study creates a historical baseline for urban areas subjected to heavy industrial emissions that can significantly improve our understanding of the impacts of future changes in O3 concentrations.

Ozone (O3) ambient levels as a secondary airborne precursor in Fahaheel urban area, the State of Kuwait

“…The Fahaheel area is shown in relation to the Kuwaiti coastline in Figure 1. More details on commuting routes and industrial sites around Fahaheel can be found elsewhere (Al‐Qassimi and Al‐Salem, 2019; Al‐Salem and Khan, 2010).…”

“…O X is consequently a more stable entity to study as it shows the potential for renewed production of O 3 (Song et al, 2011). Therefore, work on nitrogen‐based pollutants encompassed the O X filtration procedure for NO and ozone titration established previously by other authors and depicted as follows (Al‐Salem and Khan, 2008, 2010; Pancholi et al, 2018; Tiwari et al, 2015; Al‐Qassimi and Al‐Salem, 2019): where O X is the total oxidant concentration in the ambient atmosphere (ppb) and values falling below the estimated baseline of O X were discarded due to photo‐oxidation reactions, particulate accumulation, choking or OH ion presence malfunctioning of the instruments.…”

“…It is well established that the reactions shown below generally dominate the interconversion of O 3 , NO, and NO 2 under atmospheric conditions (Adame et al, 2012; Al‐Qassimi and Al‐Salem, 2019): where hv is the sunlight (solar) intensity; J is the rate of NO 2 photolysis reaction in Equation ); k is the rate coefficient for the reaction of NO with O 3 in Equation ) (Han et al, 2011). In this study, diurnal variation of NO, NO 2 , NO X , O 3 , and O X along with variation of seasonal regional and local O X , and surface plots of NO X and O X annual daily mean variation, were examined.…”