A095-0001
A Comparison of Trace Gas Trends in Urban Areas Collected via Whole Air Sampling during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Thursday, 10 December 2020
Poster
Alex Jarnot1, Donald Ray Blake1, Melissa M Yang2, James H Flynn III3, Sergio Luiz Alvarez3, Travis Griggs4, Maya Zimmerman5, Jordan Zachmann6, MacKenzie Warner7, Gabriela Vidad8, Graham Trolley9, Jacob Schenthal10, Morgan Schachterle11, Everett Rzeszowski12, Dominick Ryan13, Amanda Rodell14, McKenna Price-Patak15, Elena Press16, Scarlet Passer17, Nathan Pappalardo18, Joseph Palmo19, David Moore20, An Li21, Jessica Kasamoto22, Tatiana Jimenez23, Amelia Hurst24, Kendra Herweck25, Paola Granados26, Katey Dong27, Walker Demel28, Ariana Deegan29, Mackenzie J Conkling30, John Carlson31, Joel Been32, Patrick R Sullivan33, Alexander Bruce MacDonald34, Nicole Taylor35, Jesse Bausell36, Simone Meinardi1, Raphael Martin Kudela37, Barbara Barletta1, Dar A Roberts38, Gloria Weitz39, Andreas Joel Beyersdorf40, Brent Love39, Roya Bahreini41, Barbara Chisholm1, Barry L Lefer4, Jack Kaye42, Ryan M Stauffer43, Joseph Ryan Bennett2, Hal B Maring44 and Emily L Schaller2, (1)University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States, (2)National Suborbital Research Center, Palmdale, CA, United States, (3)University of Houston, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Houston, TX, United States, (4)University of Houston, Houston, TX, United States, (5)Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, United States, (6)Saint John's University, Collegeville, MN, United States, (7)Ripon College, Ripon, WI, United States, (8)Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, United States, (9)Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States, (10)Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States, (11)University of Colorado - Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO, United States, (12)Bowdoin College, Earth and Oceanographic Science, Brunswick, ME, United States, (13)Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, United States, (14)Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, United States, (15)Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, United States, (16)Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, (17)University of California - Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States, (18)Pomona College, Claremont, CA, United States, (19)Amherst College, Amherst, MA, United States, (20)University of Albany, Albany, NY, United States, (21)University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States, (22)Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States, (23)Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States, (24)Univeristy of Connecticut, Mansfield, CT, United States, (25)Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY, United States, (26)University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX, United States, (27)Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States, (28)Butler University, Indianapolis, United States, (29)University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States, (30)Centre College, Department of Physics, Danville, KY, United States, (31)Norwich University, Northfield, VT, United States, (32)Colorado School of Mines, Golden, United States, (33)University of Utah, Geography, Salt Lake City, UT, United States, (34)University of Arizona, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Tucson, AZ, United States, (35)NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, United States, (36)University of California Santa Cruz, Ocean Sciences, Santa Cruz, CA, United States, (37)University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, United States, (38)University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Geography, Santa Barbara, CA, United States, (39)University of California - Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States, (40)NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (41)University of California Riverside, Environmental Sciences, Riverside, CA, United States, (42)NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, United States, (43)USRA at NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (44)NASA-Scien Mission Directorate, Washington, DC, United States
Abstract:
COVID-19’s impact on society and our daily habits has been unprecedented. With a decrease in vehicular traffic and industrial production, a decrease in local emissions was expected to occur. In order to capture any trends in ambient trace gas concentrations, approximately one thousand whole air samples were collected in intervals across the United States from April to July 2020 as part of the NASA Student Airborne Research Program (SARP). These samples were then analyzed by the UCI Rowland-Blake Lab using multi-column gas chromatography for over one hundred unique trace gases, including methane, non-methane hydrocarbons, and halocarbons, as described in Colman et al. (2001) and Barletta et al. (2002). Initial samples collected in April coincided with the peak of stay-at-home/social distancing orders in most states while samples collected later in the spring and early summer reflect the easing of these measures and initial state reopenings. Overall trends in emissions over time in select metropolitan areas will be discussed and compared to trends observed across the entire United States.
