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Assessment of Air Quality
How does the OCS oil and gas production impact air quality in the coastal region? To
accurately assess the effects, the MMS Environmental Study Program conducts a series of
studies to improve the science and gather additional data. “Profilers and Data
Collection for the Boundary Layer in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico” is one
such study.
The study uses cutting edge instruments on two offshore platforms to obtain direct
measurements of the vertical structure of the marine boundary layer in the Central Gulf of
Mexico (Fig. 1). A standard meteorological
station on the platforms provide surface data by measuring air and water temperatures,
pressure, winds and humidity (Figs. 2a, 2b, 2c).
The Radar Wind Profilers (RWP) and Radio Acoustics Sounding System (RASS) provide wind and
temperature profiles for the upper atmospheric layer (Fig. 3). The data are transmitted hourly from each
platform via Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) to the NESDIS/NOAA
facility on Wallops Island, Virginia (Fig. 4).
These data not only support MMS’ needs but also are distributing directly to the
National Weather Service/NOAA in real time for weather forecasts.
A snap shot of the daily upper wind profiles is shown in Fig. 5 for the shallow water site and Fig. 6 for the deepwater site. These daily wind
profiles were taken on August 28 of 1998. The hours of the day are shown on the horizontal
axis, advancing from right to the left. In these figures, the interesting flows are the
lower levels where the boundary layer responds to day-night surface heating effects. These
sea and land breeze cells are below 1000 meters at the shallow water site but increase to
2000 meters at the deepwater site. The solar heating effects during the day are shown in
the next figure (Fig. 7). These temperature
profiles for the upper atmospheric layers are measured by the RASS from 10:00 to 15:00 in
the afternoon. The heat flux from the sun to the atmospheric boundary layer will be
calculated from these profiles.
The meteorological data will provide the MMS with a description and analysis of the
Atmospheric Boundary Layer and how its structure influences the dispersion and transport
of pollutants in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico. The results will support
techniques for evaluating the effects of oil and gas exploration, development, and
production activities in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) on air quality over the coastal
area.
For more information, contact Ronald Lai.
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