Figure 1. Regions of impact based on one and two day ozone lifetime.
The areas impacted by ozone from large urban areas in the OTAG domain were deduced from multiple types of analysis, resulting in downwind distances ranging from less than 150 miles to over 500 miles. The direct influence of specific urban areas can be easily traced for specific episodes some 150-200 miles into their surrounding rural background. Beyond that, the urban influence tends to merge indistinguishably into the regional ozone pattern. Statistical correlation analyses of the regional ozone pattern suggest downwind distances on the order of 300-500 miles. Time-lagged correlation analyses also suggest linkages between ozone concentrations separated in time by 1 to 2 days within the domain. Based on observed mean wind speeds, such an atmospheric lifetime suggests urban impact areas of about 400 miles. While an estimate of impact distance based on any single method is rather uncertain, the coinciding range of the various different methods increase confidence in the accuracy of these calculated ranges.
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