A special issue of the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics focuses on results from the Border Air Quality and Meteorology (BAQS-Met) study, presenting research that contributes significantly to our scientific understanding of southern Ontario air quality.

Southern Ontario has the highest air pollutant concentrations in Canada. A recent World Health Organization report showed Sarnia, Ontario to have the poorest air quality among the places monitored in Canada. Throughout southern Ontario, ground-level ozone is above the current Canada-wide standard. In the summer of 2007, the BAQS-Met field campaign examined the complexity of processes influencing summertime ozone levels in the southern Great Lakes region of North America. This Environment Canada-led study, which received funding from the Natural Resources Canada’s Program on Energy Research and Development, was a collaborative effort involving the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and several Ontario Universities. Results indicate that local emission sources, particularly urban and industrial emissions within the Great Lakes region, make significant contributions to high ozone events and local formation of particulate matter.

Key outcomes of BAQS-Met research are a better understanding of the causes of poor air quality and better computer modelling to predict impacts of potential emission reduction and energy production policies and forecasts of the Air Quality Health Index.

Scientists in the Air Quality Research Division and Meteorological Research Division of Environment Canada were contributors and guest editors of this special issue, which currently includes 17 peer-reviewed papers highlighting research results from numerous BAQS-Met studies, including:

• Research on ozone formation and transport in Southern Ontario including improvements on and insights from Environment Canada’s air quality model, AURAMS, and weather forecast model, GEM.
• Research on the influence of surface-atmosphere exchange on ammonia and subsequent formation of aerosols.
• Processes research on atmospheric aerosols and associated modelling predictions of their main sources, for their atmospheric levels and transport, and their ability to absorb light and affect climate.
• Research and measurements of the oxidation and formation of secondary organic aerosols from volatile organic compounds in rural Southern Ontario.

See Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Special Issue for access to these articles.

Contact: Dr. Jeff Brook, 416-739-4916, Air Quality Research

Photo caption: Environment Canada’s mobile air quality lab and Mobile Meteorological Observation System deployed during the BAQS-Met study