Ozone Research and
Monitoring in Canada
L.J. Bruce McArthur
Atmospheric Science and Technology Directorate
Science and Technology Branch
Environment Canada
7th Meeting or the Ozone Research Managers
19 – 21 May 2008
Geneva, Switzerland
Contents
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•
•
•
Canadians and their environment
Ozone / UV monitoring program (successes from chaos)
Research & Associated Activities
WMO Activities
– WOUDC
– WMO Brewer Activities
• Future activities and issues
2
Canadians and their Environment
Most Important Problem – Past 6 Months
In your opinion, what is the most important problem facing Canadians today? Top
Unemployment
4 issues
19%
18%
17%
18%
Economy
18%
16%
16%
15%
15%
15%
Health Care
14%
12%
Environment *
11%
7%
5%
4%
Oct-07
5%
5%
4%
Nov-07
Dec-07
4%
Jan-08
4%
Feb-08
•includes mentions
of environment /
pollution + climate
change / global
warming
Mar-08
Environics Canadian Environmental Barometer, March 2008
3
Canadians and their Environment
(Unprompted) In your view, what is the most important environmental issue
we face in Canada today?
31%
Climate Change
24%
21%
23%
22%
20%
Air Pollution / Air
Quality
Water Pollution /
Drinking Water
11%
9%
7%
9%
4%
4%
1998
1999
2001
2003
2004
2005
2007
2008
Environics Canadian Environmental Barometer, March 2008
4
Awareness of Environmental Laws/Initiatives
Which of the following environmental laws or initiatives have you ever heard
about? How about:
The Kyoto Accord
83%
16%
The Canadian Environmental Protection Act
75%
25%
The Clean Air Act
73%
27%
The Species at Risk Act
The Montreal Protocol
Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan
49%
51%
26%
20%
Yes
74%
80%
No
Ipsos Reid, Environment Canada’s Corporate Communications Survey, Spring 2007
5
Environment Canada’s Role
From what you may have heard, seen or read about Environment Canada, what
roles do you think this federal government department currently plays in serving
the Canadian public?
Educates/informs/creates awareness
12%
Monitors/protects environment/resources (non-specific)
9%
Develops/enforces environmental law
8%
Monitors pollution/pollution sources (general catch-all)
7%
Provides weather related information
4%
Protects species and habitat
4%
Public safety/public health
3%
Conducts scientific research
2%
Cleans up contaminated sites
2%
A major/significant role (non-specific)
Does a poor job serving the Canadian public (non-specific)
6%
5%
No role/not enough/nothing
Don't know/Refused
30%
23%
Ipsos Reid Environment Canada’s Corporate Communications Survey, Spring 2007
6
Ozone and UV Monitoring in Canada
7
Columnar Ozone and UV Network
• Duplication of Brewers in all northern locations
• Major Life-cycle management plan to replace all network
•
•
instruments with MK IIIs
Upgrades in operating software (including AOD and
trace gas algorithms) and hardware
Changes in funding envelope protects operational
funding for present network
8
Ozonesonde Network
• Increase in total number of ozonesonde stations to 10
• New stations are funded for tropospheric observations
and pollution related activities
– Transboundary flows
– UTLS observations
• Move to GPS sondes
• International requests to operationalize network and
increase frequency and number of stations
• Present departmental review of priorities places 3 sonde
stations in jeopardy
9
FTIR Operations – Making a network
• EC Presently operates two Bomem DA8 Fourier
•
•
•
•
Transform Spectrometers – Eureka, Nunavut and
Egbert, Ontario
University of Toronto has an operational FTIR in
downtown Toronto
Canadian Network for the Detection of Atmospheric
Change (CANDAC) has purchased new Bruker
instrument for Eureka facility making DA8 redundant
EC has funded project to refurbish Eureka DA8 and
install this instrument at Bratt’s Lake, Saskatchewan
CSA and Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS are
collaborating to put a CSA FTIR at Dalhousie
10
Long-term FTIR observations from
Eureka FTIR – Part of NDACC Network
Eureka Sunrise 1997-2006 HCl
Vertical Column Density (1015 molecules/cm2 )
7
6
5
4
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
3
2
1
52
56
60
64
68
72
76
80
84
88
Julian Day
11
92
96 100 104 108 112 116
Eureka DIAL LIDAR Observations – Polar
Sunrise 2008
 Arctic observational research is becoming increasingly expensive
and therefore difficult to justify in a funding limited world
 New MOU with CANDAC for increased operation of LIDAR
 Collaborative efforts have succeeded in funding significant system
upgrades
12
20th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol
• Meeting in Montreal, QC provided increased
opportunities
– Completion of a Canadian Ozone Assessment
▪ Special addition of the Canadian Meteorological and
Oceanographic Society journal Atmosphere-Ocean
▪ Executive summary document released on MOP in Montreal – now
on web: http://www.msc-smc.ec.gc.ca/saib/ozone/ozone_e.html.
• Provision of two Brewer Users’ Workshops as part of
20th anniversary celebration: Manchester UK and Seoul
Korea – information available at www.woudc.org
13
IPY – Installation of a Brewer at S. Pole
• Collaborative effort between NOAA / NSF and EC
• Installation of Brewer MK III at Amundsen-Scott Base
• Additional means of measuring ozone beyond Dobson
already at site.
• Addition of a Brewer MK III Spectrophotmeter gives:
– Improved uncertainty characteristics at low solar elevations
– Ability to obtain columnar ozone using moon as the source
• Collaborative effort provides cross-training of
NOAA staff on the operation of the Brewer and
NOAA’s agreeing to operate the instrument
• Data is being archived in the WOUDC – first
obs. Feb. 12
14
IPY – Collaboration on Arctic Chemistry
and Ozone
• Increased ozonesonde launches in conjunction with the
IPY MATCH program
• Additional ozonesonde launches associated with NASA
Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere
from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) – April component
completed, second stage in July
• Airborne spectrometer on Alfred Wegener Institute
Research Aircraft POLAR 5 – flights across various parts
of Canadian Arctic in search of BrO
15
WMO WOUDC
Data Category
Lidar
Number of Platforms
2
Number of Files
Representative
Years
675
1991-1998
Ozonesonde
124
55,826
1962-2008
Total column ozone
280
58, 718 (monthly)
1924-2008
Umkehr
64
10,000 monthly records,
>50,000 retrievals
1951-2008
16
WMO Brewer Ozone Activities
• Two Brewer Workshops held in conjunction with 20th
•
•
•
Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol
Mini-workshop to be held at QOS
EC continuing to maintain the reference triad
Participating in international comparisons
– SAUNA
– Izania
• Received funding to ‘upgrade’ the present ozone triad
from MK II to MK III instruments – will select new
instruments from most stable instruments either already
purchased or in process of purchasing
17
Future Activities
• EC is moving away from looking at the stratosphere as
•
•
•
a specific entity - BUT
UV radiation remains important, particularly as it relates to
human health – activities moving toward data fusion and
use of satellite and surface data to obtain health related
information (e.g. cancer rates)
Interest is increasing on the use of vertical ozone obs for
data assimilation – going back to Canadian ozone obs
roots – this may protect ozonesonde stations for the long
term and provide increased funding of ozone LIDAR
development
Model efforts are continuing and even increasing as data
assimilation becomes more important in weather and air
quality forecasting – includes universities and international
collaborations
18
Future Activities
• Moving in two directions within the atmosphere:
– a one atmosphere approach where interest is in how various parts
of the atmosphere interact
– Tropospheric air pollution activities – highly directed to mesh with
governmental regulatory activities
• Use of surface-based ‘remote sensing’ as a means of
•
understanding tropospheric processes and understanding
background constituent levels is increasing
Increased interest in the Arctic and a lack of observations
in this region opens possibilities for increased UV/Ozone
monitoring – particularly as it pertains to ecosystems.
19
Issues
• Mandate driven research (3 – 4 years) is reducing ability
to continue instrument development projects
– On-going loss of highly qualified personnel
– Inability to maintain scientific research facilities because of
decreasing discretionary funding levels
• Global data archiving and observing for the purpose of
satellite validation are no longer seen as important with
respect to the departmental mandate
20