This project involves making measurements of non-methane hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and NOy fluxes in the center of Mexico City during the Megacity Impacts on Regional and Global Environments (MIRAGE), the Mexico City Pollution Outflow Field Campaign. A range of flux measurement techniques will be employed to test the validity of the emissions inventory for volatile organic compounds in Mexico City. These techniques include the use of a Fast Olefin Sensor to measure olefin fluxes, a Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer to measure fluxes of aromatics and selected oxygenated volatile organic compounds, and a novel disjunct eddy accumulation system to measure fluxes of other individual volatile organic compounds amenable to analysis with gas chromatography/flame ionization detection. Fluxes of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and latent and sensible heat flux will also be included.
Graduate and undergraduate students will receive training under the auspices of this project, exposing them to environmental issues associated with a megacity located in a developing country. Students will be involved in the field program and in analysis of the data from the field program. Results from the work will be used to illustrate megacity environmental impacts as part of undergraduate and graduate classes at Washington State University. The data base will become part of the Megacity Impacts on Regional and Global Environments data archive.
