Mexico City Metropolitan Area MCMA-2003 field campaign

I have been working on air quality issues in Mexico City since 2002. See science related fotos here, for city and science check this out.

Mexico City is the second largest Megacity in the world. It's current air pollution levels compare to those in Los Angeles during the mid-1980s. Every year, some 20.000 people die in direct relation to the side-effects of poor air quality. This number compares to that from car accidents. The indirect cost that air pollution imposes on the health sector (hospitalisation, chronic deseases, premature mortality, increasing children asthma rates etc.), the economy (pollution related hours of work lost, premature mortality), and the decreasing quality of life (limited use of recreational areas, "dont work-out during smog episodes") far exceeds the cost of air quality remediation. Air pollution also contributes to global warming.

During April 2003 two open-path Differential Optical Absorption Spectrometers (LP-DOAS) instruments and one spectroradiometer were temporarily deployed to Mexico City. The experimental data gathered during the MCMA-2003 field campaign enabled to test and improve photochemical models as they are being used to predict air quality. Our research contributes to assess what remediation measures do effectively improve air quality?

Selected publications:

Volkamer, R.; Molina, L.T.; Molina, M.J.; Shirley, T.; Brune, W.H.; DOAS measurement of Glyoxal as a new marker for fast VOC chemistry in urban air. 2005, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L08806. This work got featured in Science magazine, and triggered the first detection of Glyoxal from satellites.

Garcia, A.R.; Volkamer, R.; Galle, B.; Samuelsson, J.; Mellqvist, J.; Molina, L.T. and Molina, M.J.; Separation of emitted and photochemical formaldehyde in Mexico City using a statistical analysis and a new pair of gas-phase tracers. 2006, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 4545-4557.

Volkamer, R.; Jimenez, J.L.; Dzepina, K.; Salcedo, D.; SanMartini, F.M.; Molina, L.T.; Worsnop, D.R.; Molina, M.J.; Secondary Organic Aerosol formation from Anthropogenic Air Pollution: Rapid and higher than expected. 2006, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L17811.

Lei, W.; deFoy, B.; Zavala, M.; Volkamer, R.; Molina, L.T.; Characterizing ozone production in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area: A case study using a chemical transport model. 2007, Atmos. Chem. Phys. 7, 1347-1366.

Volkamer, R.; Sheehy, P.M.; Molina, L.T.; Molina, M.J.; Oxidative capacity of the Mexico City atmosphere. Part 1: A radical source perspective. 2007, accepted for publication in Atmops. Chem. Phys. Disc.