Abstract:
Meteorological and turbulence measurements were recorded using a diverse
array of instruments by the Parlange Environmental Fluid Mechanics Group,
Department of Geography & Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins
University at the EPA Baltimore Supersite. Measurements were made at three
Baltimore locations over the indicated time intervals: FMC Corporation
(5/26/2001 - 6/15/2001), Clifton
... Park (7/1/2001 - 9/14/2001), and Ponca Street
2/13/02 - 3/15/2003). Please note that only Ponca Street data are available
at this time.
The instruments were mounted on an 11m tall meteorological tower on the site.
The instrumentation consisted of a 3d sonic anemometer-thermometer,
pyranometer, wind vane, tipping bucket rain collector, 2 cup anemometers,
temperature & relative humidity probe and pressure sensor. The data were
collected on a continuous basis and were subsequently subjected to multiple
cycles of data validation to ensure correctness and accuracy. The validated
data was then averaged over a 5 minute interval to create the final dataset.
For visual display on the internet, the dataset has been organized so as to
provide a unique data file for any given day within the operating time
duration. Each file contains the variables temperature, relative humidity, mean
horizontal wind speed (at 10.39m), horizontal resultant vector mean wind speed,
mean horizontal wind speed (at 5.87m), mean horizontal wind angle, std
deviation of the wind angle, precipitation, friction velocity, Obukhov length,
sensible vertical heat flux, solar radiation, atmospheric pressure, virtual
potential temperature, specific humidity and wind angle from sonic anemometer.
In addition to usual meteorological variables, this dataset also provides
information on turbulent mixing (parameterized by the friction
velocity) and atmospheric stability (parameterized by the Obukhov length).
Plots of the relevant parameters were created from the dataset which can be
viewed online at http://www.jhu.edu/~dogee/mbp/supersite2001/met_data.htm.
The Baltimore Supersite collected high-quality ambient air quality measurements
with unprecedented temporal resolution at an industrially influenced urban site
and two intensive measurement campaigns. A data set of project results was
constructed to take advantage of advanced multivariate statistical techniques.
Data were collected on the sources and nature of organic aerosol for the
region, and large quantities of urban particulate matter (PM) were collected
for retrospective chemical, physical, and
biological analyses and for toxicological testing. These data provided
important information on the potential health effects of particles to support
exposure and epidemiologic studies for enhanced evaluation of health outcome,
pollutant, and source relationships. More information about the Baltimore
Supersite Experiment can be found at URL: http://www.chem.umd.edu/supersite/.
The U.S. EPA Particulate Matter (PM) Supersites Program
[ http://www.epa.gov/ttn/amtic/supersites.html ] was an ambient air monitoring
research program from 1999-2004 designed to provide information of value to the
atmospheric sciences, and human health and exposure research communities. Eight
geographically diverse projects were chosen to specifically address these EPA
research priorities: (1) to characterize PM, its constituents, precursors,
co-pollutants, atmospheric transport, and its source
categories that affect the PM in any region; (2) to address the research
questions and scientific uncertainties about PM source-receptor and
exposure-health effects relationships; and (3) to compare and evaluate
different methods of characterizing PM including testing new and emerging
measurement methods. Data users should acknowledge the U.S. EPA Particulate
Matter (PM) Supersites Program and the project investigator(s) listed below. 
