Ozone and other air quality-related variables affecting visibility in the southeast United States.

An analysis of ozone (O3) concentrations and several other air quality-related variables was performed to elucidate their relationship with visibility at five urban and semi-urban locations in the southeast United States during the summer seasons of 1980-1996. The role and impact of O3 on aerosols was investigated to ascertain a relationship with visibility. Regional trend analysis over the 1980s reveals an increase in maximum O3 concentration coupled with a decrease in visibility. However, a similar analysis for the 1990s shows a leveling-off of both O3 and visibility; in both cases, the results were not statistically significant at the 5% level. A case study of site-specific trends at Nashville, TN, followed similar trends. To better understand the relationships between O3 concentration and visibility, the analysis was varied from yearly through daily to hourly averaged values. This increased temporal resolution showed a statistically significant inverse relationship between visibility and O3. Site-specific hourly r2 values ranged from 0.02 to 0.43. Additionally, by performing back-trajectory analysis, it was found that the visibility degraded by air mass migration over polluted areas.