Observations of ozone formation in power plant plumes and implications for ozone control strategies

Data taken in aircraft transects of emissions plumes from rural U.S. coal-fired power plants were used to confirm and quantify the nonlinear dependence of tropospheric ozone formation on plume NO(x) (NO plus NO(2)) concentration, which is determined by plant NO(x) emission rate and atmospheric dispersion. The ambient availability of reactive volatile organic compounds, principally biogenic isoprene, was also found to modulate ozone production rate and yield in these rural plumes. Differences of a factor of 2 or greater in plume ozone formation rates and yields as a function of NO(x) and volatile organic compound concentrations were consistently observed. These large differences suggest that consideration of power plant NO(x) emission rates and geographic locations in current and future U.S. ozone control strategies could substantially enhance the efficacy of NO(x) reductions from these sources.