A review on ozone evolution and its relationship with boundary layer characteristics in urban environments

Abstract

This paper reviews the interrelationship among boundary layer, urbanization, and evolution of ozone, with particular emphasis on how boundary layer dynamics and urbanization affects the evolution of ozone under different meteorological and climatological conditions. The aim of this work is not only to provide an exhaustive investigation of individual ozone episodes but to look at the underlying issues and hypotheses that are available for understanding the evolution of ozone. The review concludes with a summary of the current state of knowledge and outlines some of the remaining questions. It is the intention of this paper to serve as an ecumenical reference to the community for reappraising the relation of boundary layer climate to the evolution of ozone in an urban setting, especially on a peculiar feature of ozone dynamic, nocturnal ozone maxima. To date, there is still no overarching consensus on the mechanisms that lead to its formation. The importance of levels of urbanization and advantage of ascertaining the substantial weights of the respective mixing height and emission structure in exploring the relationship between ozone evolutions should not be overlooked. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.