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Comparing Select Weather Parameters with Ground-Level Ozone During the Summer and Autumn Seasons

Organization(s):Crestwood High School
Country:United States of America
Student(s):Adam Ali, Ali Akil, Jelal Muflahi
Grade Level:Secondary School (grades 9-12, ages 14-18)
GLOBE Educator(s):Diana Rae Johns
Contributors:
Report Type(s):International Virtual Science Symposium Report, U.S. Student Research Symposia (SRS)
Protocols:(Protocol Deactivated), Relative Humidity, Barometric Pressure, Air Temperature
Presentation Poster: View Document
Language(s):English
Date Submitted:03/10/2020
In the stratosphere, ozone molecules play an important role absorbing ultraviolet radiation from the Sun and shielding Earth from dangerous rays. But in the troposphere, near ground-level, ozone molecules are both air pollutants, threatening the health of living things, and greenhouse gases, trapping heat and contributing to climate change. With our research, we sought to compare select weather parameters with surface ozone to determine which impact ozone levels. This would better allow researchers and scientists to prevent future increases in ozone levels. This led us to our research question, to what extent do select weather parameters impact local surface ozone levels? To successfully complete our research, we took daily measurements at our school’s soccer field using the PASCO wireless weather station and the Pocket Lab weather device. It was found that ozone correlated with pressure, relative humidity, and temperature. However, there was no real correlation between light intensity and surface ozone levels.


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Comments

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Michael Notaro
4 Years Ago
The team learned a lot about tropospheric versus stratospheric ozone and performed a well conceived investigation. Be careful about cause and effect with correlations. When you concluded that “the more ozone the more heat is retained,” I suspect what you are really seeing is greater surface ozone generation on hot days. I also suspect that the calculation of a Pearson correlation would indicate a moderate negative correlation between light intensity and ozone in your October plot. Additional data collection will help. I enjoyed your poster and was impressed with your attention to detail.
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GLOBE Scientist (inactive)
4 Years Ago
Hi Adam, Ali, and Jelal. My name is Katie Bennett and I am a Masters' student at the University of New Hampshire studying Earth Science and Atmospheric Chemsitry. I research how Arctic wetlands in nothern Sweden are responding to climate change by measuring the amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, that comes out of them.
I really enjoyed your project on comparing weather parameters to ground-level ozone concentrations. My favorite part was how you connected your project to your local community by explaining how ground-level ozone can harm people that use the soccer field where you were making your measurements and many important plant species in Michigan. I also liked how you placed your graphs front and center on the poster and used images to explain your methods. In the future, you could try using bullet points to help break up some of the text on your poster. Your conclusion that you results were similar to Michian Air Quality when you took more measurements is interesting and shows the importance of collecting as much data as possible. It may also be showing that the relationship between ozone and weather parameters may be different over shorter and longer time scales. You clearly communicated your results and the importance of your research and presented it in an organized way, great job!