Air quality applications of extreme value theory : return levels of extreme ozone events in Chicago and surrounding areas

To quantify the effects of the NO, SIP call in urban and rural locales, surface ozone data from the Air Quality System is analyzed. Methods from extreme value theory are applied to calculate and compare 20-year return levels at 5 urban and 17 rural/suburban sites in Illinois based upon maximum daily 8-. hour average ozone concentrations from summer (JJA) for two periods (1992- 2002 and 2003-2013) and a threshold of 70 (ppb). Between the two periods, 21 out of 22 sites experienced a decrease in 20-year return levels. The magnitude of these decreases does not indicate a strong correlation between population density and air quality improvements, however, further analysis is required.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Rider, Elizabeth Ndayu

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Noelle Eckley Selin.

• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114094

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/114094