SCERP Project Number: A-7
Principal Investigator: Anthony J. Brazel
Arizona State University
PROJECT OVERVIEW
This project was a one year effort to construct a database of long-term synoptic climatology for the U.S.-Mexico border region. This final report presents the results of constructing a wintertime synoptic air mass classification for four locations adjacent to the U.S.-Mexican border region--Yuma, Phoenix, Tucson, and El Paso. The classification is a computer automated and statistical evaluation of surface air mass properties, the so-called Temporal Synoptic Index approach (Davis and Kalkstein, 1990a). The TSI classification had not been previously performed for this region at the time of this grant, and has a multitude of potential applications for environmental analysis. The year after this grant was initiated, Davis and Walker (1992) and Davis and Gay (1993) using a similar methodology, produced a much larger scale synoptic classification of the western U.S. Since we have worked with these researchers, we were able to access the code for that classification, and, in a further study beyond the scope of this grant, have developed a comparative analysis of our more locally derived TSI classification for the border and their more hemispherically-related synoptic classification.
The particular approach to developing the TSI is discussed in this report. The TSI was developed by the University of Delaware school of climatologists specifically for applications related to environmental issues, e.g., health, air quality, and climate change detection (Kalkstein, Tan, And Skindlov, 1987; Kalkstein and Davis, 1989; Kalkstein, Dunne, and Vose, 1990; Kalkstein and Corrigan, 1986; Davis, 1988; Davis and Kalkstein, 1990b; Yarnal, 1993). In this report, a basic presentation of the method and several appendices and references to computerized databases are provided, so that the reader may understand how the classification was developed, the state and form of the database, and the scope of the approach.
The work from the first year, which spanned the period of ASU's academic year 1992-1992, was instrumental in developing cooperative grants in subsequent years in association with the Departments of Chemical, Bio- and Material Engineering; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and the Center for Energy Systems. The broader collaborative project beyond the immediate scope of this first year effort reported in this final report, involved merging of our original synoptic work and further analysis with applied goals of ADEQ, EPA's interest in air quality along the border, and theoretical research of the above ASU departments. Within the context of the scope of the first year and under the auspices of this individual grant, cursory analyses of the utility of the synoptic classification for the PM10 problem in Nogales, Arizona was performed. This involved the acquisition of PM10 records for Nogales for the period 1986- 1990 from paper copy archives of ADEQ and the merging of these records with the synoptic classification. The results of this intercomparison of the synoptic classification with PM10 records was presented at a conference with representatives of the EPA and Mexican air quality specialists from Nogales and Mexico City in a meeting in October 1992 on the campus at ASU. In discussions with Mexican air quality officials, the utility of our synoptic analysis was recognized as contributing to, and providing an understanding of the frequency and magnitude of atmospheric conditions for a regional scale that must be used as inputs to meso- to local scale dispersion models for the border region. Thus, our contribution in subsequent years has been to specify broad regional input conditions to modelling and air quality of the border region.
Last updated 7/1/99