United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Atmospheric Sciences s
Research Laboratory ' f «
Research Triangle Park NC 27711
Research and Development
EPA/600/S3-86/067 Mar. 1987
SERA Project Summary
Project MISTT:
Measurements and Data Base
Moor V Gillani
Project MISTT (Midwest Interstate
Sulfur Transformation and Transport)
was an EPA-sponsored research pro-
gram of field measurement and data
analyses carried out in the mid-seventies
in the St. Louis region. The objective
was to investigate quantitatively the
dynamics and kinetics of sulfur com-
pounds in the plumes of large power
plants and of the St. Louis urban com-
plex during their mesoscale transport.
Major field programs were carried out
in the summers of 1975 and 1976,
involving the participation of about a
dozen organizations from around the
country. The main approach was to
make detailed three-dimensional mea-
surements, both chemical and meteoro-
logical, primarily from instrumented
airborne platforms, and including sup-
port from ground platforms. This report
consists of three parts: Part I describes
the platforms and the measurements;
Part II gives a complete description and
documentation of the General Distribu-
tion Data Base archived on magnetic
tapes; and Part III is an unpublished
Appendix providing a summary of each
daily mission of the primary sampling
aircraft for each of the two summer
measurement periods.
Tn/s Project Summary was developed
by EPA't Atmospheric Sciences Re-
search Laboratory, Research Triangle
Park, NC, to announce key findings ol
the research project that Is fully docu-
mented In a separate report of the same
title (see Project Report ordering In-
formation at back).
Introduction
Project MISTT (Midwest Interstate Sul-
fur Transformation and Transport) was
principally an integrated, multidiscipli-
nary, mesoscale field measurements and
data analysis program, carried out in the
St. Louis area in mid-1970s, under the
sponsorship of the U.S Environmental
Protection Agency's Environmental
Sciences Research Laboratory (EPA-
ESRL). The immediate goal of the program
was to quantify the dynamics (rates and
mechanisms of transport and dispersion
processes) and the kinetics (rates and
mechanisms of the chemical transforma-
tion and removal processes) of sulfur
emissions from large point and area
sources such as power plants and urban-
industrial complexes. The approach was
centered around detailed, in-situ chemical
and meteorological measurements within
such plumes from instrumented aircraft,
and with a wide variety of pertinent sup-
porting chemical and meteorological
measurements, both in-situ and remote-
sensing, from surface platforms. All these
measurements were to be made within
the context of a coordinated experimental
design, in an intensive mode, during field
studies lasting about one month each.
Such measurements, for practical rea-
sons, were to cover a mesoscale range
(typically < 200 km and < 10 h of plume
transport). A broader, longer range goal
was to interpret the observed physical-
chemical behavior of plumes as middle
ground or bridge between controlled
laboratory studies of the fundamental
processes on the one hand, and synoptic
scale observations of secondary pollutant
distributions, on the other. To this end,
MISTT also supported laboratory studies
and analyses of existing synoptic-scale
data.
Measurements
The measurement programs of Project
MISTT proper took place in 1975 and
1976, principally during summer. MISTT
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evolved out of the earlier St. Louis Aerosol
Characterization Study (1973,1974). This
report pertains only to MISTT activities
during the summers of 1975 and 1976.
Project MISTT ran concurrently with
another major St. Louis-based, EPA-
sponsored, measurements program, viz.
the Regional Air Pollution Study (RAPS).
The RAPS program was more of a metro-
politan-scale monitoring study for the
development and evaluation of air quality
simulation models on the scale of an air
quality control region, while MISTT was
more a study devoted to investigating the
processes influencing pollutant emissions
during their downwind transport. The
experimental design and plans of MISTT
clearly presumed the support of RAPS in
providing data related, in particular, to
the emissions field, to local-scale ground-
level pollutant distributions, and to pre-
vailing meteorology. In this sense, MISTT
and RAPS were complimentary studies.
Two major intensive summer field
studies were carried out in MISTT, in
1975 and in 1976. Participation in these
studies was broad, representing the
government sector (EPA/RTP, EPA/Las
Vegas, and Argonne National Laboratory),
the industrial sector (Battelle Columbus
Laboratories, Environmental Measure-
ments, Inc. (EMI), Meteorology Research
Inc. (MRI), Rockwell International, and
SRI International), and universities (Cali-
fornia Institute of Technology, Florida
State University, University of Minnesota,
Washington State University, and Wash-
ington University (WU)). The range of
measurements was also broad, including
field and laboratory measurements, air-
borne and surface measurements, in-
situ and remote measurements, chemical
and meteorological measurements, gas
and aerosol measurements, meso- and
micro- meteorological measurements.
The heart of MISTT project was the
aircraft measurements program. In 1975,
there was one primary sampling aircraft
(MRI) and one "scout" aircraft (WU); in
1976, there were two primary sampling
aircraft (MRI and WU) and a "scout"
aircraft (EMI). The primary sampling air-
craft measurements included gaseous
parameters (S02, NO/NO,, ozone, hydro-
carbons/halocarbons), aerosol param-
eters (paniculate sulfur, light scattering
coefficient, aerosol charge, condensation
nuclei count, detailed aerosol-size dis-
tribution, and chemical composition),
meteorological parameters (temperature,
humidity, turbulence), and, of course,
navigational parameters (time, altitude,
VOR/DME, air speed, etc.). The desired
goal in aircraft sampling was to perform
three-dimensional plume mapping in a
quasi-Lagrangian framework, involving
detailed cross-sectional characterizations
of a Lagrangian plume parcel at succes-
sive downwind distances. Such sampling
was done to distances ranging up to 300
km, and generally in sufficient detail that
rates and even mechanisms of gas-to-
particle conversion of sulfur could be
estimated with reasonable confidence.
Data Base
One shortcoming of MISTT was that no
plans had been laid out, up front, to
centralize the entire data base, and
archive and document it as such immedi-
ately following the measurements pro-
grams. In general, each organization
collected, processed, validated, and
analyzed its own data. Only the primary
aircraft data and the wind data were
more widely used. The present report is
an attempt to produce a unified, docu-
mented MISTT data base. The result of
this long delayed effort, we believe, is
less than perfect, but more than adequate,
to permit meaningful data analysis of the
essential MISTT data base in the future.
The final data base now exists in two
forms — a General Distribution Data Base
(GDDB) on magnetic tapes, and a less
easily communicable hard copy data base
consisting of reports and other pub-
lications.
The belated preparation of the GDDB
has been accompanied by at least one
redeeming feature. The preparation of
GDDB/MISTT has proceeded more or
less hand-in-hand with the preparation
of similar GDDB's for three other major
EPA-sponsored field measurement pro-
grams, viz. Project STATE-Tennessee
Plume Study (TPS), Project PEPE/NEROS,
and Project CWPS (Joint EPA/EPRI Cold
Weather Plume Study). GDDB/MISTT has
been completely unified in structure and
format with the other GDDB's. All data
files in GDDB/MISTT, and indeed almost
all data files in the other GDDB's have
been cast into one or the other of two file
formats. These formats are the STATE-20
(for time-series type of data) and the
STATE-VS (for data of vertical soundings).
Both of these formats are simple, sequen-
tial, 80-character card image formats
which are designed for ease of use, and
are essentially machine-independent. The
familiar task of producing separate soft-
ware to read each of many files in a large
and varied data base is avoided here.
This report is presented in two parts.
Part I describes the MISTT measurement
programs of 1975, 1976 summers, and
f
re^
Part II gives a thorough documentation
GDDB/MISTT. Part I includes a cle
definition of what measurements wen
made in each year, by whom, on what
platform, using what instrumentation,
and in what form (magtape and/or hard
copy) and detail the data available. To the
extent that the data-collecting organiza-
tions documented the quality assurance
procedures and data quality assessments,
these are either summarized or refer-
enced in this report. The report attempts
to avoid detailed duplication of what is
available elsewhere, but that elsewhere
is defined in this report in a section
listing all major reports and publications
directly related to MISTT which we could
obtain. The main objective of this report
is to famifiarize anyone interested (not
just MISTT participants) with MISTT
activities and data, in sufficient (but not
elaborate) detail, to direct them to specific
parts of the overall data base (GDDB) or
hard copy or original source) which fall in
their particular interest area. As part of
the overall data base. Part III, an unpub-
lished Appendix, provides a mission-by-
mission summary (flight map and outline
flight log) of the activities of each primary
sampling aircraft (MRI in 1975 and 1976,
WU in 1976), as well as a meteorological
summary for each day. Copies of thi
approximately 400-page Appendix
be provided by the Project Officer. In
using these daily mission summaries,
the reader must bear in mind that the
activities of the other platforms were
generally coordinated with the primary
aircraft missions, unless they were con-
ducting independent experiments.
Part II documents the GDDB of MISTT.
It includes the data of the primary sam-
pling aircraft (MRI and WU), the data
reported by EMI (mobile ground lab in
1975 and airborne COSPEC data of the
"scout" in 1976), the mobile pibal data
reported by Rockwell (1975 and 1976),
and the micrometeorological data of ANL
(1975 and 1976). The aircraft and pibal
data are organized by mission. The data
of the two years are separately presented.
The GDDB data files are all in STATE-20
or STATE-VS formats; thorough descrip-
tions of these file formats are included.
Complete file directories are listed for
each magnetic tape in GDDB, and for
each type of file (i.e. representing the
data of a given platform), a sufficient
dump is given to show file header, file
comments, and sample data records. File
headers and comments are selfdocu-
menting. Part II has appendices which.
give information related to the data in thdj
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DDE, but not available anywhere else.
example, the results of the analysis
if MRI aircraft filter samples for par-
ticulate sulfur are not in the data files.
These are fully tabulated, for all missions
and all analyzed samples, in an appendix.
Also, the aircraft position data are in
VOR/DME, but the data files contain no
or insufficient information concerning the
ground VOR station relative to which the
VOR/DME data are referenced. The VOR
station information for all times of all
missions is given in another appendix.
Epilogue
Project MISTT was an outstandingly
successful scientific study, with dividends
and results which in several respects
went beyond expectations. The authors
of this report have used the data base
extensively, but continue to marvel at the
new insights revealed by the data at each
successive use of the data base, when-
ever such use is motivated by specific
questions. We have no doubt at all that
future users will find answers to many
new questions in this data base. We
heartily encourage its use for many more
years to come. In case of problems in the
use of the data base, or questions con-
cerning MISTT data, please feel free to
intact the primary author.
Noor V. Gillani is with the Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130; the EPA
author William E. Wilson is with the Atmospheric Sciences Research
Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711.
Francis Pooler, Jr., is the EPA Project Officer (see below).
The complete report, entitled "Project MISTT: Measurements and Data Base,"
(Order No. PB 87-133 088/AS; Cost: $18.95, subject to change) will be
available only from:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield. VA 22161
Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
Atmospheric Sciences Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Center for Environmental Research
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
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