Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 8 24 2008 10.5194/acp-8-7571-2008 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/7571/2008/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/7571/2008/acp-8-7571-2008.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/7571/2008/acp-8-7571-2008.pdf 7571 7581 2008-12-17 Characterizing ozone production and response under different meteorological conditions in Mexico City W. Lei M. Zavala B. de Foy R. Volkamer L. T. Molina ltmolina@mit.edu Molina Center for Energy and the Environment, CA, USA Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Saint Louis University, MO, USA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder, CO, USA Photochemistry in polluted atmospheres, particularly the formation of ozone (O₃), depends not only on pollutant emissions, but also on meteorological conditions. In this study a 3-D chemical transport model CAMx was employed to investigate the O₃ formation and its response to emissions reduction under three distinctively different meteorological conditions in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area during the MCMA-2003 field measurement campaign. The O₃ formation characteristics and sensitivity to emissions change were found to be weakly dependent on the meteorological conditions. The evolution of O₃ formation and its sensitivity to NO_x and VOC levels were also examined along the photochemical plume transport pathway. The midday O₃ production was found to undergo a rapid increase in a narrow range of chemical aging, while downwind plumes were characterized with low and constant O₃ production, and plumes along their transport pathway were characterized by a combination of the two. 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