Courtesy of Barry Lefer

From: Barry Lefer
T1, March 19, 2006

Mexico City Pollution

Today we were down wind of Mexico City, and it was quite polluted. The ozone did not get that high, but perhaps that is because we are only 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) a bit close to the city. We do have a lot of nitric oxide here (NO), both from Mexico City and from the local traffic. While NO is necessary to make ozone, too much NO can suppress ozone. Last night we also received some very high levels of SO2 from the Popocatepetl volcano near Mexico City. We think this SO2 was from the volcano because the winds were coming from that direction and because all the other pollutants were low.

Take care. Barry

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