Houston-UH West Liberty, Texas

HNETDataMaps is a Meteor based framework for handling sensor data input, import into a MongoDB database, and allows for data edits and automatic and manual exports through a web interface.

Instrument Mentors

Jimmy Flynn

University of Houston

Site PI

Houston
Robert Griffin

Roger Williams University/Rice University

Site PI

Houston
Subin Yoon

University of Houston

Research Scientist

Houston
Fangzhou Guo

University of Houston

Postdoc

Houston

Description

The Houston-UH Liberty Sam Houston Library site is approximately 45 km north-northeast of the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel from the Gulf of Mexico and 70 km northeast of downtown Houston. Despite being located in a suburban/rural area, it is identified as an urban site because prevailing southerly winds often transport urban, petrochemical, industrial, and maritime shipping emissions to the site, resulting in reduced visibility and elevated ozone above the NAAQS. The site is operated by the University of Houston and Baylor University. It is part of the Houston Network of Environmental Towers (HNET) that studies ozone formation and ozone and particulate matter transported into the Houston and Dallas-Forth Worth regions and part of the Black Carbon/Brown Carbon (BC)2 Network that studies regional biomass burning influence. In addition to the ASCENT instrumentation, the UH-Liberty site also has a suite of instruments listed in the table below that measure a wide range of pollutants and meteorological variables.
 

Complementary Instrumentation 

ParameterInstrumentSampling FrequencyNetwork*
O3Thermo Scientific 49iContinuousH
NO/NO2/NOxThermo Scientific 42i-TL w/ LED NO2 photocellContinuousH
COThermo Scientific 48i-TLEContinuousH
Trace gas columnsNASA PandoraContinuousD
PM2.5 Thermo Scientific TEOM 1405ContinuousH
PM2.5Thermo Scientific Partisol 2025iDailyH
Aerosol light absorption coefficients (PM2.5)Brechtel tricolor absorption photometer (TAP)Seasonal ContinuousH
Aerosol light scattering coefficients (PM2.5)Three-wavelength Nephelometer, Aurora 3000Seasonal ContinuousH
Aerosol optical depthCimelContinuousO
Aerosol profileMPLContinuousL
Temperature/Relative HumidityVaisala HMP-45cContinuousH
Wind Direction/SpeedRM Young -05305-LContinuousH
Barometric PressureVaisala PTB110ContinuousH
PrecipitationTE 525WS-LContinuousH

*Monitoring Types: H=HNET; D=Pandonia; O=AERONET; L=MPLNet