Evaluation of Variations in Ground-Level Ozone (O3) Concentrations

This article presents the results of measuring the concentrations of ground-level ozone (O₃) in ambient air and meteorological parameters (atmospheric pressure, temperature, wind speed, and relative humidity during the year 2008. The measurements were performed at measuring station located near Campo Grande, away from local sources of O₃. Fourier analysis, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) were used as tools for mathematical analysis of the indicated occurrence. The results of Fourier analysis indicate that not only the daily cycles but also the weekly and monthly cycles are visible in all periods as well as the 12-h cycles. The statistical analysis of the obtained data, based on PCA have shown that approximately 60% of the variance in the measured values can be described with two factors. The attempt of O₃ distribution modeling, using MLRA, resulted in a linear model whose coefficient of determination was equal to R² = 0.98. The results of the study indicate that all these methods are useful for understanding the impact of meteorological parameters on variations of ozone concentration over time.