ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD 1680-7375 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acpd-9-16563-2009 Hit from both sides: tracking industrial and volcanic plumes in Mexico City with surface measurements and OMI SO<sub>2</sub> retrievals during the MILAGRO field campaign de Foy B. 1 Bei N. 2 3 Herndon S. C. 4 Huey L. G. 5 Martínez A.-P. 6 Ruiz-Suárez L. G. 7 Wood E. C. 4 Zavala M. 2 3 Molina L. T. 2 3 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, USA Molina Center for Energy and the Environment, La Jolla, CA, USA Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA Aerodyne Research Inc., Billerica, MA, USA Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA General Direction of the National Center for Environmental Research and Training (CENICA), National Institute of Ecology (INE), Mexico Centro de Ciencias de la Atmósfera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico 06 08 2009 9 4 16563 16605 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/16563/2009/acpd-9-16563-2009.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/16563/2009/acpd-9-16563-2009.pdf

Large sulfur dioxide plumes were measured in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) during the MILAGRO field campaign. This paper seeks to identify the sources of these plumes and the meteorological processes that affect their dispersion in a complex mountain basin. Surface measurements of SO<sub>2</sub> and winds are analysed in combination with radar wind profiler data to identify transport directions. Satellite retrievals of vertical SO<sub>2</sub> columns from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) reveal the dispersion from both the Tula industrial complex and the Popocatepetl volcano. Numerical simulations are used to identify possible transport scenarios. The analysis suggests that both Tula and Popocatepetl contribute to SO<sub>2</sub> levels in the MCMA, sometimes on the same day due to strong vertical wind shear. The evaluation of simulations with known sources and pollutants suggests that the combination of observations and meteorological models will be useful in identifying sources and transport processes of other plumes observed during MILAGRO.

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