Global surface ozone metrics for climate, human health, and vegetation research

What is it about?

The paper provides the following: • A description of 25 metrics, which are used for assessing spatial and temporal trends by environmental agencies and researchers around the world (4 for model-measurement comparison, 5 for characterization of ozone in the free troposphere, 11 for human health impacts, and 5 for vegetation impacts). • The scientific rationale for the selection of each of the 25 metrics. • A detailed description of the statistical methods based on stringent scientific principles used in the TOAR program. • A comparison of the trend behavior for each of the ozone impact metrics when using the same surface ozone concentration time series. The paper is available at the Elementa website at: https://www.elementascience.org/article/10.1525/elementa.279/

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Why is it important?

The use of different air quality markers (metrics) for surface ozone calculated from the same time series can result in different trend patterns. This outcome is important to researchers, as well as policymakers and regulators, who use exposure metrics to assess how changes in ozone levels affect human health, vegetation, and climate. The 24 international researchers who worked on the paper anticipate that their effort will provide scientists, regulators, and policymakers with better insight about spatial and temporal variation that relate to climate change, human health, and crop/ecosystem around the world.

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