Complex network analysis of ozone transport

Abstract

Ozone transport has an important effect on the local ozone concentrations. In this paper, we model the California State and the Eastern States of America ozone transport as complex networks to understand large-scale dynamics. California has a complex ozone transport due to geomorphology and is divided into 15 air basins to manage air pollution. Unlike California, the ozone transport in the Eastern States of America is mainly affected by wind speed and direction. Through different centralities, we can identify nodes that have higher ozone output, higher ozone income, and the maximum ozone throughput. In general, both networks exhibit similar properties. However, even though Californian network has higher average degree it has smaller clustering than the Eastern State network. Moreover, while Californian counties can be divided into four communities, the Eastern States remain as a single community. Both of these points to the fact that ozone transport within Eastern States is more uniform than between the counties of California. © 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.