/ SmogCity

VOCABULARY

Cars and Trucks – includes passenger vehicles (all sizes), large and medium trucks, and motorcycles.

Consumer Products – category includes products that introduce VOCs into the atmosphere, including hair spray, oil-based paints, paint thinner, charcoal lighter fluid, glue or other adhesives, and gasoline.

Industry – category includes manufacturing facilities, power plants, oil refineries, storage distribution centers, food and agricultural processing facilities.

Inversion Layer - an inversion is an extremely stable layer of the atmosphere, which does not allow for upward air motion. Inversions often act like a cap on the atmosphere.

Maximum Daily Temperature - the highest degree temperature recorded on a given day. At the end of the month, the daily maximum temperatures are averaged to obtain the Average Maximum Temperature for the month.

Nitrogen Dioxide– Nitrogen oxides, or NOx, sources include: automobiles, trucks and buses, and off-road engines such as aircraft, locomotives, construction equipment, gasoline-powered lawn and garden equipment. Other sources include chemical manufacturers, and combustion sources such as power plants burning fossil fuels.

Off Road Vehicles – includes airplanes, trains, power boats, earth movers, tractors, harvesters, forklifts, bulldozers, and backhoes.

Ozone – or O3 is a gas composed of three oxygen atoms. "Good"ozone occurs naturally in the stratosphere approximately 10 to 30 milesabove the earth's surface and forms a layer that protects life on earth from the sun's harmful rays. In the earth's lower atmosphere, ground level ozone isconsidered "bad." At ground level, ozone is an air pollutant that damages human health, vegetation, many common materials, and is a key ingredient of smog.

VOCs – volatile organic compounds, sources include: household products such as paints, paint strippers, and other solvents, wood preservatives, aerosol sprays, cleansers and disinfectants, moth repellents and air fresheners, stored fuels and automotive products, hobby supplies and dry-cleaned clothing. Other sources outside the home include gasoline stations, auto body paint shops, and print shops. In addition to all the man made sources of VOCs, natural sources of VOCs exist. For example, trees naturally release small amounts of VOCs.

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