Extreme heat and poor air quality are significant and growing health burdens. These burden is particularly acute in poor and minority urban communities, where the heat and air pollution tend to be enhanced and vulnerability is high.  We are working on a range of projects to quantify the heat and air quality variability, understanding the causes, to develop equitable solutions, and to assess the impact of proposed policy decisions.  

Current activities in this area are part of the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC). This includes the deployment of weather stations across Baltimore to measure intra-urban variation in heat and weather.

Air Quality

• Zhang, X, DW Waugh, GH Kerr, SM Miller, Surface Ozone‐Temperature Relationship: The Meridional Gradient Ratio Approximation, Geophysical Research Letters 49 (13), e2022GL098680, 2022
• Kerr GH, DW Waugh, S Miller, Jet Stream-surface tracer relationships: Mechanism and sensitivity to source region, Geophys. Res. Lett., January, 2021
• Kerr GH, DW Waugh, SA Strode, SD Steenrod, and SE Strahan, Surface ozone-meteorology relationships: Spatial variations and the role of the jet stream, JGR Atmosphere, October 2020
• Kerr GH, DW Waugh, SA Strode, SD Steenrod, LD Oman, and SE Strahan, 2019, Disentangling the Drivers of the Ozone-Temperature Relationship over the United States, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030572
• Gaige, K, and D.W. Waugh, 2018, Connections between Summer Air Pollution and Stagnation, Environ. Res. Lett., 13 (8), 084001.
• Saunders, R.O, and D. W. Waugh, 2015, Variability of summer PM2.5 in the Northeastern United States and tracing of potential sources using MERRAero reanalysis , Atmos. Env., 117, 259-270.

Urban Heat

• Waugh,D.W, He, B. Zaitchik, R. D. Peng, G.B. Diette, N.N. Hansel, E.C. Matsui, P.N. Breysse, D.H. Breysse, K. Koehler, D. Williams, M.C. McCormack Indoor heat exposure in Baltimore: Does outdoor temperature matter?  International Journal of Biometeorology, 65, 479–488 (2021).
• Scott, AA, DW Waugh, BF Zaitchik, 2018, Reduced Urban Heat Island intensity under warmer conditions, Environmental Research Letters 13 (6).
• Scott, A. A., Zaitchik, B., Waugh, D., & O’Meara, K. (2017). Intra-urban temperature variability in Baltimore. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 56, 159-171. doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-16-0232.1
• Zaitchik BF, K O’Meara, K Baja, MC McCormack, AA Scott and DW Waugh (2016) B’more Cool: Monitoring the Urban Heat Island at High Density for Health and Urban Design. Earthzine.