Photochemical Degradation of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

Figure 1: The Chicago skyline from North Avenue Beach, May 1996. 
Photo courtesy of: Michael Y. Chiang

Large urban and industrial areas, such as Chicago, have the potential to be large sources of POPs to Lake Michigan.  However, the degree of influence is dependent on meteorological conditions such as temperature, winds speed, wind direction, and sunlight.  Shown here, in Figure 1 and Figure 2, are the different weather conditions experienced near the shore around Chicago to begin the thought process about intricately related environmental processes.

Figure 2: The Chicago skyline from Navy Pier, January 1998. 
Photo taken by: Sondra M. Miller