Because of the high spatial correlation among seasonal components, spatial analyses can be used to determine the spatial representativeness of monitors. Hence, it is difficult to precisely determine the spatial extent of the ozone cloud along the direction normal to transport. Successful ozone control strategies will be consistent with the time and space scales found in ozone data, that is, seasonal in time and regional in space. The current concepts of non-attainment and attainment areas are inconsistent with the actual spatial and temporal scales of ozone in the Eastern United States. Seasonal components of ozone are highly correlated with seasonal components of temperature at nearly all stations.
Seasonal ozone is slightly out of phase with seasonal temperature.
Other meteorological variables, when available, may replace or supplement temperature as an explanatory variable. An example of the relationship between seasonal ozone and the seasonal components of solar radiation and rainfall is presented for a site in Florida. Short-term components are negatively skewed and serially correlated. Gaussian white noise plus the baseline component accurately reproduces the annual median ozone concentration and number of exceedances for nearly all stations. For a majority of stations, gaussian white noise also leads to accurate simulation of the 95th percentile of ozone concentrations.