Sample records for air quality cmaq

  1. COMPUTATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE AIR QUALITY FORECASTING VERSION OF CMAQ (CMAQ-F)

    EPA Science Inventory

    The air quality forecast version of the Community Modeling Air Quality (CMAQ) model (CMAQ-F) was developed from the public release version of CMAQ (available from http://www.cmascenter.org), and is running operationally at the National Weather Service's National Centers for Envir...

  2. Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System (CMAQ)

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    CMAQ is a computational tool used for air quality management. It models air pollutants including ozone, particulate matter and other air toxics to help determine optimum air quality management scenarios.

  3. COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY ( CMAQ ) MODEL - QUALITY ASSURANCE AND VERSION CONTROL

    EPA Science Inventory

    This presentation will be given to the EPA Exposure Modeling Workgroup on January 24, 2006. The quality assurance and version control procedures for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model are presented. A brief background of CMAQ is given, then issues related to qual...

  4. Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. The Computational Exposure Division (CED) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops the CMAQ model and periodically releases new versions of the model that include bug fixes and various other improvements to the modeling system. In the fall of 2016, CMAQ version 5.1.1 will be released. This new version of CMAQ will contain important bug fixes to several issues that were identified in CMAQv5.1 (the current public release version of the CMAQ model), and additionally include updates to other portions of the code. Some specific model updates include a new implementation of the wind-blown dust calculation in CMAQv5.1.1 which fixes several bugs that were identified in the current implementation of wind-blown dust in CMAQv5.1. Several other major updates to the model include an update to the calculation of aerosols; implementation of full halogen chemistry (CMAQv5.1 contains a partial implementation of halogen chemistry), which is particularly important for hemispheric applications of the CMAQ model, as halogen chemistry is need to accurately simulation the destruction of ozone over the ocean; and the new carbon bond 6 (CB6) chemical mechanism. Several annual, and numerous episodic, CMAQv5.1.1 simulations will be performed to assess the impact of these

  5. Evaluation of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. The Computational Exposure Division (CED) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops the CMAQ model and periodically releases new versions of the model that include bug fixes and various other improvements to the modeling system. In the fall of 2015, CMAQ version 5.1 was released. This new version of CMAQ will contain important bug fixes to several issues that were identified in CMAQv5.0.2 and additionally include updates to other portions of the code. Several annual, and numerous episodic, CMAQv5.1 simulations were performed to assess the impact of these improvements on the model results. These results will be presented, along with a base evaluation of the performance of the CMAQv5.1 modeling system against available surface and upper-air measurements available during the time period simulated. The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Computational Exposure Division (CED) develops and evaluates data, decision-support tools, and models to be applied to media-specific or receptor-specific problem areas. CED uses modeling-based approaches to characterize exposures, evaluate fate and transport, and support environmental diagnostics/forensics with input from multiple data sources. It also develops media- and receptor-specific models, proces

  6. PREMAQ: A NEW PRE-PROCESSOR TO CMAQ FOR AIR-QUALITY FORECASTING

    EPA Science Inventory

    A new pre-processor to CMAQ (PREMAQ) has been developed as part of the national air-quality forecasting system. PREMAQ combines the functionality of MCIP and parts of SMOKE in a single real-time processor. PREMAQ was specifically designed to link NCEP's Eta model with CMAQ, and...

  7. APPLICATION AND EVALUATION OF CMAQ IN THE UNITED STATES: AIR QUALITY FORECASTING AND RETROSPECTIVE MODELING

    EPA Science Inventory

    Presentation slides provide background on model evaluation techniques. Also included in the presentation is an operational evaluation of 2001 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) annual simulation, and an evaluation of PM2.5 for the CMAQ air quality forecast (AQF) ...

  8. Description and evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system version 5.1

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a comprehensive multipollutant air quality modeling system developed and maintained by the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD). Recently, version 5.1 of the CMAQ model (v5.1) was ...

  9. Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model Version 5.2

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. The Computational Exposure Division (CED) of the U.S. Environmental Pr...

  10. Evaluation of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model Version 5.1

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. The Computational Exposure Division (CED) of the U.S. Environmental Pr...

  11. Evaluation of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model Version 5.2

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. The Computational Exposure Division (CED) of the U.S. Environmental Pr...

  12. APPLICATION OF BIAS AND ADJUSTMENT TECHNIQUES TO THE ETA-CMAQ AIR QUALITY FORECAST

    EPA Science Inventory

    The current air quality forecast system, based on linking NOAA's Eta meteorological model with EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, consistently overpredicts surface ozone concentrations, but simulates its day-to-day variability quite well. The ability of bias cor...

  13. EPA RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS -- MODELS-3/CMAQ OFFERS COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO AIR QUALITY MODELING

    EPA Science Inventory

    Regional and global coordinated efforts are needed to address air quality problems that are growing in complexity and scope. Models-3 CMAQ contains a community multi-scale air quality modeling system for simulating urban to regional scale pollution problems relating to troposphe...

  14. Implementation of a WRF-CMAQ Air Quality Modeling System in Bogotá, Colombia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nedbor-Gross, R.; Henderson, B. H.; Pachon, J. E.; Davis, J. R.; Baublitz, C. B.; Rincón, A.

    2014-12-01

    Due to a continuous economic growth Bogotá, Colombia has experienced air pollution issues in recent years. The local environmental authority has implemented several strategies to curb air pollution that have resulted in the decrease of PM10 concentrations since 2010. However, more activities are necessary in order to meet international air quality standards in the city. The University of Florida Air Quality and Climate group is collaborating with the Universidad de La Salle to prioritize regulatory strategies for Bogotá using air pollution simulations. To simulate pollution, we developed a modeling platform that combines the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF), local emissions, and the Community Multi-scale Air Quality model (CMAQ). This platform is the first of its kind to be implemented in the megacity of Bogota, Colombia. The presentation will discuss development and evaluation of the air quality modeling system, highlight initial results characterizing photochemical conditions in Bogotá, and characterize air pollution under proposed regulatory strategies. The WRF model has been configured and applied to Bogotá, which resides in a tropical climate with complex mountainous topography. Developing the configuration included incorporation of local topography and land-use data, a physics sensitivity analysis, review, and systematic evaluation. The threshold, however, was set based on synthesis of model performance under less mountainous conditions. We will evaluate the impact that differences in autocorrelation contribute to the non-ideal performance. Air pollution predictions are currently under way. CMAQ has been configured with WRF meteorology, global boundary conditions from GEOS-Chem, and a locally produced emission inventory. Preliminary results from simulations show promising performance of CMAQ in Bogota. Anticipated results include a systematic performance evaluation of ozone and PM10, characterization of photochemical sensitivity, and air

  15. Recent Enhancements to the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System (CMAQ)

    EPA Science Inventory

    EPA’s Office of Research and Development, Computational Exposure Division held a webinar on January 31, 2017 to present the recent scientific and computational updates made by EPA to the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality Model (CMAQ). Topics covered included: (1) Improveme...

  16. Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This work evaluates particle size-composition distributions simulated by the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model using Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor (MOUDI) measurements at 18 sites across North America. Size-resolved measurements of particulate SO4+, with the model ranging from an underestimation to overestimation of both the peak diameter and peak particle concentration across the sites. Computing PM2.5 from the modeled size distribution parameters rather than by summing the masses in the Aitken and a

  17. APPLICATION OF THE MODELS-3 COMMUNITY MULTI-SCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODEL SYSTEM TO SOS/NASHVILLE 1999

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Models-3 Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, first released by the USEPA in 1999 (Byun and Ching. 1999), continues to be developed and evaluated. The principal components of the CMAQ system include a comprehensive emission processor known as the Sparse Matrix O...

  18. CMAQ and NPS : exploring the applicability of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program to NPS transit

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2014-03-06

    The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program is a funding program that was most recently : re-authorized in Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century. CMAQ offers a potential funding opportunity for NPS park units : with e...

  19. Updating sea spray aerosol emissions in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model

    EPA Science Inventory

    Sea spray aerosols (SSA) impact the particle mass concentration and gas-particle partitioning in coastal environments, with implications for human and ecosystem health. In this study, the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is updated to enhance fine mode SSA emissions,...

  20. MODELS-3 COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODEL AEROSOL COMPONENT 1: MODEL DESCRIPTION

    EPA Science Inventory

    The aerosol component of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is designed to be an efficient and economical depiction of aerosol dynamics in the atmosphere. The approach taken represents the particle size distribution as the superposition of three lognormal subdis...

  1. Implementation of marine halogen chemistry into the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gantt, B.; Sarwar, G.

    2017-12-01

    In two recent studies (Sarwar et al, 2015 and Gantt et al., 2017), the impact of marine halogen (bromine and iodine) chemistry on air quality has been evaluated using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. We found that marine halogen chemistry not only has the expected effect of reducing marine boundary layer ozone concentrations, but also reduces ozone in the free troposphere and inland from the coast. In Sarwar et al. (2015), the impact of the halogen chemistry without and with photochemical reactions of higher iodine oxides over the Northern Hemisphere was examined using the coarse horizontal grids of a hemispheric domain. Halogen chemistry without and with the photochemical reactions of higher iodine oxides reduces ozone over seawater by 15% and 48%, respectively. Using the results of the chemistry without the photochemical reactions of higher iodine oxides, we developed a simple first order ozone loss rate and implemented it into the public version of CMAQv52. In Gantt et al. (2017), the impact of the simple first order loss rate as well as the full halogen chemistry without photochemical reactions of higher iodine oxides over the continental United States was examined using finer horizontal grids of the regional domain and boundary conditions from the hemispheric domain with and without marine halogen chemistry. The boundary conditions obtained with the halogen chemistry as well as the simple halogen chemistry reduces ozone along the coast where CMAQ typically overpredicts the concentrations. Development of halogen chemistry in CMAQ has continued with the implementation of several heterogeneous reactions of bromine and iodine species, revised reactions of higher iodine oxides, and a refined marine halogen emissions inventory. Our latest version of halogen chemistry with photochemical reactions of higher iodine oxides reduces ozone by 23% over the seawater. This presentation will discuss the previous and ongoing implementation of revised halogen

  2. Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program: Cost-Effectiveness Tables Development and Methodology

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2015-05-01

    This document presents summary and detailed findings from a research effort to develop estimates of the cost-effectiveness of a range of project types funded under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program. In this study, c...

  3. Examination of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model Performance over the North American and European Domains

    EPA Science Inventory

    The CMAQ modeling system has been used to simulate the air quality for North America and Europe for the entire year of 2006 as part of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII) and the operational model performance of O3, fine particulate matte...

  4. Incremental Testing of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System Version 4.7

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper describes the scientific and structural updates to the latest release of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system version 4.7 (v4.7) and points the reader to additional resources for further details. The model updates were evaluated relative to obse...

  5. The air quality forecast in Beijing with Community Multi-scale Air Quality Modeling (CMAQ) System: model evaluation and improvement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Q.

    2013-12-01

    The MM5-SMOKE-CMAQ model system, which is developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency(U.S. EPA) as the Models-3 system, has been used for the daily air quality forecast in the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center(Beijing MEMC), as a part of the Ensemble Air Quality Forecast System for Beijing(EMS-Beijing) since the Olympic Games year 2008. In this study, we collect the daily forecast results of the CMAQ model in the whole year 2010 for the model evaluation. The results show that the model play a good model performance in most days but underestimate obviously in some air pollution episode. A typical air pollution episode from 11st - 20th January 2010 was chosen, which the air pollution index(API) of particulate matter (PM10) observed by Beijing MEMC reaches to 180 while the prediction of PM10-API is about 100. Taking in account all stations in Beijing, including urban and suburban stations, three numerical methods are used for model improvement: firstly, enhance the inner domain with 4km grids, the coverage from only Beijing to the area including its surrounding cities; secondly, update the Beijing stationary area emission inventory, from statistical county-level to village-town level, that would provide more detail spatial informance for area emissions; thirdly, add some industrial points emission in Beijing's surrounding cities, the latter two are both the improvement of emission. As the result, the peak of the nine national standard stations averaged PM10-API, which is simulated by CMAQ as daily hindcast PM10-API, reach to 160 and much near to the observation. The new results show better model performance, which the correlation coefficent is 0.93 in national standard stations average and 0.84 in all stations, the relative error is 15.7% in national standard stations averaged and 27% in all stations. The time series of 9 national standard in Beijing urban The scatter diagram of all stations in Beijing, the red is the forecast and

  6. Recent Enhancements to the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ)

    EPA Science Inventory

    This presentation overviews recent updates to the CMAQ modeling system. The presentation will be given as part of the information exchange session on Regional Air Pollution Modeling at the UK-US Collaboration Meeting on Air Pollution Exposure Science.

  7. USING CMAQ-AIM TO EVALUATE THE GAS-PARTICLE PARTITIONING TREATMENT IN CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multi-scale Air Quality model (CMAQ) aerosol component utilizes a modal representation, where the size distribution is represented as a sum of three lognormal modes. Though the aerosol treatment in CMAQ is quite advanced compared to other operational air quality mo...

  8. Extending the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System to Hemispheric Scales: Overview of Process Considerations and Initial Applications

    PubMed Central

    Mathur, Rohit; Xing, Jia; Gilliam, Robert; Sarwar, Golam; Hogrefe, Christian; Pleim, Jonathan; Pouliot, George; Roselle, Shawn; Spero, Tanya L.; Wong, David C.; Young, Jeffrey

    2018-01-01

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system is extended to simulate ozone, particulate matter, and related precursor distributions throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Modelled processes were examined and enhanced to suitably represent the extended space and time scales for such applications. Hemispheric scale simulations with CMAQ and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model are performed for multiple years. Model capabilities for a range of applications including episodic long-range pollutant transport, long-term trends in air pollution across the Northern Hemisphere, and air pollution-climate interactions are evaluated through detailed comparison with available surface, aloft, and remotely sensed observations. The expansion of CMAQ to simulate the hemispheric scales provides a framework to examine interactions between atmospheric processes occurring at various spatial and temporal scales with physical, chemical, and dynamical consistency. PMID:29681922

  9. A Multi-Resolution Assessment of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model v4.7 Wet Deposition Estimates for 2002 - 2006

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper examines the operational performance of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model simulations for 2002 - 2006 using both 36-km and 12-km horizontal grid spacing, with a primary focus on the performance of the CMAQ model in predicting wet deposition of sulfate (...

  10. A PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF THE ETA- CMAQ AIR QUALITY FORECAST SYSTEM FOR THE SUMMER OF 2005

    EPA Science Inventory

    This poster presents an evaluation of the Eta-CMAQ Air Quality Forecast System's experimental domain using O3 observations obtained from EPA's AIRNOW program and a suite of statistical metrics examining both discrete and categorical forecasts.

  11. Overview and Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System Version 5.2

    EPA Science Inventory

    A new version of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, version 5.2 (CMAQv5.2), is currently being developed, with a planned release date in 2017. The new model includes numerous updates from the previous version of the model (CMAQv5.1). Specific updates include a new...

  12. Evaluation of CMAQ and CAMx Ensemble Air Quality Forecasts during the 2015 MAPS-Seoul Field Campaign

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, E.; Kim, S.; Bae, C.; Kim, H. C.; Kim, B. U.

    2015-12-01

    The performance of Air quality forecasts during the 2015 MAPS-Seoul Field Campaign was evaluated. An forecast system has been operated to support the campaign's daily aircraft route decisions for airborne measurements to observe long-range transporting plume. We utilized two real-time ensemble systems based on the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE)-Comprehensive Air quality Model with extensions (CAMx) modeling framework and WRF-SMOKE- Community Multi_scale Air Quality (CMAQ) framework over northeastern Asia to simulate PM10 concentrations. Global Forecast System (GFS) from National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) was used to provide meteorological inputs for the forecasts. For an additional set of retrospective simulations, ERA Interim Reanalysis from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) was also utilized to access forecast uncertainties from the meteorological data used. Model Inter-Comparison Study for Asia (MICS-Asia) and National Institute of Environment Research (NIER) Clean Air Policy Support System (CAPSS) emission inventories are used for foreign and domestic emissions, respectively. In the study, we evaluate the CMAQ and CAMx model performance during the campaign by comparing the results to the airborne and surface measurements. Contributions of foreign and domestic emissions are estimated using a brute force method. Analyses on model performance and emissions will be utilized to improve air quality forecasts for the upcoming KORUS-AQ field campaign planned in 2016.

  13. ONE-ATMOSPHERE DYNAMICS DESCRIPTION IN THE MODELS-3 COMMUNITY MULTI-SCALE QUALITY (CMAQ) MODELING SYSTEM

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper proposes a general procedure to link meteorological data with air quality models, such as U.S. EPA's Models-3 Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. CMAQ is intended to be used for studying multi-scale (urban and regional) and multi-pollutant (ozon...

  14. REVIEW OF THE GOVERNING EQUATIONS, COMPUTATIONAL ALGORITHMS, AND OTHER COMPONENTS OF THE MODELS-3 COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODELING SYSTEM

    EPA Science Inventory

    This article describes the governing equations, computational algorithms, and other components entering into the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. This system has been designed to approach air quality as a whole by including state-of-the-science capabiliti...

  15. Updating sea spray aerosol emissions in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 5.0.2

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The uploaded data consists of the BRACE Na aerosol observations paired with CMAQ model output, the updated model's parameterization of sea salt aerosol emission size distribution, and the model's parameterization of the sea salt emission factor as a function of sea surface temperature. This dataset is associated with the following publication:Gantt , B., J. Kelly , and J. Bash. Updating sea spray aerosol emissions in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 5.0.2. Geoscientific Model Development. Copernicus Publications, Katlenburg-Lindau, GERMANY, 8: 3733-3746, (2015).

  16. CMAQ MODELING FOR AIR TOXICS AT FINE SCALES: A PROTOTYPE STUDY

    EPA Science Inventory

    Toxic air pollutants (TAPs) or hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) exhibit considerable spatial and temporal variability across urban areas. Therefore, the ability of chemical transport models (CTMs), e.g. Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ), to reproduce the spatial and tempor...

  17. CMAQ Emissions Calculator Toolkit

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2017-10-27

    CMAQ: A Quick Overview - Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program - Established in 1991 under ISTEA (23 U.S.C. Section 149) The CMAQ program is established for transportation projects that contribute to the attainment or maint...

  18. Cloud processing of gases and aerosols in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model: Impacts of extended chemistry

    EPA Science Inventory

    Clouds and fogs can significantly impact the concentration and distribution of atmospheric gases and aerosols through chemistry, scavenging, and transport. This presentation summarizes the representation of cloud processes in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling ...

  19. A framework for expanding aqueous chemistry in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 5.1

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper describes the development and implementation of an extendable aqueous-phase chemistry option (AQCHEM − KMT(I)) for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system, version 5.1. Here, the Kinetic PreProcessor (KPP), version 2.2.3, is used t...

  20. Modeling natural emissions in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model-I: building an emissions data base

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, S. N.; Mueller, S. F.

    2010-05-01

    A natural emissions inventory for the continental United States and surrounding territories is needed in order to use the US Environmental Protection Agency Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model for simulating natural air quality. The CMAQ air modeling system (including the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) emissions processing system) currently estimates non-methane volatile organic compound (NMVOC) emissions from biogenic sources, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from soils, ammonia from animals, several types of particulate and reactive gas emissions from fires, as well as sea salt emissions. However, there are several emission categories that are not commonly treated by the standard CMAQ Model system. Most notable among these are nitrogen oxide emissions from lightning, reduced sulfur emissions from oceans, geothermal features and other continental sources, windblown dust particulate, and reactive chlorine gas emissions linked with sea salt chloride. A review of past emissions modeling work and existing global emissions data bases provides information and data necessary for preparing a more complete natural emissions data base for CMAQ applications. A model-ready natural emissions data base is developed to complement the anthropogenic emissions inventory used by the VISTAS Regional Planning Organization in its work analyzing regional haze based on the year 2002. This new data base covers a modeling domain that includes the continental United States plus large portions of Canada, Mexico and surrounding oceans. Comparing July 2002 source data reveals that natural emissions account for 16% of total gaseous sulfur (sulfur dioxide, dimethylsulfide and hydrogen sulfide), 44% of total NOx, 80% of reactive carbonaceous gases (NMVOCs and carbon monoxide), 28% of ammonia, 96% of total chlorine (hydrochloric acid, nitryl chloride and sea salt chloride), and 84% of fine particles (i.e., those smaller than 2.5 μm in size) released into the atmosphere

  1. A framework for expanding aqueous chemistry in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 5.1

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper describes the development and implementation of an extendable aqueous-phase chemistry option (AQCHEM − KMT(I)) for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system, version 5.1. Here, the Kinetic PreProcessor (KPP), version 2.2.3, is used to generate a Rosen...

  2. Extending the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System to Hemispheric Scales: Overview of Process Considerations and Initial Applications

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system is extended to simulate ozone, particulate matter, and related precursor distributions throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Modeled processes were examined and enhanced to suitably represent the extended space and timesca...

  3. Modeling natural emissions in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model - Part 1: Building an emissions data base

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, S. N.; Mueller, S. F.

    2010-01-01

    A natural emissions inventory for the continental United States and surrounding territories is needed in order to use the US Environmental Protection Agency Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model for simulating natural air quality. The CMAQ air modeling system (including the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) emissions processing system) currently estimates volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from biogenic sources, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from soils, ammonia from animals, several types of particulate and reactive gas emissions from fires, as well as windblown dust and sea salt emissions. However, there are several emission categories that are not commonly treated by the standard CMAQ Model system. Most notable among these are nitrogen oxide emissions from lightning, reduced sulfur emissions from oceans, geothermal features and other continental sources, and reactive chlorine gas emissions linked with sea salt chloride. A review of past emissions modeling work and existing global emissions data bases provides information and data necessary for preparing a more complete natural emissions data base for CMAQ applications. A model-ready natural emissions data base is developed to complement the anthropogenic emissions inventory used by the VISTAS Regional Planning Organization in its work analyzing regional haze based on the year 2002. This new data base covers a modeling domain that includes the continental United States plus large portions of Canada, Mexico and surrounding oceans. Comparing July 2002 source data reveals that natural emissions account for 16% of total gaseous sulfur (sulfur dioxide, dimethylsulfide and hydrogen sulfide), 44% of total NOx, 80% of reactive carbonaceous gases (VOCs and carbon monoxide), 28% of ammonia, 96% of total chlorine (hydrochloric acid, nitryl chloride and sea salt chloride), and 84% of fine particles (i.e., those smaller than 2.5 μm in size) released into the atmosphere. The seasonality and

  4. APPLICATION OF FINE SCALE AIR TOXICS MODELING WITH CMAQ TO HAPEM5

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper provides a preliminary demonstration of the EPA neighborhood scale modeling paradigm for air toxics by linking concentration from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system to the fifth version of the Hazardous Pollutant Exposure Model (HAPEM5). For t...

  5. Sensitivity of air quality simulation to smoke plume rise

    Treesearch

    Yongqiang Liu; Gary Achtemeier; Scott Goodrick

    2008-01-01

    Plume rise is the height smoke plumes can reach. This information is needed by air quality models such as the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to simulate physical and chemical processes of point-source fire emissions. This study seeks to understand the importance of plume rise to CMAQ air quality simulation of prescribed burning to plume rise. CMAQ...

  6. Performance Summary of the 2006 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Simulation for the AQMEII Project: North American Application

    EPA Science Inventory

    The CMAQ modeling system has been used to simulate the CONUS using 12-km by 12-km horizontal grid spacing for the entire year of 2006 as part of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International initiative (AQMEII). The operational model performance for O3 and PM2.5<...

  7. FIRST RESULTS FROM OPERATIONAL TESTING OF THE U.S. EPA MODELS-3 COMMUNITY MULTISCALE MODEL FOR AIR QUALITY (CMAQ)

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Models 3 / Community Multiscale Model for Air Quality (CMAQ) has been designed for one-atmosphere assessments for multiple pollutants including ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5), and acid / nutrient deposition. In this paper we report initial results of our evalu...

  8. The congestion mitigation and air quality improvement (CMAQ) program : a summary of fifth year activities (FY 1996 : October 1995-September 1996)

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1998-02-01

    This report is the fifth annual national review of activities funded under the : Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program, covering : fiscal year (FY) 1996. It covers the distribution of funding among project : categories, an ...

  9. Analysis of air quality with numerical simulation (CMAQ), and observations of trace gases

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Castellanos, Patricia

    Ozone, a secondary pollutant, is a strong oxidant that can pose a risk to human health. It is formed from a complex set of photochemical reactions involving nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Ambient measurements and air quality modeling of ozone and its precursors are important tools for support of regulatory decisions, and analyzing atmospheric chemical and physical processes. I worked on three methods to improve our understanding of photochemical ozone production in the Eastern U.S.: a new detector for NO2, a numerical experiment to test the sensitivity to the timing to emissions, and comparison of modeled and observed vertical profiles of CO and ozone. A small, commercially available cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) NO2 detector suitable for surface and aircraft monitoring was modified and characterized. The CRDS detector was run in parallel to an ozone chemiluminescence device with photolytic conversion of NO2 to NO. The two instruments measured ambient air in suburban Maryland. A linear least-squares fit to a direct comparison of the data resulted in a slope of 0.960+/-0.002 and R of 0.995, showing agreement between two measurement techniques within experimental uncertainty. The sensitivity of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to the temporal variation of four emissions sectors was investigated to understand the effect of emissions' daily variability on modeled ozone. Decreasing the variability of mobile source emissions changed the 8-hour maximum ozone concentration by +/-7 parts per billion by volume (ppbv). Increasing the variability of point source emissions affected ozone concentrations by +/-6 ppbv, but only in areas close to the source. CO is an ideal tracer for analyzing pollutant transport in AQMs because the atmospheric lifetime is longer than the timescale of boundary layer mixing. CO can be used as a tracer if model performance of CO is well understood. An evaluation of CO model performance in CMAQ was

  10. CMAQ's Support of EPA's Mission

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    At Federal, State, and Local agencies, CMAQ is often used when developing regulatory policies because it represents the state-of-the-science in air quality modeling. See how CMAQ supports the EPA mission of protecting human health and the environment.

  11. A framework for expanding aqueous chemistry in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 5.1

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fahey, Kathleen M.; Carlton, Annmarie G.; Pye, Havala O. T.; Baek, Jaemeen; Hutzell, William T.; Stanier, Charles O.; Baker, Kirk R.; Wyat Appel, K.; Jaoui, Mohammed; Offenberg, John H.

    2017-04-01

    This paper describes the development and implementation of an extendable aqueous-phase chemistry option (AQCHEM - KMT(I)) for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system, version 5.1. Here, the Kinetic PreProcessor (KPP), version 2.2.3, is used to generate a Rosenbrock solver (Rodas3) to integrate the stiff system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) that describe the mass transfer, chemical kinetics, and scavenging processes of CMAQ clouds. CMAQ's standard cloud chemistry module (AQCHEM) is structurally limited to the treatment of a simple chemical mechanism. This work advances our ability to test and implement more sophisticated aqueous chemical mechanisms in CMAQ and further investigate the impacts of microphysical parameters on cloud chemistry. Box model cloud chemistry simulations were performed to choose efficient solver and tolerance settings, evaluate the implementation of the KPP solver, and assess the direct impacts of alternative solver and kinetic mass transfer on predicted concentrations for a range of scenarios. Month-long CMAQ simulations for winter and summer periods over the US reveal the changes in model predictions due to these cloud module updates within the full chemical transport model. While monthly average CMAQ predictions are not drastically altered between AQCHEM and AQCHEM - KMT, hourly concentration differences can be significant. With added in-cloud secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation from biogenic epoxides (AQCHEM - KMTI), normalized mean error and bias statistics are slightly improved for 2-methyltetrols and 2-methylglyceric acid at the Research Triangle Park measurement site in North Carolina during the Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study (SOAS) period. The added in-cloud chemistry leads to a monthly average increase of 11-18 % in cloud SOA at the surface in the eastern United States for June 2013.

  12. EVALUATION OF THE COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODEL VERSION 4.5: UNCERTAINTIES AND SENSITIVITIES IMPACTING MODEL PERFORMANCE: PART I - OZONE

    EPA Science Inventory

    This study examines ozone (O3) predictions from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 4.5 and discusses potential factors influencing the model results. Daily maximum 8-hr average O3 levels are largely underpredicted when observed O...

  13. Vegetation Exposure to Ozone over the Continental United States: Assessment of Exposure Indices by the Eta-CMAQ Air Quality Forecast Model

    EPA Science Inventory

    This study presents the first evaluation of the performance of the Eta-CMAQ air quality forecast model to predict a variety of widely used seasonal mean and cumulative O3 exposure indices associated with vegetation using the U.S. AIRNow O3 observations.

  14. Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system against size-resolved measurements of inorganic particle composition across sites in North America

    EPA Science Inventory

    This work evaluates particle size-composition distributions simulated by the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model using Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactor (MOUDI) measurements at 18 sites across North America. Size-resolved measurements of particulate SO4<...

  15. APPLICATION OF A NEW LAND-SURFACE, DRY DEPOSITION, AND PBL MODEL IN THE MODELS-3 COMMUNITY MULTI-SCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODEL SYSTEM

    EPA Science Inventory

    Like most air quality modeling systems, CMAQ divides the treatment of meteorological and chemical/transport processes into separate models run sequentially. A potential drawback to this approach is that it creates the illusion that these processes are minimally interdependent an...

  16. Emission Reduction Potential of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1997-05-19

    The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) provides : funds to states for projects designed to help attain and maintain the national : ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) set under the Clean Air Act (CAA). CMAQ : was creat...

  17. Enhanced Representation of Soil NO Emissions in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model Version 5.0.2

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rasool, Quazi Z.; Zhang, Rui; Lash, Benjamin; Cohan, Daniel S.; Cooter, Ellen J.; Bash, Jesse O.; Lamsal, Lok N.

    2016-01-01

    Modeling of soil nitric oxide (NO) emissions is highly uncertain and may misrepresent its spatial and temporal distribution. This study builds upon a recently introduced parameterization to improve the timing and spatial distribution of soil NO emission estimates in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The parameterization considers soil parameters, meteorology, land use, and mineral nitrogen (N) availability to estimate NO emissions. We incorporate daily year-specific fertilizer data from the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) agricultural model to replace the annual generic data of the initial parameterization, and use a 12km resolution soil biome map over the continental USA. CMAQ modeling for July 2011 shows slight differences in model performance in simulating fine particulate matter and ozone from Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) and Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNET) sites and NO2 columns from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite retrievals. We also simulate how the change in soil NO emissions scheme affects the expected O3 response to projected emissions reductions.

  18. CMAQ in the states : a preliminary assessment of the CMAQ program's contribution toward meeting ozone standards

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1998-01-08

    The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program provides funds to states for projects designed to help metropolitan areas attain and maintain the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS). The objective of this analysis is t...

  19. 3D Air Quality and the Clean Air Interstate Rule: Lagrangian Sampling of CMAQ Model Results to Aid Regional Accountability Metrics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fairlie, T. D.; Szykman, Jim; Pierce, Robert B.; Gilliland, A. B.; Engel-Cox, Jill; Weber, Stephanie; Kittaka, Chieko; Al-Saadi, Jassim A.; Scheffe, Rich; Dimmick, Fred; hide

    2008-01-01

    The Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) is expected to reduce transport of air pollutants (e.g. fine sulfate particles) in nonattainment areas in the Eastern United States. CAIR highlights the need for an integrated air quality observational and modeling system to understand sulfate as it moves in multiple dimensions, both spatially and temporally. Here, we demonstrate how results from an air quality model can be combined with a 3d monitoring network to provide decision makers with a tool to help quantify the impact of CAIR reductions in SO2 emissions on regional transport contributions to sulfate concentrations at surface monitors in the Baltimore, MD area, and help improve decision making for strategic implementation plans (SIPs). We sample results from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model using ensemble back trajectories computed with the NASA Langley Research Center trajectory model to provide Lagrangian time series and vertical profile information, that can be compared with NASA satellite (MODIS), EPA surface, and lidar measurements. Results are used to assess the regional transport contribution to surface SO4 measurements in the Baltimore MSA, and to characterize the dominant source regions for low, medium, and high SO4 episodes.

  20. Linking Air Quality and Human Health Effects Models: An Application to the Los Angeles Air Basin.

    PubMed

    Stewart, Devoun R; Saunders, Emily; Perea, Roberto A; Fitzgerald, Rosa; Campbell, David E; Stockwell, William R

    2017-01-01

    Proposed emission control strategies for reducing ozone and particulate matter are evaluated better when air quality and health effects models are used together. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is the US Environmental Protection Agency's model for determining public policy and forecasting air quality. CMAQ was used to forecast air quality changes due to several emission control strategies that could be implemented between 2008 and 2030 for the South Coast Air Basin that includes Los Angeles. The Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program-Community Edition (BenMAP-CE) was used to estimate health and economic impacts of the different emission control strategies based on CMAQ simulations. BenMAP-CE is a computer program based on epidemiologic studies that link human health and air quality. This modeling approach is better for determining optimum public policy than approaches that only examine concentration changes.

  1. Linking Air Quality and Human Health Effects Models: An Application to the Los Angeles Air Basin

    PubMed Central

    Stewart, Devoun R; Saunders, Emily; Perea, Roberto A; Fitzgerald, Rosa; Campbell, David E; Stockwell, William R

    2017-01-01

    Proposed emission control strategies for reducing ozone and particulate matter are evaluated better when air quality and health effects models are used together. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is the US Environmental Protection Agency’s model for determining public policy and forecasting air quality. CMAQ was used to forecast air quality changes due to several emission control strategies that could be implemented between 2008 and 2030 for the South Coast Air Basin that includes Los Angeles. The Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program—Community Edition (BenMAP-CE) was used to estimate health and economic impacts of the different emission control strategies based on CMAQ simulations. BenMAP-CE is a computer program based on epidemiologic studies that link human health and air quality. This modeling approach is better for determining optimum public policy than approaches that only examine concentration changes. PMID:29162976

  2. Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model Version 5.1

    EPA Science Inventory

    The AMAD will performed two CMAQ model simulations, one with the current publically available version of the CMAQ model (v5.0.2) and the other with the new version of the CMAQ model (v5.1). The results of each model simulation are compared to observations and the performance of t...

  3. Sensitivity of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model v4.7 Results for the Eastern United States to MM5 and WRF Meteorological Drivers

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper presents a comparison of the operational performance of two Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model v4.7 simulations that utilize input data from the 5th generation Mesoscale Model MM5 and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological models.

  4. A NASA Lightning Parameterization for CMAQ

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Koshak, William; Khan, Maudood; Biazar, Arastoo; Newchurch, Mike; McNider, Richard

    2009-01-01

    Many state and local air quality agencies use the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system to determine compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Because emission reduction scenarios are tested using CMAQ with an aim of determining the most efficient and cost effective strategies for attaining the NAAQS, it is very important that trace gas concentrations derived by CMAQ are accurate. Overestimating concentrations can literally translate into billions of dollars lost by commercial and government industries forced to comply with the standards. Costly health, environmental and socioeconomic problems can result from concentration underestimates. Unfortunately, lightning modeling for CMAQ is highly oversimplified. This leads to very poor estimates of lightning-produced nitrogen oxides "NOx" (= NO + NO2) which directly reduces the accuracy of the concentrations of important CMAQ trace gases linked to NOx concentrations such as ozone and methane. Today it is known that lightning is the most important NOx source in the upper troposphere with a global production rate estimated to vary between 2-20 Tg(N)/yr. In addition, NOx indirectly influences our climate since it controls the concentration of ozone and hydroxyl radicals (OH) in the atmosphere. Ozone is an important greenhouse gas and OH controls the oxidation of various greenhouse gases. We describe a robust NASA lightning model, called the Lightning Nitrogen Oxides Model (LNOM) that combines state-of-the-art lightning measurements, empirical results from field studies, and beneficial laboratory results to arrive at a realistic representation of lightning NOx production for CMAQ. NASA satellite lightning data is used in conjunction with ground-based lightning detection systems to assure that the best representation of lightning frequency, geographic location, channel length, channel altitude, strength (i.e., channel peak current), and

  5. EVALUATION OF THE CMAQ - AIM MODEL AGAINST SIZE AND CHEMICALLY-RESOLVED IMPACTOR DATA AT A COASTAL URBAN SITE

    EPA Science Inventory

    CMAQ-UCD (formerly known as CMAQ-AIM), is a fully dynamic, sectional aerosol model which has been coupled to the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) host air quality model. Aerosol sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, sodium, and chloride model outputs are compared against MOUDI data...

  6. Developing Oxidized Nitrogen Atmospheric Deposition Source Attribution from CMAQ for Air-Water Trading for Chesapeake Bay

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dennis, R. L.; Napelenok, S. L.; Linker, L. C.; Dudek, M.

    2012-12-01

    Estuaries are adversely impacted by excess reactive nitrogen, Nr, from many point and nonpoint sources, including atmospheric deposition to the watershed and the estuary itself as a nonpoint source. For effective mitigation, trading among sources of Nr is being considered. The Chesapeake Bay Program is working to bring air into its trading scheme, which requires some special air computations. Airsheds are much larger than watersheds; thus, wide-spread or national emissions controls are put in place to achieve major reductions in atmospheric Nr deposition. The tributary nitrogen load reductions allocated to the states to meet the TMDL target for Chesapeake Bay are large and not easy to attain via controls on water point and nonpoint sources. It would help the TMDL process to take advantage of air emissions reductions that would occur with State Implementation Plans that go beyond the national air rules put in place to help meet national ambient air quality standards. There are still incremental benefits from these local or state-level controls on atmospheric emissions. The additional air deposition reductions could then be used to offset water quality controls (air-water trading). What is needed is a source to receptor transfer function that connects air emissions from a state to deposition to a tributary. There is a special source attribution version of the Community Multiscale Air Quality model, CMAQ, (termed DDM-3D) that can estimate the fraction of deposition contributed by labeled emissions (labeled by source or region) to the total deposition across space. We use the CMAQ DDM-3D to estimate simplified state-level delta-emissions to delta-atmospheric-deposition transfer coefficients for each major emission source sector within a state, since local air regulations are promulgated at the state level. The CMAQ 4.7.1 calculations are performed at a 12 km grid size over the airshed domain covering Chesapeake Bay for 2020 CAIR emissions. For results, we first present

  7. WRF-CMAQ Two-way Coupled System with Aerosol Feedback: Software Development and Preliminary Results

    EPA Science Inventory

    Air quality models such as the EPA Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) require meteorological data as part of the input to drive the chemistry and transport simulation. The Meteorology-Chemistry Interface Processor (MCIP) is used to convert meteorological data into CMAQ-ready...

  8. Updating sea spray aerosol emissions in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 5.0.2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gantt, B.; Kelly, J. T.; Bash, J. O.

    2015-11-01

    Sea spray aerosols (SSAs) impact the particle mass concentration and gas-particle partitioning in coastal environments, with implications for human and ecosystem health. Model evaluations of SSA emissions have mainly focused on the global scale, but regional-scale evaluations are also important due to the localized impact of SSAs on atmospheric chemistry near the coast. In this study, SSA emissions in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model were updated to enhance the fine-mode size distribution, include sea surface temperature (SST) dependency, and reduce surf-enhanced emissions. Predictions from the updated CMAQ model and those of the previous release version, CMAQv5.0.2, were evaluated using several coastal and national observational data sets in the continental US. The updated emissions generally reduced model underestimates of sodium, chloride, and nitrate surface concentrations for coastal sites in the Bay Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (BRACE) near Tampa, Florida. Including SST dependency to the SSA emission parameterization led to increased sodium concentrations in the southeastern US and decreased concentrations along parts of the Pacific coast and northeastern US. The influence of sodium on the gas-particle partitioning of nitrate resulted in higher nitrate particle concentrations in many coastal urban areas due to increased condensation of nitric acid in the updated simulations, potentially affecting the predicted nitrogen deposition in sensitive ecosystems. Application of the updated SSA emissions to the California Research at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex) study period resulted in a modest improvement in the predicted surface concentration of sodium and nitrate at several central and southern California coastal sites. This update of SSA emissions enabled a more realistic simulation of the atmospheric chemistry in coastal environments where marine air mixes with urban pollution.

  9. Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling for Regional and Hemispheric Scales

    EPA Science Inventory

    The CMAQ model is a Eulerian model that produces gridded values of atmospheric concentration and deposition. Recent updates to the model are highlighted that impact estimates of dry and wet deposition of nitrogen, sulfur and base cations. Output from the CMAQ model is used in t...

  10. Diagnostic Analysis of Ozone Concentrations Simulated by Two Regional-Scale Air Quality Models

    EPA Science Inventory

    Since the Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system (CMAQ) and the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry model (WRF/Chem) use different approaches to simulate the interaction of meteorology and chemistry, this study compares the CMAQ and WRF/Chem air quality simu...

  11. Understanding sources of organic aerosol during CalNex-2010 using the CMAQ-VBS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model simulations utilizing the traditional organic aerosol (OA) treatment (CMAQ-AE6) and a volatility basis set (VBS) treatment for OA (CMAQ-VBS) were evaluated against measurements collected at routine monitoring networks (Chemical Specia...

  12. LINKING AIR TOXIC CONCENTRATIONS FROM CMAQ TO THE HAPEM5 EXPOSURE MODEL AT NEIGHORHOOD SCALES FOR THE PHILADELPHIA AREA

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper provides a preliminary demonstration of the EPA neighborhood scale modeling paradigm for air toxics by linking concentration from the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system to the fifth version of the Hazardous Pollutant Exposure Model (HAPEM5). For ...

  13. U.S. EPA MODELS-3/CMAQ - STATUS AND APPLICATIONS

    EPA Science Inventory

    An advanced third-generation air quality modeling system has been developed by the Atmospheric Modeling Division of the U.S. EPA. The air quality simulation model at the heart of the system is known as the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model. It is comprehensive in ...

  14. A BAYESIAN STATISTICAL APPROACHES FOR THE EVALUATION OF CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    This research focuses on the application of spatial statistical techniques for the evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The upcoming release version of the CMAQ model was run for the calendar year 2001 and is in the process of being evaluated by EPA an...

  15. AIR QUALITY FORECAST DATABASE AND ANALYSIS

    EPA Science Inventory

    In 2003, NOAA and EPA signed a Memorandum of Agreement to collaborate on the design and implementation of a capability to produce daily air quality modeling forecast information for the U.S. NOAA's ETA meteorological model and EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model ...

  16. PERFORMANCE AND DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION OF OZONE PREDICTIONS BY THE ETA-COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY FORECAST SYSTEM DURING THE 2002 NEW ENGLAND AIR QUALITY STUDY

    EPA Science Inventory

    A real-time air quality forecasting system (Eta-CMAQ model suite) has been developed by linking the NCEP Eta model to the U.S. EPA CMAQ model. This work presents results from the application of the Eta-CMAQ modeling system for forecasting O3 over the northeastern U.S d...

  17. On Regional Modeling to Support Air Quality Policies

    EPA Science Inventory

    We examine the use of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model in simulating the changes in the extreme values of air quality that are of interest to the regulatory agencies. Year-to-year changes in ozone air quality are attributable to variations in the prevailing mete...

  18. Towards the Next Generation Air Quality Modeling System ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) model of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is one of the most widely used air quality model worldwide; it is employed for both research and regulatory applications at major universities and government agencies for improving understanding of the formation and transport of air pollutants. It is noted, however, that air quality issues and climate change assessments need to be addressed globally recognizing the linkages and interactions between meteorology and atmospheric chemistry across a wide range of scales. Therefore, an effort is currently underway to develop the next generation air quality modeling system (NGAQM) that will be based on a global integrated meteorology and chemistry system. The model for prediction across scales-atmosphere (MPAS-A), a global fully compressible non-hydrostatic model with seamlessly refined centroidal Voronoi grids, has been chosen as the meteorological driver of this modeling system. The initial step of adapting MPAS-A for the NGAQM was to implement and test the physics parameterizations and options that are preferred for retrospective air quality simulations (see the work presented by R. Gilliam, R. Bullock, and J. Herwehe at this workshop). The next step, presented herein, would be to link the chemistry from CMAQ to MPAS-A to build a prototype for the NGAQM. Furthermore, the techniques to harmonize transport processes between CMAQ and MPAS-A, methodologies to connect the chemis

  19. The Meteorology-Chemistry Interface Processor (MCIP) for the CMAQ Modeling System: Updates through MCIPv3.4.1

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system is a state-of-the science regional air quality modeling system. The CMAQ modeling system has been primarily developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and it has been publically and freely available for more...

  20. Application of OMI NO2 for Regional Air Quality Model Evaluation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Holloway, T.; Bickford, E.; Oberman, J.; Scotty, E.; Clifton, O. E.

    2012-12-01

    To support the application of satellite data for air quality analysis, we examine how column NO2 measurements from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard the NASA Aura satellite relate to ground-based and model estimates of NO2 and related species. Daily variability, monthly mean values, and spatial gradients in OMI NO2 from the Netherlands Royal Meteorological Institute (KNMI) are compared to ground-based measurements of NO2 from the EPA Air Quality System (AQS) database. Satellite data is gridded to two resolutions typical of regional air quality models - 36 km x 36 km over the continental U.S., and 12 km x 12 km over the Upper Midwestern U.S. Gridding is performed using the Wisconsin Horizontal Interpolation Program for Satellites (WHIPS), a publicly available software to support gridding of satellite data to model grids. Comparing daily OMI retrievals (13:45 daytime local overpass time) with ground-based measurements (13:00), we find January and July 2007 correlation coefficients (r-values) generally positive, with values higher in the winter (January) than summer (July) for most sites. Incidences of anti-correlation or low-correlation are evaluated with model simulations from the U.S. EPA Community Multiscale Air Quality Model version 4.7 (CMAQ). OMI NO2 is also used to evaluate CMAQ output, and to compare performance metrics for CMAQ relative to AQS measurements. We compare simulated NO2 across both the U.S. and Midwest study domains with both OMI NO2 (total column CMAQ values, weighted with the averaging kernel) and with ground-based observations (lowest model layer CMAQ values). 2007 CMAQ simulations employ emissions from the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO) and meteorology from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Over most of the U.S., CMAQ is too high in January relative to OMI NO2, but too low in January relative to AQS NO2. In contrast, CMAQ is too low in July relative to OMI NO2, but too high relative to AQS NO2. These

  1. Evaluation of Observation-Fused Regional Air Quality Model Results for Population Air Pollution Exposure Estimation

    PubMed Central

    Chen, Gang; Li, Jingyi; Ying, Qi; Sherman, Seth; Perkins, Neil; Rajeshwari, Sundaram; Mendola, Pauline

    2014-01-01

    In this study, Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was applied to predict ambient gaseous and particulate concentrations during 2001 to 2010 in 15 hospital referral regions (HRRs) using a 36-km horizontal resolution domain. An inverse distance weighting based method was applied to produce exposure estimates based on observation-fused regional pollutant concentration fields using the differences between observations and predictions at grid cells where air quality monitors were located. Although the raw CMAQ model is capable of producing satisfying results for O3 and PM2.5 based on EPA guidelines, using the observation data fusing technique to correct CMAQ predictions leads to significant improvement of model performance for all gaseous and particulate pollutants. Regional average concentrations were calculated using five different methods: 1) inverse distance weighting of observation data alone, 2) raw CMAQ results, 3) observation-fused CMAQ results, 4) population-averaged raw CMAQ results and 5) population-averaged fused CMAQ results. It shows that while O3 (as well as NOx) monitoring networks in the HRR regions are dense enough to provide consistent regional average exposure estimation based on monitoring data alone, PM2.5 observation sites (as well as monitors for CO, SO2, PM10 and PM2.5 components) are usually sparse and the difference between the average concentrations estimated by the inverse distance interpolated observations, raw CMAQ and fused CMAQ results can be significantly different. Population-weighted average should be used to account spatial variation in pollutant concentration and population density. Using raw CMAQ results or observations alone might lead to significant biases in health outcome analyses. PMID:24747248

  2. Applying for and using CMAQ funds

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1997-01-01

    This guide provides the basic concepts to aid in an alternative fuel vehicle market development program developing an application for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program funding. The U.S. Department of Energy's Clean Citi...

  3. Source apportionment analysis of air pollutants using CMAQ/BFM for national air quality management policy over Republic of Korea.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moon, N.; Kim, S.; Seo, J.; Lee, Y. J.

    2017-12-01

    Recently, the Korean government is focusing on solving air pollution problem such as fine particulate matter and ozone. Korea has high population density and concentrated industrial complex in its limited land space. For better air quality management, it is important to understand source and contribution relation to target pollutant. The air quality analysis representing the mutual contribution among the local regions enables to understand the substantive state of the air quality of a region in association with neighboring regions. Under this background, the source apportionment of PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, SO2 using WRF and CMAQ/BFM was analyzed over Korea and BFM was applied to mobile, area and point sources in each local government. The contribution rate from neighboring region showed different pattern for each pollutant. In case of primary pollutants such as NO2, SO2, local source contribution is dominant, on the other hand secondary pollutants case especially O3, contribution from neighboring region is higher than that from source region itself. Local source contribution to PM10 showed 20-25% and the contribution rate to O3 has big difference with different meteorological condition year after year. From this study, we tried to estimate the conversion rate between source (NOx, VOC, SO2, NH3, PMC, PM2.5, CO) and concentration (PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, SO2,) by regional group over Korea. The result can contribute to the decision-making process of important national planning related to large-scale industrial developments and energy supply policies (eg., operations of coal-fired power plants and diesel cars) and emission control plan, where many controversies and concerns are currently concentrated among local governments in Korea. With this kind of approach, various environmental and social problems related to air quality can also be identified early so that a sustainable and environmentally sound plan can be established by providing data infrastructures to be utilized

  4. COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY MODELING SYSTEM (ONE ATMOSPHERE)

    EPA Science Inventory

    This task supports ORD's strategy by providing responsive technical support of EPA's mission and provides credible state of the art air quality models and guidance. This research effort is to develop and improve the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system, a mu...

  5. Evaluating commercial marine emissions and their role in air quality policy using observations and the CMAQ model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ring, Allison M.; Canty, Timothy P.; Anderson, Daniel C.; Vinciguerra, Timothy P.; He, Hao; Goldberg, Daniel L.; Ehrman, Sheryl H.; Dickerson, Russell R.; Salawitch, Ross J.

    2018-01-01

    We investigate the representation of emissions from the largest (Class 3) commercial marine vessels (c3 Marine) within the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. In present emissions inventories developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), c3 Marine emissions are divided into off-shore and near-shore files. Off-shore c3 Marine emissions are vertically distributed within the atmospheric column, reflecting stack-height and plume rise. Near-shore c3 Marine emissions, located close to the US shoreline, are erroneously assumed to occur only at the surface. We adjust the near-shore c3 Marine emissions inventory by vertically distributing these emissions to be consistent with the off-shore c3 Marine inventory. Additionally, we remove near-shore c3 Marine emissions that overlap with off-shore c3 Marine emissions within the EPA files. The CMAQ model generally overestimates surface ozone (O3) compared to Air Quality System (AQS) site observations, with the largest discrepancies occurring near coastal waterways. We compare modeled O3 from two CMAQ simulations for June, July, and August (JJA) 2011 to surface O3 observations from AQS sites to examine the efficacy of the c3 Marine emissions improvements. Model results at AQS sites show average maximum 8-hr surface O3 decreases up to ∼6.5 ppb along the Chesapeake Bay, and increases ∼3-4 ppb around Long Island Sound, when the adjusted c3 Marine emissions are used. Along with the c3 Marine emissions adjustments, we reduce on-road mobile NOX emissions by 50%, motivated by work from Anderson et al. 2014, and reduce the lifetime of the alkyl nitrate species group from ∼10 days to ∼1 day based on work by Canty et al. 2015, to develop the ;c3 Science; model scenario. Simulations with these adjustments further improve model representation of the atmosphere. We calculate the ratio of column formaldehyde (HCHO) and tropospheric column nitrogen dioxide (NO2) using observations from the Ozone

  6. A photosynthesis-based two-leaf canopy stomatal conductance model for meteorology and air quality modeling with WRF/CMAQ PX LSM

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ran, Limei; Pleim, Jonathan; Song, Conghe; Band, Larry; Walker, John T.; Binkowski, Francis S.

    2017-02-01

    A coupled photosynthesis-stomatal conductance model with single-layer sunlit and shaded leaf canopy scaling is implemented and evaluated in a diagnostic box model with the Pleim-Xiu land surface model (PX LSM) and ozone deposition model components taken directly from the meteorology and air quality modeling system - WRF/CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecast model and Community Multiscale Air Quality model). The photosynthesis-based model for PX LSM (PX PSN) is evaluated at a FLUXNET site for implementation against different parameterizations and the current PX LSM approach with a simple Jarvis function (PX Jarvis). Latent heat flux (LH) from PX PSN is further evaluated at five FLUXNET sites with different vegetation types and landscape characteristics. Simulated ozone deposition and flux from PX PSN are evaluated at one of the sites with ozone flux measurements. Overall, the PX PSN simulates LH as well as the PX Jarvis approach. The PX PSN, however, shows distinct advantages over the PX Jarvis approach for grassland that likely result from its treatment of C3 and C4 plants for CO2 assimilation. Simulations using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) leaf area index (LAI) rather than LAI measured at each site assess how the model would perform with grid averaged data used in WRF/CMAQ. MODIS LAI estimates degrade model performance at all sites but one site having exceptionally old and tall trees. Ozone deposition velocity and ozone flux along with LH are simulated especially well by the PX PSN compared to significant overestimation by the PX Jarvis for a grassland site.

  7. On Regional Modeling to Support Air Quality Policies (book chapter)

    EPA Science Inventory

    We examine the use of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model in simulating the changes in the extreme values of air quality that are of interest to the regulatory agencies. Year-to-year changes in ozone air quality are attributable to variations in the prevailing meteo...

  8. THE 2006 CMAQ RELEASE AND PLANS FOR 2007

    EPA Science Inventory

    The 2006 release of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model (Version 4.6) includes upgrades to several model components as well as new modules for gas-phase chemistry and boundary layer mixing. Capabilities for simulation of hazardous air pollutants have been expanded ...

  9. “Fine-Scale Application of the coupled WRF-CMAQ System to ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The DISCOVER-AQ project (Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality), is a joint collaboration between NASA, U.S. EPA and a number of other local organizations with the goal of characterizing air quality in urban areas using satellite, aircraft, vertical profiler and ground based measurements (http://discover-aq.larc.nasa.gov). In July 2011, the DISCOVER-AQ project conducted intensive air quality measurements in the Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C. area in the eastern U.S. To take advantage of these unique data, the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, coupled with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to simulate the meteorology and air quality in the same region using 12-km, 4-km and 1-km horizontal grid spacings. The goal of the modeling exercise is to demonstrate the capability of the coupled WRF-CMAQ modeling system to simulate air quality at fine grid spacings in an urban area. Development of new data assimilation techniques and the use of higher resolution input data for the WRF model have been implemented to improve the meteorological results, particularly at the 4-km and 1-km grid resolutions. In addition, a number of updates to the CMAQ model were made to enhance the capability of the modeling system to accurately represent the magnitude and spatial distribution of pollutants at fine model resolutions. Data collected during the 2011 DISCOVER-AQ campa

  10. DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF AIR QUALITY MODELING SIMULATIONS FOR HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANTS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The concentrations of five hazardous air pollutants were simulated using the Community Multi Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. Annual simulations were performed over the continental United States for the entire year of 2001 to support human exposure estimates. Results a...

  11. Preliminary Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model Version 5.1

    EPA Science Inventory

    The AMAD will perform two annual CMAQ model simulations, one with the current publically available version of the CMAQ model (v5.0.2) and the other with the beta version of the new model (v5.1). The results of each model simulation will then be compared to observations and the pe...

  12. Improving short-term air quality predictions over the U.S. using chemical data assimilation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kumar, R.; Delle Monache, L.; Alessandrini, S.; Saide, P.; Lin, H. C.; Liu, Z.; Pfister, G.; Edwards, D. P.; Baker, B.; Tang, Y.; Lee, P.; Djalalova, I.; Wilczak, J. M.

    2017-12-01

    State and local air quality forecasters across the United States use air quality forecasts from the National Air Quality Forecasting Capability (NAQFC) at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as one of the key tools to protect the public from adverse air pollution related health effects by dispensing timely information about air pollution episodes. This project funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) aims to enhance the decision-making process by improving the accuracy of NAQFC short-term predictions of ground-level particulate matter of less than 2.5 µm in diameter (PM2.5) by exploiting NASA Earth Science Data with chemical data assimilation. The NAQFC is based on the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. To improve the initialization of PM2.5 in CMAQ, we developed a new capability in the community Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) system to assimilate Terra/Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals in CMAQ. Specifically, we developed new capabilities within GSI to read/write CMAQ data, a forward operator that calculates AOD at 550 nm from CMAQ aerosol chemical composition and an adjoint of the forward operator that translates the changes in AOD to aerosol chemical composition. A generalized background error covariance program called "GEN_BE" has been extended to calculate background error covariance using CMAQ output. The background error variances are generated using a combination of both emissions and meteorological perturbations to better capture sources of uncertainties in PM2.5 simulations. The newly developed CMAQ-GSI system is used to perform daily 24-h PM2.5 forecasts with and without data assimilation from 15 July to 14 August 2014, and the resulting forecasts are compared against AirNOW PM2.5 measurements at 550 stations across the U. S. We find that the assimilation of MODIS AOD retrievals improves initialization of the CMAQ model

  13. Recent Advances in WRF Modeling for Air Quality Applications

    EPA Science Inventory

    The USEPA uses WRF in conjunction with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) for air quality regulation and research. Over the years we have added physics options and geophysical datasets to the WRF system to enhance model capabilities especially for extended retrospective...

  14. Evaluation of CMAQ Coupled With a State-of-the-Art Mercury Chemical Mechanism (CMAQ-newHg-Br)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ye, Zhuyun; Mao, Huiting; Driscoll, Charles T.; Wang, Yan; Zhang, Yanxu; Jaeglé, Lyatt

    2018-03-01

    Most regional three-dimensional chemical transport models neglect gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) oxidation by bromine (Br) radicals and Br chemistry. In this study, the Community Multiscale Air Quality model with its default mercury module (CMAQ-Hg) was modified by implementing a state-of-the-art algorithm depicting Hg reactions coupled with Br chemistry (CMAQ-newHg-Br). Using CMAQ-newHg-Br with initial and boundary concentrations (ICs and BCs) from global model output, we conducted simulations for the northeastern United States over March-November 2010. Simulated GEM mixing ratios were predominantly influenced by BCs and hence reflected significant seasonal variation that was captured in the global model output as opposed to a lack of seasonal variation using CMAQ-Hg's default constant BCs. Observed seasonal percentage changes (i.e., seasonal amplitude [=maximum - minimum] in percentage of the seasonal average) of gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) and particulate bound mercury (PBM) were 76% and 39%, respectively. CMAQ-newHg-Br significantly improved the simulated seasonal changes in GOM and PBM to 43% and 23%, respectively, from 18% and 16% using CMAQ-Hg. CMAQ-newHg-Br reproduced observed Hg wet deposition with a remarkably low fractional bias (FB; 0.4%) as opposed to a -56% to 19% FB for CMAQ-Hg simulations. Simulated Hg dry deposition using CMAQ-newHg-Br excluding the GEM + OH reaction agreed well with studies using inferential methods and litterfall/throughfall measurements, and the discrepancy varied over 13%-42%. This study demonstrated the promising capability of CMAQ-newHg-Br to reproduce observed concentrations and seasonal variations of GEM, GOM and PBM, and Hg wet and dry deposition fluxes.

  15. Human-model hybrid Korean air quality forecasting system.

    PubMed

    Chang, Lim-Seok; Cho, Ara; Park, Hyunju; Nam, Kipyo; Kim, Deokrae; Hong, Ji-Hyoung; Song, Chang-Keun

    2016-09-01

    The Korean national air quality forecasting system, consisting of the Weather Research and Forecasting, the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions, and the Community Modeling and Analysis (CMAQ), commenced from August 31, 2013 with target pollutants of particulate matters (PM) and ozone. Factors contributing to PM forecasting accuracy include CMAQ inputs of meteorological field and emissions, forecasters' capacity, and inherent CMAQ limit. Four numerical experiments were conducted including two global meteorological inputs from the Global Forecast System (GFS) and the Unified Model (UM), two emissions from the Model Intercomparison Study Asia (MICS-Asia) and the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment (INTEX-B) for the Northeast Asia with Clear Air Policy Support System (CAPSS) for South Korea, and data assimilation of the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC). Significant PM underpredictions by using both emissions were found for PM mass and major components (sulfate and organic carbon). CMAQ predicts PM2.5 much better than PM10 (NMB of PM2.5: -20~-25%, PM10: -43~-47%). Forecasters' error usually occurred at the next day of high PM event. Once CMAQ fails to predict high PM event the day before, forecasters are likely to dismiss the model predictions on the next day which turns out to be true. The best combination of CMAQ inputs is the set of UM global meteorological field, MICS-Asia and CAPSS 2010 emissions with the NMB of -12.3%, the RMSE of 16.6μ/m(3) and the R(2) of 0.68. By using MACC data as an initial and boundary condition, the performance skill of CMAQ would be improved, especially in the case of undefined coarse emission. A variety of methods such as ensemble and data assimilation are considered to improve further the accuracy of air quality forecasting, especially for high PM events to be comparable to for all cases. The growing utilization of the air quality forecast induced the public strongly to demand that the accuracy of the

  16. Persistence of initial conditions in continental scale air quality simulations

    EPA Science Inventory

    This study investigates the effect of initial conditions (IC) for pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere and soil on simulated air quality for two continental-scale Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model applications. One of these applications was performed for springt...

  17. Eta-CMAQ Air Quality Forecasts for O3 and Related Species Using Three Different Photochemical Mechanisms (CB4, CB05, SAPRC-99): Comparisons with Measurements During the 2004 ICARTT Study

    EPA Science Inventory

    In this study, we compare the CB4, CB05 and SAPRC-99 mechanisms by examining the impact of these different chemical mechanisms on the Eta-CMAQ air quality forecast model simulations for O3 and its related precursors over the eastern US through comparisons with the inte...

  18. NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODEL

    EPA Science Inventory

    CMAQ model research and development is currently following two tracks at the Atmospheric Modeling Division of the USEPA. Public releases of the community model system for research and policy analysis is continuing on an annual interval with the latest release scheduled for Augus...

  19. Community Multiscale Air Quality Model

    EPA Science Inventory

    The U.S. EPA developed the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) system to apply a “one atmosphere” multiscale and multi-pollutant modeling approach based mainly on the “first principles” description of the atmosphere. The multiscale capability is supported by the governing di...

  20. Investigating the Impact of Marine Ship Emissions on Regional Air Quality using OMI Satellite NO2 Observations and the CMAQ Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ring, A.; Canty, T. P.; He, H.; Vinciguerra, T.; Lamsal, L. N.; Dickerson, R. R.; Salawitch, R. J.; Cohen, M.; Montgomery, L. N.; Dreessen, J.

    2015-12-01

    Commercial marine vessels (CMVs) emit significant amounts of NOx, an ozone precursor, which may contribute to negative health consequences for people living in areas near shipping lanes. In coastal US states, many metropolitan areas such as Baltimore and New York City are located near ports with CMVs. Many studies estimate that ships account for ~15-30% of the global anthropogenic NOx emissions. EPA developed emissions inventories are widely used by states to construct model scenarios for testing air quality attainment strategies. Currently, CMV emissions are generated by simply applying growth factors to aggregated emissions data from much earlier years. Satellite retrievals from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) have been successfully used to improve the veracity of marine emissions by incorporating observational data from the inventory year. In this study we use OMI NO2 observations and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model outputs to improve the EPA marine emission estimates for the Mid-Atlantic region. Back trajectories from the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory HYSPLIT model are used to identify days with minimal continental influence on OMI tropospheric column NO2 over shipping lanes. We perform sensitivity analyses to quantify the impact of marine emissions on air quality and suggest strategies to better meet the EPA mandated ozone standard.

  1. Multi-year downscaling application of two-way coupled WRF v3.4 and CMAQ v5.0.2 over east Asia for regional climate and air quality modeling: model evaluation and aerosol direct effects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hong, Chaopeng; Zhang, Qiang; Zhang, Yang; Tang, Youhua; Tong, Daniel; He, Kebin

    2017-06-01

    In this study, a regional coupled climate-chemistry modeling system using the dynamical downscaling technique was established by linking the global Community Earth System Model (CESM) and the regional two-way coupled Weather Research and Forecasting - Community Multi-scale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model for the purpose of comprehensive assessments of regional climate change and air quality and their interactions within one modeling framework. The modeling system was applied over east Asia for a multi-year climatological application during 2006-2010, driven with CESM downscaling data under Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 (RCP4.5), along with a short-term air quality application in representative months in 2013 that was driven with a reanalysis dataset. A comprehensive model evaluation was conducted against observations from surface networks and satellite observations to assess the model's performance. This study presents the first application and evaluation of the two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ model for climatological simulations using the dynamical downscaling technique. The model was able to satisfactorily predict major meteorological variables. The improved statistical performance for the 2 m temperature (T2) in this study (with a mean bias of -0.6 °C) compared with the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) multi-models might be related to the use of the regional model WRF and the bias-correction technique applied for CESM downscaling. The model showed good ability to predict PM2. 5 in winter (with a normalized mean bias (NMB) of 6.4 % in 2013) and O3 in summer (with an NMB of 18.2 % in 2013) in terms of statistical performance and spatial distributions. Compared with global models that tend to underpredict PM2. 5 concentrations in China, WRF-CMAQ was able to capture the high PM2. 5 concentrations in urban areas. In general, the two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ model performed well for both climatological and air quality applications. The coupled

  2. CONCENTRATIONS OF TOXIC AIR POLLUTANTS IN THE U.S. SIMULATED BY AN AIR QUALITY MODEL

    EPA Science Inventory

    As part of the US National Air Toxics Assessment, we have applied the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model, CMAQ, to study the concentrations of twenty gas-phase, toxic, hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in the atmosphere over the continental United States. We modified the Carbo...

  3. Evaluation of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality Model Version 5.2

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. The Computational Exposure Division (CED) of the U.S. Environmental Pr...

  4. Regional/Urban Air Quality Modeling Assessment over China Using the Models-3/CMAQ System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fu, J. S.; Jang, C. C.; Streets, D. G.; Li, Z.; Wang, L.; Zhang, Q.; Woo, J.; Wang, B.

    2004-12-01

    China is the world's most populous country with a fast growing economy that surges in energy comsumption. It has become the second largest energy consumer after the United States although the per capita level is much lower than those found in developed or developing countries. Air pollution has become one of the most important problems of megacities such as Beijing and Shanghai and has serious impacts on public health, causes urban and regional haze. The Models-3/CMAQ modeling application that has been conducted to simulate multi-pollutants in China is presented. The modeling domains cover East Asia (36-kmx36-km) including Japan, South Korea, Korea DPR, Indonesia, Thailand, India and Mongolia, East China (12-kmx12-km) and Beijing/Tianjing, Shanghai (4-kmx4-km). For this study, the Asian emission inventory based on the emission estimates of the year 2000 that supported the NASA TRACE-P program is used. However, the TRACE-P emission inventory was developed for a different purpose such as global modeling. TRACE-P emission inventory may not be practical in urban area. There is no China national emission inventory available. Therefore, TRACE-P emission inventory is used on the East Asia and East China domains. The 8 districts of Beijing and Shanghai local emissions inventory are used to replace TRACE-P in 4-km domains. The meteorological data for the Models-3/CMAQ run are extracted from MM5. The model simulation is performed during the period January 1-20 and July 1-20, 2001 that presented the winter and summer time for China areas. The preliminary model results are shown O3 concentrations are in the range of 80 -120 ppb in the urban area. Lower urban O3 concentrations are shown in Beijing areas, possibly due to underestimation of urban man-made VOC emissions in the TRACE-P inventory and local inventory. High PM2.5 (70ug/m3 in summer and 150ug/m3 in winter) were simulated over metropolitan & downwind areas with significant secondary constituents. More comprehensive

  5. Application and evaluation of high-resolution WRF-CMAQ with simple urban parameterization.

    EPA Science Inventory

    The 2-way coupled WRF-CMAQ meteorology and air quality modeling system is evaluated for high-resolution applications by comparing to a regional air quality field study (Discover-AQ). The model was modified to better account for the effects of urban environments. High-resolution...

  6. Application and evaluation of high-resolution WRF-CMAQ with simple urban parameterization

    EPA Science Inventory

    The 2-way coupled WRF-CMAQ meteorology and air quality modeling system is evaluated for high-resolution applications by comparing to a regional air quality field study (Discover-AQ). The model was modified to better account for the effects of urban environments. High-resolution...

  7. USING MM5 VERSION 2 WITH CMAQ AND MODELS-3, A USER'S GUIDE AND TUTORIAL

    EPA Science Inventory

    Meteorological data are important in many of the processes simulated in the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and the Models-3 framework. The first meteorology model that has been selected and evaluated with CMAQ is the Fifth-Generation Pennsylvania State University...

  8. SIMULATION OF SULFATE AEROSOL IN EAST ASIA USING MODELS-3/CMAQ WITH RAMS METEOROLOGICAL DATA

    EPA Science Inventory

    The present study attempts to address a few challenges in utilizing the flexibility of the Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. We apply the CMAQ system with the meteorological data provided by the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) and to a...

  9. Overview and Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model Version 5.2

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. The Computational Exposure Division (CED) of the U.S. Environmental Pr...

  10. USING CMAQ FOR EXPOSURE MODELING AND CHARACTERIZING THE SUB-GRID VARIABILITY FOR EXPOSURE ESTIMATES

    EPA Science Inventory

    Atmospheric processes and the associated transport and dispersion of atmospheric pollutants are known to be highly variable in time and space. Current air quality models that characterize atmospheric chemistry effects, e.g. the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ), provide vo...

  11. Development and application of air quality models at the U.S. EPA

    EPA Science Inventory

    Overview of the development and application of air quality models at the U.S. EPA, particularly focused on the development and application of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model developed within the Computation Exposure Division (CED) of the National Exposure Resear...

  12. Statistical Properties of Differences between Low and High Resolution CMAQ Runs with Matched Initial and Boundary Conditions

    EPA Science Inventory

    The difficulty in assessing errors in numerical models of air quality is a major obstacle to improving their ability to predict and retrospectively map air quality. In this paper, using simulation outputs from the Community Multi-scale Air Quality Model (CMAQ), the statistic...

  13. A Five-Year CMAQ PM2.5 Model Performance for Wildfires and Prescribed Fires

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wilkins, J. L.; Pouliot, G.; Foley, K.; Rappold, A.; Pierce, T. E.

    2016-12-01

    Biomass burning has been identified as an important contributor to the degradation of air quality because of its impact on ozone and particulate matter. Two components of the biomass burning inventory, wildfires and prescribed fires are routinely estimated in the national emissions inventory. However, there is a large amount of uncertainty in the development of these emission inventory sectors. We have completed a 5 year set of CMAQ model simulations (2008-2012) in which we have simulated regional air quality with and without the wildfire and prescribed fire inventory. We will examine CMAQ model performance over regions with significant PM2.5 and Ozone contribution from prescribed fires and wildfires. We will also review plume rise to see how it affects model bias and compare CMAQ current fire emissions input to an hourly dataset from FLAMBE.

  14. FEST-C 1.3 & 2.0 for CMAQ Bi-directional NH3, Crop Production, and SWAT Modeling

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Fertilizer Emission Scenario Tool for CMAQ (FEST-C) is developed in a Linux environment, a festc JAVA interface that integrates 14 tools and scenario management options facilitating land use/crop data processing for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system ...

  15. Assessment of air quality benefits from national air pollution control policies in China. Part II: Evaluation of air quality predictions and air quality benefits assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Litao; Jang, Carey; Zhang, Yang; Wang, Kai; Zhang, Qiang; Streets, David; Fu, Joshua; Lei, Yu; Schreifels, Jeremy; He, Kebin; Hao, Jiming; Lam, Yun-Fat; Lin, Jerry; Meskhidze, Nicholas; Voorhees, Scott; Evarts, Dale; Phillips, Sharon

    2010-09-01

    Following the meteorological evaluation in Part I, this Part II paper presents the statistical evaluation of air quality predictions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)'s Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (Models-3/CMAQ) model for the four simulated months in the base year 2005. The surface predictions were evaluated using the Air Pollution Index (API) data published by the China Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) for 31 capital cities and daily fine particulate matter (PM 2.5, particles with aerodiameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm) observations of an individual site in Tsinghua University (THU). To overcome the shortage in surface observations, satellite data are used to assess the column predictions including tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO 2) column abundance and aerosol optical depth (AOD). The result shows that CMAQ gives reasonably good predictions for the air quality. The air quality improvement that would result from the targeted sulfur dioxide (SO 2) and nitrogen oxides (NO x) emission controls in China were assessed for the objective year 2010. The results show that the emission controls can lead to significant air quality benefits. SO 2 concentrations in highly polluted areas of East China in 2010 are estimated to be decreased by 30-60% compared to the levels in the 2010 Business-As-Usual (BAU) case. The annual PM 2.5 can also decline by 3-15 μg m -3 (4-25%) due to the lower SO 2 and sulfate concentrations. If similar controls are implemented for NO x emissions, NO x concentrations are estimated to decrease by 30-60% as compared with the 2010 BAU scenario. The annual mean PM 2.5 concentrations will also decline by 2-14 μg m -3 (3-12%). In addition, the number of ozone (O 3) non-attainment areas in the northern China is projected to be much lower, with the maximum 1-h average O 3 concentrations in the summer reduced by 8-30 ppb.

  16. Remote Sensing Characterization of the Urban Landscape for Improvement of Air Quality Modeling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Quattrochi, Dale A.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.; Khan, Maudood

    2005-01-01

    The urban landscape is inherently complex and this complexity is not adequately captured in air quality models, particularly the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model that is used to assess whether urban areas are in attainment of EPA air quality standards, primarily for ground level ozone. This inadequacy of the CMAQ model to sufficiently respond to the heterogeneous nature of the urban landscape can impact how well the model predicts ozone pollutant levels over metropolitan areas and ultimately, whether cities exceed EPA ozone air quality standards. We are exploring the utility of high-resolution remote sensing data and urban growth projections as improved inputs to the meteorology component of the CMAQ model focusing on the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area as a case study. These growth projections include "business as usual" and "smart growth" scenarios out to 2030. The growth projections illustrate the effects of employing urban heat island mitigation strategies, such as increasing tree canopy and albedo across the Atlanta metro area, in moderating ground-level ozone and air temperature, compared to "business as usual" simulations in which heat island mitigation strategies are not applied. The National Land Cover Dataset at 30m resolution is being used as the land use/land cover input and aggregated to the 4km scale for the MM5 mesoscale meteorological model and the (CMAQ) modeling schemes. Use of these data has been found to better characterize low densityhburban development as compared with USGS 1 km land use/land cover data that have traditionally been used in modeling. Air quality prediction for fiture scenarios to 2030 is being facilitated by land use projections using a spatial growth model. Land use projections were developed using the 2030 Regional Transportation Plan developed by the Atlanta Regional Commission, the regional planning agency for the area. This allows the state Environmental Protection agency to evaluate how these

  17. Modeling and Measurements to Improve Bidirectional Exchange in CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    Ammonia, NH3, is an emerging atmospheric pollutant of interest. It is an aerosol precursor and growing constituent of nitrogen deposition. In this presentation, the bidirectional exchange model for NH¬3 in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model will be reviewed and...

  18. MODELS-3/CMAQ APPLICATIONS WHICH ILLUSTRATE CAPABILITY AND FUNCTIONALITY

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Models-3/CMAQ developed by the U.S. Environmental Protections Agency (USEPA) is a third generation multiscale, multi-pollutant air quality modeling system within a high-level, object-oriented computer framework (Models-3). It has been available to the scientific community ...

  19. US EPA 2012 Air Quality Fused Surface for the Conterminous U.S. Map Service

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This web service contains a polygon layer that depicts fused air quality predictions for 2012 for census tracts in the conterminous United States. Fused air quality predictions (for ozone and PM2.5) are modeled using a Bayesian space-time downscaling fusion model approach described in a series of three published journal papers: 1) (Berrocal, V., Gelfand, A. E. and Holland, D. M. (2012). Space-time fusion under error in computer model output: an application to modeling air quality. Biometrics 68, 837-848; 2) Berrocal, V., Gelfand, A. E. and Holland, D. M. (2010). A bivariate space-time downscaler under space and time misalignment. The Annals of Applied Statistics 4, 1942-1975; and 3) Berrocal, V., Gelfand, A. E., and Holland, D. M. (2010). A spatio-temporal downscaler for output from numerical models. J. of Agricultural, Biological,and Environmental Statistics 15, 176-197) is used to provide daily, predictive PM2.5 (daily average) and O3 (daily 8-hr maximum) surfaces for 2012. Summer (O3) and annual (PM2.5) means calculated and published. The downscaling fusion model uses both air quality monitoring data from the National Air Monitoring Stations/State and Local Air Monitoring Stations (NAMS/SLAMS) and numerical output from the Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ). Currently, predictions at the US census tract centroid locations within the 12 km CMAQ domain are archived. Predictions at the CMAQ grid cell centroids, or any desired set of locations co

  20. The Atlanta Urban Heat Island Mitigation and Air Quality Modeling Project: How High-Resoution Remote Sensing Data Can Improve Air Quality Models

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Quattrochi, Dale A.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.; Crosson, William L.; Khan, Maudood N.

    2006-01-01

    The Atlanta Urban Heat Island and Air Quality Project had its genesis in Project ATLANTA (ATlanta Land use Analysis: Temperature and Air quality) that began in 1996. Project ATLANTA examined how high-spatial resolution thermal remote sensing data could be used to derive better measurements of the Urban Heat Island effect over Atlanta. We have explored how these thermal remote sensing, as well as other imaged datasets, can be used to better characterize the urban landscape for improved air quality modeling over the Atlanta area. For the air quality modeling project, the National Land Cover Dataset and the local scale Landpro99 dataset at 30m spatial resolutions have been used to derive land use/land cover characteristics for input into the MM5 mesoscale meteorological model that is one of the foundations for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to assess how these data can improve output from CMAQ. Additionally, land use changes to 2030 have been predicted using a Spatial Growth Model (SGM). SGM simulates growth around a region using population, employment and travel demand forecasts. Air quality modeling simulations were conducted using both current and future land cover. Meteorological modeling simulations indicate a 0.5 C increase in daily maximum air temperatures by 2030. Air quality modeling simulations show substantial differences in relative contributions of individual atmospheric pollutant constituents as a result of land cover change. Enhanced boundary layer mixing over the city tends to offset the increase in ozone concentration expected due to higher surface temperatures as a result of urbanization.

  1. Sensitivity of an Integrated Mesoscale Atmosphere and Agriculture Land Modeling System (WRF/CMAQ-EPIC) to MODIS Vegetation and Lightning Assimilation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ran, L.; Cooter, E. J.; Gilliam, R. C.; Foroutan, H.; Kang, D.; Appel, W.; Wong, D. C.; Pleim, J. E.; Benson, V.; Pouliot, G.

    2017-12-01

    The combined meteorology and air quality modeling system composed of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is an important decision support tool that is used in research and regulatory decisions related to emissions, meteorology, climate, and chemical transport. The Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) is a cropping model which has long been used in a range of applications related to soil erosion, crop productivity, climate change, and water quality around the world. We have integrated WRF/CMAQ with EPIC using the Fertilizer Emission Scenario Tool for CMAQ (FEST-C) to estimate daily soil N information with fertilization for CMAQ bi-directional ammonia flux modeling. Driven by the weather and N deposition from WRF/CMAQ, FEST-C EPIC simulations are conducted on 22 different agricultural production systems ranging from managed grass lands (e.g. hay and alfalfa) to crop lands (e.g. corn grain and soybean) with rainfed and irrigated information across any defined conterminous United States (U.S.) CMAQ domain and grid resolution. In recent years, this integrated system has been enhanced and applied in many different air quality and ecosystem assessment projects related to land-water-atmosphere interactions. These enhancements have advanced this system to become a valuable tool for integrated assessments of air, land and water quality in light of social drivers and human and ecological outcomes. This presentation will focus on evaluating the sensitivity of precipitation and N deposition in the integrated system to MODIS vegetation input and lightning assimilation and their impacts on agricultural production and fertilization. We will describe the integrated modeling system and evaluate simulated precipitation and N deposition along with other weather information (e.g. temperature, humidity) for 2011 over the conterminous U.S. at 12 km grids from a coupled WRF/CMAQ with MODIS and lightning assimilation

  2. Extending the Applicability of the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model to Hemispheric Scales: Motivation, Challenges, and Progress

    EPA Science Inventory

    The adaptation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system to simulate O3, particulate matter, and related precursor distributions over the northern hemisphere is presented. Hemispheric simulations with CMAQ and the Weather Research and Forecasting (...

  3. A BAYESIAN STATISTICAL APPROACH FOR THE EVALUATION OF CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    Bayesian statistical methods are used to evaluate Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model simulations of sulfate aerosol over a section of the eastern US for 4-week periods in summer and winter 2001. The observed data come from two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data ...

  4. Strong influence of deposition and vertical mixing on secondary organic aerosol concentrations in CMAQ and CAMx

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shu, Qian; Koo, Bonyoung; Yarwood, Greg; Henderson, Barron H.

    2017-12-01

    Differences between two air quality modeling systems reveal important uncertainties in model representations of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) fate. Two commonly applied models (CMAQ: Community Multiscale Air Quality; CAMx: Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions) predict very different OA concentrations over the eastern U.S., even when using the same source data for emissions and meteorology and the same SOA modeling approach. Both models include an option to output a detailed accounting of how each model process (e.g., chemistry, deposition, etc.) alters the mass of each modeled species, referred to as process analysis. We therefore perform a detailed diagnostic evaluation to quantify simulated tendencies (Gg/hr) of each modeled process affecting both the total model burden (Gg) of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOC) in the gas (g) and aerosol (a) phases and the vertical structures to identify causes of concentration differences between the two models. Large differences in deposition (CMAQ: 69.2 Gg/d; CAMx: 46.5 Gg/d) contribute to significant OA bias in CMAQ relative to daily averaged ambient concentration measurements. CMAQ's larger deposition results from faster daily average deposition velocities (VD) for both SVOC (g) (VD,cmaq = 2.15 × VD,camx) and aerosols (VD,cmaq = 4.43 × Vd,camx). Higher aerosol deposition velocity would be expected to cause similar biases for inert compounds like elemental carbon (EC), but this was not seen. Daytime low-biases in EC were also simulated in CMAQ as expected but were offset by nighttime high-biases. Nighttime high-biases were a result of overly shallow mixing in CMAQ leading to a higher fraction of EC total atmospheric mass in the first layer (CAMx: 5.1-6.4%; CMAQ: 5.6-6.9%). Because of the opposing daytime and nighttime biases, the apparent daily average bias for EC is reduced. For OA, there are two effects of reduced vertical mixing: SOA and SVOC are concentrated near the surface, but SOA yields are reduced

  5. Update of NOx emission temporal profiles using CMAQ-HDDM

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bae, C.; Lee, J. B.; Kim, H. C.; Kim, B. U.; Kim, S.

    2017-12-01

    This study demonstrates the impact of revised temporal profiles of NOx emissions on air quality simulations in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA), South Korea. Air pollutants such as ozone and nitrogen oxides can be harmful to the human body even with short-term exposure. Since most of air quality models use predefined temporal profiles which are often outdated or taken from different chemical environment, providing accurate temporal variation of emissions are challenging in prediction of correct local air quality. Considering secondary formation of pollutants are important in mega cities and temporal variations of emissions are not coincident with those of resultant concentrations, we utilized CMAQ-HDDM to link emissions and consequential concentrations from different time steps. Base simulations were conducted using WRF, SMOKE, and CMAQ modeling frame using CREATE 2015 and CAPSS 2013 emissions inventories for East Asia and South Korea, respectively. With current modeling system, modeled NOx concentrations underestimate 4% in the daytime (10-16 LST), but overestimate 30% in the nighttime during May to August 2015. Applying revised temporal profiles based on HDDM sensitivities, model performance was improved significantly. We conclude that the proposed temporal allocation method can be useful to reduce the model-observation discrepancies when the activity data for emission sources are difficult to obtain with a bottom-up approach.

  6. Air Pollution and Preterm Birth in the U.S. State of Georgia (2002-2006): Associations with Concentrations of 11 Ambient Air Pollutants Estimated by Combining Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) Simulations with Stationary Monitor Measurements.

    PubMed

    Hao, Hua; Chang, Howard H; Holmes, Heather A; Mulholland, James A; Klein, Mitch; Darrow, Lyndsey A; Strickland, Matthew J

    2016-06-01

    Previous epidemiologic studies suggest associations between preterm birth and ambient air pollution. We investigated associations between 11 ambient air pollutants, estimated by combining Community Multiscale Air Quality model (CMAQ) simulations with measurements from stationary monitors, and risk of preterm birth (< 37 weeks of gestation) in the U.S. state of Georgia. Birth records for singleton births ≥ 27 weeks of gestation with complete covariate information and estimated dates of conception between 1 January 2002 and 28 February 2006 were obtained from the Office of Health Indicators for Planning, Georgia Department of Public Health (n = 511,658 births). Daily pollutant concentrations at 12-km resolution were estimated for 11 ambient air pollutants. We used logistic regression with county-level fixed effects to estimate associations between preterm birth and average pollutant concentrations during the first and second trimester. Discrete-time survival models were used to estimate third-trimester and total pregnancy associations. Effect modification was investigated by maternal education, race, census tract poverty level, and county-level urbanicity. Trimester-specific and total pregnancy associations (p < 0.05) were observed for several pollutants. All the traffic-related pollutants (carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5 elemental carbon) were associated with preterm birth [e.g., odds ratios for interquartile range increases in carbon monoxide during the first, second, and third trimesters and total pregnancy were 1.005 (95% CI: 1.001, 1.009), 1.007 (95% CI: 1.002, 1.011), 1.010 (95% CI: 1.006, 1.014), and 1.011 (95% CI: 1.006, 1.017)]. Associations tended to be higher for mothers with low educational attainment and African American mothers. Several ambient air pollutants were associated with preterm birth; associations were observed in all exposure windows. Hao H, Chang HH, Holmes HA, Mulholland JA, Klein M, Darrow LA, Strickland MJ. 2016. Air pollution

  7. Improved meteorology from an updated WRF/CMAQ modeling system with MODIS vegetation and albedo

    EPA Science Inventory

    Realistic vegetation characteristics and phenology from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products improve the simulation for the meteorology and air quality modeling system WRF/CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecasting model and Community Multiscale Air Qual...

  8. Model Representation of Secondary Organic Aerosol in CMAQ v4.7

    EPA Science Inventory

    Numerous scientific upgrades to the representation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) are incorporated into the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. Additions include several recently identified SOA precursors: benzene, isoprene, and sesquiterpenes; and pathwa...

  9. Performance and diagnostic evaluation of ozone predictions by the Eta-Community Multiscale Air Quality Forecast System during the 2002 New England Air Quality Study.

    PubMed

    Yu, Shaocai; Mathur, Rohit; Kang, Daiwen; Schere, Kenneth; Eder, Brian; Pleim, Jonathan

    2006-10-01

    A real-time air quality forecasting system (Eta-Community Multiscale Air Quality [CMAQ] model suite) has been developed by linking the National Centers for Environmental Estimation Eta model to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) CMAQ model. This work presents results from the application of the Eta-CMAQ modeling system for forecasting ozone (O3) over the Northeastern United States during the 2002 New England Air Quality Study (NEAQS). Spatial and temporal performance of the Eta-CMAQ model for O3 was evaluated by comparison with observations from the EPA Air Quality System (AQS) network. This study also examines the ability of the model to simulate the processes governing the distributions of tropospheric O3 on the basis of the intensive datasets obtained at the four Atmospheric Investigation, Regional Modeling, Analysis, and Estimation (AIRMAP) and Harvard Forest (HF) surface sites. The episode analysis reveals that the model captured the buildup of O3 concentrations over the northeastern domain from August 11 and reproduced the spatial distributions of observed O3 very well for the daytime (8:00 p.m.) of both August 8 and 12 with most of normalized mean bias (NMB) within +/- 20%. The model reproduced 53.3% of the observed hourly O3 within a factor of 1.5 with NMB of 29.7% and normalized mean error of 46.9% at the 342 AQS sites. The comparison of modeled and observed lidar O3 vertical profiles shows that whereas the model reproduced the observed vertical structure, it tended to overestimate at higher altitude. The model reproduced 64-77% of observed NO2 photolysis rate values within a factor of 1.5 at the AIRMAP sites. At the HF site, comparison of modeled and observed O3/nitrogen oxide (NOx) ratios suggests that the site is mainly under strongly NOx-sensitive conditions (>53%). It was found that the modeled lower limits of the O3 production efficiency values (inferred from O3-CO correlation) are close to the observations.

  10. COMPARISON OF SPATIAL PATTERNS OF POLLUTANT DISTRIBUTION WITH CMAQ PREDICTIONS

    EPA Science Inventory

    To evaluate the Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system in reproducing the spatial patterns of aerosol concentrations over the country on timescales of months and years, the spatial patterns of model output are compared with those derived from observation...

  11. Air Pollution and Preterm Birth in the U.S. State of Georgia (2002–2006): Associations with Concentrations of 11 Ambient Air Pollutants Estimated by Combining Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) Simulations with Stationary Monitor Measurements

    PubMed Central

    Hao, Hua; Chang, Howard H.; Holmes, Heather A.; Mulholland, James A.; Klein, Mitch; Darrow, Lyndsey A.; Strickland, Matthew J.

    2015-01-01

    Background: Previous epidemiologic studies suggest associations between preterm birth and ambient air pollution. Objective: We investigated associations between 11 ambient air pollutants, estimated by combining Community Multiscale Air Quality model (CMAQ) simulations with measurements from stationary monitors, and risk of preterm birth (< 37 weeks of gestation) in the U.S. state of Georgia. Methods: Birth records for singleton births ≥ 27 weeks of gestation with complete covariate information and estimated dates of conception between 1 January 2002 and 28 February 2006 were obtained from the Office of Health Indicators for Planning, Georgia Department of Public Health (n = 511,658 births). Daily pollutant concentrations at 12-km resolution were estimated for 11 ambient air pollutants. We used logistic regression with county-level fixed effects to estimate associations between preterm birth and average pollutant concentrations during the first and second trimester. Discrete-time survival models were used to estimate third-trimester and total pregnancy associations. Effect modification was investigated by maternal education, race, census tract poverty level, and county-level urbanicity. Results: Trimester-specific and total pregnancy associations (p < 0.05) were observed for several pollutants. All the traffic-related pollutants (carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5 elemental carbon) were associated with preterm birth [e.g., odds ratios for interquartile range increases in carbon monoxide during the first, second, and third trimesters and total pregnancy were 1.005 (95% CI: 1.001, 1.009), 1.007 (95% CI: 1.002, 1.011), 1.010 (95% CI: 1.006, 1.014), and 1.011 (95% CI: 1.006, 1.017)]. Associations tended to be higher for mothers with low educational attainment and African American mothers. Conclusion: Several ambient air pollutants were associated with preterm birth; associations were observed in all exposure windows. Citation: Hao H, Chang HH, Holmes HA

  12. Multiple Sensitivity Testing for Regional Air Quality Model in summer 2014

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tang, Y.; Lee, P.; Pan, L.; Tong, D.; Kim, H. C.; Huang, M.; Wang, J.; McQueen, J.; Lu, C. H.; Artz, R. S.

    2015-12-01

    The NOAA Air Resources laboratory leads to improve the performance of the U.S. Air Quality Forecasting Capability (NAQFC). It is operational in NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) which focuses on predicting surface ozone and PM2.5. In order to improve its performance, we tested several approaches, including NOAA Environmental Modeling System Global Aerosol Component (NGAC) simulation derived ozone and aerosol lateral boundary conditions (LBC), bi-direction NH3 emission and HMS(Hazard Mapping System)-BlueSky emission with the latest U.S. EPA Community Multi-scale Air Quality model (CMAQ) version and the U.S EPA National Emission Inventory (NEI)-2011 anthropogenic emissions. The operational NAQFC uses static profiles for its lateral boundary condition (LBC), which does not impose severe issue for near-surface air quality prediction. However, its degraded performance for the upper layer (e.g. above 3km) is evident when comparing with aircraft measured ozone. NCEP's Global Forecast System (GFS) has tracer O3 prediction treated as 3-D prognostic variable (Moorthi and Iredell, 1998) after being initialized with Solar Backscatter Ultra Violet-2 (SBUV-2) satellite data. We applied that ozone LBC to the CMAQ's upper layers and yield more reasonable O3 prediction than that with static LBC comparing with the aircraft data in Discover-AQ Colorado campaign. NGAC's aerosol LBC also improved the PM2.5 prediction with more realistic background aerosols. The bi-direction NH3 emission used in CMAQ also help reduce the NH3 and nitrate under-prediction issue. During summer 2014, strong wildfires occurred in northwestern USA, and we used the US Forest Service's BlueSky fire emission with HMS fire counts to drive CMAQ and tested the difference of day-1 and day-2 fire emission estimation. Other related issues were also discussed.

  13. ASSESSMENT OF ETA-CMAQ FORECASTS OF PARTICULATE MATTER DISTRIBUTIONS THROUGH COMPARISONS WITH SURFACE NETWORK AND SPECIALIZED MEASUREMENTS

    EPA Science Inventory

    An air-quality forecasting (AQF) system based on the National Weather Service (NWS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction's (NCEP's) Eta model and the U.S. EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System is used to simulate the distributions of tropospheric ...

  14. ONE ATMOSPHERE MODELING FOR AIR QUALITY: BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS THAT TRANSITION RESEARCH INTO APPLICATIONS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Miultiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system is a "one atmosphere" chemical transport model that simulates the transport and fate of air pollutants from urban to continental scales and from daily to annual time intervals.

  15. A Hemispheric Version of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System

    EPA Science Inventory

    This invited presentation will be given at the 4th Biannual Western Modeling Workshop in the Plenary session on Global model development, evaluation, and new source attribution tools. We describe the development and application of the hemispheric version of the CMAQ to examine th...

  16. New Methods for Air Quality Model Evaluation with Satellite Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Holloway, T.; Harkey, M.

    2015-12-01

    Despite major advances in the ability of satellites to detect gases and aerosols in the atmosphere, there remains significant, untapped potential to apply space-based data to air quality regulatory applications. Here, we showcase research findings geared toward increasing the relevance of satellite data to support operational air quality management, focused on model evaluation. Particular emphasis is given to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and formaldehyde (HCHO) from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard the NASA Aura satellite, and evaluation of simulations from the EPA Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. This work is part of the NASA Air Quality Applied Sciences Team (AQAST), and is motivated by ongoing dialog with state and federal air quality management agencies. We present the response of satellite-derived NO2 to meteorological conditions, satellite-derived HCHO:NO2 ratios as an indicator of ozone production regime, and the ability of models to capture these sensitivities over the continental U.S. In the case of NO2-weather sensitivities, we find boundary layer height, wind speed, temperature, and relative humidity to be the most important variables in determining near-surface NO2 variability. CMAQ agreed with relationships observed in satellite data, as well as in ground-based data, over most regions. However, we find that the southwest U.S. is a problem area for CMAQ, where modeled NO2 responses to insolation, boundary layer height, and other variables are at odds with the observations. Our analyses utilize a software developed by our team, the Wisconsin Horizontal Interpolation Program for Satellites (WHIPS): a free, open-source program designed to make satellite-derived air quality data more usable. WHIPS interpolates level 2 satellite retrievals onto a user-defined fixed grid, in effect creating custom-gridded level 3 satellite product. Currently, WHIPS can process the following data products: OMI NO2 (NASA retrieval); OMI NO2 (KNMI retrieval); OMI

  17. SAFETEA-LU 1808 : CMAQ, evaluation and assessment, phase I, final report.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2008-10-01

    In SAFETEA-LU Section 1808, Congress required the U.S. Department of Transportation, in consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to evaluate and assess the direct and indirect impacts of CMAQ-funded projects on air quality and con...

  18. SAFETEA-LU 1808 : CMAQ, evaluation and assessment, phase II, final report.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2009-07-01

    In SAFETEA-LU Section 1808, Congress required the U.S. Department of Transportation, in consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to evaluate and assess the direct and indirect impacts of CMAQ-funded projects on air quality and con...

  19. Improvement of PM concentration predictability using WRF-CMAQ-DLM coupled system and its applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Soon Hwan; Kim, Ji Sun; Lee, Kang Yeol; Shon, Keon Tae

    2017-04-01

    Air quality due to increasing Particulate Matter(PM) in Korea in Asia is getting worse. At present, the PM forecast is announced based on the PM concentration predicted from the air quality prediction numerical model. However, forecast accuracy is not as high as expected due to various uncertainties for PM physical and chemical characteristics. The purpose of this study was to develop a numerical-statistically ensemble models to improve the accuracy of prediction of PM10 concentration. Numerical models used in this study are the three dimensional atmospheric model Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) and the community multiscale air quality model (CMAQ). The target areas for the PM forecast are Seoul, Busan, Daegu, and Daejeon metropolitan areas in Korea. The data used in the model development are PM concentration and CMAQ predictions and the data period is 3 months (March 1 - May 31, 2014). The dynamic-statistical technics for reducing the systematic error of the CMAQ predictions was applied to the dynamic linear model(DLM) based on the Baysian Kalman filter technic. As a result of applying the metrics generated from the dynamic linear model to the forecasting of PM concentrations accuracy was improved. Especially, at the high PM concentration where the damage is relatively large, excellent improvement results are shown.

  20. The Influence on CMAQ Modeled Wet and Dry Deposition of Advances in the CMAQ Systems for Meteorology and Emissions

    EPA Science Inventory

    Process level improvements in the CMAQ system have been made to WRF meteorology, national ammonia emission profiles, and CMAQ ammonia air-surface exchange. An incremental study was conducted to quantify the impact of individual and combined changes on modeled inorganic depositio...

  1. Regionalized PM2.5 Community Multiscale Air Quality model performance evaluation across a continuous spatiotemporal domain.

    PubMed

    Reyes, Jeanette M; Xu, Yadong; Vizuete, William; Serre, Marc L

    2017-01-01

    The regulatory Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a means to understanding the sources, concentrations and regulatory attainment of air pollutants within a model's domain. Substantial resources are allocated to the evaluation of model performance. The Regionalized Air quality Model Performance (RAMP) method introduced here explores novel ways of visualizing and evaluating CMAQ model performance and errors for daily Particulate Matter ≤ 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) concentrations across the continental United States. The RAMP method performs a non-homogenous, non-linear, non-homoscedastic model performance evaluation at each CMAQ grid. This work demonstrates that CMAQ model performance, for a well-documented 2001 regulatory episode, is non-homogeneous across space/time. The RAMP correction of systematic errors outperforms other model evaluation methods as demonstrated by a 22.1% reduction in Mean Square Error compared to a constant domain wide correction. The RAMP method is able to accurately reproduce simulated performance with a correlation of r = 76.1%. Most of the error coming from CMAQ is random error with only a minority of error being systematic. Areas of high systematic error are collocated with areas of high random error, implying both error types originate from similar sources. Therefore, addressing underlying causes of systematic error will have the added benefit of also addressing underlying causes of random error.

  2. Dynamic Evaluation of Two Decades of WRF-CMAQ Ozone Simulations over the Contiguous United States (2017 CMAS)

    EPA Science Inventory

    Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)–Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model over the contiguous United States is conducted to assess how well the changes in observed ozone air quality are simulated by the model. The changes induced by variations in meteorology and...

  3. EMISSIONS PROCESSING FOR THE ETA/ CMAQ AIR QUALITY FORECAST SYSTEM

    EPA Science Inventory

    NOAA and EPA have created an Air Quality Forecast (AQF) system. This AQF system links an adaptation of the EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality Model with the 12 kilometer ETA model running operationally at NOAA's National Center for Environmental Predication (NCEP). One of the...

  4. Application of Watershed Deposition Tool to Estimate from CMAQ Simulations of the Atmospheric Deposition of Nitrogen to Tampa Bay and Its Watershed

    EPA Science Inventory

    The USEPA has developed Watershed Deposition Tool (WDT) to calculate from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model output the nitrogen, sulfur, and mercury deposition rates to watersheds and their sub-basins. The CMAQ model simulates from first principles the transport, ...

  5. A Reduced Form Model for Ozone Based on Two Decades of CMAQ Simulations for the Continental United States

    EPA Science Inventory

    A Reduced Form Model (RFM) is a mathematical relationship between the inputs and outputs of an air quality model, permitting estimation of additional modeling without costly new regional-scale simulations. A 21-year Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) simulation for the con...

  6. Towards the Next Generation Air Quality Modeling System: Current Progress on Implementing Chemistry into MPAS-A

    EPA Science Inventory

    The community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) model of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is one of the most widely used air quality model worldwide; it is employed for both research and regulatory applications at major universities and government agencies for improving under...

  7. AN AGGREGATION AND EPISODE SELECTION SCHEME FOR EPA'S MODELS-3 CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    The development of an episode selection and aggregation approach, designed to support distributional estimation for use with the Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, is described. The approach utilized cluster analysis of the 700 hPa u and v wind field compo...

  8. LINKING THE CMAQ AND HYSPLIT MODELING SYSTEM INTERFACE PROGRAM AND EXAMPLE APPLICATION

    EPA Science Inventory

    A new software tool has been developed to link the Eulerian-based Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system with the Lagrangian-based HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) model. Both models require many of the same hourly meteorological...

  9. Utilizing Operational and Improved Remote Sensing Measurements to Assess Air Quality Monitoring Model Forecasts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gan, Chuen-Meei

    Air quality model forecasts from Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) are often used to support air quality applications such as regulatory issues and scientific inquiries on atmospheric science processes. In urban environments, these models become more complex due to the inherent complexity of the land surface coupling and the enhanced pollutants emissions. This makes it very difficult to diagnose the model, if the surface parameter forecasts such as PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 microm) are not accurate. For this reason, getting accurate boundary layer dynamic forecasts is as essential as quantifying realistic pollutants emissions. In this thesis, we explore the usefulness of vertical sounding measurements on assessing meteorological and air quality forecast models. In particular, we focus on assessing the WRF model (12km x 12km) coupled with the CMAQ model for the urban New York City (NYC) area using multiple vertical profiling and column integrated remote sensing measurements. This assessment is helpful in probing the root causes for WRF-CMAQ overestimates of surface PM2.5 occurring both predawn and post-sunset in the NYC area during the summer. In particular, we find that the significant underestimates in the WRF PBL height forecast is a key factor in explaining this anomaly. On the other hand, the model predictions of the PBL height during daytime when convective heating dominates were found to be highly correlated to lidar derived PBL height with minimal bias. Additional topics covered in this thesis include mathematical method using direct Mie scattering approach to convert aerosol microphysical properties from CMAQ into optical parameters making direct comparisons with lidar and multispectral radiometers feasible. Finally, we explore some tentative ideas on combining visible (VIS) and mid-infrared (MIR) sensors to better separate aerosols into fine and coarse modes.

  10. A COMPARISON OF CMAQ-BASED AEROSOL PROPERTIES WITH IMPROVE, MODIS, AND AERONET DATA

    EPA Science Inventory

    We compare select aerosol Properties derived from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model-simulated aerosol mass concentrations with routine data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite-borne Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer...

  11. IMPLEMENTATION OF AN URBAN CANOPY PARAMETERIZATION IN MM5 FOR MESO-GAMMA-SCALE AIR QUALITY MODELING APPLICATIONS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) is extending its Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System to provide detailed gridded air quality concentration fields and sub-grid variability characterization at neighborhood scales and in urban areas...

  12. Aerosol indirect effect on the grid-scale clouds in the two-way coupled WRF–CMAQ: model description, development, evaluation and regional analysis

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yu, S.; Mathur, R.; Pleim, J.

    This study implemented first, second and glaciation aerosol indirect effects (AIE) on resolved clouds in the two-way coupled Weather Research and Forecasting Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF–CMAQ) modeling system by including parameterizations for both cloud drop and ice number concentrations on the basis of CMAQ-predicted aerosol distributions and WRF meteorological conditions. The performance of the newly developed WRF–CMAQ model, with alternate Community Atmospheric Model (CAM) and Rapid Radiative Transfer Model for GCMs (RRTMG) radiation schemes, was evaluated with observations from the Clouds and the See http://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/. Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite and surface monitoring networks (AQS, IMPROVE, CASTNET, STN,more » and PRISM) over the continental US (CONUS) (12 km resolution) and eastern Texas (4 km resolution) during August and September of 2006. The results at the Air Quality System (AQS) surface sites show that in August, the normalized mean bias (NMB) values for PM 2.5 over the eastern US (EUS) and the western US (WUS) are 5.3% (-0.1%) and 0.4% (-5.2%) for WRF–CMAQ/CAM (WRF–CMAQ/RRTMG), respectively. The evaluation of PM 2.5 chemical composition reveals that in August, WRF–CMAQ/CAM (WRF–CMAQ/RRTMG) consistently underestimated the observed SO 4 2- by -23.0% (-27.7%), -12.5% (-18.9%) and -7.9% (-14.8%) over the EUS at the Clean Air Status Trends Network (CASTNET), Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) and Speciated Trends Network (STN) sites, respectively. Both configurations (WRF–CMAQ/CAM, WRF–CMAQ/RRTMG) overestimated the observed mean organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and and total carbon (TC) concentrations over the EUS in August at the IMPROVE sites. Both configurations generally underestimated the cloud field (shortwave cloud forcing, SWCF) over the CONUS in August due to the fact that the AIE on the subgrid convective clouds was not considered when the model

  13. SENSITIVITY OF THE CMAQ MERCURY MODEL TO GAS-PHASE OXIDATION CHEMISTRY

    EPA Science Inventory

    Simulations of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model for mercury have shown the vast majority of the mercury deposited in the United States to be in the form of oxidized mercury. However, most of this simulated oxidized mercury was the result of atmospheric oxidatio...

  14. Incorporating principal component analysis into air quality ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The efficacy of standard air quality model evaluation techniques is becoming compromised as the simulation periods continue to lengthen in response to ever increasing computing capacity. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a statistical approach called Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with the intent of motivating its use by the evaluation community. One of the main objectives of PCA is to identify, through data reduction, the recurring and independent modes of variations (or signals) within a very large dataset, thereby summarizing the essential information of that dataset so that meaningful and descriptive conclusions can be made. In this demonstration, PCA is applied to a simple evaluation metric – the model bias associated with EPA's Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model when compared to weekly observations of sulfate (SO42−) and ammonium (NH4+) ambient air concentrations measured by the Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNet). The advantages of using this technique are demonstrated as it identifies strong and systematic patterns of CMAQ model bias across a myriad of spatial and temporal scales that are neither constrained to geopolitical boundaries nor monthly/seasonal time periods (a limitation of many current studies). The technique also identifies locations (station–grid cell pairs) that are used as indicators for a more thorough diagnostic evaluation thereby hastening and facilitating understanding of the prob

  15. Evolution of Air Quality Model at the US EPA

    EPA Science Inventory

    At the US EPA, we have developed an air quality model, CMAQ, in the past 20+ years. Throughout the years, the model has been upgraded with respect to advancement of science. We have extended the model from regional to hemispheric. We have coupled it with meteorological model, WR...

  16. Application and evaluation of the WRF-CMAQ modeling system to the 2011 DISCOVER-AQ Baltimore-Washington D.C. study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Appel, W.; Gilliam, R. C.; Pouliot, G. A.; Godowitch, J. M.; Pleim, J.; Hogrefe, C.; Kang, D.; Roselle, S. J.; Mathur, R.

    2013-12-01

    The DISCOVER-AQ project (Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality), is a joint collaboration between NASA, U.S. EPA and a number of other local organizations with the goal of characterizing air quality in urban areas using satellite, aircraft, vertical profiler and ground based measurements (http://discover-aq.larc.nasa.gov). In July 2011, the DISCOVER-AQ project conducted intensive air quality measurements in the Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C. area in the eastern U.S. To take advantage of these unique data, the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, coupled with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to simulate the meteorology and air quality in the same region using 12-km, 4-km and 1-km horizontal grid spacings. The goal of the modeling exercise is to demonstrate the capability of the coupled WRF-CMAQ modeling system to simulate air quality at fine grid spacings in an urban area. Development of new data assimilation techniques and the use of higher resolution input data for the WRF model have been implemented to improve the meteorological results, particularly at the 4-km and 1-km grid resolutions. In addition, a number of updates to the CMAQ model were made to enhance the capability of the modeling system to accurately represent the magnitude and spatial distribution of pollutants at fine model resolutions. Data collected during the 2011 DISCOVER-AQ campaign, which include aircraft transects and spirals, ship measurements in the Chesapeake Bay, ozonesondes, tethered balloon measurements, DRAGON aerosol optical depth measurements, LIDAR measurements, and intensive ground-based site measurements, are used to evaluate results from the WRF-CMAQ modeling system for July 2011 at the three model grid resolutions. The results of the comparisons of the model results to these measurements will be presented, along with results from the various sensitivity simulations

  17. INTERDEPENDENCIES OF MULTI-POLLUTANT CONTROL SIMULATIONS IN AN AIR QUALITY MODEL

    EPA Science Inventory

    In this work, we use the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system to examine the effect of several control strategies on simultaneous concentrations of ozone, PM2.5, and three important HAPs: formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and benzene.

  18. Ensemble prediction of air quality using the WRF/CMAQ model system for health effect studies in China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Jianlin; Li, Xun; Huang, Lin; Ying, Qi; Zhang, Qiang; Zhao, Bin; Wang, Shuxiao; Zhang, Hongliang

    2017-11-01

    Accurate exposure estimates are required for health effect analyses of severe air pollution in China. Chemical transport models (CTMs) are widely used to provide spatial distribution, chemical composition, particle size fractions, and source origins of air pollutants. The accuracy of air quality predictions in China is greatly affected by the uncertainties of emission inventories. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with meteorological inputs from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model were used in this study to simulate air pollutants in China in 2013. Four simulations were conducted with four different anthropogenic emission inventories, including the Multi-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC), the Emission Inventory for China by School of Environment at Tsinghua University (SOE), the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), and the Regional Emission inventory in Asia version 2 (REAS2). Model performance of each simulation was evaluated against available observation data from 422 sites in 60 cities across China. Model predictions of O3 and PM2.5 generally meet the model performance criteria, but performance differences exist in different regions, for different pollutants, and among inventories. Ensemble predictions were calculated by linearly combining the results from different inventories to minimize the sum of the squared errors between the ensemble results and the observations in all cities. The ensemble concentrations show improved agreement with observations in most cities. The mean fractional bias (MFB) and mean fractional errors (MFEs) of the ensemble annual PM2.5 in the 60 cities are -0.11 and 0.24, respectively, which are better than the MFB (-0.25 to -0.16) and MFE (0.26-0.31) of individual simulations. The ensemble annual daily maximum 1 h O3 (O3-1h) concentrations are also improved, with mean normalized bias (MNB) of 0.03 and mean normalized errors (MNE) of 0.14, compared to MNB of 0.06-0.19 and

  19. Utility of NCEP Operational and Emerging Meteorological Models for Driving Air Quality Prediction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McQueen, J.; Huang, J.; Huang, H. C.; Shafran, P.; Lee, P.; Pan, L.; Sleinkofer, A. M.; Stajner, I.; Upadhayay, S.; Tallapragada, V.

    2017-12-01

    Operational air quality predictions for the United States (U. S.) are provided at NOAA by the National Air Quality Forecasting Capability (NAQFC). NAQFC provides nationwide operational predictions of ozone and particulate matter twice per day (at 06 and 12 UTC cycles) at 12 km resolution and 1 hour time intervals through 48 hours and distributed at http://airquality.weather.gov. The NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) operational North American Mesoscale (NAM) 12 km weather prediction is used to drive the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. In 2017, the NAM was upgraded in part to reduce a warm 2m temperature bias in Summer (V4). At the same time CMAQ was updated to V5.0.2. Both versions of the models were run in parallel for several months. Therefore the impact of improvements from the atmospheric chemistry model versus upgrades with the weather prediction model could be assessed. . Improvements to CMAQ were related to improvements to improvements in NAM 2 m temperature bias through increasing the opacity of clouds and reducing downward shortwave radiation resulted in reduced ozone photolysis. Higher resolution operational NWP models have recently been introduced as part of the NCEP modeling suite. These include the NAM CONUS Nest (3 km horizontal resolution) run four times per day through 60 hours and the High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR, 3 km) run hourly out to 18 hours. In addition, NCEP with other NOAA labs has begun to develop and test the Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS) based on the FV3 global model. This presentation also overviews recent developments with operational numerical weather prediction and evaluates the ability of these models for predicting low level temperatures, clouds and capturing boundary layer processes important for driving air quality prediction in complex terrain. The assessed meteorological model errors could help determine the magnitude of possible pollutant errors from CMAQ if used

  20. Investigation of the air pollutant distribution over Northeast Asia using Models-3/CMAQ

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, J. Y.; Ghim, Y. S.; Won, J.-G.; Yoon, S.-C.; Woo, J.-H.

    2003-04-01

    Northeast Asia is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Huge amount of air pollutants emitted in the area is transported to the east along with prevailing westerlies. In spring of Northeast Asia, migratory anticyclones are frequent. Transport and distribution of air pollutants can be substantially altered according to the locations of anticyclones. In this work, two different synoptic meteorological conditions associated with different locations of anticyclones in May 1999 were identified. The distributions of gaseous and particulate pollutants in these meteorological conditions were predicted and compared. Models-3/CMAQ (USEPA Models-3/Community Multi-scale Air Quality) and MM5 (PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Modeling System) were used to predict air quality and meteorology, respectively. The modeling domain was 5,184 km x 3,456 km centering on the Korean Peninsula (130o N, 40o E). The grid size was 108 km x 108 km and the number of grids was 48 in the west-east direction and 32 in the south-north direction. The number of layers in the vertical direction was six to the height of 500 hPa. Emission data were taken from the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, University of Iowa for anthropogenic emissions and from GEIA (Global Emissions Inventory Activity) for biogenic emissions. The GDAPS (Global Data Assimilation and Prediction System) data of six-hour intervals were used for initial and boundary conditions of MM5.

  1. Sensitivity of an Integrated Mesoscale Atmosphere and Agriculture Land Modeling System (WRF/CMAQ-EPIC) to MODIS Vegetation and Lightning Assimilation

    EPA Science Inventory

    The combined meteorology and air quality modeling system composed of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is an important decision support tool that is used in research and regulatory decisions related to emissions, meteo...

  2. Application, evaluation and sensitivity analysis of the coupled WRF-CMAQ system from regional to urban scales

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science chemical transport model (CTM) capable of simulating the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants. Similarly, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is a state-of-the-science mete...

  3. Operational air quality forecast guidance for the United States

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stajner, Ivanka; Lee, Pius; Tong, Daniel; Pan, Li; McQueen, Jeff; Huang, Jinaping; Djalalova, Irina; Wilczak, James; Huang, Ho-Chun; Wang, Jun; Stein, Ariel; Upadhayay, Sikchya

    2016-04-01

    NOAA provides operational air quality predictions for ozone and wildfire smoke over the United States (U.S.) and predictions of airborne dust over the contiguous 48 states at http://airquality.weather.gov. These predictions are produced using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Community Model for Air Quality (CMAQ) and NOAA's HYSPLIT model (Stein et al., 2015) with meteorological inputs from the North American Mesoscale Forecast System (NAM). The current efforts focus on improving test predictions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from CMAQ. Emission inputs for ozone and PM2.5 predictions include inventory information from the U.S. EPA and recently added contributions of particulate matter from intermittent wildfires and windblown dust that rely on near real-time information. Current testing includes refinement of the vertical grid structure in CMAQ and inclusion of contributions of dust transport from global sources into the U.S. domain using the NEMS Global Aerosol Capability (NGAC). The addition of wildfire smoke and dust contributions in CMAQ reduced model underestimation of PM2.5 in summertime. Wintertime overestimation of PM2.5 was reduced by suppressing emissions of soil particles when the terrain is covered by snow or ice. Nevertheless, seasonal biases and biases in the diurnal cycle of PM2.5 are still substantial. Therefore, a new bias correction procedure based on an analog ensemble approach was introduced (Djalalova et al., 2015). It virtually eliminates biases in monthly means or in the diurnal cycle, but it also reduces day-to-day variability in PM2.5 predictions. Refinements to the bias correction procedure are being developed. Upgrades for the representation of wildfire smoke emissions within the domain and from global sources are in testing. Another area of active development includes approaches to scale emission inventories for nitrogen oxides in order to reproduce recent changes observed by the AirNow surface monitoring network and by

  4. AN OPERATIONAL EVALUATION OF THE ETA-CMAQ AIR QUALITY FORECAST MODEL

    EPA Science Inventory

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are developing an Air Quality Forecasting Program that will eventually result in an operational Nationwide Air Quality Forecasting System. The initial pha...

  5. Implementing subgrid-scale cloudiness into the Model for Prediction Across Scales-Atmosphere (MPAS-A) for next generation global air quality modeling

    EPA Science Inventory

    A next generation air quality modeling system is being developed at the U.S. EPA to enable seamless modeling of air quality from global to regional to (eventually) local scales. State of the science chemistry and aerosol modules from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) mo...

  6. CMAQ Involvement in Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Description of Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII). Different chemical transport models are applied by different groups over North America and Europe and evaluated against observations.

  7. A Five- Year CMAQ Model Performance for Wildfires and ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Biomass burning has been identified as an important contributor to the degradation of air quality because of its impact on ozone and particulate matter. Two components of the biomass burning inventory, wildfires and prescribed fires are routinely estimated in the national emissions inventory. However, there is a large amount of uncertainty in the development of these emission inventory sectors. We have completed a 5 year set of CMAQ model simulations (2008-2012) in which we have simulated regional air quality with and without the wildfire and prescribed fire inventory. We will examine CMAQ model performance over regions with significant PM2.5 and Ozone contribution from prescribed fires and wildfires. The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Computational Exposure Division (CED) develops and evaluates data, decision-support tools, and models to be applied to media-specific or receptor-specific problem areas. CED uses modeling-based approaches to characterize exposures, evaluate fate and transport, and support environmental diagnostics/forensics with input from multiple data sources. It also develops media- and receptor-specific models, process models, and decision support tools for use both within and outside of EPA.

  8. "Advances in Coupled Air Quality, Farm Management and ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    A cropland farm management modeling system for regional air quality and field-scale applications of bi-directional ammonia exchange was presented at ITM XXI. The goal of this research is to improve estimates of nitrogen deposition to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and ambient ammonium aerosol particle concentrations injurious to human health. These concepts have been implemented and have been released as options in CMAQ 5.01. This presentation will summarize the integration of these two models and will present model performance results relative to wet deposition measurements, ambient ammonium aerosol and ambient ammonia observations. Results indicate a shift in the timing of current U.S. agricultural emission inventories and improved CMAQ model performance. Comparison to annual wet deposition observations suggests remaining bias may be attributable primarily to precipitation model errors. Preliminary results of CMAQ deposition and ambient ammonia response to interannual variability in farm management activities will also be presented. The USEPA Office of Air and Radiation is currently considering the recommendation of the coupled model for use in standard setting activities and applications are being developed in collaboration with USEPA Office of Water and Regional Offices. The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Atmospheric Modeling and Analysis Division (AMAD) conducts research in support of EPA mission to protect human health and the envi

  9. Assessment of the effects of horizontal grid resolution on long-term air quality trends using coupled WRF-CMAQ simulations

    EPA Science Inventory

    The objective of this study is to determine the adequacy of using a relatively coarse horizontal resolution (i.e. 36 km) to simulate long-term trends of pollutant concentrations and radiation variables with the coupled WRF-CMAQ model. WRF-CMAQ simulations over the continental Uni...

  10. NOAA's National Air Quality Prediction and Development of Aerosol and Atmospheric Composition Prediction Components for NGGPS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stajner, I.; McQueen, J.; Lee, P.; Stein, A. F.; Wilczak, J. M.; Upadhayay, S.; daSilva, A.; Lu, C. H.; Grell, G. A.; Pierce, R. B.

    2017-12-01

    NOAA's operational air quality predictions of ozone, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and wildfire smoke over the United States and airborne dust over the contiguous 48 states are distributed at http://airquality.weather.gov. The National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) providing these predictions was updated in June 2017. Ozone and PM2.5 predictions are now produced using the system linking the Community Multiscale Air Quality model (CMAQ) version 5.0.2 with meteorological inputs from the North American Mesoscale Forecast System (NAM) version 4. Predictions of PM2.5 include intermittent dust emissions and wildfire emissions from an updated version of BlueSky system. For the latter, the CMAQ system is initialized by rerunning it over the previous 24 hours to include wildfire emissions at the time when they were observed from the satellites. Post processing to reduce the bias in PM2.5 prediction was updated using the Kalman filter analog (KFAN) technique. Dust related aerosol species at the CMAQ domain lateral boundaries now come from the NEMS Global Aerosol Component (NGAC) v2 predictions. Further development of NAQFC includes testing of CMAQ predictions to 72 hours, Canadian fire emissions data from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and the KFAN technique to reduce bias in ozone predictions. NOAA is developing the Next Generation Global Predictions System (NGGPS) with an aerosol and gaseous atmospheric composition component to improve and integrate aerosol and ozone predictions and evaluate their impacts on physics, data assimilation and weather prediction. Efforts are underway to improve cloud microphysics, investigate aerosol effects and include representations of atmospheric composition of varying complexity into NGGPS: from the operational ozone parameterization, GOCART aerosols, with simplified ozone chemistry, to CMAQ chemistry with aerosol modules. We will present progress on community building, planning and development of NGGPS.

  11. Comparative evaluation of the impact of GRAPES and MM5 meteorology on CMAQ prediction over Pearl River Delta, China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Deng, T.; Chen, Y.; Wan, Q.

    2017-12-01

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was utilized for forecasting air quality over the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region from December 2013 to January 2014. The pollution forecasting performance of CMAQ coupled with the two different meteorological models, the Global/Regional Assimilation and Prediction System (GRAPES) and the 5th-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5), was assessed by combining observational data. The effect of meteorological factors and physical-chemical processes on forecast results was discussed through process analysis. The results showed that both models have similar good performance with better performance by GRAPES-CMAQ. GRAPES was superior in predicting the overall meteorological element variation tendencies but showed large deviations in atmospheric pressure and wind speed. It contributed to higher correlation coefficients of the pollutants with GRAPES-CMAQ, but with greater deviation. The underestimations of nitrate and ammonium salt contributed to the underestimations of Particle Matter (PM) and extinction coefficients. Surface layer SO2, CO and NO source emissions made the sole positive contribution. O3 originated mainly from horizontal and vertical transport and chemical processes were the main consumption item. On the contrary, NO2 derived mainly from chemical production.

  12. Dynamic evaluation of two decades of WRF-CMAQ ozone ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Dynamic evaluation of the fully coupled Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)– Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model ozone simulations over the contiguous United States (CONUS) using two decades of simulations covering the period from 1990 to 2010 is conducted to assess how well the changes in observed ozone air quality are simulated by the model. The changes induced by variations in meteorology and/or emissions are also evaluated during the same timeframe using spectral decomposition of observed and modeled ozone time series with the aim of identifying the underlying forcing mechanisms that control ozone exceedances and making informed recommendations for the optimal use of regional-scale air quality models. The evaluation is focused on the warm season's (i.e., May–September) daily maximum 8-hr (DM8HR) ozone concentrations, the 4th highest (4th) and average of top 10 DM8HR ozone values (top10), as well as the spectrally-decomposed components of the DM8HR ozone time series using the Kolmogorov-Zurbenko (KZ) filter. Results of the dynamic evaluation are presented for six regions in the U.S., consistent with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climatic regions. During the earlier 11-yr period (1990–2000), the simulated and observed trends are not statistically significant. During the more recent 2000–2010 period, all trends are statistically significant and WRF-CMAQ captures the observed trend in most regions. Given large n

  13. Comparison of exposure estimation methods for air pollutants: ambient monitoring data and regional air quality simulation.

    PubMed

    Bravo, Mercedes A; Fuentes, Montserrat; Zhang, Yang; Burr, Michael J; Bell, Michelle L

    2012-07-01

    Air quality modeling could potentially improve exposure estimates for use in epidemiological studies. We investigated this application of air quality modeling by estimating location-specific (point) and spatially-aggregated (county level) exposure concentrations of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm (PM(2.5)) and ozone (O(3)) for the eastern U.S. in 2002 using the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system and a traditional approach using ambient monitors. The monitoring approach produced estimates for 370 and 454 counties for PM(2.5) and O(3), respectively. Modeled estimates included 1861 counties, covering 50% more population. The population uncovered by monitors differed from those near monitors (e.g., urbanicity, race, education, age, unemployment, income, modeled pollutant levels). CMAQ overestimated O(3) (annual normalized mean bias=4.30%), while modeled PM(2.5) had an annual normalized mean bias of -2.09%, although bias varied seasonally, from 32% in November to -27% in July. Epidemiology may benefit from air quality modeling, with improved spatial and temporal resolution and the ability to study populations far from monitors that may differ from those near monitors. However, model performance varied by measure of performance, season, and location. Thus, the appropriateness of using such modeled exposures in health studies depends on the pollutant and metric of concern, acceptable level of uncertainty, population of interest, study design, and other factors. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Understanding sources of organic aerosol during CalNex-2010 using the CMAQ-VBS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Woody, Matthew C.; Baker, Kirk R.; Hayes, Patrick L.; Jimenez, Jose L.; Koo, Bonyoung; Pye, Havala O. T.

    2016-03-01

    Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model simulations utilizing the traditional organic aerosol (OA) treatment (CMAQ-AE6) and a volatility basis set (VBS) treatment for OA (CMAQ-VBS) were evaluated against measurements collected at routine monitoring networks (Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) and Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE)) and those collected during the 2010 California at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex) field campaign to examine important sources of OA in southern California. Traditionally, CMAQ treats primary organic aerosol (POA) as nonvolatile and uses a two-product framework to represent secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. CMAQ-VBS instead treats POA as semivolatile and lumps OA using volatility bins spaced an order of magnitude apart. The CMAQ-VBS approach underpredicted organic carbon (OC) at IMPROVE and CSN sites to a greater degree than CMAQ-AE6 due to the semivolatile POA treatment. However, comparisons to aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) measurements collected at Pasadena, CA, indicated that CMAQ-VBS better represented the diurnal profile and primary/secondary split of OA. CMAQ-VBS SOA underpredicted the average measured AMS oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA, a surrogate for SOA) concentration by a factor of 5.2, representing a considerable improvement to CMAQ-AE6 SOA predictions (factor of 24 lower than AMS). We use two new methods, one based on species ratios (SOA/ΔCO and SOA/Ox) and another on a simplified SOA parameterization, to apportion the SOA underprediction for CMAQ-VBS to slow photochemical oxidation (estimated as 1.5 × lower than observed at Pasadena using -log(NOx : NOy)), low intrinsic SOA formation efficiency (low by 1.6 to 2 × for Pasadena), and low emissions or excessive dispersion for the Pasadena site (estimated to be 1.6 to 2.3 × too low/excessive). The first and third factors are common to CMAQ-AE6, while the intrinsic SOA formation efficiency for that model is

  15. Understanding sources of organic aerosol during CalNex-2010 using the CMAQ-VBS

    DOE PAGES

    Woody, Matthew C.; Baker, Kirk R.; Hayes, Patrick L.; ...

    2016-03-29

    In this paper, Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model simulations utilizing the traditional organic aerosol (OA) treatment (CMAQ-AE6) and a volatility basis set (VBS) treatment for OA (CMAQ-VBS) were evaluated against measurements collected at routine monitoring networks (Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) and Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE)) and those collected during the 2010 California at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex) field campaign to examine important sources of OA in southern California. Traditionally, CMAQ treats primary organic aerosol (POA) as nonvolatile and uses a two-product framework to represent secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. CMAQ-VBS insteadmore » treats POA as semivolatile and lumps OA using volatility bins spaced an order of magnitude apart. The CMAQ-VBS approach underpredicted organic carbon (OC) at IMPROVE and CSN sites to a greater degree than CMAQ-AE6 due to the semivolatile POA treatment. However, comparisons to aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) measurements collected at Pasadena, CA, indicated that CMAQ-VBS better represented the diurnal profile and primary/secondary split of OA. CMAQ-VBS SOA underpredicted the average measured AMS oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA, a surrogate for SOA) concentration by a factor of 5.2, representing a considerable improvement to CMAQ-AE6 SOA predictions (factor of 24 lower than AMS). We use two new methods, one based on species ratios (SOA/ΔCO and SOA/O x) and another on a simplified SOA parameterization, to apportion the SOA underprediction for CMAQ-VBS to slow photochemical oxidation (estimated as 1.5 × lower than observed at Pasadena using -log(NO x:NO y)), low intrinsic SOA formation efficiency (low by 1.6 to 2 × for Pasadena), and low emissions or excessive dispersion for the Pasadena site (estimated to be 1.6 to 2.3 × too low/excessive). The first and third factors are common to CMAQ-AE6, while the intrinsic SOA formation

  16. Observations and modeling of air quality trends over 1990-2010 across the northern hemisphere: China, the United States and Europe

    EPA Science Inventory

    Trends in air quality across the Northern Hemisphere over a 21-year period (1990–2010) were simulated using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) multiscale chemical transport model driven by meteorology from Weather Research and Forecasting WRF) simulations and internally ...

  17. ATMOSPHERIC MERCURY SIMULATION USING THE CMAQ MODEL: FORMULATION DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS OF WET DEPOSITION RESULTS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system has recently been adapted to simulate the emission, transport, transformation and deposition of atmospheric mercury in three distinct forms; elemental mercury gas, reactive gaseous mercury, and particulate mercury. Emis...

  18. Dynamic Evaluation of Two Decades of CMAQ Simulations over the Continental United States

    EPA Science Inventory

    This presentation focuses on the dynamic evaluation of the CMAQ model over the continental United States using multi-decadal simulations for the period from 1990 to 2010 to examine how well the changes in observed ozone air quality induced by variations in meteorology and/or emis...

  19. The Effect of Lateral Boundary Values on Atmospheric Mercury Simulations with the CMAQ Model

    EPA Science Inventory

    Simulation results from three global-scale models of atmospheric mercury have been used to define three sets of initial condition and boundary condition (IC/BC) data for regional-scale model simulations over North America using the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. ...

  20. Modeling crop residue burning experiments and assessing the fire impacts on air quality

    EPA Science Inventory

    Prescribed burning is a common land management practice that results in ambient emissions of a variety of primary and secondary pollutants with negative health impacts. The community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is used to conduct 2 km grid resolution simulations of prescr...

  1. Modeling the impacts of green infrastructure land use changes on air quality and meteorology case study and sensitivity analysis in Kansas City

    EPA Science Inventory

    Changes in vegetation cover associated with urban planning efforts may affect regional meteorology and air quality. Here we use a comprehensive coupled meteorology-air quality model (WRF-CMAQ) to simulate the influence of planned land use changes from green infrastructure impleme...

  2. Dynamic evaluation of two decades of WRF-CMAQ ozone simulations over the contiguous United States

    EPA Science Inventory

    Dynamic evaluation of the fully coupled Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)– Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model ozone simulations over the contiguous United States (CONUS) using two decades of simulations covering the period from 1990 to 2010 is conducted to ...

  3. Dynamic evaluation of two decades of WRF-CMAQ ozone simulations over the contiguous United States

    EPA Science Inventory

    Dynamic evaluation of the fully coupled Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)– Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model ozone simulations over the contiguous United States (CONUS) using two decades of simulations covering the period from 1990 to 2010 is conducted to assess...

  4. Verification of CMAQ modeling with Discover-AQ campaigns against measurements and efficacy of emission inversion modeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, P.; Tang, Y.; Pan, L.; Szykman, J.; Plessel, T.; Tong, D.; Liu, Q.

    2015-12-01

    NASA has led a few DISCOVER-AQ campaigns in recent years: (1) Baltimore/Washington in July 2011, (2) Central valley, CA in January - February 2013, (3) Houston, TX in September 2013, and co-led with NCAR (4) Front Range, CO in July - August 2014. NOAA Air Resources Laboratory has participated in all these campaigns in the role of air quality forecasting support. For some of these campaigns post analyses were performed with the possible help of after-the-fact observed data from satellite retrieved radiances to constrain emissions through the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) developed at the Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation. It is our experience that despite the vastly different chemical regime, season, terrain, and meteorological conditions of the domain for the campaigns, we found that the emissions input and the U.S. EPA Community Air Quality model (CMAQ), the forecasting chemical transport model used to generate the forecast had severely under-estimated formaldehyde (HCHO), and carbon monoxide (CO) aloft between surface and the middle of the free troposphere - 500 hPa. Post analyses point to two strong suspects of these deficiencies: (a) emission projection fed into CMAQ, and/or (b) erroneously fast removal of the species. We investigate both of these potential deficiencies and for the former possible reason we looked into data assimilation and possible inverse modeling to adjust emission projection for CMAQ. We will elaborate more on the CRTM which plays a critical role in this aspect of remedying erroneous inputs to CMAQ. In addition, we will utilize some satellite products to improve initial fields of aerosols and CO for air quality forecasting. Suomi NPP VIIRS aerosol optical depth (AOD) environmental data record (EDR) delivers global aerosol information daily. The Unique CrIS/ATMS Processing System (NUCAPS) operationally generates vertical profiles of atmospheric carbonate EDRs (CO, CO2, and CH4) and ozone during day and night. The AOD

  5. The Use of Regulatory Air Quality Models to Develop Successful Ozone Attainment Strategies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Canty, T. P.; Salawitch, R. J.; Dickerson, R. R.; Ring, A.; Goldberg, D. L.; He, H.; Anderson, D. C.; Vinciguerra, T.

    2015-12-01

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed lowering the 8-hr ozone standard to between 65-70 ppb. Not all regions of the U.S. are in attainment of the current 75 ppb standard and it is expected that many regions currently in attainment will not meet the future, lower surface ozone standard. Ozone production is a nonlinear function of emissions, biological processes, and weather. Federal and state agencies rely on regulatory air quality models such as the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) to test ozone precursor emission reduction strategies that will bring states into compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). We will describe various model scenarios that simulate how future limits on emission of ozone precursors (i.e. NOx and VOCs) from sources such as power plants and vehicles will affect air quality. These scenarios are currently being developed by states required to submit a State Implementation Plan to the EPA. Projections from these future case scenarios suggest that strategies intended to control local ozone may also bring upwind states into attainment of the new NAAQS. Ground based, aircraft, and satellite observations are used to ensure that air quality models accurately represent photochemical processes within the troposphere. We will highlight some of the improvements made to the CMAQ and CAMx model framework based on our analysis of NASA observations obtained by the OMI instrument on the Aura satellite and by the DISCOVER-AQ field campaign.

  6. Data for Figures and Tables in Journal Article Assessment of the Effects of Horizontal Grid Resolution on Long-Term Air Quality Trends using Coupled WRF-CMAQ Simulations, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.02.036

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The dataset represents the data depicted in the Figures and Tables of a Journal Manuscript with the following abstract: The objective of this study is to determine the adequacy of using a relatively coarse horizontal resolution (i.e. 36 km) to simulate long-term trends of pollutant concentrations and radiation variables with the coupled WRF-CMAQ model. WRF-CMAQ simulations over the continental United State are performed over the 2001 to 2010 time period at two different horizontal resolutions of 12 and 36 km. Both simulations used the same emission inventory and model configurations. Model results are compared both in space and time to assess the potential weaknesses and strengths of using coarse resolution in long-term air quality applications. The results show that the 36 km and 12 km simulations are comparable in terms of trends analysis for both pollutant concentrations and radiation variables. The advantage of using the coarser 36 km resolution is a significant reduction of computational cost, time and storage requirement which are key considerations when performing multiple years of simulations for trend analysis. However, if such simulations are to be used for local air quality analysis, finer horizontal resolution may be beneficial since it can provide information on local gradients. In particular, divergences between the two simulations are noticeable in urban, complex terrain and coastal regions.This dataset is associated with the following publication

  7. Understanding the impact of recent advances in isoprene photooxidation on simulations of regional air quality

    EPA Science Inventory

    The CMAQ (Community Multiscale Air Quality) us model in combination with observations for INTEX-NA/ICARTT (Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment–North America/International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation) 2004 are used to evalua...

  8. A FRAMEWORK FOR FINE-SCALE COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS AIR QUALITY MODELING AND ANALYSIS

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper discusses a framework for fine-scale CFD modeling that may be developed to complement the present Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system which itself is a computational fluid dynamics model. A goal of this presentation is to stimulate discussions on w...

  9. Dynamic Evaluation of Two Decades of WRF-CMAQ Ozone Simulations over the Contiguous United States (2017 MAC-MAQ Conference Presentation)

    EPA Science Inventory

    Dynamic evaluation of two decades of ozone simulations performed with the fully coupled Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)–Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model over the contiguous United States is conducted to assess how well the changes in observed ozone air ...

  10. Real-Time Bias-Adjusted O3 and PM2.5 Air Quality Index Forecasts and their Performance Evaluations over the Continental United States

    EPA Science Inventory

    The National Air Quality Forecast Capacity (NAQFC) system, which links NOAA's North American Mesoscale (NAM) meteorological model with EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, provided operational ozone (O3) and experimental fine particular matter (PM2...

  11. Understanding sources of organic aerosol during CalNex-2010 using the CMAQ-VBS

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Woody, M. C.; Baker, K. R.; Hayes, P. L.; Jimenez, J. L.; Koo, B.; Pye, H. O. T.

    2015-10-01

    Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model simulations utilizing the volatility basis set (VBS) treatment for organic aerosols (CMAQ-VBS) were evaluated against measurements collected at routine monitoring networks (Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) and Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE)) and those collected during the 2010 California at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex) field campaign to examine important sources of organic aerosol (OA) in southern California. CMAQ-VBS (OA lumped by volatility, semivolatile POA) underpredicted total organic carbon (OC) at CSN (-25.5 % Normalized Median Bias (NMdnB)) and IMPROVE (-63.9 % NMdnB) locations and total OC was underpredicted to a greater degree compared to the CMAQ-AE6 (9.9 and -55.7 % NMdnB, respectively; semi-explicit OA treatment, SOA lumped by parent hydrocarbon, nonvolatile POA). However, comparisons to aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) measurements collected at Pasadena, CA indicated that CMAQ-VBS better represented the diurnal profile and the primary/secondary split of OA. CMAQ-VBS secondary organic aerosol (SOA) underpredicted the average measured AMS oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA, a surrogate of SOA) concentration by a factor of 5.2 (4.7 μg m-3 measured vs. 0.9 μg m-3 modeled), a considerable improvement to CMAQ-AE6 SOA predictions, which were approximately 24× lower than the average AMS OOA concentration. We use two new methods, based on species ratios and on a simplified SOA parameterization from the observations, to apportion the SOA underprediction for CMAQ-VBS to too slow photochemical oxidation (estimated as 1.5× lower than observed at Pasadena using - log (NOx: NOy)), low intrinsic SOA formation efficiency (low by 1.6 to 2× for Pasadena), and too low emissions or too high dispersion for the Pasadena site (estimated to be 1.6 to 2.3× too low/high). The first and third factors will be similar for CMAQ-AE6, while the intrinsic SOA formation

  12. THE EMISSION PROCESSING SYSTEM FOR THE ETA/CMAQ AIR QUALITY FORECAST SYSTEM

    EPA Science Inventory

    NOAA and EPA have created an Air Quality Forecast (AQF) system. This AQF system links an adaptation of the EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality Model with the 12 kilometer ETA model running operationally at NOAA's National Center for Environmental Predication (NCEP). One of th...

  13. Analyses of the long-range transport of nitrogeneous species through the atmosphere from the Asian continent using observational data at Cape Hedo, Okinawa, and CMAQ postanalyses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sadanaga, Y.; Bandow, H.; Uno, I.; Sera, T.; Yuba, A.; Takenaka, N.; Takami, A.; Kurokawa, J.; Hatakeyama, S.

    2010-12-01

    The long-term monitoring of air quality has been continuing at the Cape Hedo Atmosphere and Aerosol Monitoring Station (CHAAMS) in Okinawa, Japan in terms of assessing the environmental impact and biogeochemical effect to the marine-surface activities by the economic growth of Asian continent. Among the monitoring data, total odd nitrogen oxides (NOy), HNO3, particulate nitrate (NO3-(p)), NH3, NH4+ and SO42- were analyzed for the period from 16 March to 13 April 2008 as well as the postanalyses of those species by the Community Muti-scale Air Quality model (CMAQ) of those species. NOy and total nitrate (TN = HNO3 + NO3-(p)) concentrations from China (CH) air mass origin were high during the observational period in both observed and model-calculated result. The long-range transport of odd nitrogen species from the Asian continent is supported with respect to both the CMAQ postanalyses and the observations. HNO3 and NO3-(p) concentrations from CH air mass origin were also high during the observational period. However, the HNO3 diurnal variation with daytime peak and nighttime lows suggests that HNO3 around the CHAAMS forms photochemically in situ or in areas relatively close to the CHAAMS. The maximum and minimum concentrations of NH3 were observed at Pacific Ocean (PO) and Middle China air mass origins, respectively, and the observed NH3 concentrations from PO air mass origin were highest. NH3 concentration calculated by the CMAQ failed to reproduce observed variation, this is because the horizontal resolution of CMAQ (-20km) is not sufficient to allocate the land surface/vegetation base NH3 emission. NH4+ and SO42- concentrations from CH air mass origin were high during the observational period for both the observation and the CMAQ calculation. As well as the case of NOy and TN, the long-range transport of ammonium and sulfur compounds from the Asian continent is also supported in terms of both the CMAQ postanalyses and the observations.

  14. Dynamic Evaluation of Two Decades of CMAQ Simulations over the Continental United States (book chapter)

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper focuses on dynamic evaluation of the CMAQ model over the continental United States using multi-decadal simulations for the period from 1990 to 2010 to examine how well the changes in observed ozone air quality induced by variations in meteorology and/or emissions are s...

  15. VERIFICATION OF SURFACE LAYER OZONE FORECASTS IN THE NOAA/EPA AIR QUALITY FORECAST SYSTEM IN DIFFERENT REGIONS UNDER DIFFERENT SYNOPTIC SCENARIOS

    EPA Science Inventory

    An air quality forecast (AQF) system has been established at NOAA/NCEP since 2003 as a collaborative effort of NOAA and EPA. The system is based on NCEP's Eta mesoscale meteorological model and EPA's CMAQ air quality model (Davidson et al, 2004). The vision behind this system is ...

  16. Development and evaluation of a physics-based windblown dust emission scheme implemented in the CMAQ modeling system

    EPA Science Inventory

    A new windblown dust emission treatment was incorporated in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. This new model treatment has been built upon previously developed physics-based parameterization schemes from the literature. A distinct and novel feature of t...

  17. MODELING ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF NITROGEN OXIDES EMISSION REDUCTIONS ON OZONE AIR QUALITY IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES: OFFSETTING INCREASES IN ENERGY USE

    EPA Science Inventory

    The objective of this study is to examine changes in ambient ozone concentrations estimated by a photochemical air quality model in response to the NOx emission reductions imposed on the utility sector. To accomplish this task, CMAQ air quality model simulations were performe...

  18. Temporalization of Electric Generation Emissions for Improved Representation of Peak Air Quality Episodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Farkas, C. M.; Moeller, M.; Carlton, A. G.

    2013-12-01

    Photochemical transport models routinely under predict peak air quality events. This deficiency may be due, in part, to inadequate temporalization of emissions from the electric generating sector. The National Emissions Inventory (NEI) reports emissions from Electric Generating Units (EGUs) by either Continuous Emission Monitors (CEMs) that report hourly values or as an annual total. The Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions preprocessor (SMOKE), used to prepare emissions data for modeling with the CMAQ air quality model, allocates annual emission totals throughout the year using specific monthly, weekly, and hourly weights according to standard classification code (SCC) and location. This approach represents average diurnal and seasonal patterns of electricity generation but does not capture spikes in emissions due to episodic use as with peaking units or due to extreme weather events. In this project we use a combination of state air quality permits, CEM data, and EPA emission factors to more accurately temporalize emissions of NOx, SO2 and particulate matter (PM) during the extensive heat wave of July and August 2006. Two CMAQ simulations are conducted; the first with the base NEI emissions and the second with improved temporalization, more representative of actual emissions during the heat wave. Predictions from both simulations are evaluated with O3 and PM measurement data from EPA's National Air Monitoring Stations (NAMS) and State and Local Air Monitoring Stations (SLAMS) during the heat wave, for which ambient concentrations of criteria pollutants were often above NAAQS. During periods of increased photochemistry and high pollutant concentrations, it is critical that emissions are most accurately represented in air quality models.

  19. Improved meteorology from an updated WRF/CMAQ modeling ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Realistic vegetation characteristics and phenology from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) products improve the simulation for the meteorology and air quality modeling system WRF/CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecasting model and Community Multiscale Air Quality model) that employs the Pleim-Xiu land surface model (PX LSM). Recently, PX LSM WRF/CMAQ has been updated in vegetation, soil, and boundary layer processes resulting in improved 2 m temperature (T) and mixing ratio (Q), 10 m wind speed, and surface ozone simulations across the domain compared to the previous version for a period around August 2006. Yearlong meteorology simulations with the updated system demonstrate that MODIS input helps reduce bias of the 2 m Q estimation during the growing season from April to September. Improvements follow the green-up in the southeast from April and move toward the west and north through August. From October to March, MODIS input does not have much influence on the system because vegetation is not as active. The greatest effects of MODIS input include more accurate phenology, better representation of leaf area index (LAI) for various forest ecosystems and agricultural areas, and realistically sparse vegetation coverage in the western drylands. Despite the improved meteorology, MODIS input causes higher bias for the surface O3 simulation in April, August, and October in areas where MODIS LAI is much less than the base LAI. Thus, improvement

  20. RESULTS OF PHOTOCHEMICAL SIMULATIONS OF SUBGRID SCALE POINT SOURCE EMISSIONS WITH THE MODELS-3 CMAQ MODELING SYSTEM

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) / Plume-in-Grid (PinG) model was applied on a domain encompassing the greater Nashville, Tennessee region. Model simulations were performed for selected days in July 1995 during the Southern Oxidant Study (SOS) field study program wh...

  1. Quantifying Co-benefits of Renewable Energy through Integrated Electricity and Air Quality Modeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abel, D.

    2016-12-01

    This work focuses on the coordination of electricity sector changes with air quality and health improvement strategies through the integration of electricity and air quality models. Two energy models are used to calculate emission perturbations associated with changes in generation technology (20% generation from solar photovoltaics) and demand (future electricity use under a warmer climate). Impacts from increased solar PV penetration are simulated with the electricity model GridView, in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Generation results are used to scale power plant emissions from an inventory developed by the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO). Perturbed emissions and are used to calculate secondary particulate matter with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. We find that electricity NOx and SO2 emissions decrease at a rate similar to the total fraction of electricity supplied by solar. Across the Eastern U.S. region, average PM2.5 is reduced 5% over the summer, with highest reduction in regions and on days of greater PM2.5. A similar approach evaluates the air quality impacts of elevated electricity demand under a warmer climate. Meteorology is selected from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) and input to a building energy model, eQUEST, to assess electricity demand as a function of ambient temperature. The associated generation and emissions are calculated on a plant-by-plant basis by the MyPower power sector model. These emissions are referenced to the 2011 National Emissions Inventory to be modeled in CMAQ for the Eastern U.S. and extended to health impact evaluation with the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program (BenMAP). All results focus on the air quality and health consequences of energy system changes, considering grid-level changes to meet climate and air quality goals.

  2. SENSITIVITY OF OZONE AND AEROSOL PREDICTIONS TO THE TRANSPORT ALGORITHMS IN THE MODELS-3 COMMUNITY MULTI-SCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODELING SYSTEM

    EPA Science Inventory

    EPA's Models-3 CMAQ system is intended to provide a community modeling paradigm that allows continuous improvement of the one-atmosphere modeling capability in a unified fashion. CMAQ's modular design promotes incorporation of several sets of science process modules representing ...

  3. Current Applications of OMI Tropospheric NO2 Data for Air Quality and a Look to the Future

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pickering, Kenneth E.; Bucsela, E.; Allen, D.; Prados, A.; Gleason, J.; Kondragunta, S.

    2010-01-01

    Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Tropospheric NO2 products are being used to enhance the ability to monitor changes in NO2 air quality, update emission inventories, and evaluate regional air quality models. Trends in tropospheric column NO2 have been examined over the eastern United States in relation to emissions changes mandated by regulatory actions. Decreases of 20 to 40 percent over the period 2005 to 2008 were noted, largely in response to major emission reductions at power plants. The OMI data have been used to identify regions in which the opposite trend has been found. We have also used OMI NO2 in efforts to improve emission inventories for NOx emissions from soil. Lightning NOx emissions have been added to CMAQ, the US Environmental Protection Agency's regional air quality model. Evaluation of the resulting NO2 columns in the model is being conducted using the OMI NO2 observations. Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) together with the OMI NO2 data comprise a valuable tool for monitoring and predicting air quality. Looking to the future, we expect that the combination of Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) (morning) and OMI (afternoon) data sets obtained through use of the same retrieval algorithms will substantially increase the possibility of successful integration of satellite information into regional air quality forecast models. Farther down the road, we anticipate the Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) platform to supply data possibly on an hourly basis, allowing much more comprehensive analysis of air quality from space.

  4. Annual Application and Evaluation of the Online Coupled WRF‐CMAQ System over North America under AQMEII Phase 2

    EPA Science Inventory

    We present an application of the online coupled WRF-CMAQ modeling system to two annual simulations over North America performed under Phase 2 of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII). Operational evaluation shows that model performance is comparable t...

  5. EVALUATION OF THE COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODEL VERSION 4.5: UNCERTAINTIES AND SENSITIVITIES IMPACTING MODEL PERFORMANCE: PART II - PARTICULATE MATTER

    EPA Science Inventory

    This paper presents an analysis of the CMAQ v4.5 model performance for particulate matter and its chemical components for the simulated year 2001. This is part two is two part series of papers that examines the model performance of CMAQ v4.5.

  6. Diagnostic Air Quality Model Evaluation of Source-Specific ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Ambient measurements of 78 source-specific tracers of primary and secondary carbonaceous fine particulate matter collected at four midwestern United States locations over a full year (March 2004–February 2005) provided an unprecedented opportunity to diagnostically evaluate the results of a numerical air quality model. Previous analyses of these measurements demonstrated excellent mass closure for the variety of contributing sources. In this study, a carbon-apportionment version of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was used to track primary organic and elemental carbon emissions from 15 independent sources such as mobile sources and biomass burning in addition to four precursor-specific classes of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) originating from isoprene, terpenes, aromatics, and sesquiterpenes. Conversion of the source-resolved model output into organic tracer concentrations yielded a total of 2416 data pairs for comparison with observations. While emission source contributions to the total model bias varied by season and measurement location, the largest absolute bias of −0.55 μgC/m3 was attributed to insufficient isoprene SOA in the summertime CMAQ simulation. Biomass combustion was responsible for the second largest summertime model bias (−0.46 μgC/m3 on average). Several instances of compensating errors were also evident; model underpredictions in some sectors were masked by overpredictions in others. The National Exposure Research L

  7. Persistence of initial conditions in continental scale air quality ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This study investigates the effect of initial conditions (IC) for pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere and soil on simulated air quality for two continental-scale Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model applications. One of these applications was performed for springtime and the second for summertime. Results show that a spin-up period of ten days commonly used in regional-scale applications may not be sufficient to reduce the effects of initial conditions to less than 1% of seasonally-averaged surface ozone concentrations everywhere while 20 days were found to be sufficient for the entire domain for the spring case and almost the entire domain for the summer case. For the summer case, differences were found to persist longer aloft due to circulation of air masses and even a spin-up period of 30 days was not sufficient to reduce the effects of ICs to less than 1% of seasonally-averaged layer 34 ozone concentrations over the southwestern portion of the modeling domain. Analysis of the effect of soil initial conditions for the CMAQ bidirectional NH3 exchange model shows that during springtime they can have an important effect on simulated inorganic aerosols concentrations for time periods of one month or longer. The effects are less pronounced during other seasons. The results, while specific to the modeling domain and time periods simulated here, suggest that modeling protocols need to be scrutinized for a given application and that it cannot be assum

  8. How Clean is your Local Air? Here's an app for that

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maskey, M.; Yang, E.; Christopher, S. A.; Keiser, K.; Nair, U. S.; Graves, S. J.

    2011-12-01

    Air quality is a vital element of our environment. Accurate and localized air quality information is critical for characterizing environmental impacts at the local and regional levels. Advances in location-aware handheld devices and air quality modeling have enabled a group of UAHuntsville scientists to develop a mobile app, LocalAQI, that informs users of current conditions and forecasts of up to twenty-four hours, of air quality indices. The air quality index is based on Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System (CMAQ). UAHuntsville scientists have used satellite remote sensing products as inputs to CMAQ, resulting in forecast guidance for particulate matter air quality. The CMAQ output is processed to compute a standardized air quality index. Currently, the air quality index is available for the eastern half of the United States. LocalAQI consists of two main views: air quality index view and map view. The air quality index view displays current air quality for the zip code of a location of interest. Air quality index value is translated into a color-coded advisory system. In addition, users are able to cycle through available hourly forecasts for a location. This location-aware app defaults to the current air quality of user's location. The map view displays color-coded air quality information for the eastern US with an ability to animate through the available forecasts. The app is developed using a cross-platform native application development tool, appcelerator; hence LocalAQI is available for iOS and Android-based phones and pads.

  9. Influence of Boundary Conditions on Regional Air Quality Simulations-Analysis of AQMEII Phase 3 Results

    EPA Science Inventory

    This presentation focuses on the dynamic evaluation of the CMAQ model over the continental United States using multi-decadal simulations for the period from 1990 to 2010 to examine how well the changes in observed ozone air quality induced by variations in meteorology and/or emis...

  10. Development and application of air quality models at the US ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Overview of the development and application of air quality models at the U.S. EPA, particularly focused on the development and application of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model developed within the Computation Exposure Division (CED) of the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL). This presentation will provide a simple overview of air quality model development and application geared toward a non-technical student audience. The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Computational Exposure Division (CED) develops and evaluates data, decision-support tools, and models to be applied to media-specific or receptor-specific problem areas. CED uses modeling-based approaches to characterize exposures, evaluate fate and transport, and support environmental diagnostics/forensics with input from multiple data sources. It also develops media- and receptor-specific models, process models, and decision support tools for use both within and outside of EPA.

  11. CMAQ Model Output

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    CMAQ and CMAQ-VBS model outputThis dataset is associated with the following publication:Woody , M., K. Baker , P. Hayes, J. Jimenez, B. Koo, and H. Pye. Understanding sources of organic aerosol during CalNex-2010 using the CMAQ-VBS. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. Copernicus Publications, Katlenburg-Lindau, GERMANY, 16: 4081-4100, (2016).

  12. Recent Advances in Modeling of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer and Land Surface in the Coupled WRF-CMAQ Model

    EPA Science Inventory

    Advances in the land surface model (LSM) and planetary boundary layer (PBL) components of the WRF-CMAQ coupled meteorology and air quality modeling system are described. The aim of these modifications was primarily to improve the modeling of ground level concentrations of trace c...

  13. Toward verifying fossil fuel CO2 emissions with the CMAQ model: motivation, model description and initial simulation.

    PubMed

    Liu, Zhen; Bambha, Ray P; Pinto, Joseph P; Zeng, Tao; Boylan, Jim; Huang, Maoyi; Lei, Huimin; Zhao, Chun; Liu, Shishi; Mao, Jiafu; Schwalm, Christopher R; Shi, Xiaoying; Wei, Yaxing; Michelsen, Hope A

    2014-04-01

    Motivated by the question of whether and how a state-of-the-art regional chemical transport model (CTM) can facilitate characterization of CO2 spatiotemporal variability and verify CO2 fossil-fuel emissions, we for the first time applied the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to simulate CO2. This paper presents methods, input data, and initial results for CO2 simulation using CMAQ over the contiguous United States in October 2007. Modeling experiments have been performed to understand the roles of fossil-fuel emissions, biosphere-atmosphere exchange, and meteorology in regulating the spatial distribution of CO2 near the surface over the contiguous United States. Three sets of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) fluxes were used as input to assess the impact of uncertainty of NEE on CO2 concentrations simulated by CMAQ. Observational data from six tall tower sites across the country were used to evaluate model performance. In particular, at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO), a tall tower site that receives urban emissions from Denver CO, the CMAQ model using hourly varying, high-resolution CO2 fossil-fuel emissions from the Vulcan inventory and Carbon Tracker optimized NEE reproduced the observed diurnal profile of CO2 reasonably well but with a low bias in the early morning. The spatial distribution of CO2 was found to correlate with NO(x), SO2, and CO, because of their similar fossil-fuel emission sources and common transport processes. These initial results from CMAQ demonstrate the potential of using a regional CTM to help interpret CO2 observations and understand CO2 variability in space and time. The ability to simulate a full suite of air pollutants in CMAQ will also facilitate investigations of their use as tracers for CO2 source attribution. This work serves as a proof of concept and the foundation for more comprehensive examinations of CO2 spatiotemporal variability and various uncertainties in the future. Atmospheric CO2 has long been modeled

  14. Assessment of long-term WRF–CMAQ simulations for understanding direct aerosol effects on radiation "brightening" in the United States

    EPA Science Inventory

    Long-term simulations with the coupled WRF–CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecasting–Community Multi-scale Air Quality) model have been conducted to systematically investigate the changes in anthropogenic emissions of SO2 and NOx over the past 16 years (1995–2010) ...

  15. TTI CM/AQ evaluation model user`s guide and workshop training materials. Interim research report, September 1993-August 1996

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    NONE

    1995-08-01

    The TTI CM/AQ Evaluation Model evaluates potential projects based on the following criteria: eligibility, travel impacts, emission impacts, and cost-effectiveness. To compare independent projects within a region during the decision process for CM/AQ funding, each project evaluated with this model is given an overall score based on the project`s effects for the criteria listed above. Training workshops were held by TTI in the first quarter of 1995 to teach metropolitan planning organization, state department of transportation, and regional air quality organization staff how to use this model. Basics of sketch-planning applications were also taught. The DRCOG and TTI CM/AQ Evaluationmore » Models represent significant steps toward the development of analytical methodologies for selecting projects for CM/AQ funding. Because the needs of nonattainment and attainment areas change over time, this model is particularly useful as key evaluation criteria can be modified to reflect the changing needs of a metropolitan area.« less

  16. Impacts of Energy Sector Emissions on PM2.5 Air Quality in Northern India

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karambelas, A. N.; Kiesewetter, G.; Heyes, C.; Holloway, T.

    2015-12-01

    India experiences high concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and several Indian cities currently rank among the world's most polluted cities. With ongoing urbanization and a growing economy, emissions from different energy sectors remain major contributors to air pollution in India. Emission sectors impact ambient air quality differently due to spatial distribution (typical urban vs. typical rural sources) as well as source height characteristics (low-level vs. high stack sources). This study aims to assess the impacts of emissions from three distinct energy sectors—transportation, domestic, and electricity—on ambient PM2.5­­ in northern India using an advanced air quality analysis framework based on the U.S. EPA Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Present air quality conditions are simulated using 2010 emissions from the Greenhouse Gas-Air Pollution Interaction and Synergies (GAINS) model. Modeled PM2.5 concentrations are compared with satellite observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD) from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for 2010. Energy sector emissions impacts on future (2030) PM2.5 are evaluated with three sensitivity simulations, assuming maximum feasible reduction technologies for either transportation, domestic, or electricity sectors. These simulations are compared with a business as usual 2030 simulation to assess relative sectoral impacts spatially and temporally. CMAQ is modeled at 12km by 12km and include biogenic emissions from the Community Land Model coupled with the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols in Nature (CLM-MEGAN), biomass burning emissions from the Global Fires Emissions Database (GFED), and ERA-Interim meteorology generated with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for 2010 to quantify the impact of modified anthropogenic emissions on ambient PM2.5 concentrations. Energy sector emissions analysis supports decision-making to improve future air quality and public health in

  17. One-year simulation of ozone and particulate matter in China using WRF/CMAQ modeling system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Jianlin; Chen, Jianjun; Ying, Qi; Zhang, Hongliang

    2016-08-01

    China has been experiencing severe air pollution in recent decades. Although an ambient air quality monitoring network for criteria pollutants has been constructed in over 100 cities since 2013 in China, the temporal and spatial characteristics of some important pollutants, such as particulate matter (PM) components, remain unknown, limiting further studies investigating potential air pollution control strategies to improve air quality and associating human health outcomes with air pollution exposure. In this study, a yearlong (2013) air quality simulation using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was conducted to provide detailed temporal and spatial information of ozone (O3), total PM2.5, and chemical components. Multi-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC) was used for anthropogenic emissions and observation data obtained from the national air quality monitoring network were collected to validate model performance. The model successfully reproduces the O3 and PM2.5 concentrations at most cities for most months, with model performance statistics meeting the performance criteria. However, overprediction of O3 generally occurs at low concentration range while underprediction of PM2.5 happens at low concentration range in summer. Spatially, the model has better performance in southern China than in northern China, central China, and Sichuan Basin. Strong seasonal variations of PM2.5 exist and wind speed and direction play important roles in high PM2.5 events. Secondary components have more boarder distribution than primary components. Sulfate (SO42-), nitrate (NO3-), ammonium (NH4+), and primary organic aerosol (POA) are the most important PM2.5 components. All components have the highest concentrations in winter except secondary organic aerosol (SOA). This study proves the ability of the CMAQ model to reproduce severe air pollution in China, identifies the directions where improvements are

  18. Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model for Simulating Winter Ozone Formation in the Uinta Basin.

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models were used to simulate a 10 day high‐ozone episode observed during the 2013 Uinta Basin Winter Ozone Study (UBWOS). The baseline model had a large negative bias when compared to ozo...

  19. Application and evaluation of two air quality models for particulate matter for a southeastern U.S. episode.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Yang; Pun, Betty; Wu, Shiang-Yuh; Vijayaraghavan, Krish; Seigneur, Christian

    2004-12-01

    The Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System and the Particulate Matter Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extensions (PMCAMx) were applied to simulate the period June 29-July 10, 1999, of the Southern Oxidants Study episode with two nested horizontal grid sizes: a coarse resolution of 32 km and a fine resolution of 8 km. The predicted spatial variations of ozone (O3), particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 microm (PM2.5), and particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 microm (PM10) by both models are similar in rural areas but differ from one another significantly over some urban/suburban areas in the eastern and southern United States, where PMCAMx tends to predict higher values of O3 and PM than CMAQ. Both models tend to predict O3 values that are higher than those observed. For observed O3 values above 60 ppb, O3 performance meets the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's criteria for CMAQ with both grids and for PMCAMx with the fine grid only. It becomes unsatisfactory for PMCAMx and marginally satisfactory for CMAQ for observed O3 values above 40 ppb. Both models predict similar amounts of sulfate (SO4(2-)) and organic matter, and both predict SO4(2-) to be the largest contributor to PM2.5. PMCAMx generally predicts higher amounts of ammonium (NH4+), nitrate (NO3-), and black carbon (BC) than does CMAQ. PM performance for CMAQ is generally consistent with that of other PM models, whereas PMCAMx predicts higher concentrations of NO3-, NH4+, and BC than observed, which degrades its performance. For PM10 and PM2.5 predictions over the southeastern U.S. domain, the ranges of mean normalized gross errors (MNGEs) and mean normalized bias are 37-43% and -33-4% for CMAQ and 50-59% and 7-30% for PMCAMx. Both models predict the largest MNGEs for NO3- (98-104% for CMAQ 138-338% for PMCAMx). The inaccurate NO3- predictions by both models may be caused by the inaccuracies in the

  20. AN OPERATIONAL EVALUATION OF THE ETA - CMAQ AIR QUALITY FORECAST MODEL

    EPA Science Inventory

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in partnership with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are developing an operational, nationwide Air Quality Forecasting (AQF) system. An experimental phase of this program, which couples NOAA's Et...

  1. DEVELOPMENT OF AN AGGREGATION AND EPISODE SELECTION SCHEME TO SUPPORT THE MODELS-3 COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY MODEL

    EPA Science Inventory

    The development of an episode selection and aggregation approach, designed to support distributional estimation of use with the Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, is described. The approach utilized cluster analysis of the 700-hPa east-west and north-south...

  2. New Tools for Estimating and Managing Local/Regional Air Quality Impacts of Prescribed Burns

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-02-01

    189 8.1.2 Conference Papers ...the dryer fuels and horizontal burn configuration would result in a more intense fire and provide emission factors closer to those from the flaming...the EPA web site, the CMAQ Model is a powerful computational tool used by EPA and states for air quality management in that it can be used to design

  3. Dynamic Evaluation of Two Decades of CMAQ Simulations ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This presentation focuses on the dynamic evaluation of the CMAQ model over the continental United States using multi-decadal simulations for the period from 1990 to 2010 to examine how well the changes in observed ozone air quality induced by variations in meteorology and/or emissions are simulated by the model. We applied spectral decomposition of the ozone time-series using the KZ filter to assess the variations in the strengths of synoptic (weather-induced variations) and baseline (long-term variation) forcings, embedded in the simulated and observed concentrations. The results reveal that CMAQ captured the year-to-year variability (more so in the later years than the earlier years) and the synoptic forcing in accordance with what the observations are showing. The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Computational Exposure Division (CED) develops and evaluates data, decision-support tools, and models to be applied to media-specific or receptor-specific problem areas. CED uses modeling-based approaches to characterize exposures, evaluate fate and transport, and support environmental diagnostics/forensics with input from multiple data sources. It also develops media- and receptor-specific models, process models, and decision support tools for use both within and outside of EPA.

  4. Application of Satellite and Ozonesonde Data to the Study of Nighttime Tropospheric Ozone Impacts and Relationship to Air Quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Osterman, G. B.; Eldering, A.; Neu, J. L.; Tang, Y.; McQueen, J.; Pinder, R. W.

    2011-12-01

    To help protect human health and ecosystems, regional-scale atmospheric chemistry models are used to forecast high ozone events and to design emission control strategies to decrease the frequency and severity of ozone events. Despite the impact that nighttime aloft ozone can have on surface ozone, regional-scale atmospheric chemistry models often do not simulate the nighttime ozone concentrations well and nor do they sufficiently capture the ozone transport patterns. Fully characterizing the importance of the nighttime ozone has been hampered by limited measurements of the vertical distribution of ozone and ozone-precursors. The main focus of this work is to begin to utilize remote sensing data sets to characterize the impact of nighttime aloft ozone to air quality events. We will describe our plans to use NASA satellite data sets, transport models and air quality models to study ozone transport, focusing primarily on nighttime ozone and provide initial results. We will use satellite and ozonesonde data to help understand how well the air quality models are simulating ozone in the lower free troposphere and attempt to characterize the impact of nighttime ozone to air quality events. Our specific objectives are: 1) Characterize nighttime aloft ozone using remote sensing data and sondes. 2) Evaluate the ability of the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and the National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) model to capture the nighttime aloft ozone and its relationship to air quality events. 3) Analyze a set of air quality events and determine the relationship of air quality events to the nighttime aloft ozone. We will achieve our objectives by utilizing the ozone profile data from the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and other sensors, ozonesonde data collected during the Aura mission (IONS), EPA AirNow ground station ozone data, the CMAQ continental-scale air quality model, and the National Air Quality

  5. Development and analysis of air quality modeling simulations for hazardous air pollutants

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luecken, D. J.; Hutzell, W. T.; Gipson, G. L.

    The concentrations of five hazardous air pollutants were simulated using the community multi-scale air quality (CMAQ) modeling system. Annual simulations were performed over the continental United States for the entire year of 2001 to support human exposure estimates. Results are shown for formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, 1,3-butadiene and acrolein. Photochemical production in the atmosphere is predicted to dominate ambient formaldehyde and acetaldehyde concentrations, and to account for a significant fraction of ambient acrolein concentrations. Spatial and temporal variations are large throughout the domain over the year. Predicted concentrations are compared with observations for formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene and 1,3-butadiene. Although the modeling results indicate an overall slight tendency towards underprediction, they reproduce episodic and seasonal behavior of pollutant concentrations at many monitors with good skill.

  6. Changes in U.S. Regional-Scale Air Quality at 2030 Simulated Using RCP 6.0

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nolte, C. G.; Otte, T.; Pinder, R. W.; Faluvegi, G.; Shindell, D. T.

    2012-12-01

    Recent improvements in air quality in the United States have been due to significant reductions in emissions of ozone and particulate matter (PM) precursors, and these downward emissions trends are expected to continue in the next few decades. To ensure that planned air quality regulations are robust under a range of possible future climates and to consider possible policy actions to mitigate climate change, it is important to characterize and understand the effects of climate change on air quality. Recent work by several research groups using global and regional models has demonstrated that there is a "climate penalty," in which climate change leads to increases in surface ozone levels in polluted continental regions. One approach to simulating future air quality at the regional scale is via dynamical downscaling, in which fields from a global climate model are used as input for a regional climate model, and these regional climate data are subsequently used for chemical transport modeling. However, recent studies using this approach have encountered problems with the downscaled regional climate fields, including unrealistic surface temperatures and misrepresentation of synoptic pressure patterns such as the Bermuda High. We developed a downscaling methodology and showed that it now reasonably simulates regional climate by evaluating it against historical data. In this work, regional climate simulations created by downscaling the NASA/GISS Model E2 global climate model are used as input for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. CMAQ simulations over the continental United States are conducted for two 11-year time slices, one representing current climate (1995-2005) and one following Representative Concentration Pathway 6.0 from 2025-2035. Anthropogenic emissions of ozone and PM precursors are held constant at year 2006 levels for both the current and future periods. In our presentation, we will examine the changes in ozone and PM concentrations, with

  7. Browse CMAQ Applications

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The CMAQ system has been used to address major environmental issues. Below are examples of how the CMAQ system provides information to help communities, states and countries determine the most effective strategies for reducing exposure to pollution.

  8. Impact of inherent meteorology uncertainty on air quality ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    It is well established that there are a number of different classifications and sources of uncertainties in environmental modeling systems. Air quality models rely on two key inputs, namely, meteorology and emissions. When using air quality models for decision making, it is important to understand how uncertainties in these inputs affect the simulated concentrations. Ensembles are one method to explore how uncertainty in meteorology affects air pollution concentrations. Most studies explore this uncertainty by running different meteorological models or the same model with different physics options and in some cases combinations of different meteorological and air quality models. While these have been shown to be useful techniques in some cases, we present a technique that leverages the initial condition perturbations of a weather forecast ensemble, namely, the Short-Range Ensemble Forecast system to drive the four-dimensional data assimilation in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with a key focus being the response of ozone chemistry and transport. Results confirm that a sizable spread in WRF solutions, including common weather variables of temperature, wind, boundary layer depth, clouds, and radiation, can cause a relatively large range of ozone-mixing ratios. Pollutant transport can be altered by hundreds of kilometers over several days. Ozone-mixing ratios of the ensemble can vary as much as 10–20 ppb

  9. Preliminary evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality model for 2002 over the Southeastern United States.

    PubMed

    Morris, Ralph E; McNally, Dennis E; Tesche, Thomas W; Tonnesen, Gail; Boylan, James W; Brewer, Patricia

    2005-11-01

    The Visibility Improvement State and Tribal Association of the Southeast (VISTAS) is one of five Regional Planning Organizations that is charged with the management of haze, visibility, and other regional air quality issues in the United States. The VISTAS Phase I work effort modeled three episodes (January 2002, July 1999, and July 2001) to identify the optimal model configuration(s) to be used for the 2002 annual modeling in Phase II. Using model configurations recommended in the Phase I analysis, 2002 annual meteorological (Mesoscale Meterological Model [MM5]), emissions (Sparse Matrix Operator Kernal Emissions [SMOKE]), and air quality (Community Multiscale Air Quality [CMAQ]) simulations were performed on a 36-km grid covering the continental United States and a 12-km grid covering the Eastern United States. Model estimates were then compared against observations. This paper presents the results of the preliminary CMAQ model performance evaluation for the initial 2002 annual base case simulation. Model performance is presented for the Eastern United States using speciated fine particle concentration and wet deposition measurements from several monitoring networks. Initial results indicate fairly good performance for sulfate with fractional bias values generally within +/-20%. Nitrate is overestimated in the winter by approximately +50% and underestimated in the summer by more than -100%. Organic carbon exhibits a large summer underestimation bias of approximately -100% with much improved performance seen in the winter with a bias near zero. Performance for elemental carbon is reasonable with fractional bias values within +/- 40%. Other fine particulate (soil) and coarse particular matter exhibit large (80-150%) overestimation in the winter but improved performance in the summer. The preliminary 2002 CMAQ runs identified several areas of enhancements to improve model performance, including revised temporal allocation factors for ammonia emissions to improve

  10. Persistence of initial conditions in continental scale air quality simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hogrefe, Christian; Roselle, Shawn J.; Bash, Jesse O.

    2017-07-01

    This study investigates the effect of initial conditions (IC) for pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere and soil on simulated air quality for two continental-scale Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model applications. One of these applications was performed for springtime and the second for summertime. Results show that a spin-up period of ten days commonly used in regional-scale applications may not be sufficient to reduce the effects of initial conditions to less than 1% of seasonally-averaged surface ozone concentrations everywhere while 20 days were found to be sufficient for the entire domain for the spring case and almost the entire domain for the summer case. For the summer case, differences were found to persist longer aloft due to circulation of air masses and even a spin-up period of 30 days was not sufficient to reduce the effects of ICs to less than 1% of seasonally-averaged layer 34 ozone concentrations over the southwestern portion of the modeling domain. Analysis of the effect of soil initial conditions for the CMAQ bidirectional NH3 exchange model shows that during springtime they can have an important effect on simulated inorganic aerosols concentrations for time periods of one month or longer. The effects are less pronounced during other seasons. The results, while specific to the modeling domain and time periods simulated here, suggest that modeling protocols need to be scrutinized for a given application and that it cannot be assumed that commonly-used spin-up periods are necessarily sufficient to reduce the effects of initial conditions on model results to an acceptable level. What constitutes an acceptable level of difference cannot be generalized and will depend on the particular application, time period and species of interest. Moreover, as the application of air quality models is being expanded to cover larger geographical domains and as these models are increasingly being coupled with other modeling systems to better represent

  11. The Co-Benefits of Global and Regional Greenhouse Gas Mitigation on US Air Quality at Fine Resolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Y.; Bowden, J. H.; Adelman, Z.; Naik, V.; Horowitz, L. W.; Smith, S.; West, J. J.

    2014-12-01

    Reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) not only slows climate change, but can also have co-benefits for improved air quality. In this study, we examine the co-benefits of global and regional GHG mitigation on US air quality at fine resolution through dynamical downscaling, using the latest Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. We will investigate the co-benefits on US air quality due to domestic GHG mitigation alone, and due to mitigation outside of the US. We also quantity the co-benefits resulting from reductions in co-emitted air pollutants versus slowing climate change and its effects on air quality. Projected climate in the 2050s from the IPCC RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios is dynamically downscaled with the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF). Anthropogenic emissions projections from the RCP4.5 scenario and its reference (REF), are directly processed in SMOKE to provide temporally- and spatially-resolved CMAQ emission input files. Chemical boundary conditions (BCs) are obtained from West et al. (2013), who studied the co-benefits of global GHG reductions on global air quality and human health. Our preliminary results show that the global GHG reduction (RCP4.5 relative to REF) reduces the 1hr daily maximum ozone by 3.3 ppbv annually over entire US, as high as 6 ppbv in September. The west coast of California and the Northeast US are the regions that benefit most. By comparing different scenarios, we find that foreign countries' GHGs mitigation has a larger influence on the US ozone decreases (accounting for 77% of the total decrease), compared with 23% from domestic GHG mitigation only, highlighting the importance of methane reductions and the intercontinental transport of air pollutants. The reduction of global co-emitted air pollutants has a more pronounced effect on ozone decreasing, relative to the effect from slowing climate and its effects on air quality. We also plan to report co-benefits for PM2.5 in the US.

  12. Linking Meteorology, Air Quality Models and Observations to ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Epidemiologic studies are critical in establishing the association between exposure to air pollutants and adverse health effects. Results of epidemiologic studies are used by U.S. EPA in developing air quality standards to protect the public from the health effects of air pollutants. A major challenge in environmental epidemiology is adequate exposure characterization. Numerous health studies have used measurements from a few central-site ambient monitors to characterize air pollution exposures. Relying solely on central-site ambient monitors does not account for the spatial-heterogeneity of ambient air pollution patterns, the temporal variability in ambient concentrations, nor the influence of infiltration and indoor sources. Central-site monitoring becomes even more problematic for certain air pollutants that exhibit significant spatial heterogeneity. Statistical interpolation techniques and passive monitoring methods can provide additional spatial resolution in ambient concentration estimates. In addition, spatio-temporal models, which integrate GIS data and other factors, such as meteorology, have also been developed to produce more resolved estimates of ambient concentrations. Models, such as the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, estimate ambient concentrations by combining information on meteorology, source emissions, and chemical-fate and transport. Hybrid modeling approaches, which integrate regional scale models with local scale dispersion

  13. Co-benefits of air quality and climate change policies on air quality of the Mediterranean

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pozzoli, Luca; Mert Gokturk, Ozan; Unal, Alper; Kindap, Tayfun; Janssens-Maenhout, Greet

    2015-04-01

    The Mediterranean basin is one of the regions of the world where significant impacts due to climate changes are predicted to occur in the future. Observations and model simulations are used to provide to the policy makers scientifically based estimates of the necessity to adjust national emission reductions needed to achieve air quality objectives in the context of a changing climate, which is not only driven by GHGs, but also by short lived climate pollutants, such as tropospheric ozone and aerosols. There is an increasing interest and need to design cost-benefit emission reduction strategies, which could improve both regional air quality and global climate change. In this study we used the WRF-CMAQ air quality modelling system to quantify the contribution of anthropogenic emissions to ozone and particulate matter concentrations in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean and to understand how this contribution could change in different future scenarios. We have investigated four different future scenarios for year 2050 defined during the European Project CIRCE: a "business as usual" scenario (BAU) where no or just actual measures are taken into account; an "air quality" scenario (BAP) which implements the National Emission Ceiling directive 2001/81/EC member states of the European Union (EU-27); a "climate change" scenario (CC) which implements global climate policies decoupled from air pollution policies; and an "integrated air quality and climate policy" scenario (CAP) which explores the co-benefit of global climate and EU-27 air pollution policies. The BAP scenario largely decreases summer ozone concentrations over almost the entire continent, while the CC and CAP scenarios similarly determine lower decreases in summer ozone but extending all over the Mediterranean, the Middle East countries and Russia. Similar patterns are found for winter PM concentrations; BAP scenario improves pollution levels only in the Western EU countries, and the CAP scenario determines

  14. Watershed Deposition Tool for air quality impacts

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The WDT is a software tool for mapping deposition estimates from the CMAQ model to watersheds. It provides users with the linkage of air and water needed for the total maximum daily load (TMDL) and related nonpoint-source watershed analyses.

  15. Validation of the WRF-CMAQ Two-Way Model with Aircraft Data and High Resolution MODIS Data in the CA 2008 Wildfire Case

    EPA Science Inventory

    A new WRF-CMAQ two-way coupled model was developed to provide a pathway for chemical feedbacks from the air quality model to the meteorological model. The essence of this interaction is focused on the direct radiative effects of scattering and absorbing aerosols in the tropospher...

  16. Overview and Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. The Computational Exposure Division (CED) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency develops the CMAQ model and periodically releases new versions of the model that include bug fixes and various other improvements to the modeling system. In late 2016 or early 2017, CMAQ version 5.2 will be released. This new version of CMAQ will contain important updates from the current CMAQv5.1 modeling system, along with several instrumented versions of the model (e.g. decoupled direct method and sulfur tracking). Some specific model updates include the implementation of a new wind-blown dust treatment in CMAQv5.2, a significant improvement over the treatment in v5.1 which can severely overestimate wind-blown dust under certain conditions. Several other major updates to the modeling system include an update to the calculation of aerosols; implementation of full halogen chemistry (CMAQv5.1 contains a partial implementation of halogen chemistry); the new carbon bond 6 (CB6) chemical mechanism; updates to cloud model in CMAQ; and a new lightning assimilation scheme for the WRF model which significant improves the placement and timing of convective precipitation in the WRF precipitation fields. Numerous other updates to the modeling system will also be available in v5.2.

  17. LARGE-SCALE PREDICTIONS OF MOBILE SOURCE CONTRIBUTIONS TO CONCENTRATIONS OF TOXIC AIR POLLUTANTS

    EPA Science Inventory

    This presentation shows concentrations and deposition of toxic air pollutants predicted by a 3-D air quality model, the Community Multi Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. Contributions from both on-road and non-road mobile sources are analyzed.

  18. Remote Sensing and Spatial Growth Modeling Coupled with Air Quality Modeling to Assess the Impact of Atlanta, Georgia on the Local and Regional Environment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Quattrochi, Dale A.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.; Crosson, William; Khan, Maudood

    2006-01-01

    The growth of cities, both in population and areal extent, appears as an inexorable process. Urbanization continues at a rapid rate, and it is estimated that by the year 2025, 80 percent of the world s population will live in cities. Directly aligned with the expansion of cities is urban sprawl. Urban expansion has profound impacts on a host of biophysical, environmental, and atmospheric processes. A reduction in air quality over cities is a major result of these impacts. Strategies that can be directly or indirectly implemented to help remediate air quality problems in cities and that can be accepted by political decision makers and the general public are now being explored to help bring down air pollutants and improve air quality. The urban landscape is inherently complex and this complexity is not adequately captured in air quality models, particularly the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model that is used to assess whether urban areas are in attainment of EPA air quality standards, primarily for ground level ozone. This inadequacy of the CMAQ model to sufficiently respond to the heterogeneous nature of the urban landscape can impact how well the model predicts ozone pollutant levels over metropolitan areas and ultimately, whether cities exceed EPA ozone air quality standards. We are exploring the utility of high-resolution remote sensing data and urban spatial growth modeling (SGM) projections as improved inputs to the meteorology component of the CMAQ model focusing on the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area as a case study. These growth projections include "business as usual" and "smart growth" scenarios out to 2030. The growth projections illustrate the effects of employing urban heat island mitigation strategies, such as increasing tree canopy and albedo across the Atlanta metro area, which in turn, are used to model how ozone and air temperature can potentially be moderated as impacts on elevating ground-level ozone, as opposed to not utilizing heat

  19. Hybrid Air Quality Modeling Approach For Use in the Near ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Near-road EXposures to Urban air pollutant Study (NEXUS) investigated whether children with asthma living in close proximity to major roadways in Detroit, MI, (particularly near roadways with high diesel traffic) have greater health impacts associated with exposure to air pollutants than those living farther away. A major challenge in such health and exposure studies is the lack of information regarding pollutant exposure characterization. Air quality modeling can provide spatially and temporally varying exposure estimates for examining relationships between traffic-related air pollutants and adverse health outcomes. This paper presents a hybrid air quality modeling approach and its application in NEXUS in order to provide spatial and temporally varying exposure estimates and identification of the mobile source contribution to the total pollutant exposure. Model-based exposure metrics, associated with local variations of emissions and meteorology, were estimated using a combination of the AERMOD and R-LINE dispersion models, local emission source information from the National Emissions Inventory, detailed road network locations and traffic activity, and meteorological data from the Detroit City Airport. The regional background contribution was estimated using a combination of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and the Space/Time Ordinary Kriging (STOK) model. To capture the near-road pollutant gradients, refined “mini-grids” of model recep

  20. The NASA Lightning Nitrogen Oxides Model (LNOM): Application to Air Quality Modeling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Koshak, William; Peterson, Harold; Khan, Maudood; Biazar, Arastoo; Wang, Lihua

    2011-01-01

    Recent improvements to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Lightning Nitrogen Oxides Model (LNOM) and its application to the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system are discussed. The LNOM analyzes Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) and National Lightning Detection Network(TradeMark)(NLDN) data to estimate the raw (i.e., unmixed and otherwise environmentally unmodified) vertical profile of lightning NO(x) (= NO + NO2). The latest LNOM estimates of lightning channel length distributions, lightning 1-m segment altitude distributions, and the vertical profile of lightning NO(x) are presented. The primary improvement to the LNOM is the inclusion of non-return stroke lightning NOx production due to: (1) hot core stepped and dart leaders, (2) stepped leader corona sheath, K-changes, continuing currents, and M-components. The impact of including LNOM-estimates of lightning NO(x) for an August 2006 run of CMAQ is discussed.

  1. Comparison of CMAQ Modeling Study with Discover-AQ 2014 Aircraft Measurements over Colorado

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tang, Y.; Pan, L.; Lee, P.; Tong, D.; Kim, H. C.; Artz, R. S.

    2014-12-01

    NASA and NCAR jointly led a recent multiple platform-based (space, air and ground) measurement intensive to study air quality and to validate satellite data. The Discover-AQ/FRAPPE field experiment took place along the Colorado Front Range in July and August, 2014. The air quality modeling team of the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory was one of the three teams that provided real-time air quality forecasting for the campaign. The U.S. EPA Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model was used with emission inventories based on the data set used by the NOAA National Air Quality Forecasting Capacity (NAQFC). By analyzing the forecast results calculated using aircraft measurements, it was found that CO emissions tended to be overestimated, while ethane emissions were underestimated. Biogenic VOCs were also underpredicted. Due to their relatively high altitude, ozone concentrations in Denver and the surrounding areas are affected by both local emissions and transported ozone. The modeled ozone was highly dependent on the meteorological predictions over this region. The complex terrain over the Rocky Mountains also contributed to the model uncertainty. This study discussed the causes of model biases, the forecast performance under different meteorology, and results from using different model grid resolutions. Several data assimilation techniques were further tested to improve the "post-analysis" performance of the modeling system for the period.

  2. On the Use of Principal Component and Spectral Density Analysis to Evaluate the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model

    EPA Science Inventory

    A 5 year (2002-2006) simulation of CMAQ covering the eastern United States is evaluated using principle component analysis in order to identify and characterize statistically significant patterns of model bias. Such analysis is useful in that in can identify areas of poor model ...

  3. Development of the High-Order Decoupled Direct Method in Three Dimensions for Particulate Matter: Enabling Advanced Sensitivity Analysis in Air Quality Models

    EPA Science Inventory

    The high-order decoupled direct method in three dimensions for particular matter (HDDM-3D/PM) has been implemented in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to enable advanced sensitivity analysis. The major effort of this work is to develop high-order DDM sensitivity...

  4. Diagnostic air quality model evaluation of source-specific primary and secondary fine particulate carbon.

    PubMed

    Napelenok, Sergey L; Simon, Heather; Bhave, Prakash V; Pye, Havala O T; Pouliot, George A; Sheesley, Rebecca J; Schauer, James J

    2014-01-01

    Ambient measurements of 78 source-specific tracers of primary and secondary carbonaceous fine particulate matter collected at four midwestern United States locations over a full year (March 2004-February 2005) provided an unprecedented opportunity to diagnostically evaluate the results of a numerical air quality model. Previous analyses of these measurements demonstrated excellent mass closure for the variety of contributing sources. In this study, a carbon-apportionment version of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was used to track primary organic and elemental carbon emissions from 15 independent sources such as mobile sources and biomass burning in addition to four precursor-specific classes of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) originating from isoprene, terpenes, aromatics, and sesquiterpenes. Conversion of the source-resolved model output into organic tracer concentrations yielded a total of 2416 data pairs for comparison with observations. While emission source contributions to the total model bias varied by season and measurement location, the largest absolute bias of -0.55 μgC/m(3) was attributed to insufficient isoprene SOA in the summertime CMAQ simulation. Biomass combustion was responsible for the second largest summertime model bias (-0.46 μgC/m(3) on average). Several instances of compensating errors were also evident; model underpredictions in some sectors were masked by overpredictions in others.

  5. Modeling prescribed burning experiments and assessing the fire impacts on local to regional air quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, L.; Baker, K. R.; Napelenok, S. L.; Elleman, R. A.; Urbanski, S. P.

    2016-12-01

    Biomass burning, including wildfires and prescribed burns, strongly impact the global carbon cycle and are of increasing concern due to the potential impacts on ambient air quality. This modelling study focuses on the evolution of carbonaceous compounds during a prescribed burning experiment and assesses the impacts of burning on local to regional air quality. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is used to conduct 4 and 2 km grid resolution simulations of prescribed burning experiments in southeast Washington state and western Idaho state in summer 2013. The ground and airborne measurements from the field experiment are used to evaluate the model performance in capturing surface and aloft impacts from the burning events. Phase partitioning of organic compounds in the plume are studied as it is a crucial step towards understanding the fate of carbonaceous compounds. The sensitivities of ambient concentrations and deposition to emissions are conducted for organic carbon, elemental carbon and ozone to estimate the impacts of fire on air quality.

  6. Improving Air Quality Forecasts with AURA Observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Newchurch, M. J.; Biazer, A.; Khan, M.; Koshak, W. J.; Nair, U.; Fuller, K.; Wang, L.; Parker, Y.; Williams, R.; Liu, X.

    2008-01-01

    Past studies have identified model initial and boundary conditions as sources of reducible errors in air-quality simulations. In particular, improving the initial condition improves the accuracy of short-term forecasts as it allows for the impact of local emissions to be realized by the model and improving boundary conditions improves long range transport through the model domain, especially in recirculating anticyclones. During the August 2006 period, we use AURA/OMI ozone measurements along with MODIS and CALIPSO aerosol observations to improve the initial and boundary conditions of ozone and Particulate Matter. Assessment of the model by comparison of the control run and satellite assimilation run to the IONS06 network of ozonesonde observations, which comprise the densest ozone sounding campaign ever conducted in North America, to AURA/TES ozone profile measurements, and to the EPA ground network of ozone and PM measurements will show significant improvement in the CMAQ calculations that use AURA initial and boundary conditions. Further analyses of lightning occurrences from ground and satellite observations and AURA/OMI NO2 column abundances will identify the lightning NOx signal evident in OMI measurements and suggest pathways for incorporating the lightning and NO2 data into the CMAQ simulations.

  7. CMAQ Community Survey Results

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    In 2016, CMAQ users worldwide participated in a survey circulated by the University of North Carolina's Community Modeling and Analysis System (CMAS) center. The aggregated results allow us to better understand the attributes of the CMAQ user community.

  8. Using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to estimate public health impacts of PM2.5 from individual power plants.

    PubMed

    Buonocore, Jonathan J; Dong, Xinyi; Spengler, John D; Fu, Joshua S; Levy, Jonathan I

    2014-07-01

    We estimated PM2.5-related public health impacts/ton emitted of primary PM2.5, SO2, and NOx for a set of power plants in the Mid-Atlantic and Lower Great Lakes regions of the United States, selected to include varying emission profiles and broad geographic representation. We then developed a regression model explaining variability in impacts per ton emitted using the population distributions around each plant. We linked outputs from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model v 4.7.1 with census data and concentration-response functions for PM2.5-related mortality, and monetized health estimates using the value-of-statistical-life. The median impacts for the final set of plants were $130,000/ton for primary PM2.5 (range: $22,000-230,000), $28,000/ton for SO2 (range: $19,000-33,000), and $16,000/ton for NOx (range: $7100-26,000). Impacts of NOx were a median of 34% (range: 20%-75%) from ammonium nitrate and 66% (range: 25%-79%) from ammonium sulfate. The latter pathway is likely from NOx enhancing atmospheric oxidative capacity and amplifying sulfate formation, and is often excluded. Our regression models explained most of the variation in impact/ton estimates using basic population covariates, and can aid in estimating impacts averted from interventions such as pollution controls, alternative energy installations, or demand-side management. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. CMAQ Model Evaluation Framework

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    CMAQ is tested to establish the modeling system’s credibility in predicting pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter. Evaluation of CMAQ has been designed to assess the model’s performance for specific time periods and for specific uses.

  10. Impacts of Future Climate and Emission Changes on U.S. Air Quality

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Penrod, Ashley; Zhang, Yang; Wang, K.

    2014-06-01

    Changes in climate and emissions will affect future air quality. In this work, simulations of present (2001-2005) and future (2026-2030) regional air quality are conducted with the newly released CMAQ version 5.0 to examine the individual and combined impacts of simulated future climate and anthropogenic emission projections on air quality over the U.S. Current (2001-2005) meteorological and chemical predictions are evaluated against observational data to assess the model’s capability in reproducing the seasonal differences. Overall, WRF and CMAQ perform reasonably well. Increased temperatures (up to 3.18 °C) and decreased ventilation (up to 157 m in planetary boundary layer height) aremore » found in both future winter and summer, with more prominent changes in winter. Increases in future temperatures result in increased isoprene and terpene emissions in winter and summer, driving the increase in maximum 8-h average O3 (up to 5.0 ppb) over the eastern U.S. in winter while decreases in NOx emissions drive the decrease in O3 over most of the U.S. in summer. Future concentrations of PM2.5 in winter and summer and many of its components including organic matter in winter, ammonium and nitrate in summer, and sulfate in winter and summer, decrease due to decreases in primary anthropogenic emissions and the concentrations of secondary anthropogenic pollutants and increased precipitation in winter. Future winter and summer dry and wet deposition fluxes are spatially variable and increase with increasing surface resistance and precipitation (e.g., NH4+ and NO3- dry and wet deposition fluxes increase in winter over much of the U.S.), respectively, and decrease with a decrease in ambient particulate concentrations (e.g., SO42- dry and wet deposition fluxes decrease over the eastern U.S. in summer and winter). Sensitivity simulations show that anthropogenic emission projections dominate over changes in climate in their impacts on the U.S. air quality in the near future

  11. Description and evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a comprehensive multipollutant air quality modeling system developed and maintained by the US Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD). Recently, version 5.1 of the CMAQ model (v5.1) was released to the public, incorporating a large number of science updates and extended capabilities over the previous release version of the model (v5.0.2). These updates include the following: improvements in the meteorological calculations in both CMAQ and the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model used to provide meteorological fields to CMAQ, updates to the gas and aerosol chemistry, revisions to the calculations of clouds and photolysis, and improvements to the dry and wet deposition in the model. Sensitivity simulations isolating several of the major updates to the modeling system show that changes to the meteorological calculations result in enhanced afternoon and early evening mixing in the model, periods when the model historically underestimates mixing. This enhanced mixing results in higher ozone (O3) mixing ratios on average due to reduced NO titration, and lower fine particulate matter (PM2. 5) concentrations due to greater dilution of primary pollutants (e.g., elemental and organic carbon). Updates to the clouds and photolysis calculations greatly improve consistency between the WRF and CMAQ models and result in generally higher O3 mixing ratios, primarily due to reduced

  12. Responses of future air quality to emission controls over North Carolina, Part I: Model evaluation for current-year simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Xiao-Huan; Zhang, Yang; Olsen, Kristen M.; Wang, Wen-Xing; Do, Bebhinn A.; Bridgers, George M.

    2010-07-01

    The prediction of future air quality and its responses to emission control strategies at national and state levels requires a reliable model that can replicate atmospheric observations. In this work, the Mesoscale Model (MM5) and the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling (CMAQ) system are applied at a 4-km horizontal grid resolution for four one-month periods, i.e., January, June, July, and August in 2002 to evaluate model performance and compare with that at 12-km. The evaluation shows skills of MM5/CMAQ that are overall consistent with current model performance. The large cold bias in temperature at 1.5 m is likely due to too cold soil initial temperatures and inappropriate snow treatments. The large overprediction in precipitation in July is due likely to too frequent afternoon convective rainfall and/or an overestimation in the rainfall intensity. The normalized mean biases and errors are -1.6% to 9.1% and 15.3-18.5% in January and -18.7% to -5.7% and 13.9-20.6% in July for max 1-h and 8-h O 3 mixing ratios, respectively, and those for 24-h average PM 2.5 concentrations are 8.3-25.9% and 27.6-38.5% in January and -57.8% to -45.4% and 46.1-59.3% in July. The large underprediction in PM 2.5 in summer is attributed mainly to overpredicted precipitation, inaccurate emissions, incomplete treatments for secondary organic aerosols, and model difficulties in resolving complex meteorology and geography. While O 3 prediction shows relatively less sensitivity to horizontal grid resolutions, PM 2.5 and its secondary components, visibility indices, and dry and wet deposition show a moderate to high sensitivity. These results have important implications for the regulatory applications of MM5/CMAQ for future air quality attainment.

  13. Use of Air Quality Observations by the National Air Quality Forecast Capability

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stajner, I.; McQueen, J.; Lee, P.; Stein, A. F.; Kondragunta, S.; Ruminski, M.; Tong, D.; Pan, L.; Huang, J. P.; Shafran, P.; Huang, H. C.; Dickerson, P.; Upadhayay, S.

    2015-12-01

    The National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) operational predictions of ozone and wildfire smoke for the United States (U.S.) and predictions of airborne dust for continental U.S. are available at http://airquality.weather.gov/. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) operational North American Mesoscale (NAM) weather predictions are combined with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to produce the ozone predictions and test fine particulate matter (PM2.5) predictions. The Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model provides smoke and dust predictions. Air quality observations constrain emissions used by NAQFC predictions. NAQFC NOx emissions from mobile sources were updated using National Emissions Inventory (NEI) projections for year 2012. These updates were evaluated over large U.S. cities by comparing observed changes in OMI NO2 observations and NOx measured by surface monitors. The rate of decrease in NOx emission projections from year 2005 to year 2012 is in good agreement with the observed changes over the same period. Smoke emissions rely on the fire locations detected from satellite observations obtained from NESDIS Hazard Mapping System (HMS). Dust emissions rely on a climatology of areas with a potential for dust emissions based on MODIS Deep Blue aerosol retrievals. Verification of NAQFC predictions uses AIRNow compilation of surface measurements for ozone and PM2.5. Retrievals of smoke from GOES satellites are used for verification of smoke predictions. Retrievals of dust from MODIS are used for verification of dust predictions. In summary, observations are the basis for the emissions inputs for NAQFC, they are critical for evaluation of performance of NAQFC predictions, and furthermore they are used in real-time testing of bias correction of PM2.5 predictions, as we continue to work on improving modeling and emissions important for representation of PM2.5.

  14. Study of Regional Downscaled Climate and Air Quality in the United States

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Y.; Fu, J. S.; Drake, J.; Lamarque, J.; Lam, Y.; Huang, K.

    2011-12-01

    Due to the increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the global and regional climate patterns have significantly changed. Climate change has exerted strong impact on ecosystem, air quality and human life. The global model Community Earth System Model (CESM v1.0) was used to predict future climate and chemistry under projected emission scenarios. Two new emission scenarios, Representative Community Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5, were used in this study for climate and chemistry simulations. The projected global mean temperature will increase 1.2 and 1.7 degree Celcius for the RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios in 2050s, respectively. In order to take advantage of local detailed topography, land use data and conduct local climate impact on air quality, we downscaled CESM outputs to 4 km by 4 km Eastern US domain using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model and Community Multi-scale Air Quality modeling system (CMAQ). The evaluations between regional model outputs and global model outputs, regional model outputs and observational data were conducted to verify the downscaled methodology. Future climate change and air quality impact were also examined on a 4 km by 4 km high resolution scale.

  15. Aerosol Health Impact Source Attribution Studies with the CMAQ Adjoint Air Quality Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Turner, M. D.

    Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is an air pollutant consisting of a mixture of solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere. Knowledge of the sources and distributions of PM2.5 is important for many reasons, two of which are that PM2.5 has an adverse effect on human health and also an effect on climate change. Recent studies have suggested that health benefits resulting from a unit decrease in black carbon (BC) are four to nine times larger than benefits resulting from an equivalent change in PM2.5 mass. The goal of this thesis is to quantify the role of emissions from different sectors and different locations in governing the total health impacts, risk, and maximum individual risk of exposure to BC both nationally and regionally in the US. We develop and use the CMAQ adjoint model to quantify the role of emissions from all modeled sectors, times, and locations on premature deaths attributed to exposure to BC. From a national analysis, we find that damages resulting from anthropogenic emissions of BC are strongly correlated with population and premature death. However, we find little correlation between damages and emission magnitude, suggesting that controls on the largest emissions may not be the most efficient means of reducing damages resulting from BC emissions. Rather, the best proxy for locations with damaging BC emissions is locations where premature deaths occur. Onroad diesel and nonroad vehicle emissions are the largest contributors to premature deaths attributed to exposure to BC, while onroad gasoline emissions cause the highest deaths per amount emitted. Additionally, emissions in fall and winter contribute to more premature deaths (and more per amount emitted) than emissions in spring and summer. From a regional analysis, we find that emissions from outside each of six urban areas account for 7% to 27% of the premature deaths attributed to exposure to BC within the region. Within the region encompassing New York City and Philadelphia

  16. Urban Landscape Characterization Using Remote Sensing Data For Input into Air Quality Modeling

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Quattrochi, Dale A.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.; Crosson, William; Khan, Maudood

    2005-01-01

    The urban landscape is inherently complex and this complexity is not adequately captured in air quality models that are used to assess whether urban areas are in attainment of EPA air quality standards, particularly for ground level ozone. This inadequacy of air quality models to sufficiently respond to the heterogeneous nature of the urban landscape can impact how well these models predict ozone pollutant levels over metropolitan areas and ultimately, whether cities exceed EPA ozone air quality standards. We are exploring the utility of high-resolution remote sensing data and urban growth projections as improved inputs to meteorological and air quality models focusing on the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area as a case study. The National Land Cover Dataset at 30m resolution is being used as the land use/land cover input and aggregated to the 4km scale for the MM5 mesoscale meteorological model and the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling schemes. Use of these data have been found to better characterize low density/suburban development as compared with USGS 1 km land use/land cover data that have traditionally been used in modeling. Air quality prediction for future scenarios to 2030 is being facilitated by land use projections using a spatial growth model. Land use projections were developed using the 2030 Regional Transportation Plan developed by the Atlanta Regional Commission. This allows the State Environmental Protection agency to evaluate how these transportation plans will affect future air quality.

  17. Air quality real-time forecast before and during the G-20 ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The 2016 G-20 Hangzhou summit, the eleventh annual meeting of the G-20 heads of government, will be held during September 3-5, 2016 in Hangzhou, China. For a successful summit, it is important to ensure good air quality. To achieve this goal, governments of Hangzhou and its surrounding provinces will enforce a series of emission reductions, such as a forced closure of major highly-polluting industries and also limiting car and construction emissions in the cities and surroundings during the 2016 G-20 Hangzhou summit. Air quality forecast systems consisting of the two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ and online-coupled WRF-Chem have been applied to forecast air quality in Hangzhou regularly. This study will present the results of real-time forecasts of air quality over eastern China using 12-km grid spacing and for Hangzhou area using 4-km grid spacing with these two modeling systems using emission inventories for base and 2016 G-20 scenarios before and during the 2016 G-20 Hangzhou summit. Evaluations of models’ performance for both cases for PM2.5, PM10, O3, SO2, NO2, CO, air quality index (AQI), and aerosol optical depth (AOD) are carried out by comparing them with observations obtained from satellites, such as MODIS, and surface monitoring networks. The effects of the emission reduction efforts on expected air quality improvements during the2016 G-20 Hangzhou summit will be studied in depth. This study provides insights on how air quality will be improved by a plan

  18. The Co-benefits of Domestic and Foreign GHG Mitigation on US Air Quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Y.; Bowden, J.; Adelman, Z.; Naik, V.; Horowitz, L. W.; West, J. J.

    2013-12-01

    Authors: Yuqiang Zhang1, Jared Bowden2 , Zachariah Adelman1,2, Vaishali Naik3, Larry W. Horowitz4 , J. Jason West1 1 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 2 Institute for the Environment, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 3 UCAR/NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ 08540 4 NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ 08540 Abstract: Actions to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will reduce co-emitted air pollutants, which can immediately affect air quality; slowing climate change through GHG mitigation also influences air quality in the long term. We previously used a global model (MOZART-4) to show that global GHG mitigation will have significant co-benefits for air quality and human health. In doing so, we contrasted the Representative Concentration Pathway Scenario 4.5 (RCP4.5), treated as a GHG mitigation scenario, with its associated reference case scenario (REF). Using these same scenarios, we investigate here the air quality co-benefits due to domestic GHGs mitigation in the US alone at fine resolution, and compare these co-benefits with those resulting from foreign GHG mitigation. This work focuses on downscaling the meteorology and air pollutant chemistry to the US scale. We use the latest Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model as a Regional Climate Model (RCM) to dynamically downscale the GFDL AM3 Global Climate Model (GCM) over the US at 36 km resolution, in 2000 and 2050. The 2000 simulation will be compared with the multi-year surface observation data, satellite data, and all simulations with the GCM simulation. These simulations will be used as inputs for the newest Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. Initial conditions (IC) and dynamic boundary conditions (BC) for CMAQ will be derived from the global MOZART-4 simulations. Anthropogenic emissions for the REF and RCP4.5 scenarios will be processed through SMOKE to prepare temporally- and spatially-resolved emission files

  19. Dynamic evaluation of CMAQ part I: Separating the effects of changing emissions and changing meteorology on ozone levels between 2002 and 2005 in the eastern US

    EPA Science Inventory

    A dynamic evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system version 5.0.1 was conducted to evaluate the model's ability to predict changes in ozone levels between 2002 and 2005, a time period characterized by emission reductions associated with the EPA's N...

  20. NOAA's National Air Quality Predictions and Development of Aerosol and Atmospheric Composition Prediction Components for the Next Generation Global Prediction System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stajner, I.; Hou, Y. T.; McQueen, J.; Lee, P.; Stein, A. F.; Tong, D.; Pan, L.; Huang, J.; Huang, H. C.; Upadhayay, S.

    2016-12-01

    NOAA provides operational air quality predictions using the National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC): ozone and wildfire smoke for the United States and airborne dust for the contiguous 48 states at http://airquality.weather.gov. NOAA's predictions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) became publicly available in February 2016. Ozone and PM2.5 predictions are produced using a system that operationally links the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with meteorological inputs from the North American mesoscale forecast Model (NAM). Smoke and dust predictions are provided using the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. Current NAQFC focus is on updating CMAQ to version 5.0.2, improving PM2.5 predictions, and updating emissions estimates, especially for NOx using recently observed trends. Wildfire smoke emissions from a newer version of the USFS BlueSky system are being included in a new configuration of the NAQFC NAM-CMAQ system, which is re-run for the previous 24 hours when the wildfires were observed from satellites, to better represent wildfire emissions prior to initiating predictions for the next 48 hours. In addition, NOAA is developing the Next Generation Global Prediction System (NGGPS) to represent the earth system for extended weather prediction. NGGPS will include a representation of atmospheric dynamics, physics, aerosols and atmospheric composition as well as coupling with ocean, wave, ice and land components. NGGPS is being developed with a broad community involvement, including community developed components and academic research to develop and test potential improvements for potentially inclusion in NGGPS. Several investigators at NOAA's research laboratories and in academia are working to improve the aerosol and gaseous chemistry representation for NGGPS, to develop and evaluate the representation of atmospheric composition, and to establish and improve the coupling with radiation and microphysics

  1. Air-quality implications of widespread adoption of cool roofs on ozone and particulate matter in southern California.

    PubMed

    Epstein, Scott A; Lee, Sang-Mi; Katzenstein, Aaron S; Carreras-Sospedra, Marc; Zhang, Xinqiu; Farina, Salvatore C; Vahmani, Pouya; Fine, Philip M; Ban-Weiss, George

    2017-08-22

    The installation of roofing materials with increased solar reflectance (i.e., "cool roofs") can mitigate the urban heat island effect and reduce energy use. In addition, meteorological changes, along with the possibility of enhanced UV reflection from these surfaces, can have complex impacts on ozone and PM 2.5 concentrations. We aim to evaluate the air-quality impacts of widespread cool-roof installations prescribed by California's Title 24 building energy efficiency standards within the heavily populated and polluted South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB). Development of a comprehensive rooftop area database and evaluation of spectral reflectance measurements of roofing materials allows us to project potential future changes in solar and UV reflectance for simulations using the Weather Research Forecast and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models. 2012 meteorological simulations indicate a decrease in daily maximum temperatures, daily maximum boundary layer heights, and ventilation coefficients throughout the SoCAB upon widespread installation of cool roofs. CMAQ simulations show significant increases in PM 2.5 concentrations and policy-relevant design values. Changes in 8-h ozone concentrations depend on the potential change in UV reflectance, ranging from a decrease in population-weighted concentrations when UV reflectance remains unchanged to an increase when changes in UV reflectance are at an upper bound. However, 8-h policy-relevant ozone design values increase in all cases. Although the other benefits of cool roofs could outweigh small air-quality penalties, UV reflectance standards for cool roofing materials could mitigate these negative consequences. Results of this study motivate the careful consideration of future rooftop and pavement solar reflectance modification policies.

  2. Air-quality implications of widespread adoption of cool roofs on ozone and particulate matter in southern California

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ban-Weiss, G. A.; Lee, S. M.; Katzenstein, A. S.; Carreras-Sospedra, M.; Zhang, X.; Farina, S.; Vahmani, P.; Fine, P.; Epstein, S. A.

    2017-12-01

    The installation of roofing materials with increased solar reflectance (i.e., "cool roofs") can mitigate the urban heat island effect and reduce energy use. In addition, meteorological changes, along with the possibility of enhanced UV reflection from these surfaces, can have complex impacts on ozone and PM2.5 concentrations. We aim to evaluate the air-quality impacts of widespread cool-roof installations prescribed by building energy efficiency standards within the heavily populated and polluted South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB) in Southern California. Development of a comprehensive rooftop area database and evaluation of spectral reflectance measurements of roofing materials allows us to predict potential future changes in solar and UV reflectance for simulations using the Weather Research Forecast and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models. Meteorological simulations indicate a decrease in daily maximum temperatures, daily maximum boundary layer heights, and ventilation coefficients throughout the SoCAB upon widespread installation of cool roofs. CMAQ simulations show significant increases in PM2.5 concentrations and policy-relevant design values. Changes in 8-h ozone concentrations depend on the potential change in UV reflectance, ranging from a decrease in population-weighted concentrations when UV reflectance remains unchanged to an increase when changes in UV reflectance are at an upper bound. However, 8-h policy-relevant ozone design values increase in all cases. Although the other benefits of cool roofs could outweigh small air-quality penalties, UV reflectance standards for cool roofing materials could mitigate these negative consequences. Results of this study motivate the careful consideration of future rooftop and pavement solar reflectance modification policies.

  3. Using aircraft and satellite observations to improve regulatory air quality models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Canty, T. P.; Vinciguerra, T.; Anderson, D. C.; Carpenter, S. F.; Goldberg, D. L.; Hembeck, L.; Montgomery, L.; Liu, X.; Salawitch, R. J.; Dickerson, R. R.

    2014-12-01

    Federal and state agencies rely on EPA approved models to develop attainment strategies that will bring states into compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). We will describe modifications to the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx) frameworks motivated by analysis of NASA satellite and aircraft measurements. Observations of tropospheric column NO2 from OMI have already led to the identification of an important deficiency in the chemical mechanisms used by models; data collected during the DISCOVER-AQ field campaign has been instrumental in devising an improved representation of the chemistry of nitrogen species. Our recent work has focused on the use of: OMI observations of tropospheric O3 to assess and improve the representation of boundary conditions used by AQ models, OMI NO2 to derive a top down NOx emission inventory from commercial shipping vessels that affect air quality in the Eastern U.S., and OMI HCHO to assess the C5H8 emission inventories provided by bioegenic emissions models. We will describe how these OMI-driven model improvements are being incorporated into the State Implementation Plans (SIPs) being prepared for submission to EPA in summer 2015 and how future modeling efforts may be impacted by our findings.

  4. Evaluating the Vertical Distribution of Ozone and its Relationship to Pollution Events in Air Quality Models using Satellite Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Osterman, G. B.; Neu, J. L.; Eldering, A.; Pinder, R. W.; Tang, Y.; McQueen, J.

    2014-12-01

    Most regional scale models that are used for air quality forecasts and ozone source attribution do not adequately capture the distribution of ozone in the mid- and upper troposphere, but it is unclear how this shortcoming relates to their ability to simulate surface ozone. We combine ozone profile data from the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and a new joint product from TES and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument along with ozonesonde measurements and EPA AirNow ground station ozone data to examine air quality events during August 2006 in the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) and National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) models. We present both aggregated statistics and case-study analyses with the goal of assessing the relationship between the models' ability to reproduce surface air quality events and their ability to capture the vertical distribution of ozone. We find that the models lack the mid-tropospheric ozone variability seen in TES and the ozonesonde data, and discuss the conditions under which this variability appears to be important for surface air quality.

  5. Evaluation of Day and Nighttime Lower Tropospheric Ozone from Air Quality Models using TES and Ozonesondes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Osterman, G. B.; Neu, J. L.; Eldering, A.; Pinder, R. W.; Tang, Y.; McQueen, J.

    2012-12-01

    At night, ozone can be transported long distances above the surface inversion layer without chemical destruction or deposition. As the boundary layer breaks up in the morning, this nocturnal ozone can be mixed down to the surface and rapidly increase ozone concentrations at a rate that can rival chemical ozone production. Most regional scale models that are used for air quality forecasts and ozone source attribution do not adequately capture nighttime ozone concentrations and transport. We combine ozone profile data from the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and other sensors, ozonesonde data collected during the INTEX Ozonesonde Network Study (IONS), EPA AirNow ground station ozone data, the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, and the National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) model to examine air quality events during August 2006. We present both aggregated statistics and case-study analyses that assess the relationship between the models' ability to reproduce surface air quality events and their ability to capture the vertical distribution of ozone both during the day and at night. We perform the comparisons looking at the geospatial dependence in the differences between the measurements and models under different surface ozone conditions.

  6. Comparative Evaluation of the Impact of WRF-NMM and WRF-ARW Meteorology on CMAQ Simulations for O3 and Related Species During the 2006 TexAQS/GoMACCS Campaign

    EPA Science Inventory

    In this paper, impact of meteorology derived from the Weather, Research and Forecasting (WRF)– Non–hydrostatic Mesoscale Model (NMM) and WRF–Advanced Research WRF (ARW) meteorological models on the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) simulations for ozone and its related prec...

  7. Photochemical model evaluation of the ground-level ozone impacts on ambient air quality and vegetation health in the Alberta oil sands region: Using present and future emission scenarios

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vijayaraghavan, Krish; Cho, Sunny; Morris, Ralph; Spink, David; Jung, Jaegun; Pauls, Ron; Duffett, Katherine

    2016-09-01

    One of the potential environmental issues associated with oil sands development is increased ozone formation resulting from NOX and volatile organic compound emissions from bitumen extraction, processing and upgrading. To manage this issue in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) in northeast Alberta, a regional multi-stakeholder group, the Cumulative Environmental Management Association (CEMA), developed an Ozone Management Framework that includes a modelling based assessment component. In this paper, we describe how the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was applied to assess potential ground-level ozone formation and impacts on ambient air quality and vegetation health for three different ozone precursor cases in the AOSR. Statistical analysis methods were applied, and the CMAQ performance results met the U.S. EPA model performance goal at all sites. The modelled 4th highest daily maximum 8-h average ozone concentrations in the base and two future year scenarios did not exceed the Canada-wide standard of 65 ppb or the newer Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards of 63 ppb in 2015 and 62 ppb in 2020. Modelled maximum 1-h ozone concentrations in the study were well below the Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objective of 82 ppb in all three cases. Several ozone vegetation exposure metrics were also evaluated to investigate the potential impact of ground-level ozone on vegetation. The chronic 3-months SUM60 exposure metric is within the CEMA baseline range (0-2000 ppb-hr) everywhere in the AOSR. The AOT40 ozone exposure metric predicted by CMAQ did not exceed the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) threshold of concern of 3000 ppb-hr in any of the cases but is just below the threshold in high-end future emissions scenario. In all three emission scenarios, the CMAQ predicted W126 ozone exposure metric is within the CEMA baseline threshold of 4000 ppb-hr. This study outlines the use of photochemical modelling of the impact of an industry (oil

  8. MODELING AIR TOXICS AND PM 2.5 CONCENTRATION FIELDS AS A MEANS FOR FACILITATING HUMAN EXPOSURE ASSESSMENTS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The capability of the US EPA Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system is extended to provide gridded ambient air quality concentration fields at fine scales. These fields will drive human exposure to air toxics and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) models...

  9. Remote Sensing and Spatial Growth Modeling Coupled With Air Quality Modeling to Assess the Impact of Atlanta, Georgia on the Local and Regional Environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Quattrochi, D. A.; Estes, M. G.; Crosson, W. L.; Johnson, H.; Khan, M.

    2006-05-01

    The growth of cities, both in population and areal extent, appears as an inexorable process. Urbanization continues at a rapid rate, and it is estimated that by the year 2025, 60 percent of the world's population will live in cities. Urban expansion has profound impacts on a host of biophysical, environmental, and atmospheric processes within an urban ecosystems perspective. A reduction in air quality over cities is a major result of these impacts. Because of its complexity, the urban landscape is not adequately captured in air quality models such as the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model that is used to assess whether urban areas are in attainment of EPA air quality standards, primarily for ground level ozone. This inadequacy of the CMAQ model to sufficiently respond to the heterogeneous nature of the urban landscape can impact how well the model predicts ozone levels over metropolitan areas and ultimately, whether cities exceed EPA ozone air quality standards. We are exploring the utility of high-resolution remote sensing data and urban spatial growth modeling (SGM) projections as improved inputs to a meteorological/air quality modeling system focusing on the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area as a case study. These growth projections include "business as usual" and "smart growth" scenarios out to 2030. The growth projections illustrate the effects of employing urban heat island mitigation strategies, such as increasing tree canopy and albedo across the Atlanta metro area, which in turn, are used to model how air temperature can potentially be moderated as impacts on elevating ground-level ozone, as opposed to not utilizing heat island mitigation strategies. The National Land Cover Dataset at 30m resolution is being used as the land use/land cover input and aggregated to the 4km scale for the MM5 mesoscale meteorological model and the CMAQ modeling schemes. Use of these data has been found to better characterize low density/suburban development as

  10. LAYER DEPENDENT ADVECTION IN CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    The advection methods used in CMAQ require that the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition be satisfied for numerical stability and accuracy. In CMAQ prior to version 4.3, the ADVSTEP algorithm established CFL-safe synchronization and advection timesteps that were uniform throu...

  11. Air-quality implications of widespread adoption of cool roofs on ozone and particulate matter in southern California

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Epstein, Scott A.; Lee, Sang-Mi; Katzenstein, Aaron S.; Carreras-Sospedra, Marc; Zhang, Xinqiu; Farina, Salvatore C.; Vahmani, Pouya; Fine, Philip M.; Ban-Weiss, George

    2017-08-01

    The installation of roofing materials with increased solar reflectance (i.e., “cool roofs”) can mitigate the urban heat island effect and reduce energy use. In addition, meteorological changes, along with the possibility of enhanced UV reflection from these surfaces, can have complex impacts on ozone and PM2.5 concentrations. We aim to evaluate the air-quality impacts of widespread cool-roof installations prescribed by California’s Title 24 building energy efficiency standards within the heavily populated and polluted South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB). Development of a comprehensive rooftop area database and evaluation of spectral reflectance measurements of roofing materials allows us to project potential future changes in solar and UV reflectance for simulations using the Weather Research Forecast and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models. 2012 meteorological simulations indicate a decrease in daily maximum temperatures, daily maximum boundary layer heights, and ventilation coefficients throughout the SoCAB upon widespread installation of cool roofs. CMAQ simulations show significant increases in PM2.5 concentrations and policy-relevant design values. Changes in 8-h ozone concentrations depend on the potential change in UV reflectance, ranging from a decrease in population-weighted concentrations when UV reflectance remains unchanged to an increase when changes in UV reflectance are at an upper bound. However, 8-h policy-relevant ozone design values increase in all cases. Although the other benefits of cool roofs could outweigh small air-quality penalties, UV reflectance standards for cool roofing materials could mitigate these negative consequences. Results of this study motivate the careful consideration of future rooftop and pavement solar reflectance modification policies.

  12. Air-quality implications of widespread adoption of cool roofs on ozone and particulate matter in southern California

    PubMed Central

    Lee, Sang-Mi; Katzenstein, Aaron S.; Carreras-Sospedra, Marc; Zhang, Xinqiu; Farina, Salvatore C.; Vahmani, Pouya; Fine, Philip M.

    2017-01-01

    The installation of roofing materials with increased solar reflectance (i.e., “cool roofs”) can mitigate the urban heat island effect and reduce energy use. In addition, meteorological changes, along with the possibility of enhanced UV reflection from these surfaces, can have complex impacts on ozone and PM2.5 concentrations. We aim to evaluate the air-quality impacts of widespread cool-roof installations prescribed by California’s Title 24 building energy efficiency standards within the heavily populated and polluted South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB). Development of a comprehensive rooftop area database and evaluation of spectral reflectance measurements of roofing materials allows us to project potential future changes in solar and UV reflectance for simulations using the Weather Research Forecast and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models. 2012 meteorological simulations indicate a decrease in daily maximum temperatures, daily maximum boundary layer heights, and ventilation coefficients throughout the SoCAB upon widespread installation of cool roofs. CMAQ simulations show significant increases in PM2.5 concentrations and policy-relevant design values. Changes in 8-h ozone concentrations depend on the potential change in UV reflectance, ranging from a decrease in population-weighted concentrations when UV reflectance remains unchanged to an increase when changes in UV reflectance are at an upper bound. However, 8-h policy-relevant ozone design values increase in all cases. Although the other benefits of cool roofs could outweigh small air-quality penalties, UV reflectance standards for cool roofing materials could mitigate these negative consequences. Results of this study motivate the careful consideration of future rooftop and pavement solar reflectance modification policies. PMID:28784778

  13. The Simulations of Wildland Fire Smoke PM25 in the NWS Air Quality Forecasting Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, H. C.; Pan, L.; McQueen, J.; Lee, P.; ONeill, S. M.; Ruminski, M.; Shafran, P.; Huang, J.; Stajner, I.; Upadhayay, S.; Larkin, N. K.

    2017-12-01

    The increase of wildland fire intensity and frequency in the United States (U.S.) has led to property loss, human fatality, and poor air quality due to elevated particulate matters and surface ozone concentrations. The NOAA/National Weather Service (NWS) built the National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) Modeling System driven by the NCEP North American Mesoscale Forecast System meteorology to provide ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) forecast guidance publicly. State and local forecasters use the NWS air quality forecast guidance to issue air quality alerts in their area. The NAQFC PM2.5 predictions include emissions from anthropogenic and biogenic sources, as well as natural sources such as dust storms and wildland fires. The wildland fire emission inputs to the NAQFC is derived from the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service Hazard Mapping System fire and smoke detection product and the emission module of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) BlueSky Smoke Modeling Framework. Wildland fires are unpredictable and can be ignited by natural causes such as lightning or be human-caused. It is extremely difficult to predict future occurrences and behavior of wildland fires, as is the available bio-fuel to be burned for real-time air quality predictions. Assumptions of future day's wildland fire behavior often have to be made from older observed wildland fire information. The comparisons between the NAQFC modeled PM2.5 and the EPA AirNow surface observation show that large errors in PM2.5 prediction can occur if fire smoke emissions are sometimes placed at the wrong location and/or time. A configuration of NAQFC CMAQ-system to re-run previous 24 hours, during which wildland fires were observed from satellites has been included recently. This study focuses on the effort performed to minimize the error in NAQFC PM2.5 predictions

  14. Evaluation of a seven-year air quality simulation using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models in the eastern United States.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Hongliang; Chen, Gang; Hu, Jianlin; Chen, Shu-Hua; Wiedinmyer, Christine; Kleeman, Michael; Ying, Qi

    2014-03-01

    The performance of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)/Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) system in the eastern United States is analyzed based on results from a seven-year modeling study with a 4-km spatial resolution. For 2-m temperature, the monthly averaged mean bias (MB) and gross error (GE) values are generally within the recommended performance criteria, although temperature is over-predicted with MB values up to 2K. Water vapor at 2-m is well-predicted but significant biases (>2 g kg(-1)) were observed in wintertime. Predictions for wind speed are satisfactory but biased towards over-prediction with 0

  15. Effect of aerosol feedback in the Korea Peninsula using WRF-CMAQ two-way coupled model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yoo, J.; Jeon, W.; Lee, H.; Lee, S.

    2017-12-01

    Aerosols influence the climate system by scattering and absorption of the solar radiation by altering the cloud radiative properties. For the reason, consideration of aerosol feedback is important numerical weather prediction and air quality models. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aerosol feedback on PM10 simulation in Korean Peninsula using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and the community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) two-way coupled model. Simulations were conducted with the aerosol feedback (FB) and without (NFB). The results of the simulated solar radiation in the west part of Korea decreased due to the aerosol feedback effect. The feedback effect was significant in the west part of Korea Peninsula, showing high Particulate Matter (PM) estimates due to dense emissions and its long-range transport from China. The decrease of solar radiation lead to planetary boundary layer (PBL) height reduction, thereby dispersion of air pollutants such as PM is suppressed, and resulted in higher PM concentrations. These results indicate that aerosol feedback effects can play an important role in the simulation of meteorology and air quality over Korea Peninsula.

  16. Assessment of long-term WRF–CMAQ simulations for ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Long-term simulations with the coupled WRF–CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecasting–Community Multi-scale Air Quality) model have been conducted to systematically investigate the changes in anthropogenic emissions of SO2 and NOx over the past 16 years (1995–2010) across the United States (US), their impacts on anthropogenic aerosol loading over North America, and subsequent impacts on regional radiation budgets. In particular, this study attempts to determine the consequences of the changes in tropospheric aerosol burden arising from substantial reductions in emissions of SO2 and NOx associated with control measures under the Clean Air Act (CAA) especially on trends in solar radiation. Extensive analyses conducted by Gan et al. (2014a) utilizing observations (e.g., SURFRAD, CASTNET, IMPROVE, and ARM) over the past 16 years (1995–2010) indicate a shortwave (SW) radiation (both all-sky and clear-sky) "brightening" in the US. The relationship of the radiation brightening trend with decreases in the aerosol burden is less apparent in the western US. One of the main reasons for this is that the emission controls under the CAA were aimed primarily at reducing pollutants in areas violating national air quality standards, most of which were located in the eastern US, while the relatively less populated areas in the western US were less polluted at the beginning of this study period. Comparisons of model results with observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD), aer

  17. Examining Air Quality-Meteorology Interactions on Regional to Hemispheric Scales

    EPA Science Inventory

    This presentation provides motivation for coupling the atmospheric dynamics and chemistry calculations in air pollution modeling systems, provides an overview of how this coupling is achieved in the WRF-CMAQ 2-way coupled model, presents results from various applications of the m...

  18. Modeling the Dynamic Change of Air Quality and its Response to Emission Trends

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Wei

    This thesis focuses on evaluating atmospheric chemistry and transport models' capability in simulating the chemistry and dynamics of power plant plumes, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses in predicting air quality trends at regional scales, and exploring air quality trends in an urban area. First, the Community Mutlti-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is applied to simulate the physical and chemical evolution of power plant plumes (PPPs) during the second Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS) in 2006. SO2 and NOy were observed to be rapidly removed from PPPs on cloudy days but not on cloud-free days, indicating efficient aqueous processing of these compounds in clouds, while the model fails to capture the rapid loss of SO2 and NOy in some plumes on the cloudy day. Adjustments to cloud liquid water content (QC) and the default metal concentrations in the cloud module could explain some of the SO 2 loss while NOy in the model was insensitive to QC. Second, CMAQ is applied to simulate the ozone (O3) change after the NO x SIP Call and mobile emission controls in the eastern U.S. from 2002 to 2006. Observed downward changes in 8-hour O3 concentrations in the NOx SIP Call region were under-predicted by 26%--66%. The under-prediction in O3 improvements could be alleviated by 5%--31% by constraining NOx emissions in each year based on observed NOx concentrations while temperature biases or uncertainties in chemical reactions had minor impact on simulated O3 trends. Third, changes in ozone production in the Houston area is assessed with airborne measurements from TexAQS 2000 and 2006. Simultaneous declines in nitrogen oxides (NOx=NO+NO2) and highly reactive Volatile Organic Compounds (HRVOCs) were observed in the Houston Ship Channel (HSC). The reduction in HRVOCs led to the decline in total radical concentration by 20-50%. Rapid ozone production rates in the Houston area declined by 40-50% from 2000 to 2006, to which the reduction in NOx and HRVOCs had the similar

  19. Air Quality Science and Regulatory Efforts Require Geostationary Satellite Measurements

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pickering, Kenneth E.; Allen, D. J.; Stehr, J. W.

    2006-01-01

    Air quality scientists and regulatory agencies would benefit from the high spatial and temporal resolution trace gas and aerosol data that could be provided by instruments on a geostationary platform. More detailed time-resolved data from a geostationary platform could be used in tracking regional transport and in evaluating mesoscale air quality model performance in terms of photochemical evolution throughout the day. The diurnal cycle of photochemical pollutants is currently missing from the data provided by the current generation of atmospheric chemistry satellites which provide only one measurement per day. Often peak surface ozone mixing ratios are reached much earlier in the day during major regional pollution episodes than during local episodes due to downward mixing of ozone that had been transported above the boundary layer overnight. The regional air quality models often do not simulate this downward mixing well enough and underestimate surface ozone in regional episodes. Having high time-resolution geostationary data will make it possible to determine the magnitude of this lower-and mid-tropospheric transport that contributes to peak eight-hour average ozone and 24-hour average PM2.5 concentrations. We will show ozone and PM(sub 2.5) episodes from the CMAQ model and suggest ways in which geostationary satellite data would improve air quality forecasting. Current regulatory modeling is typically being performed at 12 km horizontal resolution. State and regional air quality regulators in regions with complex topography and/or land-sea breezes are anxious to move to 4-km or finer resolution simulations. Geostationary data at these or finer resolutions will be useful in evaluating such models.

  20. Dynamic evaluation of CMAQ part I: Separating the effects of ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    A dynamic evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system version 5.0.1 was conducted to evaluate the model's ability to predict changes in ozone levels between 2002 and 2005, a time period characterized by emission reductions associated with the EPA's Nitrogen Oxides State Implementation Plan as well as significant reductions in mobile source emissions. Model results for the summers of 2002 and 2005 were compared to simulations from a previous version of CMAQ to assess the impact of model updates on predicted pollutant response. Changes to the model treatment of emissions, meteorology and chemistry had substantial impacts on the simulated ozone concentrations. While the median bias for high summertime ozone decreased in both years compared to previous simulations, the observed decrease in ozone from 2002 to 2005 in the eastern US continued to be underestimated by the model. Additional “cross” simulations were used to decompose the model predicted change in ozone into the change due to emissions, the change due to meteorology and any remaining change not explained individually by these two components. The decomposition showed that the emission controls led to a decrease in modeled high summertime ozone close to twice as large as the decrease attributable to changes in meteorology alone. Quantifying the impact of retrospective emission controls by removing the impacts of meteorology during the control period can be a valuable approac

  1. FINE SCALE AIR QUALITY MODELING USING DISPERSION AND CMAQ MODELING APPROACHES: AN EXAMPLE APPLICATION IN WILMINGTON, DE

    EPA Science Inventory

    Characterization of spatial variability of air pollutants in an urban setting at fine scales is critical for improved air toxics exposure assessments, for model evaluation studies and also for air quality regulatory applications. For this study, we investigate an approach that su...

  2. Modeling green infrastructure land use changes on future air ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Green infrastructure can be a cost-effective approach for reducing stormwater runoff and improving water quality as a result, but it could also bring co-benefits for air quality: less impervious surfaces and more vegetation can decrease the urban heat island effect, and also result in more removal of air pollutants via dry deposition with increased vegetative surfaces. Cooler surface temperatures can also decrease ozone formation through the increases of NOx titration; however, cooler surface temperatures also lower the height of the boundary layer resulting in more concentrated pollutants within the same volume of air, especially for primary emitted pollutants (e.g. NOx, CO, primary particulate matter). To better understand how green infrastructure impacts air quality, the interactions between all of these processes must be considered collectively. In this study, we use a comprehensive coupled meteorology-air quality model (WRF-CMAQ) to simulate the influence of planned land use changes that include green infrastructure in Kansas City (KC) on regional meteorology and air quality. Current and future land use data was provided by the Mid-America Regional Council for 2012 and 2040 (projected land use due to population growth, city planning and green infrastructure implementation). These land use datasets were incorporated into the WRF-CMAQ modeling system allowing the modeling system to propagate the changes in vegetation and impervious surface coverage on meteoro

  3. Spatial Growth Modeling and High Resolution Remote Sensing Data Coupled with Air Quality Modeling to Assess the Impact of Atlanta, Georgia on the Local and Regional Environment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Quattrochi, Dale A.; Estes, Maurice G., Jr.; Crosson, William; Johnson, Hoyt; Khan, Maudood

    2006-01-01

    The growth of cities, both in population and areal extent, appears as an inexorable process. Urbanization continues at a rapid rate, and it is estimated that by the year 2025, 60 percent of the world s population will live in cities. Urban expansion has profound impacts on a host of biophysical, environmental, and atmospheric processes within an urban ecosystems perspective. A reduction in air quality over cities is a major result of these impacts. Because of its complexity, the urban landscape is not adequately captured in air quality models such as the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model that is used to assess whether urban areas are in attainment of EPA air quality standards, primarily for ground level ozone. This inadequacy of the CMAQ model to sufficiently respond to the heterogeneous nature of the urban landscape can impact how well the model predicts ozone levels over metropolitan areas and ultimately, whether cities exceed EPA ozone air quality standards. We are exploring the utility of high-resolution remote sensing data and urban spatial growth modeling (SGM) projections as improved inputs to a meteorological/air quality modeling system focusing on the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area as a case study. These growth projections include business as usual and smart growth scenarios out to 2030. The growth projections illustrate the effects of employing urban heat island mitigation strategies, such as increasing tree canopy and albedo across the Atlanta metro area, which in turn, are used to model how air temperature can potentially be moderated as impacts on elevating ground-level ozone, as opposed to not utilizing heat island mitigation strategies. The National Land Cover Dataset at 30m resolution is being used as the land use/land cover input and aggregated to the 4km scale for the MM5 mesoscale meteorological model and the CMAQ modeling schemes. Use of these data has been found to better characterize low density/suburban development as compared

  4. "Advances in Linked Air Quality, Farm Management and Biogeochemistry Models to Address Bidrectional Ammonia Flux in CMAQ"

    EPA Science Inventory

    Recent increases in anthropogenic inputs of nitrogen to air, land and water media pose a growing threat to human health and ecosystems. Modeling of air-surface N flux is one area in need of improvement. Implementation of a linked air quality and cropland management system is de...

  5. Advances in Linked Air Quality, Farm Management and Biogeochemistry Models to Address Bidirectional Ammonia Flux in CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    Recent increases in anthropogenic inputs of nitrogen to air, land and water media pose a growing threat to human health and ecosystems. Modeling of air-surface N flux is one area in need of improvement. Implementation of a linked air quality and cropland management system is de...

  6. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE CMAQ MODEL AEROSOL MODULE

    EPA Science Inventory

    This poster describes changes that were made to the aerosol module between CMAQ v4.4 and v4.5, as well as the effects of these changes on CMAQ model results. New aerosol diagnostic tools released with CMAQ v4.5 are also described and some illustrative results are provided

  7. Developing and Transitioning Numerical Air Quality Models to Improve Air Quality and Public Health Decision-Making in El Salvador and Costa Rica As Part of the Servir Applied Sciences Team

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thomas, A.; Huff, A. K.; Gomori, S. G.; Sadoff, N.

    2014-12-01

    In order to enhance the capacity for air quality modeling and improve air quality monitoring and management in the SERVIR Mesoamerica region, members of SERVIR's Applied Sciences Team (AST) are developing national numerical air quality models for El Salvador and Costa Rica. We are working with stakeholders from the El Salvador Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARN); National University of Costa Rica (UNA); the Costa Rica Ministry of the Environment, Energy, and Telecommunications (MINAET); and Costa Rica National Meteorological Institute (IMN), who are leaders in air quality monitoring and management in the Mesoamerica region. Focusing initially on these institutions will build sustainability in regional modeling activities by developing air quality modeling capability that can be shared with other countries in Mesoamerica. The air quality models are based on the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and incorporate meteorological inputs from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, as well as national emissions inventories from El Salvador and Costa Rica. The models are being optimized for urban air quality, which is a priority of decision-makers in Mesoamerica. Once experimental versions of the modeling systems are complete, they will be transitioned to servers run by stakeholders in El Salvador and Costa Rica. The numerical air quality models will provide decision support for stakeholders to identify 1) high-priority areas for expanding national ambient air monitoring networks, 2) needed revisions to national air quality regulations, and 3) gaps in national emissions inventories. This project illustrates SERVIR's goal of the transition of science to support decision-making through capacity building in Mesoamerica, and it aligns with the Group on Earth Observations' health societal benefit theme. This presentation will describe technical aspects of the development of the models and outline key steps in our successful

  8. Model development of dust emission and heterogeneous chemistry within the Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system and its application over East Asia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dong, Xinyi; Fu, Joshua S.; Huang, Kan; Tong, Daniel; Zhuang, Guoshun

    2016-07-01

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model has been further developed in terms of simulating natural wind-blown dust in this study, with a series of modifications aimed at improving the model's capability to predict the emission, transport, and chemical reactions of dust. The default parameterization of initial threshold friction velocity constants are revised to correct the double counting of the impact of soil moisture in CMAQ by the reanalysis of field experiment data; source-dependent speciation profiles for dust emission are derived based on local measurements for the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in East Asia; and dust heterogeneous chemistry is also implemented. The improved dust module in the CMAQ is applied over East Asia for March and April from 2006 to 2010. The model evaluation result shows that the simulation bias of PM10 and aerosol optical depth (AOD) is reduced, respectively, from -55.42 and -31.97 % by the original CMAQ to -16.05 and -22.1 % by the revised CMAQ. Comparison with observations at the nearby Gobi stations of Duolun and Yulin indicates that applying a source-dependent profile helps reduce simulation bias for trace metals. Implementing heterogeneous chemistry also results in better agreement with observations for sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfate (SO42-), nitric acid (HNO3), nitrous oxides (NOx), and nitrate (NO3-). The investigation of a severe dust storm episode from 19 to 21 March 2010 suggests that the revised CMAQ is capable of capturing the spatial distribution and temporal variation of dust. The model evaluation also indicates potential uncertainty within the excessive soil moisture used by meteorological simulation. The mass contribution of fine-mode particles in dust emission may be underestimated by 50 %. The revised CMAQ model provides a useful tool for future studies to investigate the emission, transport, and impact of wind-blown dust over East Asia and elsewhere.

  9. Performance characteristics of MM5-SMOKE-CMAQ for a summer photochemical episode in southeast England, United Kingdom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Y.; Sokhi, R. S.; Kitwiroon, N.; Middleton, D. R.; Fisher, B.

    In this study a modelling system consisting of Mesoscale Model (MM5), Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model has been applied to a summer photochemical period in southeast England, UK. Ozone (O 3), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2) and particulate matter (PM 2.5) concentrations modelled with different horizontal grid resolutions (9 and 3 km) were evaluated against available ground-level observations from the UK Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) and London Air Quality Network (LAQN) for the period of 24-28 June 2001 with a focus on O 3 predictions. This effort, which represents the first comprehensive performance evaluation of the modelling system over a UK domain, reveals that CMAQ's ability to reproduce surface O 3 observations varies with O 3 concentrations. It underpredicts O 3 mixing ratios on high-O 3 days and overpredicts the maximum and minimum hourly O 3 values for most low-O 3 days. Model sensitivity analysis with doubled anthropogenic NO x or volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions and analysis of the daylight-averaged levels of OX (sum of O 3 and NO 2) as a function of NO x revealed that the undereprediction of peak O 3 concentrations on high-O 3 days is caused by the underprediction of regional contribution and to a lesser extent local production, which might be related to the underestimation of European emissions in EMEP inventory and the lacked reactivity of the modelled atmosphere. CMAQ systematically underpredicts hourly NO 2 mixing ratios but captures the temporal variations. The normalized mean bias for hourly NO 2, although much larger than that for O 3, falls well within the generally accepted range of -20% to -50%. CMAQ with both resolutions (9 and 3 km) significantly underpredicts PM 2.5 mass concentrations and fails to reproduce its temporal variations. While model performance for O 3 and PM 2.5 are not very sensitive to model grid resolutions, a better agreement between modelled and

  10. High Electricity Demand in the Northeast U.S.: PJM Reliability Network and Peaking Unit Impacts on Air Quality.

    PubMed

    Farkas, Caroline M; Moeller, Michael D; Felder, Frank A; Henderson, Barron H; Carlton, Annmarie G

    2016-08-02

    On high electricity demand days, when air quality is often poor, regional transmission organizations (RTOs), such as PJM Interconnection, ensure reliability of the grid by employing peak-use electric generating units (EGUs). These "peaking units" are exempt from some federal and state air quality rules. We identify RTO assignment and peaking unit classification for EGUs in the Eastern U.S. and estimate air quality for four emission scenarios with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model during the July 2006 heat wave. Further, we population-weight ambient values as a surrogate for potential population exposure. Emissions from electricity reliability networks negatively impact air quality in their own region and in neighboring geographic areas. Monitored and controlled PJM peaking units are generally located in economically depressed areas and can contribute up to 87% of hourly maximum PM2.5 mass locally. Potential population exposure to peaking unit PM2.5 mass is highest in the model domain's most populated cities. Average daily temperature and national gross domestic product steer peaking unit heat input. Air quality planning that capitalizes on a priori knowledge of local electricity demand and economics may provide a more holistic approach to protect human health within the context of growing energy needs in a changing world.

  11. Dynamic evaluation of two decades of WRF-CMAQ ozone simulations over the contiguous United States

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Astitha, Marina; Luo, Huiying; Rao, S. Trivikrama; Hogrefe, Christian; Mathur, Rohit; Kumar, Naresh

    2017-09-01

    Dynamic evaluation of the fully coupled Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)- Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model ozone simulations over the contiguous United States (CONUS) using two decades of simulations covering the period from 1990 to 2010 is conducted to assess how well the changes in observed ozone air quality are simulated by the model. The changes induced by variations in meteorology and/or emissions are also evaluated during the same timeframe using spectral decomposition of observed and modeled ozone time series with the aim of identifying the underlying forcing mechanisms that control ozone exceedances and making informed recommendations for the optimal use of regional-scale air quality models. The evaluation is focused on the warm season's (i.e., May-September) daily maximum 8-hr (DM8HR) ozone concentrations, the 4th highest (4th) and average of top 10 DM8HR ozone values (top10), as well as the spectrally-decomposed components of the DM8HR ozone time series using the Kolmogorov-Zurbenko (KZ) filter. Results of the dynamic evaluation are presented for six regions in the U.S., consistent with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climatic regions. During the earlier 11-yr period (1990-2000), the simulated and observed regional average trends are not statistically significant. During the more recent 2000-2010 period, all observed trends are statistically significant and WRF-CMAQ captures the observed downward trend in the Southwest and Midwest but under-predicts the downward trends in observations for the other regions. Observational analysis reveals that it is the magnitude of the long-term forcing that dictates the maximum ozone exceedance potential; there is a strong linear relationship between the long-term forcing and the 4th highest or the average of the top10 ozone concentrations in both observations and model output. This finding indicates that improving the model's ability to reproduce the long-term component

  12. Estimating the agricultural fertilizer NH3 emission in China based on the bi-directional CMAQ model and an agro-ecosystem model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, S.

    2014-12-01

    Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) plays an important role in fine particle formation. Accurate estimates of ammonia can reduce uncertainties in air quality modeling. China is one of the largest countries emitting ammonia with the majority of NH3 emissions coming from the agricultural practices, such as fertilizer applications and animal operations. The current ammonia emission estimates in China are mainly based on pre-defined emission factors. Thus, there are considerable uncertainties in estimating NH3 emissions, especially in time and space distribution. For example, fertilizer applications vary in the date of application and amount by geographical regions and crop types. In this study, the NH3 emission from the agricultural fertilizer use in China of 2011 was estimated online by an agricultural fertilizer modeling system coupling a regional air-quality model and an agro-ecosystem model, which contains three main components 1) the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model, 2) the meso-scale meteorology Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and 3) the CMAQ air quality model with bi-directional ammonia fluxes. The EPIC output information about daily fertilizer application and soil characteristics would be the input of the CMAQ model. In order to run EPIC model, much Chinese local information is collected and processed. For example, Crop land data are computed from the MODIS land use data at 500-m resolution and crop categories at Chinese county level; the fertilizer use rate for different fertilizer types, crops and provinces are obtained from Chinese statistic materials. The system takes into consideration many influencing factors on agriculture ammonia emission, including weather, the fertilizer application method, timing, amount, and rate for specific pastures and crops. The simulated fertilizer data is compared with the NH3 emissions and fertilizer application data from other sources. The results of CMAQ modeling are also discussed and analyzed with

  13. LINKING ETA MODEL WITH THE COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODELING SYSTEM: OZONE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

    EPA Science Inventory

    A prototype surface ozone concentration forecasting model system for the Eastern U.S. has been developed. The model system is consisting of a regional meteorological and a regional air quality model. It demonstrated a strong prediction dependence on its ozone boundary conditions....

  14. Two Decades of WRF/CMAQ simulations over the continental ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Confidence in the application of models for forecasting and regulatory assessments is furthered by conducting four types of model evaluation: operational, dynamic, diagnostic, and probabilistic. Operational model evaluation alone does not reveal the confidence limits that can be associated with modeled air quality concentrations. This paper presents novel approaches for performing dynamic model evaluation and for evaluating the confidence limits of ozone exceedances using the WRF/CMAQ model simulations over the continental United States for the period from 1990 to 2010. The methodology presented here entails spectral decomposition of ozone time series using the KZ filter to assess the variations in the strengths of the synoptic (i.e., weather-induced variation) and baseline (i.e., long-term variation attributable to emissions, policy, and trends) forcings embedded in the modeled and observed concentrations. A method is presented where the future year observations are estimated based on the changes in the concentrations predicted by the model applied to the current year observations. The proposed method can provide confidence limits for ozone exceedances for a given emission reduction scenario. We present and discuss these new approaches to identify the strengths of the model in representing the changes in simulated O3 air quality over the 21-year period. The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Computational Exposure Division (CED) develops and evaluates

  15. A direct sensitivity approach to predict hourly ozone resulting from compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standard.

    PubMed

    Simon, Heather; Baker, Kirk R; Akhtar, Farhan; Napelenok, Sergey L; Possiel, Norm; Wells, Benjamin; Timin, Brian

    2013-03-05

    In setting primary ambient air quality standards, the EPA's responsibility under the law is to establish standards that protect public health. As part of the current review of the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS), the US EPA evaluated the health exposure and risks associated with ambient ozone pollution using a statistical approach to adjust recent air quality to simulate just meeting the current standard level, without specifying emission control strategies. One drawback of this purely statistical concentration rollback approach is that it does not take into account spatial and temporal heterogeneity of ozone response to emissions changes. The application of the higher-order decoupled direct method (HDDM) in the community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) model is discussed here to provide an example of a methodology that could incorporate this variability into the risk assessment analyses. Because this approach includes a full representation of the chemical production and physical transport of ozone in the atmosphere, it does not require assumed background concentrations, which have been applied to constrain estimates from past statistical techniques. The CMAQ-HDDM adjustment approach is extended to measured ozone concentrations by determining typical sensitivities at each monitor location and hour of the day based on a linear relationship between first-order sensitivities and hourly ozone values. This approach is demonstrated by modeling ozone responses for monitor locations in Detroit and Charlotte to domain-wide reductions in anthropogenic NOx and VOCs emissions. As seen in previous studies, ozone response calculated using HDDM compared well to brute-force emissions changes up to approximately a 50% reduction in emissions. A new stepwise approach is developed here to apply this method to emissions reductions beyond 50% allowing for the simulation of more stringent reductions in ozone concentrations. Compared to previous rollback methods, this

  16. Impact of Clean Air Regulations on Nitrogen Fate and Transport in Neuse River Basin

    EPA Science Inventory

    We investigated impacts of Clean Air Act (CAA) nitrogen emissions regulations on the fate and transport of nitrogen for two watersheds in the Neuse River Basin. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) models were used. Two scenar...

  17. Applications of Satellite Remote Sensing Products to Enhance and Evaluate the AIRPACT Regional Air Quality Modeling System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Herron-Thorpe, F. L.; Mount, G. H.; Emmons, L. K.; Lamb, B. K.; Jaffe, D. A.; Wigder, N. L.; Chung, S. H.; Zhang, R.; Woelfle, M.; Vaughan, J. K.; Leung, F. T.

    2013-12-01

    The WSU AIRPACT air quality modeling system for the Pacific Northwest forecasts hourly levels of aerosols and atmospheric trace gases for use in determining potential health and ecosystem impacts by air quality managers. AIRPACT uses the WRF/SMOKE/CMAQ modeling framework, derives dynamic boundary conditions from MOZART-4 forecast simulations with assimilated MOPITT CO, and uses the BlueSky framework to derive fire emissions. A suite of surface measurements and satellite-based remote sensing data products across the AIRPACT domain are used to evaluate and improve model performance. Specific investigations include anthropogenic emissions, wildfire simulations, and the effects of long-range transport on surface ozone. In this work we synthesize results for multiple comparisons of AIRPACT with satellite products such as IASI ammonia, AIRS carbon monoxide, MODIS AOD, OMI tropospheric ozone and nitrogen dioxide, and MISR plume height. Features and benefits of the newest version of AIRPACT's web-interface are also presented.

  18. Model development of dust emission and heterogeneous chemistry within the Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system and its application over East Asia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dong, X.; Fu, J. S.; Huang, K.; Tong, D.

    2015-12-01

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model has been further developed in terms of simulating natural wind-blown dust in this study, with a series of modifications aimed at improving the model's capability to predict the emission, transport, and chemical reactions of dust aerosols. The default parameterization of threshold friction velocity constants in the CMAQ are revised to avoid double counting of the impact of soil moisture based on the re-analysis of field experiment data; source-dependent speciation profiles for dust emission are derived based on local measurements for the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in East Asia; and dust heterogeneous chemistry is implemented to simulate the reactions involving dust aerosol. The improved dust module in the CMAQ was applied over East Asia for March and April from 2006 to 2010. Evaluation against observations has demonstrated that simulation bias of PM10 and aerosol optical depth (AOD) is reduced from -55.42 and -31.97 % in the original CMAQ to -16.05 and -22.1 % in the revised CMAQ, respectively. Comparison with observations at the nearby Gobi stations of Duolun and Yulin indicates that applying a source-dependent profile helps reduce simulation bias for trace metals. Implementing heterogeneous chemistry is also found to result in better agreement with observations for sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfate (SO42-), nitric acid (HNO3), nitrous oxides (NOx), and nitrate (NO3-). Investigation of a severe dust storm episode from 19 to 21 March 2010 suggests that the revised CMAQ is capable of capturing the spatial distribution and temporal variations of dust aerosols. Model evaluation indicates potential uncertainties within the excessive soil moisture fraction used by meteorological simulation. The mass contribution of fine mode aerosol in dust emission may be underestimated by 50 %. The revised revised CMAQ provides a useful tool for future studies to investigate the emission, transport, and impact of wind-blown dust over East

  19. Estimating Lightning NOx Emissions for Regional Air Quality Modeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Holloway, T.; Scotty, E.; Harkey, M.

    2014-12-01

    Lightning emissions have long been recognized as an important source of nitrogen oxides (NOx) on a global scale, and an essential emission component for global atmospheric chemistry models. However, only in recent years have regional air quality models incorporated lightning NOx emissions into simulations. The growth in regional modeling of lightning emissions has been driven in part by comparisons with satellite-derived estimates of column NO2, especially from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard the Aura satellite. We present and evaluate a lightning inventory for the EPA Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Our approach follows Koo et al. [2010] in the approach to spatially and temporally allocating a given total value based on cloud-top height and convective precipitation. However, we consider alternate total NOx emission values (which translate into alternate lightning emission factors) based on a review of the literature and performance evaluation against OMI NO2 for July 2007 conditions over the U.S. and parts of Canada and Mexico. The vertical distribution of lightning emissions follow a bimodal distribution from Allen et al. [2012] calculated over 27 vertical model layers. Total lightning NO emissions for July 2007 show the highest above-land emissions in Florida, southeastern Texas and southern Louisiana. Although agreement with OMI NO2 across the domain varied significantly depending on lightning NOx assumptions, agreement among the simulations at ground-based NO2 monitors from the EPA Air Quality System database showed no meaningful sensitivity to lightning NOx. Emissions are compared with prior studies, which find similar distribution patterns, but a wide range of calculated magnitudes.

  20. Preliminary Evaluation of Air Quality Model Performance Utilizing Measurements at the University of Houston Moody Tower and others during the TexAQS-II

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Byun, D. W.; Rappenglueck, B.; Lefer, B.

    2007-12-01

    Accurate meteorological and photochemical modeling efforts are necessary to understand the measurements made during the Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS-II). The main objective of the study is to understand the meteorological and chemical processes of high ozone and regional haze events in the Eastern Texas, including the Houston-Galveston metropolitan area. Real-time and retrospective meteorological and photochemical model simulations were performed to study key physical and chemical processes in the Houston Galveston Area. In particular, the Vertical Mixing Experiment (VME) at the University of Houston campus was performed on selected days during the TexAQS-II. Results of the MM5 meteorological model and CMAQ air quality model simulations were compared with the VME and other TexAQS-II measurements to understand the interaction of the boundary layer dynamics and photochemical evolution affecting Houston air quality.

  1. NCEP Air Quality Forecast(AQF) Graphics

    Science.gov Websites

    NAM-CMAQ Experimental Run predictions 00 03 06 09 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 Select experimental bias correction predictions NAM vs Nest forecasts Change Variable Type: Hourly CMAQ Forecasts

  2. Air quality benefits of universal particle filter and NOx controls on diesel trucks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tao, L.; Mcdonald, B. C.; Harley, R.

    2015-12-01

    Heavy-duty diesel trucks are a major source of black carbon/particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions on urban and regional scales. These emissions are relevant to both air quality and climate change. Since 2010 in the US, new engines are required to be equipped with emission control systems that greatly reduce both PM and NOx emissions, by ~98% relative to 1988 levels. To reduce emissions from the legacy fleet of older trucks that still remain on the road, regulations have been adopted in Califonia to accelerate the replacement of older trucks and thereby reduce associated emissions of PM and NOx. Use of diesel particle filters will be widespread by 2016, and universal use of catalytic converters for NOx control is required by 2023. We assess the air quality consequences of this clean-up effort in Southern California, using the Community Multiscale Air Quality model (CMAQ), and comparing three scenarios: historical (2005), present day (2016), and future year (2023). Emissions from the motor vehicle sector are mapped at high spatial resolution based on traffic count and fuel sales data. NOx emissions from diesel engines in 2023 are expected to decrease by ~80% compared to 2005, while the fraction of NOx emitted as NO2 is expected to increase from 5 to 18%. Air quality model simulations will be analyzed to quantify changes in NO2, black carbon, particulate matter, and ozone, both basin-wide and near hot spots such as ports and major highways.

  3. Aerosol Optical Depth over Europe: Evaluation of the CALIOPE air quality modelling system with direct-sun AERONET observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Basart, Sara; Pay, María. Teresa; Pérez, Carlos; Cuevas, Emilio; Jorba, Oriol; Piot, Matthias; María Baldasano, Jose

    2010-05-01

    In the frame of the CALIOPE project (Baldasano et al., 2008), the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) currently operates a high-resolution air quality forecasting system based on daily photochemical forecasts in Europe (12km x 12km resolution) with the WRF-ARW/HERMES/CMAQ modelling system (http://www.bsc.es/caliope) and desert dust forecasts over Southern Europe with BSC-DREAM8b (Pérez et al., 2006; http://www.bsc.es/projects/earthscience/DREAM). High resolution simulations and forecasts are possible through their implementation on MareNostrum supercomputer at BSC-CNS. As shown in previous air quality studies (e.g. Rodríguez et al., 2001; Jiménez-Guerrero et al., 2008), the contribution of desert dust on particulate matter levels in Southern Europe is remarkable due to its proximity to African desert dust sources. When considering only anthropogenic emissions (Baldasano et al., 2008) and the current knowledge about aerosol physics and chemistry, chemistry-transport model simulations underestimate the PM10 concentrations by 30-50%. As a first approach, the natural dust contribution from BSC-DREAM8b is on-line added to the anthropogenic aerosol output of CMAQ. The aim of the present work is the quantitative evaluation of the WRF-ARW/HERMES/ CMAQ/BSC-DREAM8b forecast system to simulate the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) over Europe. The performance of the modelled AOD has been quantitatively evaluated with discrete and categorical (skill scores) statistics by a comparison to direct-sun AERONET observations for 2004. The contribution of different types of aerosols will be analyzed by means of the O'Neill fine mode AOD products (O'Neill et al., 2001). A previous aerosol characterization of AERONET data was performed (Basart et al., 2009) in order to discriminate the different aerosol source contributions within the study region. The results indicate a remarkable improvement in the discrete and skill-scores evaluation (accuracy, critical success index and

  4. Integrating Measurement Based New Knowledge on Wildland Fire Emissions and Chemistry into the AIRPACT Air Quality Forecasting for the Pacific Northwest

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nergui, T.; Lee, Y.; Chung, S. H.; Lamb, B. K.; Yokelson, R. J.; Barsanti, K.

    2017-12-01

    A number of chamber and field measurements have shown that atmospheric organic aerosols and their precursors produced from wildfires are significantly underestimated in the emission inventories used for air quality models for various applications such as regulatory strategy development, impact assessments of air pollutants, and air quality forecasting for public health. The AIRPACT real-time air quality forecasting system consistently underestimates surface level fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations in the summer at both urban and rural locations in the Pacific Northwest, primarily result of errors in organic particulate matter. In this work, we implement updated chemical speciation and emission factors based on FLAME-IV (Fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment) and other measurements in the Blue-Sky fire emission model and the SMOKE emission preprocessor; and modified parameters for the secondary organic aerosol (SOA) module in CMAQ chemical transport model of the AIRPACT modeling system. Simulation results from CMAQ version 5.2 which has a better treatment for anthropogenic SOA formation (as a base case) and modified parameterization used for fire emissions and chemistry in the model (fire-soa case) are evaluated against airborne measurements downwind of the Big Windy Complex Fire and the Colockum Tarps Fire, both of which occurred in the Pacific Northwest in summer 2013. Using the observed aerosol chemical composition and mass loadings for organics, nitrate, sulfate, ammonium, and chloride from aircraft measurements during the Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds, and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys (SEAC4RS) and the Biomass Burning Observation Project (BBOP), we assess how new knowledge gained from wildfire measurements improve model predictions for SOA and its contribution to the total mass of PM2.5 concentrations.

  5. About Us - CMAQ

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Our team comes from all over the world, with members representing nine different countries in North America, Europe, and Asia with diverse educational backgrounds. The CMAQ team is part of the EPA's Office of Research and Development.

  6. Air Quality Improvements of Increased Integration of Renewables: Solar Photovoltaics Penetration Scenarios

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duran, P.; Holloway, T.; Brinkman, G.; Denholm, P.; Littlefield, C. M.

    2011-12-01

    Solar photovoltaics (PV) are an attractive technology because they can be locally deployed and tend to yield high production during periods of peak electric demand. These characteristics can reduce the need for conventional large-scale electricity generation, thereby reducing emissions of criteria air pollutants (CAPs) and improving ambient air quality with regard to such pollutants as nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and fine particulates. Such effects depend on the local climate, time-of-day emissions, available solar resources, the structure of the electric grid, and existing electricity production among other factors. This study examines the air quality impacts of distributed PV across the United States Eastern Interconnection. In order to accurately model the air quality impact of distributed PV in space and time, we used the National Renewable Energy Lab's (NREL) Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model to form three unique PV penetration scenarios in which new PV construction is distributed spatially based upon economic drivers and natural solar resources. Those scenarios are 2006 Eastern Interconnection business as usual, 10% PV penetration, and 20% PV penetration. With the GridView (ABB, Inc) dispatch model, we used historical load data from 2006 to model electricity production and distribution for each of the three scenarios. Solar PV electric output was estimated using historical weather data from 2006. To bridge the gap between dispatch and air quality modeling, we will create emission profiles for electricity generating units (EGUs) in the Eastern Interconnection from historical Continuous Emissions Monitoring System (CEMS) data. Via those emissions profiles, we will create hourly emission data for EGUs in the Eastern Interconnect for each scenario during 2006. Those data will be incorporated in the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model using the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) model. Initial results indicate that PV

  7. Assessment of the emissions and air quality impacts of biomass and biogas use in California.

    PubMed

    Carreras-Sospedra, Marc; Williams, Robert; Dabdub, Donald

    2016-02-01

    It is estimated that there is sufficient in-state "technically" recoverable biomass to support nearly 4000 MW of bioelectricity generation capacity. This study assesses the emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants and resulting air quality impacts of new and existing bioenergy capacity throughout the state of California, focusing on feedstocks and advanced technologies utilizing biomass resources predominant in each region. The options for bioresources include the production of bioelectricity and renewable natural gas (NG). Emissions of criteria pollutants and greenhouse gases are quantified for a set of scenarios that span the emission factors for power generation and the use of renewable natural gas for vehicle fueling. Emissions are input to the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to predict regional and statewide temporal air quality impacts from the biopower scenarios. With current technology and at the emission levels of current installations, maximum bioelectricity production could increase nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by 10% in 2020, which would cause increases in ozone and particulate matter concentrations in large areas of California. Technology upgrades would achieve the lowest criteria pollutant emissions. Conversion of biomass to compressed NG (CNG) for vehicles would achieve comparable emission reductions of criteria pollutants and minimize emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). Air quality modeling of biomass scenarios suggest that applying technological changes and emission controls would minimize the air quality impacts of bioelectricity generation. And a shift from bioelectricity production to CNG production for vehicles would reduce air quality impacts further. From a co-benefits standpoint, CNG production for vehicles appears to provide the best benefits in terms of GHG emissions and air quality. This investigation provides a consistent analysis of air quality impacts and greenhouse gas emissions for scenarios examining

  8. Utilization of satellite observation of ozone and aerosols in providing initial and boundary condition for regional air quality studies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pour-Biazar, Arastoo; Khan, Maudood; Wang, Lihua; Park, Yun-Hee; Newchurch, Mike; McNider, Richard T.; Liu, Xiong; Byun, Daewon W.; Cameron, Robert

    2011-09-01

    To demonstrate the efficacy of satellite observations in the realization of the background and transboundary transport of pollution in regional air quality modeling practices, satellite observations of ozone and aerosol optical depth were incorporated in the EPA Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model (http://www.cmascenter.org). Observations from Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard NASA's Aura satellite and AOD products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Terra (EOS AM) and Aqua (EOS PM) satellites were used to specify initial and lateral boundary conditions (IC/BC) for a simulation that spanned over August 2006. The tools and techniques using the satellite data were tested in the context of current regulatory air quality modeling practices. Daily satellite observations were remapped onto the modeling domain and used as IC/BC for daily segments of a month-long simulation and the results were evaluated against surface and ozonesonde observations. Compared to the standard application of CMAQ, OMI O3 profiles significantly improved model performance in the free troposphere and MODIS aerosol products substantially improved PM2.5 predictions in the boundary layer. The utilization of satellite data for BC helped in the realization of transboundary transport of pollution and was able to explain the recirculation of pollution from Northeast Corridor to the southeastern region. Ozone in the mid- to upper-troposphere was largely dominated by transport and thus benefited most from satellite provided BC. The ozone within the boundary layer was mostly affected by fast production/loss mechanisms that are impacted by surface emissions, chemistry and removal processes and was not impacted as much. A case study for August 18-22 demonstrated that model errors in the placement of a stationary front were the main reason for errors in PM2.5 predictions as the front acted as a boundary between high and low PM2.5 concentrations.

  9. Urban-rural variations in air quality and health impacts in northern India

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karambelas, A. N.; Holloway, T.; Fiore, A. M.; Kinney, P.; DeFries, R. S.; Kiesewetter, G.; Heyes, C.

    2017-12-01

    Ambient air pollution in India is a severe problem, contributing to negative health impacts and early death. Ground-based monitors often used to quantify health impacts are often located in urban regions, however approximately 70% of India's population resides in rural areas. We use high-resolution concentrations from the regional Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model over densely-populated northern India to estimate air quality and health impacts due to anthropogenic emission sectors separately for urban and rural regions. Modeled concentrations inform relative risk calculations and exposure estimates as performed in the Global Burden of Disease. Anthropogenic emissions from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Greenhouse Gas-Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies (GAINS) model following version 5a of the Evaluating the Climate and Air Quality Impacts of Short-Lived Pollutants project gridding structure are updated to reflect urban- and rural-specific activity information for transportation and residential combustion, and industrial and electrical generating unit location and magnitude information. We estimate 314,000 (95% Confidence Interval: 304,000—323,000) and 58,000 (CI: 39,000—70,000) adults (25 years or older) die prematurely each year from PM2.5 and O3 respectively in northern India, with the greatest impacts along the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Using urban and rural population distributions, we estimate that the majority of premature deaths resulting from PM2.5 and O3 are in rural (292,000) as opposed to urban (79,000) regions. These findings indicate the need for designing monitoring networks and ground-based health studies in rural areas of India to more accurately quantify the true health implications of ambient air pollution, in addition to supporting model evaluation. Using this urban-versus-rural emissions framework, we are assessing anthropogenic contributions to regional air quality and health impacts, and

  10. Intercomparison of the community multiscale air quality model and CALGRID using process analysis.

    PubMed

    O'Neill, Susan M; Lamb, Brian K

    2005-08-01

    This study was designed to examine the similarities and differences between two advanced photochemical air quality modeling systems: EPA Models-3/CMAQ and CALGRID/CALMET. Both modeling systems were applied to an ozone episode that occurred along the I-5 urban corridor in western Washington and Oregon during July 11-14, 1996. Both models employed the same modeling domain and used the same detailed gridded emission inventory. The CMAQ model was run using both the CB-IV and RADM2 chemical mechanisms, while CALGRID was used with the SAPRC-97 chemical mechanism. Outputfrom the Mesoscale Meteorological Model (MM5) employed with observational nudging was used in both models. The two modeling systems, representing three chemical mechanisms and two sets of meteorological inputs, were evaluated in terms of statistical performance measures for both 1- and 8-h average observed ozone concentrations. The results showed that the different versions of the systems were more similar than different, and all versions performed well in the Portland region and downwind of Seattle but performed poorly in the more rural region north of Seattle. Improving the meteorological input into the CALGRID/CALMET system with planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameters from the Models-3/CMAQ meteorology preprocessor (MCIP) improved the performance of the CALGRID/CALMET system. The 8-h ensemble case was often the best performer of all the cases indicating that the models perform better over longer analysis periods. The 1-h ensemble case, derived from all runs, was not necessarily an improvement over the five individual cases, but the standard deviation about the mean provided a measure of overall modeling uncertainty. Process analysis was applied to examine the contribution of the individual processes to the species conservation equation. The process analysis results indicated that the two modeling systems arrive at similar solutions by very different means. Transport rates are faster and exhibit

  11. “Nitrogen Budgets for the Mississippi River Basin using the linked EPIC-CMAQ-NEWS Models”

    EPA Science Inventory

    Presentation on the results from the 3 linked models, EPIC (USDA), CMAQ and NEWS to analyze a scenario of increased corn production related to biofuels together with Clean Air Act emission reductions across the US and the resultant effect on nitrogen loading to the Gulf of Mexico...

  12. The effects of global change upon United States air quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gonzalez-Abraham, R.; Chung, S. H.; Avise, J.; Lamb, B.; Salathé, E. P., Jr.; Nolte, C. G.; Loughlin, D.; Guenther, A.; Wiedinmyer, C.; Duhl, T.; Zhang, Y.; Streets, D. G.

    2015-11-01

    To understand more fully the effects of global changes on ambient concentrations of ozone and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in the United States (US), we conducted a comprehensive modeling effort to evaluate explicitly the effects of changes in climate, biogenic emissions, land use and global/regional anthropogenic emissions on ozone and PM2.5 concentrations and composition. Results from the ECHAM5 global climate model driven with the A1B emission scenario from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were downscaled using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to provide regional meteorological fields. We developed air quality simulations using the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) chemical transport model for two nested domains with 220 and 36 km horizontal grid cell resolution for a semi-hemispheric domain and a continental United States (US) domain, respectively. The semi-hemispheric domain was used to evaluate the impact of projected global emissions changes on US air quality. WRF meteorological fields were used to calculate current (2000s) and future (2050s) biogenic emissions using the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN). For the semi-hemispheric domain CMAQ simulations, present-day global emissions inventories were used and projected to the 2050s based on the IPCC A1B scenario. Regional anthropogenic emissions were obtained from the US Environmental Protection Agency National Emission Inventory 2002 (EPA NEI2002) and projected to the future using the MARKet ALlocation (MARKAL) energy system model assuming a business as usual scenario that extends current decade emission regulations through 2050. Our results suggest that daily maximum 8 h average ozone (DM8O) concentrations will increase in a range between 2 to 12 parts per billion (ppb) across most of the continental US. The highest increase occurs in the South, Central and Midwest regions of the US due to

  13. The effects of global change upon United States air quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gonzalez-Abraham, R.; Avise, J.; Chung, S. H.; Lamb, B.; Salathé, E. P., Jr.; Nolte, C. G.; Loughlin, D.; Guenther, A.; Wiedinmyer, C.; Duhl, T.; Zhang, Y.; Streets, D. G.

    2014-12-01

    To understand more fully the effects of global changes on ambient concentrations of ozone and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in the US, we conducted a comprehensive modeling effort to evaluate explicitly the effects of changes in climate, biogenic emissions, land use, and global/regional anthropogenic emissions on ozone and PM2.5 concentrations and composition. Results from the ECHAM5 global climate model driven with the A1B emission scenario from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were downscaled using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to provide regional meteorological fields. We developed air quality simulations using the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ) chemical transport model for two nested domains with 220 and 36 km horizontal grid cell resolution for a semi-hemispheric domain and a continental United States (US) domain, respectively. The semi-hemispheric domain was used to evaluate the impact of projected Asian emissions changes on US air quality. WRF meteorological fields were used to calculate current (2000s) and future (2050s) biogenic emissions using the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN). For the semi-hemispheric domain CMAQ simulations, present-day global emissions inventories were used and projected to the 2050s based on the IPCC A1B scenario. Regional anthropogenic emissions were obtained from the US Environmental Protection Agency National Emission Inventory 2002 (EPA NEI2002) and projected to the future using the MARKet ALlocation (MARKAL) energy system model assuming a business as usual scenario that extends current decade emission regulations through 2050. Our results suggest that daily maximum 8 h average ozone (DM8O) concentrations will increase in a range between 2 to 12 ppb across most of the continental US, with the highest increase in the South, Central, and Midwest regions of the US, due to increases in temperature, enhanced

  14. Assessment of the impacts of aromatic VOC emissions and yields of SOA on SOA concentrations with the air quality model RAMS-CMAQ

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Jialin; Zhang, Meigen; Wu, Fangkun; Sun, Yele; Tang, Guiqian

    2017-06-01

    The secondary organic aerosol (SOA) concentration is generally underestimated by models. Recent studies suggest that the underprediction is related to underestimations of aromatic volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and SOA yields in current models. Here, the impacts of these two factors in China were investigated with the regional air quality modeling system RAMS-CMAQ, referring to field observations during the episode from October 14 to November 14, 2014. Comparisons between the observed and modeled SOA of four sensitivity simulation cases indicated the significant impacts of the two underestimated factors on the SOA output. By considering these two aspects, the simulated mean SOA concentrations significantly increased by nearly 4 times with a good representation of the intensively temporal variations of concentrations, which were largely controlled by photochemical processes rather than meteorological conditions. The improvement in SOA compensated for the underestimations by approximately 23.5% and contributed to the mean fraction of SOA to organic aerosol (OA) by increasing the fraction from less than 7% to more than 25%, which was closer to the observed result. These results suggested a more reasonable and more realistic representation of SOA formation in the model after allowing for the two factors. Due to the better simulation of SOA, predictions of OA were correspondingly improved when the correlation coefficient increased from 0.57 to 0.73 and other bias parameters were reduced, which indicated the improved ability of our model to trace the temporal variations of OA. Based on the improved simulation throughout the episode, the mean SOA concentration was obviously higher in eastern China than in the west. The highest concentration appeared in the Sichuan Basin and Pearl River Delta (PRD) areas, with values of 6-11 μg/m3 and 8-17 μg/m3, respectively. Over the wide regions of central and eastern China, the dominant component in SOA was formed from

  15. WRF-CMAQ simulations of Aerosol Direct Effects

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    CMAQ and WRF output filesThis dataset is associated with the following publication:Gan, C., J. Pleim , R. Mathur , C. Hogrefe , C.N. Long, J. Xing, D. Wong , R. Gilliam , and C. Wei. Assessment of long-term WRF–CMAQ simulations for understanding direct aerosol effects on radiation "brightening" in the United States. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. Copernicus Publications, Katlenburg-Lindau, GERMANY, 15: 12193-12209, (2015).

  16. Improvement of Meteorological Inputs for TexAQS-II Air Quality Simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ngan, F.; Byun, D.; Kim, H.; Cheng, F.; Kim, S.; Lee, D.

    2008-12-01

    An air quality forecasting system (UH-AQF) for Eastern Texas, which is in operation by the Institute for Multidimensional Air Quality Studies (IMAQS) at the University of Houston, uses the Fifth-Generation PSU/NCAR Mesoscale Model MM5 model as the meteorological driver for modeling air quality with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. While the forecasting system was successfully used for the planning and implementation of various measurement activities, evaluations of the forecasting results revealed a few systematic problems in the numerical simulations. From comparison with observations, we observe some times over-prediction of northerly winds caused by inaccurate synoptic inputs and other times too strong southerly winds caused by local sea breeze development. Discrepancies in maximum and minimum temperature are also seen for certain days. Precipitation events, as well as clouds, are simulated at the incorrect locations and times occasionally. Model simulatednrealistic thunderstorms are simulated, causing sometimes cause unrealistically strong outflows. To understand physical and chemical processes influencing air quality measures, a proper description of real world meteorological conditions is essential. The objective of this study is to generate better meteorological inputs than the AQF results to support the chemistry modeling. We utilized existing objective analysis and nudging tools in the MM5 system to develop the MUltiscale Nest-down Data Assimilation System (MUNDAS), which incorporates extensive meteorological observations available in the simulated domain for the retrospective simulation of the TexAQS-II period. With the re-simulated meteorological input, we are able to better predict ozone events during TexAQS-II period. In addition, base datasets in MM5 such as land use/land cover, vegetation fraction, soil type and sea surface temperature are updated by satellite data to represent the surface features more accurately. They are key

  17. Assessment of long-term WRF–CMAQ simulations for understanding direct aerosol effects on radiation "brightening" in the United States

    DOE PAGES

    Gan, C.-M.; Pleim, J.; Mathur, R.; ...

    2015-11-03

    Long-term simulations with the coupled WRF–CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecasting–Community Multi-scale Air Quality) model have been conducted to systematically investigate the changes in anthropogenic emissions of SO 2 and NO x over the past 16 years (1995–2010) across the United States (US), their impacts on anthropogenic aerosol loading over North America, and subsequent impacts on regional radiation budgets. In particular, this study attempts to determine the consequences of the changes in tropospheric aerosol burden arising from substantial reductions in emissions of SO 2 and NO x associated with control measures under the Clean Air Act (CAA) especially on trends inmore » solar radiation. Extensive analyses conducted by Gan et al. (2014a) utilizing observations (e.g., SURFRAD, CASTNET, IMPROVE, and ARM) over the past 16 years (1995–2010) indicate a shortwave (SW) radiation (both all-sky and clear-sky) "brightening" in the US. The relationship of the radiation brightening trend with decreases in the aerosol burden is less apparent in the western US. One of the main reasons for this is that the emission controls under the CAA were aimed primarily at reducing pollutants in areas violating national air quality standards, most of which were located in the eastern US, while the relatively less populated areas in the western US were less polluted at the beginning of this study period. Comparisons of model results with observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD), aerosol concentration, and radiation demonstrate that the coupled WRF–CMAQ model is capable of replicating the trends well even though it tends to underestimate the AOD. In particular, the sulfate concentration predictions were well matched with the observations. The discrepancies found in the clear-sky diffuse SW radiation are likely due to several factors such as the potential increase of ice particles associated with increasing air traffic, the definition of "clear-sky" in the radiation

  18. Assessment of long-term WRF–CMAQ simulations for understanding direct aerosol effects on radiation "brightening" in the United States

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gan, C.-M.; Pleim, J.; Mathur, R.

    Long-term simulations with the coupled WRF–CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecasting–Community Multi-scale Air Quality) model have been conducted to systematically investigate the changes in anthropogenic emissions of SO 2 and NO x over the past 16 years (1995–2010) across the United States (US), their impacts on anthropogenic aerosol loading over North America, and subsequent impacts on regional radiation budgets. In particular, this study attempts to determine the consequences of the changes in tropospheric aerosol burden arising from substantial reductions in emissions of SO 2 and NO x associated with control measures under the Clean Air Act (CAA) especially on trends inmore » solar radiation. Extensive analyses conducted by Gan et al. (2014a) utilizing observations (e.g., SURFRAD, CASTNET, IMPROVE, and ARM) over the past 16 years (1995–2010) indicate a shortwave (SW) radiation (both all-sky and clear-sky) "brightening" in the US. The relationship of the radiation brightening trend with decreases in the aerosol burden is less apparent in the western US. One of the main reasons for this is that the emission controls under the CAA were aimed primarily at reducing pollutants in areas violating national air quality standards, most of which were located in the eastern US, while the relatively less populated areas in the western US were less polluted at the beginning of this study period. Comparisons of model results with observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD), aerosol concentration, and radiation demonstrate that the coupled WRF–CMAQ model is capable of replicating the trends well even though it tends to underestimate the AOD. In particular, the sulfate concentration predictions were well matched with the observations. The discrepancies found in the clear-sky diffuse SW radiation are likely due to several factors such as the potential increase of ice particles associated with increasing air traffic, the definition of "clear-sky" in the radiation

  19. Predicting the effects of nanoscale cerium additives in diesel fuel on regional-scale air quality.

    PubMed

    Erdakos, Garnet B; Bhave, Prakash V; Pouliot, George A; Simon, Heather; Mathur, Rohit

    2014-11-04

    Diesel vehicles are a major source of air pollutant emissions. Fuel additives containing nanoparticulate cerium (nCe) are currently being used in some diesel vehicles to improve fuel efficiency. These fuel additives also reduce fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions and alter the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and hydrocarbon (HC) species, including several hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). To predict their net effect on regional air quality, we review the emissions literature and develop a multipollutant inventory for a hypothetical scenario in which nCe additives are used in all on-road and nonroad diesel vehicles. We apply the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to a domain covering the eastern U.S. for a summer and a winter period. Model calculations suggest modest decreases of average PM2.5 concentrations and relatively larger decreases in particulate elemental carbon. The nCe additives also have an effect on 8 h maximum ozone in summer. Variable effects on HAPs are predicted. The total U.S. emissions of fine-particulate cerium are estimated to increase 25-fold and result in elevated levels of airborne cerium (up to 22 ng/m3), which might adversely impact human health and the environment.

  20. Impacts of potential CO2-reduction policies on air quality in the United States.

    PubMed

    Trail, Marcus A; Tsimpidi, Alexandra P; Liu, Peng; Tsigaridis, Kostas; Hu, Yongtao; Rudokas, Jason R; Miller, Paul J; Nenes, Athanasios; Russell, Armistead G

    2015-04-21

    Impacts of emissions changes from four potential U.S. CO2 emission reduction policies on 2050 air quality are analyzed using the community multiscale air quality model (CMAQ). Future meteorology was downscaled from the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) ModelE General Circulation Model (GCM) to the regional scale using the Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) model. We use emissions growth factors from the EPAUS9r MARKAL model to project emissions inventories for two climate tax scenarios, a combined transportation and energy scenario, a biomass energy scenario and a reference case. Implementation of a relatively aggressive carbon tax leads to improved PM2.5 air quality compared to the reference case as incentives increase for facilities to install flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies. However, less capital is available to install NOX reduction technologies, resulting in an O3 increase. A policy aimed at reducing CO2 from the transportation sector and electricity production sectors leads to reduced emissions of mobile source NOX, thus reducing O3. Over most of the U.S., this scenario leads to reduced PM2.5 concentrations. However, increased primary PM2.5 emissions associated with fuel switching in the residential and industrial sectors leads to increased organic matter (OM) and PM2.5 in some cities.

  1. Representing the Effects of Long-Range Transport and Lateral Boundary Conditions in Regional Air Pollution Models

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system was applied to a domain covering the northern hemisphere; meteorological information was derived from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model run on identical grid and projection configuration, while the emissio...

  2. CMAQ modeling of near-ground ozone pollution during the CAREBeijing-2006 campaign in Beijing, China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Xuesong; Song, Yu; Zhang, Yuanhang; Hu, Min; Zeng, Limin; Zhu, Tong

    2010-05-01

    The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system, a 3-D regional chemical transport model, was used to simulate the O3 episodes during the Campaign of Air Quality Research in Beijing and surrounding areas in 2006 (CAREBeijing-2006). The model reproduced the temporal and spatial variations of the observed ozone and precursors well during the campaign. The modeling results showed the evolution of near ground O3 and the feature of vertical O3 profile on pollution days with different meteorological conditions. Process analysis was applied to investigate the contributions of local production and regional transport, and found different relative importance at different locations of Beijing. O3-NOx-VOCs sensitivity was also addressed with different precursor emission scenarios. The Beijing downtown area and downwind urban plume were usually in VOC-limited regime, whereas the upwind regions and northern mountain areas were generally characterized by NOx-sensitive chemistry. Ozone production efficiency of NOx was also calculated based on simulation results and compared with that derived from observations. For reducing O3 levels in Beijing, the above results suggest a regional emission control strategy with more emphasis on VOCs reduction in Beijing urban areas.

  3. Modeling of episodic particulate matter events using a 3-D air quality model with fine grid: Applications to a pair of cities in the US/Mexico border

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Choi, Yu-Jin; Hyde, Peter; Fernando, H. J. S.

    High (episodic) particulate matter (PM) events over the sister cities of Douglas (AZ) and Agua Prieta (Sonora), located in the US-Mexico border, were simulated using the 3D Eulerian air quality model, MODELS-3/CMAQ. The best available input information was used for the simulations, with pollution inventory specified on a fine grid. In spite of inherent uncertainties associated with the emission inventory as well as the chemistry and meteorology of the air quality simulation tool, model evaluations showed acceptable PM predictions, while demonstrating the need for including the interaction between meteorology and emissions in an interactive mode in the model, a capability currently unavailable in MODELS-3/CMAQ when dealing with PM. Sensitivity studies on boundary influence indicate an insignificant regional (advection) contribution of PM to the study area. The contribution of secondary particles to the occurrence of high PM events was trivial. High PM episodes in the study area, therefore, are purely local events that largely depend on local meteorological conditions. The major PM emission sources were identified as vehicular activities on unpaved/paved roads and wind-blown dust. The results will be of immediate utility in devising PM mitigation strategies for the study area, which is one of the US EPA-designated non-attainment areas with respect to PM.

  4. Updating Sea Spray Aerosol Emissions in the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gantt, B.; Bash, J. O.; Kelly, J.

    2014-12-01

    Sea spray aerosols (SSA) impact the particle mass concentration and gas-particle partitioning in coastal environments, with implications for human and ecosystem health. In this study, the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is updated to enhance fine mode SSA emissions, include sea surface temperature (SST) dependency, and revise surf zone emissions. Based on evaluation with several regional and national observational datasets in the continental U.S., the updated emissions generally improve surface concentrations predictions of primary aerosols composed of sea-salt and secondary aerosols affected by sea-salt chemistry in coastal and near-coastal sites. Specifically, the updated emissions lead to better predictions of the magnitude and coastal-to-inland gradient of sodium, chloride, and nitrate concentrations at Bay Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (BRACE) sites near Tampa, FL. Including SST-dependency to the SSA emission parameterization leads to increased sodium concentrations in the southeast U.S. and decreased concentrations along the Pacific coast and northeastern U.S., bringing predictions into closer agreement with observations at most Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) and Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) sites. Model comparison with California Research at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex) observations will also be discussed, with particular focus on the South Coast Air Basin where clean marine air mixes with anthropogenic pollution in a complex environment. These SSA emission updates enable more realistic simulation of chemical processes in coastal environments, both in clean marine air masses and mixtures of clean marine and polluted conditions.

  5. What Air Quality Models Tell Us About Sources and Sinks of Atmospheric Aldehydes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luecken, D.; Hutzell, W. T.; Phillips, S.

    2010-12-01

    Atmospheric aldehydes play important roles in several aspects of air quality: they are critical radical sources that drive ozone formation, they are hazardous air pollutants that are national drivers for cancer risk, they participate in aqueous chemistry and potentially aerosol formation, and are key species for evaluating the accuracy of isoprene emissions. For these reasons, it is important to accurately understand their sources and sinks, and the sensitivity of their concentrations to emission controls. While both compounds have been included in air quality modeling for many years, current, state-of-the-science chemical mechanisms have difficulty reproducing measured values of aldehydes, which calls into question the robustness of ozone, HAPs and aerosol predictions. In the past, we have attributed discrepancies to measurement errors, inventory errors, or the focus on high-NOx urban regimes. Despite improvements in all of these areas, the measurements still diverge from model predictions, with formaldehyde often underpredicted by 50% and acetaldehyde showing a large degree of scatter - from 20% overprediction to 50% underprediction. To better examine the sources of aldehydes, we implemented the new SAPRC07T mechanism in the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. This mechanism incorporates current recommendations for kinetic data and has the most detailed representation of product formation under a wide variety of conditions of any mechanism used in regional air quality models. We use model simulations to pinpoint where and when aldehyde concentrations tend to deviate from measurements. We demonstrate the role of secondary production versus primary emissions in aldehdye concentrations and find that secondary sources produce the largest deviations from measurements. We identify which VOCs are most responsible for aldehyde secondary production in the areas of the U.S. where the largest health effects are seen, and discuss how this affects consideration of

  6. TESTING PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY SENSITIVITIES IN THE U.S. EPA COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY MODELING SYSTEM (CMAQ)

    EPA Science Inventory

    Uncertainties in key elements of emissions and meteorology inputs to air quality models (AQMs) can range from 50 to 100% with some areas of emissions uncertainty even higher (Russell and Dennis, 2000). Uncertainties in the chemical mechanisms are thought to be smaller (Russell an...

  7. Air quality impacts of implementing emission reduction strategies at southern California airports

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Benosa, Guillem; Zhu, Shupeng; Kinnon, Michael Mac; Dabdub, Donald

    2018-07-01

    Reducing aviation emissions will be a major concern in the coming years, as the relative contribution of aviation to overall emissions is projected to increase in the future. The South Coast Air Basin of California (SoCAB) is an extreme nonattainment area with many airports located upwind of the most polluted regions in the basin. Techniques to reduce aviation emissions have been studied in the past, and strategies that can be implemented at airports include taxi-out times reduction, ground support equipment electrification and aviation biofuel implementation. These strategies have been analyzed only at the national scale, their effectiveness to improve air quality within the SoCAB given the local meteorology and chemical regimes is unclear. This work studies how the adoption of the techniques at commercial SoCAB airports affect ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations. In addition, potential impacts on public exposure to PM2.5 and O3 resulting from changes in the concentration of these pollutants are estimated. In addition, the work calculates aviation emissions for each scenario and simulate the transport and atmospheric chemistry of the pollutants using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The simultaneous application of all reduction strategies is projected to reduce the aviation-attributable population weighted ground-level PM2.5 by 36% in summer and 32% in winter. On the other hand, O3 increases by 16% in winter. Occurring mostly in densely populated areas, the decrease in ground-level PM2.5 would have a positive health impact and help the region achieve attainment of national ambient air quality standards.

  8. Operational air quality forecasting system for Spain: CALIOPE

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baldasano, J. M.; Piot, M.; Jorba, O.; Goncalves, M.; Pay, M.; Pirez, C.; Lopez, E.; Gasso, S.; Martin, F.; García-Vivanco, M.; Palomino, I.; Querol, X.; Pandolfi, M.; Dieguez, J. J.; Padilla, L.

    2009-12-01

    The European Commission (EC) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) have shown great concerns to understand the transport and dynamics of pollutants in the atmosphere. According to the European directives (1996/62/EC, 2002/3/EC, 2008/50/EC), air quality modeling, if accurately applied, is a useful tool to understand the dynamics of air pollutants, to analyze and forecast the air quality, and to develop programs reducing emissions and alert the population when health-related issues occur. The CALIOPE project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, has the main objective to establish an air quality forecasting system for Spain. A partnership of four research institutions composes the CALIOPE project: the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), the center of investigation CIEMAT, the Earth Sciences Institute ‘Jaume Almera’ (IJA-CSIC) and the CEAM Foundation. CALIOPE will become the official Spanish air quality operational system. This contribution focuses on the recent developments and implementation of the integrated modelling system for the Iberian Peninsula (IP) and Canary Islands (CI) with a high spatial and temporal resolution (4x4 sq. km for IP and 2x2 sq. km for CI, 1 hour), namely WRF-ARW/HERMES04/CMAQ/BSC-DREAM. The HERMES04 emission model has been specifically developed as a high-resolution (1x1 sq. km, 1 hour) emission model for Spain. It includes biogenic and anthropogenic emissions such as on-road and paved-road resuspension production, power plant generation, ship and plane traffic, airports and ports activities, industrial and agricultural sectors as well as domestic and commercial emissions. The qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the model was performed for a reference year (2004) using data from ground-based measurement networks. The products of the CALIOPE system will provide 24h and 48h forecasts for O3, NO2, SO2, CO, PM10 and PM2.5 at surface level. An operational evaluation system has been developed

  9. Evaluation of the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model for Simulating Winter Ozone Formation in the Uinta Basin with Intensive Oil and Gas Production

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Matichuk, R.; Tonnesen, G.; Luecken, D.; Roselle, S. J.; Napelenok, S. L.; Baker, K. R.; Gilliam, R. C.; Misenis, C.; Murphy, B.; Schwede, D. B.

    2015-12-01

    The western United States is an important source of domestic energy resources. One of the primary environmental impacts associated with oil and natural gas production is related to air emission releases of a number of air pollutants. Some of these pollutants are important precursors to the formation of ground-level ozone. To better understand ozone impacts and other air quality issues, photochemical air quality models are used to simulate the changes in pollutant concentrations in the atmosphere on local, regional, and national spatial scales. These models are important for air quality management because they assist in identifying source contributions to air quality problems and designing effective strategies to reduce harmful air pollutants. The success of predicting oil and natural gas air quality impacts depends on the accuracy of the input information, including emissions inventories, meteorological information, and boundary conditions. The treatment of chemical and physical processes within these models is equally important. However, given the limited amount of data collected for oil and natural gas production emissions in the past and the complex terrain and meteorological conditions in western states, the ability of these models to accurately predict pollution concentrations from these sources is uncertain. Therefore, this presentation will focus on understanding the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model's ability to predict air quality impacts associated with oil and natural gas production and its sensitivity to input uncertainties. The results will focus on winter ozone issues in the Uinta Basin, Utah and identify the factors contributing to model performance issues. The results of this study will help support future air quality model development, policy and regulatory decisions for the oil and gas sector.

  10. Evaluating ammonia (NH3) predictions in the NOAA National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) using in-situ aircraft and satellite measurements from the CalNex2010 campaign

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bray, Casey D.; Battye, William; Aneja, Viney P.; Tong, Daniel; Lee, Pius; Tang, Youhua; Nowak, John B.

    2017-08-01

    Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) is not only a major precursor gas for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), but it also negatively impacts the environment through eutrophication and acidification. As the need for agriculture, the largest contributing source of NH3, increases, NH3 emissions will also increase. Therefore, it is crucial to accurately predict ammonia concentrations. The objective of this study is to determine how well the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) system predicts ammonia concentrations using their Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model (v4.6). Model predictions of atmospheric ammonia are compared against measurements taken during the NOAA California Nexus (CalNex) field campaign that took place between May and July of 2010. Additionally, the model predictions were also compared against ammonia measurements obtained from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) on the Aura satellite. The results of this study showed that the CMAQ model tended to under predict concentrations of NH3. When comparing the CMAQ model with the CalNex measurements, the model under predicted NH3 by a factor of 2.4 (NMB = -58%). However, the ratio of the median measured NH3 concentration to the median of the modeled NH3 concentration was 0.8. When compared with the TES measurements, the model under predicted concentrations of NH3 by a factor of 4.5 (NMB = -77%), with a ratio of the median retrieved NH3 concentration to the median of the modeled NH3 concentration of 3.1. Because the model was the least accurate over agricultural regions, it is likely that the major source of error lies within the agricultural emissions in the National Emissions Inventory. In addition to this, the lack of the use of bidirectional exchange of NH3 in the model could also contribute to the observed bias.

  11. Air Quality Modeling | Air Quality Planning & Standards | US ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    2016-06-08

    The basic mission of the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards is to preserve and improve the quality of our nation's air. One facet of accomplishing this goal requires that new and existing air pollution sources be modeled for compliance with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).

  12. Impacts of emission reduction and meteorological conditions on air quality improvement during the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Qian; Wang, Tijian; Chen, Pulong; Huang, Xiaoxian; Zhu, Jialei; Zhuang, Bingliang

    2017-11-01

    As the holding city of the 2nd Youth Olympic Games (YOG), Nanjing is highly industrialized and urbanized, and faces several air pollution issues. In order to ensure better air quality during the event, the local government took great efforts to control the emissions from pollutant sources. However, air quality can still be affected by synoptic weather, not only emission. In this paper, the influences of meteorological factors and emission reductions were investigated using observational data and numerical simulations with WRF-CMAQ (Weather Research and Forecasting - Community Multiscale Air Quality). During the month in which the YOG were held (August 2014), the observed hourly mean concentrations of SO2, NO2, PM10, PM2.5, CO and O3 were 11.6 µg m-3, 34.0 µg m-3, 57.8 µg m-3, 39.4 µg m-3, 0.9 mg m-3 and 38.8 µg m-3, respectively, which were below China National Ambient Air Quality Standard (level 2). However, model simulation showed that the weather conditions, such as weaker winds during the YOG, were adverse for better air quality and could increase SO2, NO2, PM10, PM2.5 and CO by 17.5, 16.9, 18.5, 18.8, 7.8 and 0.8 %. Taking account of local emission abatement only, the simulated SO2, NO2, PM10, PM2.5 and CO decreased by 24.6, 12.1, 15.1, 8.1 and 7.2 %. Consequently, stringent emission control measures can reduce the concentrations of air pollutants in the short term, and emission reduction is very important for air quality improvement during the YOG. A good example has been set for air quality protection for important social events.

  13. Spatial-temporal Variations and Source Apportionment of typical Heavy Metals in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region of China Based on Localized Air Pollutants Emission Inventory and WRF-CMAQ modelling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tian, H.; Liu, S.; Zhu, C.; Liu, H.; Wu, B.

    2017-12-01

    Abstract: Anthropogenic atmospheric emissions of air pollutants have caused worldwide concerns due to their adverse effects on human health and the ecosystem. By determining the best available emission factors for varied source categories, we established the comprehensive atmospheric emission inventories of hazardous air pollutants including 12 typical toxic heavy metals (Hg, As, Se, Pb, Cd, Cr, Ni, Sb, Mn, Co, Cu, and Zn) from primary anthropogenic activities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region of China for the period of 2012 for the first time. The annual emissions of these pollutants were allocated at a high spatial resolution of 9km × 9km grid with ArcGIS methodology and surrogate indexes, such as regional population and gross domestic product (GDP). Notably, the total heavy metal emissions from this region represented about 10.9% of the Chinese national total emissions. The areas with high emissions of heavy metals were mainly concentrated in Tangshan, Shijiazhuang, Handan and Tianjin. Further, WRF-CMAQ modeling system were applied to simulate the regional concentration of heavy metals to explore their spatial-temporal variations, and the source apportionment of these heavy metals in BTH region was performed using the Brute-Force method. Finally, integrated countermeasures were proposed to minimize the final air pollutants discharge on account of the current and future demand of energy-saving and pollution reduction in China. Keywords: heavy metals; particulate matter; emission inventory; CMAQ model; source apportionment Acknowledgment. This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21377012 and 21177012) and the Trail Special Program of Research on the Cause and Control Technology of Air Pollution under the National Key Research and Development Plan of China (2016YFC0201501).

  14. Photochemical model evaluation of 2013 California wild fire air quality impacts using surface, aircraft, and satellite data.

    PubMed

    Baker, K R; Woody, M C; Valin, L; Szykman, J; Yates, E L; Iraci, L T; Choi, H D; Soja, A J; Koplitz, S N; Zhou, L; Campuzano-Jost, Pedro; Jimenez, Jose L; Hair, J W

    2018-10-01

    The Rim Fire was one of the largest wildfires in California history, burning over 250,000 acres during August and September 2013 affecting air quality locally and regionally in the western U.S. Routine surface monitors, remotely sensed data, and aircraft based measurements were used to assess how well the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) photochemical grid model applied at 4 and 12 km resolution represented regional plume transport and chemical evolution during this extreme wildland fire episode. Impacts were generally similar at both grid resolutions although notable differences were seen in some secondary pollutants (e.g., formaldehyde and peroxyacyl nitrate) near the Rim fire. The modeling system does well at capturing near-fire to regional scale smoke plume transport compared to remotely sensed aerosol optical depth (AOD) and aircraft transect measurements. Plume rise for the Rim fire was well characterized as the modeled plume top was consistent with remotely sensed data and the altitude of aircraft measurements, which were typically made at the top edge of the plume. Aircraft-based lidar suggests O 3 downwind in the Rim fire plume was vertically stratified and tended to be higher at the plume top, while CMAQ estimated a more uniformly mixed column of O 3 . Predicted wildfire ozone (O 3 ) was overestimated both at the plume top and at nearby rural and urban surface monitors. Photolysis rates were well characterized by the model compared with aircraft measurements meaning aerosol attenuation was reasonably estimated and unlikely contributing to O 3 overestimates at the top of the plume. Organic carbon was underestimated close to the Rim fire compared to aircraft data, but was consistent with nearby surface measurements. Periods of elevated surface PM 2.5 at rural monitors near the Rim fire were not usually coincident with elevated O 3 . Published by Elsevier B.V.

  15. A proof-of-concept for linking the global meteorological model, MPAS-A with the air quality model, CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    Researchers who perform air quality modeling studies usually do so on a regional scale. Typically, the boundary conditions are generated by another model which might have a different chemical mechanism, spatial resolution, and/or map projection. Hence, a necessary conversion/inte...

  16. Impact of WRF model PBL schemes on air quality simulations over Catalonia, Spain.

    PubMed

    Banks, R F; Baldasano, J M

    2016-12-01

    Here we analyze the impact of four planetary boundary-layer (PBL) parametrization schemes from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) numerical weather prediction model on simulations of meteorological variables and predicted pollutant concentrations from an air quality forecast system (AQFS). The current setup of the Spanish operational AQFS, CALIOPE, is composed of the WRF-ARW V3.5.1 meteorological model tied to the Yonsei University (YSU) PBL scheme, HERMES v2 emissions model, CMAQ V5.0.2 chemical transport model, and dust outputs from BSC-DREAM8bv2. We test the performance of the YSU scheme against the Assymetric Convective Model Version 2 (ACM2), Mellor-Yamada-Janjic (MYJ), and Bougeault-Lacarrère (BouLac) schemes. The one-day diagnostic case study is selected to represent the most frequent synoptic condition in the northeast Iberian Peninsula during spring 2015; regional recirculations. It is shown that the ACM2 PBL scheme performs well with daytime PBL height, as validated against estimates retrieved using a micro-pulse lidar system (mean bias=-0.11km). In turn, the BouLac scheme showed WRF-simulated air and dew point temperature closer to METAR surface meteorological observations. Results are more ambiguous when simulated pollutant concentrations from CMAQ are validated against network urban, suburban, and rural background stations. The ACM2 scheme showed the lowest mean bias (-0.96μgm -3 ) with respect to surface ozone at urban stations, while the YSU scheme performed best with simulated nitrogen dioxide (-6.48μgm -3 ). The poorest results were with simulated particulate matter, with similar results found with all schemes tested. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Modeling Study on Air Quality Improvement due to Mobile Source Emission control Plan in Seoul Metropolitan Area

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Y. J.; Sunwoo, Y.; Hwang, I.; Song, S.; Sin, J.; Kim, D.

    2015-12-01

    A very high population and corresponding high number of vehicles in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA) are aggravating the air quality of this region. The Korean government continues to make concerted efforts to improve air quality. One of the major policies that the Ministry of Environment of Korea enforced is "The Special Act for Improvement of Air Quality in SMA" and "The 1st Air Quality Management Plan of SMA". Mobile Source emission controls are an important part of the policy. Thus, it is timely to evaluate the air quality improvement due to the controls. Therefore, we performed a quantitative analysis of the difference in air quality using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and December, 2011 was set as the target period to capture the impact of the above control plans. We considered four fuel-type vehicle emission scenarios and compared the air quality improvement differences between them. The scenarios are as follows: no-control, gasoline vehicle control only, diesel vehicle control only, and control of both; utilizing the revised mobile source emissions from the Clean Air Policy Support System (CAPSS), which is the national emission inventory reflecting current policy.In order to improve the accuracy of the modeling data, we developed new temporal allocation coefficients based on traffic volume observation data and spatially reallocated the mobile source emissions using vehicle flow survey data. Furthermore, we calculated the PM10 and PM2.5 emissions of gasoline vehicles which is omitted in CAPSS.The results of the air quality modeling shows that vehicle control plans for both gasoline and diesel lead to a decrease of 0.65ppb~8.75ppb and 0.02㎍/㎥~7.09㎍/㎥ in NO2 and PM10 monthly average concentrations, respectively. The large percentage decreases mainly appear near the center of the metropolis. However, the largest NO2 decrease percentages are found in the northeast region of Gyeonggi-do, which is the province that surrounds the

  18. The Benefits of Internalizing Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Externalities in the US Energy System

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brown, Kristen E.

    The emission of pollutants from energy use has effects on both local air quality and the global climate, but the price of energy does not reflect these externalities. This study aims to analyze the effect that internalizing these externalities in the cost of energy would have on the US energy system, emissions, and human health. In this study, we model different policy scenarios in which fees are added to emissions related to generation and use of energy. The fees are based on values of damages estimated in the literature and are applied to upstream and combustion emissions related to electricity generation, industrial energy use, transportation energy use, residential energy use, and commercial energy use. The energy sources and emissions are modeled through 2055 in five-year time steps. The emissions in 2045 are incorporated into a continental-scale atmospheric chemistry and transport model, CMAQ, to determine the change in air quality due to different emissions reduction scenarios. A benefit analysis tool, BenMAP, is used with the air quality results to determine the monetary benefit of emissions reductions related to the improved air quality. We apply fees to emissions associated with health impacts, climate change, and a combination of both. We find that the fees we consider lead to reductions in targeted emissions as well as co-reducing non-targeted emissions. For fees on the electric sector alone, health impacting pollutant (HIP) emissions reductions are achieved mainly through control devices while Greenhouse Gas (GHG) fees are addressed through changes in generation technologies. When sector specific fees are added, reductions come mainly from the industrial and electricity generation sectors, and are achieved through a mix of energy efficiency, increased use of renewables, and control devices. Air quality is improved in almost all areas of the country with fees, including when only GHG fees are applied. Air quality tends to improve more in regions with

  19. Modeling ozone and aerosol formation and transport in the pacific northwest with the community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system.

    PubMed

    O'Neill, Susan M; Lamb, Brian K; Chen, Jack; Claiborn, Candis; Finn, Dennis; Otterson, Sally; Figueroa, Cristiana; Bowman, Clint; Boyer, Mike; Wilson, Rob; Arnold, Jeff; Aalbers, Steven; Stocum, Jeffrey; Swab, Christopher; Stoll, Matt; Dubois, Mike; Anderson, Mary

    2006-02-15

    The Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system was used to investigate ozone and aerosol concentrations in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) during hot summertime conditions during July 1-15, 1996. Two emission inventories (El) were developed: emissions for the first El were based upon the National Emission Trend 1996 (NET96) database and the BEIS2 biogenic emission model, and emissions for the second El were developed through a "bottom up" approach that included biogenic emissions obtained from the GLOBEIS model. The two simulations showed that elevated PM2.5 concentrations occurred near and downwind of the Interstate-5 corridor along the foothills of the Cascade Mountains and in forested areas of central Idaho. The relative contributions of organic and inorganic aerosols varied by region, but generally organic aerosols constituted the largest fraction of PM2.5. In wilderness areas near the 1-5 corridor, organic carbon from anthropogenic sources contributed approximately 50% of the total organic carbon with the remainder from biogenic precursors, while in wilderness areas in Idaho, biogenic organic carbon accounted for 80% of the total organic aerosol. Regional analysis of the secondary organic aerosol formation in the Columbia River Gorge, Central Idaho, and the Olympics/Puget Sound showed that the production rate of secondary organic carbon depends on local terpene concentrations and the local oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere, which was strongly influenced by anthropogenic emissions. Comparison with observations from 12 IMPROVE sites and 21 ozone monitoring sites showed that results from the two El simulations generally bracketed the average observed PM parameters and that errors calculated for the model results were within acceptable bounds. Analysis across all statistical parameters indicated that the NW-AIRQUEST El solution performed better at predicting PM2.5, PM1, and beta(ext) even though organic carbon PM was over-predicted, and the NET96 El

  20. One multi-media environmental system with linkage between meteorology/ hydrology/ air quality models and water quality model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tang, C.; Lynch, J. A.; Dennis, R. L.

    2016-12-01

    The biogeochemical processing of nitrogen and associated pollutants is driven by meteorological and hydrological processes in conjunction with pollutant loading. There are feedbacks between meteorology and hydrology that will be affected by land-use change and climate change. Changes in meteorology will affect pollutant deposition. It is important to account for those feedbacks and produce internally consistent simulations of meteorology, hydrology, and pollutant loading to drive the (watershed/water quality) biogeochemical models. In this study, the ecological response to emission reductions in streams in the Potomac watershed was evaluated. Firstly, we simulated the deposition by using the fully coupled Weather Research & Forecasting (WRF) model and the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CAMQ) model; secondly, we created the hydrological data by the offline linked Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model and the WRF model. Lastly, we investigated the water quality by one comprehensive/environment model, namely the linkage of CMAQ, WRF, VIC and the Model of Acidification of Groundwater In Catchment (MAGIC) model from 2002 to 2010.The simulated results (such as NO3, SO4, and SBC) fit well to the observed values. The linkage provides a generally accurate, well-tested tool for evaluating sensitivities to varying meteorology and environmental changes on acidification and other biogeochemical processes, with capability to comprehensively explore strategic policy and management design.

  1. An emission processing system for air quality modelling in the Mexico City metropolitan area: Evaluation and comparison of the MOBILE6.2-Mexico and MOVES-Mexico traffic emissions.

    PubMed

    Guevara, M; Tena, C; Soret, A; Serradell, K; Guzmán, D; Retama, A; Camacho, P; Jaimes-Palomera, M; Mediavilla, A

    2017-04-15

    This article describes the High-Elective Resolution Modelling Emission System for Mexico (HERMES-Mex) model, an emission processing tool developed to transform the official Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) emission inventory into hourly, gridded (up to 1km 2 ) and speciated emissions used to drive mesoscale air quality simulations with the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The methods and ancillary information used for the spatial and temporal disaggregation and speciation of the emissions are presented and discussed. The resulting emission system is evaluated, and a case study on CO, NO 2 , O 3 , VOC and PM 2.5 concentrations is conducted to demonstrate its applicability. Moreover, resulting traffic emissions from the Mobile Source Emission Factor Model for Mexico (MOBILE6.2-Mexico) and the MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator for Mexico (MOVES-Mexico) models are integrated in the tool to assess and compare their performance. NO x and VOC total emissions modelled are reduced by 37% and 26% in the MCMA when replacing MOBILE6.2-Mexico for MOVES-Mexico traffic emissions. In terms of air quality, the system composed by the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) coupled with the HERMES-Mex and CMAQ models properly reproduces the pollutant levels and patterns measured in the MCMA. The system's performance clearly improves in urban stations with a strong influence of traffic sources when applying MOVES-Mexico emissions. Despite reducing estimations of modelled precursor emissions, O 3 peak averages are increased in the MCMA core urban area (up to 30ppb) when using MOVES-Mexico mobile emissions due to its VOC-limited regime, while concentrations in the surrounding suburban/rural areas decrease or increase depending on the meteorological conditions of the day. The results obtained suggest that the HERMES-Mex model can be used to provide model-ready emissions for air quality modelling in the MCMA. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Satellite data driven modeling system for predicting air quality and visibility during wildfire and prescribed burn events

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nair, U. S.; Keiser, K.; Wu, Y.; Maskey, M.; Berendes, D.; Glass, P.; Dhakal, A.; Christopher, S. A.

    2012-12-01

    The Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC) is responsible for wildfire control and also prescribed burn management in the state of Alabama. Visibility and air quality degradation resulting from smoke are two pieces of information that are crucial for this activity. Currently the tools available to AFC are the dispersion index available from the National Weather Service and also surface smoke concentrations. The former provides broad guidance for prescribed burning activities but does not provide specific information regarding smoke transport, areas affected and quantification of air quality and visibility degradation. While the NOAA operational air quality guidance includes surface smoke concentrations from existing fire events, it does not account for contributions from background aerosols, which are important for the southeastern region including Alabama. Also lacking is the quantification of visibility. The University of Alabama in Huntsville has developed a state-of-the-art integrated modeling system to address these concerns. This system based on the Community Air Quality Modeling System (CMAQ) that ingests satellite derived smoke emissions and also assimilates NASA MODIS derived aerosol optical thickness. In addition, this operational modeling system also simulates the impact of potential prescribed burn events based on location information derived from the AFC prescribed burn permit database. A lagrangian model is used to simulate smoke plumes for the prescribed burns requests. The combined air quality and visibility degradation resulting from these smoke plumes and background aerosols is computed and the information is made available through a web based decision support system utilizing open source GIS components. This system provides information regarding intersections between highways and other critical facilities such as old age homes, hospitals and schools. The system also includes satellite detected fire locations and other satellite derived datasets

  3. Trends of multiple air pollutants emissions from residential coal combustion in Beijing and its implication on improving air quality for control measures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xue, Yifeng; Zhou, Zhen; Nie, Teng; Wang, Kun; Nie, Lei; Pan, Tao; Wu, Xiaoqing; Tian, Hezhong; Zhong, Lianhong; Li, Jing; Liu, Huanjia; Liu, Shuhan; Shao, Panyang

    2016-10-01

    Residential coal combustion is considered to be an important source of air pollution in Beijing. However, knowledge regarding the emission characteristics of residential coal combustion and the related impacts on the air quality is very limited. In this study, we have developed an emission inventory for multiple hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) associated with residential coal combustion in Beijing for the period of 2000-2012. Furthermore, a widely used regional air quality model, the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality model (CMAQ), is applied to analyze the impact of residential coal combustion on the air quality in Beijing in 2012. The results show that the emissions of primary air pollutants from residential coal combustion have basically remained the same levels during the past decade, however, along with the strict emission control imposed on major industrial sources, the contribution of residential coal combustion emissions to the overall emissions from anthropogenic sources have increased obviously. In particular, the contributions of residential coal combustion to the total air pollutants concentrations of PM10, SO2, NOX, and CO represent approximately 11.6%, 27.5%, 2.8% and 7.3%, respectively, during the winter heating season. In terms of impact on the spatial variation patterns, the distributions of the pollutants concentrations are similar to the distribution of the associated primary HAPs emissions, which are highly concentrated in the rural-urban fringe zones and rural suburb areas. In addition, emissions of primary pollutants from residential coal combustion are forecasted by using a scenario analysis. Generally, comprehensive measures must be taken to control residential coal combustion in Beijing. The best way to reduce the associated emissions from residential coal combustion is to use economic incentive means to promote the conversion to clean energy sources for residential heating and cooking. In areas with reliable energy supplies, the coal used

  4. Examining the impact of nitryl chloride chemistry on summertime air quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sarwar, G.; Simon, H. A.; Bhave, P.; Hutzell, W. T.

    2011-12-01

    Results of recent field campaigns suggest that heterogeneous reactions can form nitryl chloride (ClNO2) at night. ClNO2 photodissociates into nitrogen dioxide and chlorine radicals during the day. Subsequent photolysis of nitrogen dioxide and reactions of chlorine radicals with volatile organic compounds increase ozone production. Thus, the presence of ClNO2 in the atmosphere can enhance ozone. In this study, the impact of the heterogeneous production of ClNO2 on summertime air quality in the United States is examined by using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Laboratory chamber experimental studies have parameterized the yield of ClNO2 and the heterogeneous uptake of dinitrogen pentoxide on aerosols. We implement these parameterizations into the CMAQ model. In addition to the typical emissions, the model also includes emissions of sea-salt, anthropogenic particulate chloride, anthropogenic hydrochloric acid and molecular chlorine from the National Emissions Inventory. Model simulations are conducted without and with the heterogeneous ClNO2 formation reaction for September 1-10, 2006. The results of the study suggest that the heterogeneous reaction produces ClNO2 in many coastal areas as well as inland locations in the United States. The ClNO2 increase in coastal areas is caused by chloride emissions from sea-salt and in inland-areas by chloride emissions from fire and anthropogenic sources. Predicted ClNO2 levels reach nighttime peaks of up to 4.0 ppb in the Los Angeles area and up to 1.2 ppb near Houston, similar to the measured values reported in the literature. The ClNO2 chemistry decreases nitric acid as well as particulate nitrate by a large margin; consequently it changes composition of NOz. It increases hourly and daily maximum 8-hr ozone by up to 9 ppbv and 6 ppbv, respectively. It increases aerosol sulfate while decreasing aerosol nitrate and ammonium. The accompanying presentation identifies predicted spatial patterns of ClNO2

  5. The Air Quality and Economic Impact of Atmospheric Lead from General Aviation Aircraft in the United States

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wolfe, P. J.; Selin, N. E.; Barrett, S. R. H.

    2015-12-01

    While leaded fuels for automobiles were phased-out of use in the United States by 1996, lead (Pb) continues to be used as an anti-knock additive for piston-driven aircraft. We model the annual concentration of atmospheric lead attributable to piston driven aircraft emissions in the continental United States using the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Using aircraft emissions inventories for 2008, we then calculate annual economic damages from lead as lifetime employment losses for a one-year cohort exposed to elevated atmospheric lead concentrations using a range of concentration response functions from literature. Mean and median estimates of annual damages attributable to lifetime lost earnings are 1.06 and 0.60 billion respectively. Economy-wide impacts of IQ-deficits on productivity and labor increase expected damages by 54%. Damages are sensitive to background lead concentrations; as emissions decrease from other sources, the damages attributable to aviation are expected to increase holding aviation emissions constant. The monetary impact of General Aviation lead emissions on the environment is the same order of magnitude as noise, climate change, and air quality degradation from all commercial operations.

  6. The potential impacts of electric vehicles on air quality in the urban areas of Barcelona and Madrid (Spain)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Soret, A.; Guevara, M.; Baldasano, J. M.

    2014-12-01

    This work analyses the potential air quality improvements resulting from three fleet electrification scenarios (∼13, 26 and 40%) by replacing conventional vehicles with Electric Battery Vehicles (EBVs), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs). This study has been performed for the cities of Barcelona and Madrid (Spain), where road transport is the primary emission source. In these urban areas, several air quality problems are present, mainly related to NO2 and particulate matter. The WRF-ARW/HERMESv2/CMAQ model system has been applied at high spatial (1 × 1 km2) and temporal (1 h) resolution. The results show that fleet electrification offers a potential for emission abatement, especially related to NOx and CO. Regarding the more ambitious scenario (∼40% fleet electrification), reductions of 11% and 17% of the total NOx emissions are observed in Barcelona and Madrid respectively. These emissions reductions involve air quality improvements in NO2 maximum hourly values up to 16%: reductions up to 30 and 35 μg m-3 in Barcelona and Madrid, respectively. Furthermore, an additional scenario has been defined considering electric generation emissions associated with EBVs and PHEVs charging from a combined-cycle power plant. These charging emissions would produce slight NO2 increases in the downwind areas of <3 μg m-3. Thus, fleet electrification would improve urban air quality even when considering emissions associated with charging electric vehicles. However, two further points should be considered. First, fleet electrification cannot be considered a unique solution, and other management strategies may be defined. This is especially important with respect to particulate matter emissions, which are not significantly reduced by fleet electrification (<5%) due to the high weight of non-exhaust emissions. Second, a significant introduction of electric vehicles (26-40%) involving all vehicle categories is required to improve urban

  7. Air pollution dispersion models for human exposure predictions in London.

    PubMed

    Beevers, Sean D; Kitwiroon, Nutthida; Williams, Martin L; Kelly, Frank J; Ross Anderson, H; Carslaw, David C

    2013-01-01

    The London household survey has shown that people travel and are exposed to air pollutants differently. This argues for human exposure to be based upon space-time-activity data and spatio-temporal air quality predictions. For the latter, we have demonstrated the role that dispersion models can play by using two complimentary models, KCLurban, which gives source apportionment information, and Community Multi-scale Air Quality Model (CMAQ)-urban, which predicts hourly air quality. The KCLurban model is in close agreement with observations of NO(X), NO(2) and particulate matter (PM)(10/2.5), having a small normalised mean bias (-6% to 4%) and a large Index of Agreement (0.71-0.88). The temporal trends of NO(X) from the CMAQ-urban model are also in reasonable agreement with observations. Spatially, NO(2) predictions show that within 10's of metres of major roads, concentrations can range from approximately 10-20 p.p.b. up to 70 p.p.b. and that for PM(10/2.5) central London roadside concentrations are approximately double the suburban background concentrations. Exposure to different PM sources is important and we predict that brake wear-related PM(10) concentrations are approximately eight times greater near major roads than at suburban background locations. Temporally, we have shown that average NO(X) concentrations close to roads can range by a factor of approximately six between the early morning minimum and morning rush hour maximum periods. These results present strong arguments for the hybrid exposure model under development at King's and, in future, for in-building models and a model for the London Underground.

  8. NUMERICAL NOISE PM SIMULATION IN CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    We have found that numerical noise in the latest release of CMAQ using the yamo advection scheme when compiled on Linux cluster with pgf90 (5.0 or 6.0). We recommend to use -C option to eliminate the numerical noise.

  9. Potential air quality benefits from increased solar photovoltaic electricity generation in the Eastern United States

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abel, David; Holloway, Tracey; Harkey, Monica; Rrushaj, Arber; Brinkman, Greg; Duran, Phillip; Janssen, Mark; Denholm, Paul

    2018-02-01

    We evaluate how fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and precursor emissions could be reduced if 17% of electricity generation was replaced with solar photovoltaics (PV) in the Eastern United States. Electricity generation is simulated using GridView, then used to scale electricity-sector emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) from an existing gridded inventory of air emissions. This approach offers a novel method to leverage advanced electricity simulations with state-of-the-art emissions inventories, without necessitating recalculation of emissions for each facility. The baseline and perturbed emissions are input to the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ version 4.7.1) for a full accounting of time- and space-varying air quality changes associated with the 17% PV scenario. These results offer a high-value opportunity to evaluate the reduced-form AVoided Emissions and geneRation Tool (AVERT), while using AVERT to test the sensitivity of results to changing base-years and levels of solar integration. We find that average NOX and SO2 emissions across the region decrease 20% and 15%, respectively. PM2.5 concentrations decreased on average 4.7% across the Eastern U.S., with nitrate (NO3-) PM2.5 decreasing 3.7% and sulfate (SO42-) PM2.5 decreasing 9.1%. In the five largest cities in the region, we find that the most polluted days show the most significant PM2.5 decrease under the 17% PV generation scenario, and that the greatest benefits are accrued to cities in or near the Ohio River Valley. We find summer health benefits from reduced PM2.5 exposure estimated as 1424 avoided premature deaths (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 284 deaths, 2 732 deaths) or a health savings of 13.1 billion (95% CI: 0.6 billion, 43.9 billion) These results highlight the potential for renewable energy as a tool for air quality managers to support current and future health-based air quality regulations.

  10. Potential air quality benefits from increased solar photovoltaic electricity generation in the Eastern United States

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Abel, David; Holloway, Tracey; Harkey, Monica

    We evaluate how fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and precursor emissions could be reduced if 17% of electricity generation was replaced with solar photovoltaics (PV) in the Eastern United States. Electricity generation is simulated using GridView, then used to scale electricity-sector emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) from an existing gridded inventory of air emissions. This approach offers a novel method to leverage advanced electricity simulations with state-of-the-art emissions inventories, without necessitating recalculation of emissions for each facility. The baseline and perturbed emissions are input to the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ version 4.7.1) for a fullmore » accounting of time- and space-varying air quality changes associated with the 17% PV scenario. These results offer a high-value opportunity to evaluate the reduced-form AVoided Emissions and geneRation Tool (AVERT), while using AVERT to test the sensitivity of results to changing base-years and levels of solar integration. We find that average NOX and SO2 emissions across the region decrease 20% and 15%, respectively. PM2.5 concentrations decreased on average 4.7% across the Eastern U.S., with nitrate (NO3-) PM2.5 decreasing 3.7% and sulfate (SO42-) PM2.5 decreasing 9.1%. In the five largest cities in the region, we find that the most polluted days show the most significant PM2.5 decrease under the 17% PV generation scenario, and that the greatest benefits are accrued to cities in or near the Ohio River Valley. We find summer health benefits from reduced PM2.5 exposure estimated as 1424 avoided premature deaths (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 284 deaths, 2 732 deaths) or a health savings of $13.1 billion (95% CI: $0.6 billion, $43.9 billion) These results highlight the potential for renewable energy as a tool for air quality managers to support current and future health-based air quality regulations.« less

  11. Development of an Agricultural Fertilizer Modeling System for Bi-Directional Ammonia Fluxes in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) Model

    EPA Science Inventory

    Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) plays an important role in fine-mode aerosol formation. Accurate estimates of ammonia from both human and natural emissions can reduce uncertainties in air quality modeling. The majority of ammonia anthropogenic emissions come from the agricul...

  12. Influence of Ship Emissions on Urban Air Quality: A Comprehensive Study Using Highly Time-Resolved Online Measurements and Numerical Simulation in Shanghai.

    PubMed

    Liu, Zhanmin; Lu, Xiaohui; Feng, Junlan; Fan, Qianzhu; Zhang, Yan; Yang, Xin

    2017-01-03

    Shanghai has become an international shipping center in the world. In this study, the multiyear measurements and the high resolution air quality model with hourly ship emission inventory were combined to determine the influence of ship emissions on urban Shanghai. The aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ATOFMS) measurements were carried out at an urban site from April 2009 to January 2013. During the entire sampling time, most of the half-hourly averaged number fractions of primary ship emitted particles varied between 1.0-10.0%. However, the number fraction could reach up to 50% during the ship plume cases. Ship-plume-influenced periods usually occurred in spring and summer. The simulation of Weather Research and Forecasting/Community Multiscale Air Quality model (WRF/CMAQ) with hourly ship emission inventory provided the highly time-resolved concentrations of ship-related air pollutants during a ship plume case. It showed ships could contribute 20-30% (2-7 μg/m 3 ) of the total PM 2.5 within tens of kilometers of coastal and riverside Shanghai during ship-plume-influenced periods. Our results showed that ship emissions have substantial contribution to the air pollution in urban Shanghai. The control measures of ship emission should be taken considering its negative environment and human health effects.

  13. Assessment of multi-decadal WRF-CMAQ simulations for understanding direct aerosol effects on radiation "brightening" in the United States

    DOE PAGES

    Gan, C.-M.; Pleim, J.; Mathur, R.; ...

    2015-07-01

    Multi-decadal simulations with the coupled WRF-CMAQ model have been conducted to systematically investigate the changes in anthropogenic emissions of SO 2 and NO x over the past 21 years (1990–2010) across the United States (US), their impacts on anthropogenic aerosol loading over North America, and subsequent impacts on regional radiation budgets. In particular, this study attempts to determine the consequences of the changes in tropospheric aerosol burden arising from substantial reductions in emissions of SO 2 and NO x associated with control measures under the Clean Air Act (CAA) especially on trends in solar radiation. Extensive analyses conducted by Ganmore » et al. (2014) utilizing observations (e.g. SURFRAD, CASTNET, IMPROVE and ARM) over the past 16 years (1995–2010) indicate a shortwave (SW) radiation (both all-sky and clear-sky) "brightening" in the US. The relationship of the radiation brightening trend with decreases in the aerosol burden is less apparent in the western US. One of the main reasons for this is that the emission controls under the CAA were aimed primarily at reducing pollutants in areas violating national air quality standards, most of which were located in the eastern US while the relatively less populated areas in the western US were less polluted at the beginning of this study period. Comparisons of model results with observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD), aerosol concentration, and radiation demonstrate that the coupled WRF-CMAQ model is capable of replicating the trends well even through it tends to underestimate the AOD. In particular, the sulfate concentration predictions were well matched with the observations. The discrenpancies found in the clear-sky diffuse SW radiation are likely due to several factors such as potential increase of ice particles associated with increasing air traffic, the definition of "clear-sky" in the radiation retrieval methodology and aerosol semi-direct and/or indirect effects which cannot

  14. Assessment of multi-decadal WRF-CMAQ simulations for understanding direct aerosol effects on radiation "brightening" in the United States

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gan, C.-M.; Pleim, J.; Mathur, R.

    Multi-decadal simulations with the coupled WRF-CMAQ model have been conducted to systematically investigate the changes in anthropogenic emissions of SO 2 and NO x over the past 21 years (1990–2010) across the United States (US), their impacts on anthropogenic aerosol loading over North America, and subsequent impacts on regional radiation budgets. In particular, this study attempts to determine the consequences of the changes in tropospheric aerosol burden arising from substantial reductions in emissions of SO 2 and NO x associated with control measures under the Clean Air Act (CAA) especially on trends in solar radiation. Extensive analyses conducted by Ganmore » et al. (2014) utilizing observations (e.g. SURFRAD, CASTNET, IMPROVE and ARM) over the past 16 years (1995–2010) indicate a shortwave (SW) radiation (both all-sky and clear-sky) "brightening" in the US. The relationship of the radiation brightening trend with decreases in the aerosol burden is less apparent in the western US. One of the main reasons for this is that the emission controls under the CAA were aimed primarily at reducing pollutants in areas violating national air quality standards, most of which were located in the eastern US while the relatively less populated areas in the western US were less polluted at the beginning of this study period. Comparisons of model results with observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD), aerosol concentration, and radiation demonstrate that the coupled WRF-CMAQ model is capable of replicating the trends well even through it tends to underestimate the AOD. In particular, the sulfate concentration predictions were well matched with the observations. The discrenpancies found in the clear-sky diffuse SW radiation are likely due to several factors such as potential increase of ice particles associated with increasing air traffic, the definition of "clear-sky" in the radiation retrieval methodology and aerosol semi-direct and/or indirect effects which cannot

  15. Characteristics of New CMAQ Deposition Series of 2002 to 2011 for Critical Loads

    EPA Science Inventory

    The new CMAQ deposition time series from 2002 to 2011 of wet and dry nitrogen and sulfur deposition is characterized and evaluated in this presentation. The time series examines annual deposition across regions of the continental US. The CMAQ version with bi-directional ammonia...

  16. The influence of ocean halogen and sulfur emissions in the air quality of a coastal megacity: The case of Los Angeles.

    PubMed

    Muñiz-Unamunzaga, Maria; Borge, Rafael; Sarwar, Golam; Gantt, Brett; de la Paz, David; Cuevas, Carlos A; Saiz-Lopez, Alfonso

    2018-01-01

    The oceans are the main source of natural halogen and sulfur compounds, which have a significant influence on the oxidizing capacity of the marine atmosphere; however, their impact on the air quality of coastal cities is currently unknown. We explore the effect of marine halogens (Cl, Br and I) and dimethyl sulfide (DMS) on the air quality of a large coastal city through a set of high-resolution (4-km) air quality simulations for the urban area of Los Angeles, US, using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ model). The results indicate that marine halogen emissions decrease ozone and nitrogen dioxide levels up to 5ppbv and 2.5ppbv, respectively, in the city of Los Angeles. Previous studies suggested that the inclusion of chlorine in air quality models leads to the generation of ozone in urban areas through photolysis of nitryl chloride (ClNO 2 ). However, we find that when considering the chemistry of Cl, Br and I together the net effect is a reduction of surface ozone concentrations. Furthermore, combined ocean emissions of halogens and DMS cause substantial changes in the levels of key urban atmospheric oxidants such as OH, HO 2 and NO 3 , and in the composition and mass of fine particles. Although the levels of ozone, NO 3 and HO x are reduced, we find a 10% increase in secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mean concentration, attributed to the increase in aerosol acidity and sulfate aerosol formation when combining DMS and bromine. Therefore, this new pathway for enhanced SOA formation may potentially help with current model under predictions of urban SOA. Although further observations and research are needed to establish these preliminary conclusions, this first city-scale investigation suggests that the inclusion of oceanic halogens and DMS in air quality models may improve regional air quality predictions over coastal cities around the world. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Assessment of air quality benefits from the national pollution control policy of thermal power plants in China: A numerical simulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Zhanshan; Pan, Libo; Li, Yunting; Zhang, Dawei; Ma, Jin; Sun, Feng; Xu, Wenshuai; Wang, Xingrun

    2015-04-01

    In 2010, an emission inventory of air pollutants in China was created using the Chinese Bulletin of the Environment, the INTEX-B program, the First National Pollution Source Census, the National Generator Set Manual, and domestic and international research studies. Two emission scenarios, the standard failed emission scenario (S1) and the standard successful emission scenario (S2), were constructed based upon the Instructions for the Preparation of Emission Standards for Air Pollutants from Thermal Power Plants (second draft). The Fifth-Generation NCAR/Penn State Mesoscale Model (MM5) and the U.S. EPA Models-3 Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model were applied to China to study the air quality benefits from Emission Standards for Air Pollutants from Thermal Power Plants GB13223-2011. The performance of MM5 and CMAQ was evaluated with meteorological data from Global Surface Data from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and the daily Air Pollution Index (API) reported by Chinese local governments. The results showed that the implementation of the new standards could reduce the concentration of air pollutants and acid deposition in China by varying degrees. The new standards could reduce NO2 pollution in China. By 2020, for the scenario S2, the area with an NO2 concentration higher than the second-level emission standard, and the average NO2 concentration in 31 selected provinces would be reduced by 55.2% and 24.3%, respectively. The new standards could further reduce the concentration of declining SO2 in China. By 2020, for S2, the area with an SO2 concentration higher than the second-level emission standard and the average SO2 concentration in the 31 selected provinces would be reduced by 40.0% and 31.6%, respectively. The new standards could also reduce PM2.5 pollution in China. By 2020, for S2, the area with a PM2.5 concentration higher than the second-level emission standard and the average concentration of PM2.5 in the 31 selected provinces would be

  18. OPERATIONAL AND DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION OF THE OZONE FORECASTS BY THE ETA-CMAQ MODEL SUITE DURING THE 2002 NEW ENGLAND AIR QUALITY STUDY (NEAQS)

    EPA Science Inventory

    Ozone (O3), a secondary pollutant, is created in part by emissions from anthropogenic and biogenic sources. It is necessary for local air quality agencies to accurately forecast ozone concentrations to warn the public of unhealthy air and to encourage people to volunta...

  19. Analyzing the Effects of Horizontal Resolution on Long-Term Coupled WRF-CMAQ Simulations

    EPA Science Inventory

    The objective of this study is to determine the adequacy of using a relatively coarse horizontal resolution (i.e. 36 km) to simulate long-term trends of pollutant concentrations and radiation variables with the coupled WRF-CMAQ model. To this end, WRF-CMAQ simulations over the co...

  20. Evaluation of gas-particle partitioning in a regional air quality model for organic pollutants

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Efstathiou, Christos I.; Matejovičová, Jana; Bieser, Johannes; Lammel, Gerhard

    2016-12-01

    Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are of considerable concern due to their well-recognized toxicity and their potential to bioaccumulate and engage in long-range transport. These compounds are semi-volatile and, therefore, create a partition between vapour and condensed phases in the atmosphere, while both phases can undergo chemical reactions. This work describes the extension of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modelling system to POPs with a focus on establishing an adaptable framework that accounts for gaseous chemistry, heterogeneous reactions, and gas-particle partitioning (GPP). The effect of GPP is assessed by implementing a set of independent parameterizations within the CMAQ aerosol module, including the Junge-Pankow (JP) adsorption model, the Harner-Bidleman (HB) organic matter (OM) absorption model, and the dual Dachs-Eisenreich (DE) black carbon (BC) adsorption and OM absorption model. Use of these descriptors in a modified version of CMAQ for benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) results in different fate and transport patterns as demonstrated by regional-scale simulations performed for a European domain during 2006. The dual DE model predicted 24.1 % higher average domain concentrations compared to the HB model, which was in turn predicting 119.2 % higher levels compared to the baseline JP model. Evaluation with measurements from the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) reveals the capability of the more extensive DE model to better capture the ambient levels and seasonal behaviour of BaP. It is found that the heterogeneous reaction of BaP with O3 may decrease its atmospheric lifetime by 25.2 % (domain and annual average) and near-ground concentrations by 18.8 %. Marginally better model performance was found for one of the six EMEP stations (Košetice) when heterogeneous BaP reactivity was included. Further analysis shows that, for the rest of the EMEP locations, the model continues to underestimate BaP levels, an observation that can be

  1. Emulation and Sensitivity Analysis of the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model for a UK Ozone Pollution Episode.

    PubMed

    Beddows, Andrew V; Kitwiroon, Nutthida; Williams, Martin L; Beevers, Sean D

    2017-06-06

    Gaussian process emulation techniques have been used with the Community Multiscale Air Quality model, simulating the effects of input uncertainties on ozone and NO 2 output, to allow robust global sensitivity analysis (SA). A screening process ranked the effect of perturbations in 223 inputs, isolating the 30 most influential from emissions, boundary conditions (BCs), and reaction rates. Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) simulations of a July 2006 ozone pollution episode in the UK were made with input values for these variables plus ozone dry deposition velocity chosen according to a 576 point Latin hypercube design. Emulators trained on the output of these runs were used in variance-based SA of the model output to input uncertainties. Performing these analyses for every hour of a 21 day period spanning the episode and several days on either side allowed the results to be presented as a time series of sensitivity coefficients, showing how the influence of different input uncertainties changed during the episode. This is one of the most complex models to which these methods have been applied, and here, they reveal detailed spatiotemporal patterns of model sensitivities, with NO and isoprene emissions, NO 2 photolysis, ozone BCs, and deposition velocity being among the most influential input uncertainties.

  2. A novel, fuzzy-based air quality index (FAQI) for air quality assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sowlat, Mohammad Hossein; Gharibi, Hamed; Yunesian, Masud; Tayefeh Mahmoudi, Maryam; Lotfi, Saeedeh

    2011-04-01

    The ever increasing level of air pollution in most areas of the world has led to development of a variety of air quality indices for estimation of health effects of air pollution, though the indices have their own limitations such as high levels of subjectivity. Present study, therefore, aimed at developing a novel, fuzzy-based air quality index (FAQI ) to handle such limitations. The index developed by present study is based on fuzzy logic that is considered as one of the most common computational methods of artificial intelligence. In addition to criteria air pollutants (i.e. CO, SO 2, PM 10, O 3, NO 2), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, and 1,3-butadiene were also taken into account in the index proposed, because of their considerable health effects. Different weighting factors were then assigned to each pollutant according to its priority. Trapezoidal membership functions were employed for classifications and the final index consisted of 72 inference rules. To assess the performance of the index, a case study was carried out employing air quality data at five different sampling stations in Tehran, Iran, from January 2008 to December 2009, results of which were then compared to the results obtained from USEPA air quality index (AQI). According to the results from present study, fuzzy-based air quality index is a comprehensive tool for classification of air quality and tends to produce accurate results. Therefore, it can be considered useful, reliable, and suitable for consideration by local authorities in air quality assessment and management schemes. Fuzzy-based air quality index (FAQI).

  3. Modeling of air pollutant removal by dry deposition to urban trees using a WRF/CMAQ/i-Tree Eco coupled system.

    PubMed

    Cabaraban, Maria Theresa I; Kroll, Charles N; Hirabayashi, Satoshi; Nowak, David J

    2013-05-01

    A distributed adaptation of i-Tree Eco was used to simulate dry deposition in an urban area. This investigation focused on the effects of varying temperature, LAI, and NO2 concentration inputs on estimated NO2 dry deposition to trees in Baltimore, MD. A coupled modeling system is described, wherein WRF provided temperature and LAI fields, and CMAQ provided NO2 concentrations. A base case simulation was conducted using built-in distributed i-Tree Eco tools, and simulations using different inputs were compared against this base case. Differences in land cover classification and tree cover between the distributed i-Tree Eco and WRF resulted in changes in estimated LAI, which in turn resulted in variations in simulated NO2 dry deposition. Estimated NO2 removal decreased when CMAQ-derived concentration was applied to the distributed i-Tree Eco simulation. Discrepancies in temperature inputs did little to affect estimates of NO2 removal by dry deposition to trees in Baltimore. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Ambient Air Quality Data Inventory

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Office of Air and Radiation's (OAR) Ambient Air Quality Data (Current) contains ambient air pollution data collected by EPA, other federal agencies, as well as state, local, and tribal air pollution control agencies. Its component data sets have been collected over the years from approximately 10,000 monitoring sites, of which approximately 5,000 are currently active. OAR's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) and other internal and external users, rely on this data to assess air quality, assist in Attainment/Non-Attainment designations, evaluate State Implementation Plans for Non-Attainment Areas, perform modeling for permit review analysis, and other air quality management functions. Air quality information is also used to prepare reports for Congress as mandated by the Clean Air Act. This data covers air quality data collected after 1980, when the Clean Air Act requirements for monitoring were significantly modified. Air quality data from the Agency's early years (1970s) remains available (see OAR PRIMARY DATA ASSET: Ambient Air Quality Data -- Historical), but because of technical and definitional differences the two data assets are not directly comparable. The Clean Air Act of 1970 provided initial authority for monitoring air quality for Conventional Air Pollutants (CAPs) for which EPA has promulgated National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Requirements for monitoring visibility-related parameters were added in 1977. Requiremen

  5. One way coupling of CMAQ and a road source dispersion model for fine scale air pollution predictions

    PubMed Central

    Beevers, Sean D.; Kitwiroon, Nutthida; Williams, Martin L.; Carslaw, David C.

    2012-01-01

    In this paper we have coupled the CMAQ and ADMS air quality models to predict hourly concentrations of NOX, NO2 and O3 for London at a spatial scale of 20 m × 20 m. Model evaluation has demonstrated reasonable agreement with measurements from 80 monitoring sites in London. For NO2 the model evaluation statistics gave 73% of the hourly concentrations within a factor of two of observations, a mean bias of −4.7 ppb and normalised mean bias of −0.17, a RMSE value of 17.7 and an r value of 0.58. The equivalent results for O3 were 61% (FAC2), 2.8 ppb (MB), 0.15 (NMB), 12.1 (RMSE) and 0.64 (r). Analysis of the errors in the model predictions by hour of the week showed the need for improvements in predicting the magnitude of road transport related NOX emissions as well as the hourly emissions scaling in the model. These findings are consistent with recent evidence of UK road transport NOX emissions, reported elsewhere. The predictions of wind speed using the WRF model also influenced the model results and contributed to the daytime over prediction of NOX concentrations at the central London background site at Kensington and Chelsea. An investigation of the use of a simple NO–NO2–O3 chemistry scheme showed good performance close to road sources, and this is also consistent with previous studies. The coupling of the two models raises an issue of emissions double counting. Here, we have put forward a pragmatic solution to this problem with the result that a median double counting error of 0.42% exists across 39 roadside sites in London. Finally, whilst the model can be improved, the current results show promise and demonstrate that the use of a combination of regional scale and local scale models can provide a practical modelling tool for policy development at intergovernmental, national and local authority level, as well as for use in epidemiological studies. PMID:23471172

  6. Constraining ammonia dairy emissions during NASA DISCOVER-AQ California: surface and airborne observation comparisons with CMAQ simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Miller, D. J.; Liu, Z.; Sun, K.; Tao, L.; Nowak, J. B.; Bambha, R.; Michelsen, H. A.; Zondlo, M. A.

    2014-12-01

    Agricultural ammonia (NH3) emissions are highly uncertain in current bottom-up inventories. Ammonium nitrate is a dominant component of fine aerosols in agricultural regions such as the Central Valley of California, especially during winter. Recent high resolution regional modeling efforts in this region have found significant ammonium nitrate and gas-phase NH3 biases during summer. We compare spatially-resolved surface and boundary layer gas-phase NH3 observations during NASA DISCOVER-AQ California with Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) regional model simulations driven by the EPA NEI 2008 inventory to constrain wintertime NH3 model biases. We evaluate model performance with respect to aerosol partitioning, mixing and deposition to constrain contributions to modeled NH3 concentration biases in the Central Valley Tulare dairy region. Ammonia measurements performed with an open-path mobile platform on a vehicle are gridded to 4 km resolution hourly background concentrations. A peak detection algorithm is applied to remove local feedlot emission peaks. Aircraft NH3, NH4+ and NO3- observations are also compared with simulations extracted along the flight tracks. We find NH3 background concentrations in the dairy region are underestimated by three to five times during winter and NH3 simulations are moderately correlated with observations (r = 0.36). Although model simulations capture NH3 enhancements in the dairy region, these simulations are biased low by 30-60 ppbv NH3. Aerosol NH4+ and NO3- are also biased low in CMAQ by three and four times respectively. Unlike gas-phase NH3, CMAQ simulations do not capture typical NH4+ or NO3- enhancements observed in the dairy region. In contrast, boundary layer height simulations agree well with observations within 13%. We also address observational constraints on simulated NH3 deposition fluxes. These comparisons suggest that NEI 2008 wintertime dairy emissions are underestimated by a factor of three to five. We test

  7. CHANGES TO THE CHEMICAL MECHANISMS FOR HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANTS IN CMAQ VERSION 4.6

    EPA Science Inventory

    The extended abstract describes a presentation to the 2006 conference of the Community Modeling and Analysis System. The presentation introduces two new mechanisms for the atmospheric photochemistry of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) to be used in regional air quality models. It ...

  8. Two Methods to Derive Ground-level Concentrations of PM2.5 with Improved Accuracy in the North China, Calibrating MODIS AOD and CMAQ Model Predictions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lyu, Baolei; Hu, Yongtao; Chang, Howard; Russell, Armistead; Bai, Yuqi

    2016-04-01

    Reliable and accurate characterizations of ground-level PM2.5 concentrations are essential to understand pollution sources and evaluate human exposures etc. Monitoring network could only provide direct point-level observations at limited locations. At the locations without monitors, there are generally two ways to estimate the pollution levels of PM2.5. One is observations of aerosol properties from the satellite-based remote sensing, such as Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depth (AOD). The other one is from deterministic atmospheric chemistry models, such as the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality Model (CMAQ). In this study, we used a statistical spatio-temporal downscaler to calibrate the two datasets to monitor observations to derive fine-scale ground-level concentrations of PM2.5 with improved accuracy. We treated both MODIS AOD and CMAQ model predictions as biased proxy estimations of PM2.5 pollution levels. The downscaler proposed a Bayesian framework to model the spatially and temporally varying coefficients of the two types of estimations in the linear regression setting, in order to correct biases. Especially for calibrating MODIS AOD, a city-specific linear model was established to fill the missing AOD values, and a novel interpolation-based variable, i.e. PM2.5 Spatial Interpolator, was introduced to account for the spatial dependence among grid cells. We selected the heavy polluted and populated North China as our study area, in a grid setting of 81×81 12-km cells. For the evaluation of calibration performance for retrieved MODIS AOD, the R2 was 0.61 by the full model with PM2.5 Spatial Interpolator being presented, and was 0.48 with PM2.5 Spatial Interpolator not being presented. The constructed AOD values effectively predicted PM2.5 concentrations under our model structure, with R2=0.78. For the evaluation of calibrated CMAQ predictions, the R2 was 0.51, a little less than that of calibrated AOD. Finally we

  9. Assessment of the contribution of traffic emissions to the mobile vehicle measured PM2.5 concentration by means of WRF-CMAQ simulations.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2012-03-01

    The Alaska adapted version of the Weather Research and Forecasting and the Community Modeling and Analysis Quality (WRF-CMAQ) modeling : systems was used to assess the contribution of traffic to the PM2.5-concentration in the Fairbanks nonattainment ...

  10. On The Usage Of Fire Smoke Emissions In An Air Quality Forecasting System To Reduce Particular Matter Forecasting Error

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, H. C.; Pan, L.; McQueen, J.; Lee, P.; ONeill, S. M.; Ruminski, M.; Shafran, P.; DiMego, G.; Huang, J.; Stajner, I.; Upadhayay, S.; Larkin, N. K.

    2016-12-01

    Wildfires contribute to air quality problems not only towards primary emissions of particular matters (PM) but also emitted ozone precursor gases that can lead to elevated ozone concentration. Wildfires are unpredictable and can be ignited by natural causes such as lightning or accidently by human negligent behavior such as live cigarette. Although wildfire impacts on the air quality can be studied by collecting fire information after events, it is extremely difficult to predict future occurrence and behavior of wildfires for real-time air quality forecasts. Because of the time constraints of operational air quality forecasting, assumption of future day's fire behavior often have to be made based on observed fire information in the past. The United States (U.S.) NOAA/NWS built the National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) based on the U.S. EPA CMAQ to provide air quality forecast guidance (prediction) publicly. State and local forecasters use the forecast guidance to issue air quality alerts in their area. The NAQFC fine particulates (PM2.5) prediction includes emissions from anthropogenic and biogenic sources, as well as natural sources such as dust storms and fires. The fire emission input to the NAQFC is derived from the NOAA NESDIS HMS fire and smoke detection product and the emission module of the US Forest Service BlueSky Smoke Modeling Framework. This study focuses on the error estimation of NAQFC PM2.5 predictions resulting from fire emissions. The comparisons between the NAQFC modeled PM2.5 and the EPA AirNow surface observation show that present operational NAQFC fire emissions assumption can lead to a huge error in PM2.5 prediction as fire emissions are sometimes placed at wrong location and time. This PM2.5 prediction error can be propagated from the fire source in the Northwest U.S. to downstream areas as far as the Southeast U.S. From this study, a new procedure has been identified to minimize the aforementioned error. An additional 24 hours

  11. 78 FR 53270 - Revision of Air Quality Implementation Plan; California; Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-29

    ... Quality Implementation Plan; California; Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District... to the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD or District) portion of the..., Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District, Rule 214 (Federal New Source Review), Rule 203...

  12. Co-benefits of global and regional greenhouse gas mitigation for US air quality in 2050

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zhang, Yuqiang; Bowden, Jared H.; Adelman, Zachariah

    Policies to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will not only slow climate change but can also have ancillary benefits of improved air quality. Here we examine the co-benefits of both global and regional GHG mitigation for US air quality in 2050 at fine resolution, using dynamical downscaling methods, building on a previous global co-benefits study (West et al., 2013). The co-benefits for US air quality are quantified via two mechanisms: through reductions in co-emitted air pollutants from the same sources and by slowing climate change and its influence on air quality, following West et al. (2013). Additionally, we separate the totalmore » co-benefits into contributions from domestic GHG mitigation vs. mitigation in foreign countries. We use the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to dynamically downscale future global climate to the regional scale and the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) program to directly process global anthropogenic emissions to the regional domain, and we provide dynamical boundary conditions from global simulations to the regional Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The total co-benefits of global GHG mitigation from the RCP4.5 scenario compared with its reference are estimated to be higher in the eastern US (ranging from 0.6 to 1.0 µg m -3) than the west (0–0.4 µg m -3) for fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), with an average of 0.47 µg m -3 over the US; for O 3, the total co-benefits are more uniform at 2–5 ppb, with a US average of 3.55 ppb. Comparing the two mechanisms of co-benefits, we find that reductions in co-emitted air pollutants have a much greater influence on both PM 2.5 (96 % of the total co-benefits) and O 3 (89 % of the total) than the second co-benefits mechanism via slowing climate change, consistent with West et al. (2013). GHG mitigation from foreign countries contributes more to the US O 3 reduction (76 % of the total) than that from domestic GHG mitigation only (24

  13. MODELS-3 COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODEL AEROSOL COMPONENT 2. MODEL EVALUATION

    EPA Science Inventory

    Ambient air concentrations of particulate matter (atmospheric suspensions of solid of liquid materials, i.e., aerosols) continue to be a major concern for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). High particulate matter (PM) concentrations are associated not only with adv...

  14. Local Air Quality Conditions and Forecasts

    MedlinePlus

    ... Monitor Location Archived Maps by Region Canada Air Quality Air Quality on Google Earth Links A-Z About AirNow AirNow International Air Quality Action Days / Alerts AirCompare Air Quality Index (AQI) ...

  15. 78 FR 30770 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Illinois; Air Quality Standards...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-05-23

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Illinois; Air Quality Standards Revision AGENCY... Illinois state implementation plan (SIP) to reflect current National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS... Implementation Plan at 35 Illinois Administrative Code part 243, which updates National Ambient Air Quality...

  16. A new air quality monitoring and early warning system: Air quality assessment and air pollutant concentration prediction.

    PubMed

    Yang, Zhongshan; Wang, Jian

    2017-10-01

    Air pollution in many countries is worsening with industrialization and urbanization, resulting in climate change and affecting people's health, thus, making the work of policymakers more difficult. It is therefore both urgent and necessary to establish amore scientific air quality monitoring and early warning system to evaluate the degree of air pollution objectively, and predict pollutant concentrations accurately. However, the integration of air quality assessment and air pollutant concentration prediction to establish an air quality system is not common. In this paper, we propose a new air quality monitoring and early warning system, including an assessment module and forecasting module. In the air quality assessment module, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation is used to determine the main pollutants and evaluate the degree of air pollution more scientifically. In the air pollutant concentration prediction module, a novel hybridization model combining complementary ensemble empirical mode decomposition, a modified cuckoo search and differential evolution algorithm, and an Elman neural network, is proposed to improve the forecasting accuracy of six main air pollutant concentrations. To verify the effectiveness of this system, pollutant data for two cities in China are used. The result of the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation shows that the major air pollutants in Xi'an and Jinan are PM 10 and PM 2.5 respectively, and that the air quality of Xi'an is better than that of Jinan. The forecasting results indicate that the proposed hybrid model is remarkably superior to all benchmark models on account of its higher prediction accuracy and stability. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. 78 FR 10589 - Revision of Air Quality Implementation Plan; California; Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-02-14

    ... Quality Implementation Plan; California; Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District... Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD or District) portion of the California State... sources within the areas covered by the plan as necessary to assure that the National Ambient Air Quality...

  18. Air quality analysis of MDT transportation improvements, cost-effectiveness analysis of the MACI Program.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2004-03-01

    "Under TEA-21, part of Montana's CMAQ apportionment is dedicated to Missoula and at the direction of the : Montana Transportation Commission, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) directs the remainder of : the CMAQ apportionment to areas in...

  19. Air quality analysis of MDT transportation improvements : cost-effectiveness analysis of the MACI program.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2004-03-01

    Under TEA-21, part of Montana's CMAQ apportionment is dedicated to Missoula and at the direction of the : Montana Transportation Commission, the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) directs the remainder of : the CMAQ apportionment to areas in ...

  20. 78 FR 67442 - Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program Interim Guidance

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-11-12

    ... the CMAQ Program as a result of the enactment of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). The Interim Guidance also contains changes to clarify the 2008 CMAQ Program Guidance. Because... Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) (Pub. L. 105-178; Oct. 1998) and the Safe, Accountable, Flexible...

  1. Air Pollution Monitoring | Air Quality Planning & Standards ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    2016-06-08

    The basic mission of the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards is to preserve and improve the quality of our nation's air. To accomplish this, OAQPS must be able to evaluate the status of the atmosphere as compared to clean air standards and historical information.

  2. Improvements to the WRF-CMAQ modeling system for fine-scale air quality simulations

    EPA Science Inventory

    Despite significant reductions in atmospheric pollutants such as ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) over the past several decades, air pollution continues to pose a threat to the health of humans and sensitive ecosystems. A number of areas across...

  3. A Study of the Ozone Formation by Ensemble Back Trajectory-process Analysis Using the Eta-CMAQ Forecast Model over the Northeastern U.S. During the 2004 ICARTT Period

    EPA Science Inventory

    The integrated process rates (IPR) estimated by the Eta-CMAQ model at grid cells along the trajectory of the air mass transport path were analyzed to quantitatively investigate the relative importance of physical and chemical processes for O3 formation and evolution ov...

  4. Development and implementation of a remote-sensing and in situ data-assimilating version of CMAQ for operational PM2.5 forecasting. Part 1: MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD) data-assimilation design and testing.

    PubMed

    McHenry, John N; Vukovich, Jeffery M; Hsu, N Christina

    2015-12-01

    This two-part paper reports on the development, implementation, and improvement of a version of the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model that assimilates real-time remotely-sensed aerosol optical depth (AOD) information and ground-based PM2.5 monitor data in routine prognostic application. The model is being used by operational air quality forecasters to help guide their daily issuance of state or local-agency-based air quality alerts (e.g. action days, health advisories). Part 1 describes the development and testing of the initial assimilation capability, which was implemented offline in partnership with NASA and the Visibility Improvement State and Tribal Association of the Southeast (VISTAS) Regional Planning Organization (RPO). In the initial effort, MODIS-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) data are input into a variational data-assimilation scheme using both the traditional Dark Target and relatively new "Deep Blue" retrieval methods. Evaluation of the developmental offline version, reported in Part 1 here, showed sufficient promise to implement the capability within the online, prognostic operational model described in Part 2. In Part 2, the addition of real-time surface PM2.5 monitoring data to improve the assimilation and an initial evaluation of the prognostic modeling system across the continental United States (CONUS) is presented. Air quality forecasts are now routinely used to understand when air pollution may reach unhealthy levels. For the first time, an operational air quality forecast model that includes the assimilation of remotely-sensed aerosol optical depth and ground based PM2.5 observations is being used. The assimilation enables quantifiable improvements in model forecast skill, which improves confidence in the accuracy of the officially-issued forecasts. This helps air quality stakeholders be more effective in taking mitigating actions (reducing power consumption, ride-sharing, etc.) and avoiding exposures that could otherwise

  5. Regional Air Quality Model Application of the Aqueous-Phase ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    In most ecosystems, atmospheric deposition is the primary input of mercury. The total wet deposition of mercury in atmospheric chemistry models is sensitive to parameterization of the aqueous-phase reduction of divalent oxidized mercury (Hg2+). However, most atmospheric chemistry models use a parameterization of the aqueous-phase reduction of Hg2+ that has been shown to be unlikely under normal ambient conditions or use a non mechanistic value derived to optimize wet deposition results. Recent laboratory experiments have shown that Hg2+ can be photochemically reduced to elemental mercury (Hg) in the aqueous-phase by dissolved organic matter and a mechanism and the rate for Hg2+ photochemical reduction by dicarboxylic acids (DCA) has been proposed. For the first time in a regional scale model, the DCA mechanism has been applied. The HO2-Hg2+ reduction mechanism, the proposed DCA reduction mechanism, and no aqueous-phase reduction (NAR) of Hg2+ are evaluated against weekly wet deposition totals, concentrations and precipitation observations from the Mercury Deposition Network (MDN) using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 4.7.1. Regional scale simulations of mercury wet deposition using a DCA reduction mechanism evaluated well against observations, and reduced the bias in model evaluation by at least 13% over the other schemes evaluated, although summertime deposition estimates were still biased by −31.4% against observations. The use of t

  6. CMAQ AEROSOL MODULE DEVELOPMENT RECENT ENHANCEMENTS & FUTURE PLANS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Recent enhancements to the CMAQ aerosol module will be reviewed briefly. These include revision of the secondary organic aerosol subroutine to improve numerical efficiency and control the growth of the accumulation mode standard deviation, revision of the nucleation subroutine t...

  7. COMMUNITY SCALE AIR TOXICS MODELING WITH CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    Consideration and movement for an urban air toxics control strategy is toward a community, exposure and risk-based modeling approach, with emphasis on assessments of areas that experience high air toxic concentration levels, the so-called "hot spots". This strategy will requir...

  8. 78 FR 63934 - Approval of Air Quality Implementation Plans; California; El Dorado County Air Quality Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-10-25

    ...] Approval of Air Quality Implementation Plans; California; El Dorado County Air Quality Management District... California for the El Dorado County Air Quality Management District (EDAQMD) portion of the California SIP... 24, 1987 Federal Register, May 25, 1988, U.S. EPA, Air Quality Management Division, Office of Air...

  9. Air quality management in Mexico.

    PubMed

    Fernández-Bremauntz, Adrián

    2008-01-01

    Several significant program and policy measures have been implemented in Mexico over the past 15 yr to improve air quality. This article provides an overview of air quality management strategies in Mexico, including (1) policy initiatives such as vehicle use restrictions, air quality standards, vehicle emissions, and fuel quality standards, and (2) supporting programs including establishment of a national emission inventory, an air pollution episodes program, and the implementation of exposure and health effects studies. Trends in air pollution episodes and ambient air pollutant concentrations are described.

  10. AN EXAMINATION OF THE CMAQ SIMULATIONS OF THE WET DEPOSITION OF AMMONIUM FROM A BAYESIAN PERSPECTIVE

    EPA Science Inventory

    The objective of this study is to ascertain the effects of precipitation simulations and emissions on CMAQ simulations of deposition. In both seasons, CMAQ tends to underpredict the deposition amounts. Based on the co-located measurements of ammonium wet deposition and precipita...

  11. 78 FR 30829 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Illinois; Air Quality Standards...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-05-23

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Illinois; Air Quality Standards Revision AGENCY... the Illinois State Implementation Plan (SIP) to reflect current national ambient air quality standards...) 692-2450. 4. Mail: Pamela Blakley, Chief, Control Strategies Section, Air Programs Branch (AR-18J), U...

  12. Developing air quality forecasts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Pius; Saylor, Rick; Meagher, James

    2012-05-01

    Third International Workshop on Air Quality Forecasting Research; Potomac, Maryland, 29 November to 1 December 2011 Elevated concentrations of both near-surface ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter have been implicated in increased mortality and other human health impacts. In light of these known influences on human health, many governments around the world have instituted air quality forecasting systems to provide their citizens with advance warning of impending poor air quality so that they can take actions to limit exposure. In an effort to improve the performance of air quality forecasting systems and provide a forum for the exchange of the latest research in air quality modeling, the International Workshop on Air Quality Forecasting Research (IWAQFR) was established in 2009 and is cosponsored by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Environment Canada (EC), and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The steering committee for IWAQFR's establishment was composed of Véronique Bouchet, Mike Howe, and Craig Stoud (EC); Greg Carmichael (University of Iowa); Paula Davidson and Jim Meagher (NOAA); and Liisa Jalkanen (WMO). The most recent workshop took place in Maryland.

  13. Observations and modeling of air quality trends over 1990-2010 across the Northern Hemisphere: China, the United States and Europe

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xing, J.; Mathur, R.; Pleim, J.; Hogrefe, C.; Gan, C.-M.; Wong, D. C.; Wei, C.; Gilliam, R.; Pouliot, G.

    2015-03-01

    Trends in air quality across the Northern Hemisphere over a 21-year period (1990-2010) were simulated using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) multiscale chemical transport model driven by meteorology from Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulations and internally consistent historical emission inventories obtained from EDGAR. Thorough comparison with several ground observation networks mostly over Europe and North America was conducted to evaluate the model performance as well as the ability of CMAQ to reproduce the observed trends in air quality over the past 2 decades in three regions: eastern China, the continental United States and Europe. The model successfully reproduced the observed decreasing trends in SO2, NO2, 8 h O3 maxima, SO42- and elemental carbon (EC) in the US and Europe. However, the model fails to reproduce the decreasing trends in NO3- in the US, potentially pointing to uncertainties of NH3 emissions. The model failed to capture the 6-year trends of SO2 and NO2 in CN-API (China - Air Pollution Index) from 2005 to 2010, but reproduced the observed pattern of O3 trends shown in three World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) sites over eastern Asia. Due to the coarse spatial resolution employed in these calculations, predicted SO2 and NO2 concentrations are underestimated relative to all urban networks, i.e., US-AQS (US - Air Quality System; normalized mean bias (NMB) = -38% and -48%), EU-AIRBASE (European Air quality data Base; NMB = -18 and -54%) and CN-API (NMB = -36 and -68%). Conversely, at the rural network EU-EMEP (European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme), SO2 is overestimated (NMB from 4 to 150%) while NO2 is simulated well (NMB within ±15%) in all seasons. Correlations between simulated and observed O3 wintertime daily 8 h maxima (DM8) are poor compared to other seasons for all networks. Better correlation between simulated and observed SO42- was found compared to that for SO2. Underestimation of summer SO42- in

  14. 75 FR 65572 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Ohio; Ohio Ambient Air Quality...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-10-26

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Ohio; Ohio Ambient Air Quality Standards AGENCY... Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) relating to the consolidation of Ohio's Ambient Air Quality Standards... apply to Ohio's SIP. Incorporating the air quality standards into Ohio's SIP helps assure that...

  15. MODEL DEVELOPMENT FOR FY08 CMAQ RELEASE

    EPA Science Inventory

    This task provides credible state of the art air quality models and guidance for use in implementation of National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone and PM. This research effort is to develop and improve air quality models, such as the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMA...

  16. 77 FR 73320 - Approval of Air Quality Implementation Plans; California; South Coast Air Quality Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-12-10

    ... Quality Implementation Plans; California; South Coast Air Quality Management District; Prevention of... Implementation Plan (SIP) revision for the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD or District... in a August 15, 2012 letter from the South Coast Air Quality Management District regarding specific...

  17. Correlation Between Hierarchical Bayesian and Aerosol Optical Depth PM2.5 Data and Respiratory-Cardiovascular Chronic Diseases

    EPA Science Inventory

    Tools to estimate PM2.5 mass have expanded in recent years, and now include: 1) stationary monitor readings, 2) Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model estimates, 3) Hierarchical Bayesian (HB) estimates from combined stationary monitor readings and CMAQ model output; and, ...

  18. Cross-comparison and evaluation of air pollution field estimation methods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Haofei; Russell, Armistead; Mulholland, James; Odman, Talat; Hu, Yongtao; Chang, Howard H.; Kumar, Naresh

    2018-04-01

    Accurate estimates of human exposure is critical for air pollution health studies and a variety of methods are currently being used to assign pollutant concentrations to populations. Results from these methods may differ substantially, which can affect the outcomes of health impact assessments. Here, we applied 14 methods for developing spatiotemporal air pollutant concentration fields of eight pollutants to the Atlanta, Georgia region. These methods include eight methods relying mostly on air quality observations (CM: central monitor; SA: spatial average; IDW: inverse distance weighting; KRIG: kriging; TESS-D: discontinuous tessellation; TESS-NN: natural neighbor tessellation with interpolation; LUR: land use regression; AOD: downscaled satellite-derived aerosol optical depth), one using the RLINE dispersion model, and five methods using a chemical transport model (CMAQ), with and without using observational data to constrain results. The derived fields were evaluated and compared. Overall, all methods generally perform better at urban than rural area, and for secondary than primary pollutants. We found the CM and SA methods may be appropriate only for small domains, and for secondary pollutants, though the SA method lead to large negative spatial correlations when using data withholding for PM2.5 (spatial correlation coefficient R = -0.81). The TESS-D method was found to have major limitations. Results of the IDW, KRIG and TESS-NN methods are similar. They are found to be better suited for secondary pollutants because of their satisfactory temporal performance (e.g. average temporal R2 > 0.85 for PM2.5 but less than 0.35 for primary pollutant NO2). In addition, they are suitable for areas with relatively dense monitoring networks due to their inability to capture spatial concentration variabilities, as indicated by the negative spatial R (lower than -0.2 for PM2.5 when assessed using data withholding). The performance of LUR and AOD methods were similar to

  19. 78 FR 19990 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Ohio; Ohio Ambient Air Quality...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-04-03

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Ohio; Ohio Ambient Air Quality Standards; Correction AGENCY... approved revisions to Ohio regulations that consolidated air quality standards in a new chapter of rules... State's air quality standards into Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) 3745-25 and modifying an assortment of...

  20. 77 FR 12482 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Indiana; Lead Ambient Air Quality...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-03-01

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Indiana; Lead Ambient Air Quality Standards AGENCY... incorporates the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Pb promulgated by EPA in 2008. DATES: This... FR 66964) and codified at 40 CFR 50.16, ``National primary and secondary ambient air quality...

  1. Ozone - Current Air Quality Index

    MedlinePlus

    GO! Local Air Quality Conditions Zip Code: State : My Current Location Current AQI Forecast AQI Loop More Maps AQI: Good (0 - 50) ... resources for Hawaii residents and visitors more announcements Air Quality Basics Air Quality Index | Ozone | Particle Pollution | Smoke ...

  2. Constraining the uncertainty in emissions over India with a regional air quality model evaluation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karambelas, Alexandra; Holloway, Tracey; Kiesewetter, Gregor; Heyes, Chris

    2018-02-01

    To evaluate uncertainty in the spatial distribution of air emissions over India, we compare satellite and surface observations with simulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Seasonally representative simulations were completed for January, April, July, and October 2010 at 36 km × 36 km using anthropogenic emissions from the Greenhouse Gas-Air Pollution Interaction and Synergies (GAINS) model following version 5a of the Evaluating the Climate and Air Quality Impacts of Short-Lived Pollutants project (ECLIPSE v5a). We use both tropospheric columns from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and surface observations from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to closely examine modeled nitrogen dioxide (NO2) biases in urban and rural regions across India. Spatial average evaluation with satellite retrievals indicate a low bias in the modeled tropospheric column (-63.3%), which reflects broad low-biases in majority non-urban regions (-70.1% in rural areas) across the sub-continent to slightly lesser low biases reflected in semi-urban areas (-44.7%), with the threshold between semi-urban and rural defined as 400 people per km2. In contrast, modeled surface NO2 concentrations exhibit a slight high bias of +15.6% when compared to surface CPCB observations predominantly located in urban areas. Conversely, in examining extremely population dense urban regions with more than 5000 people per km2 (dense-urban), we find model overestimates in both the column (+57.8) and at the surface (+131.2%) compared to observations. Based on these results, we find that existing emission fields for India may overestimate urban emissions in densely populated regions and underestimate rural emissions. However, if we rely on model evaluation with predominantly urban surface observations from the CPCB, comparisons reflect model high biases, contradictory to the knowledge gained using satellite observations. Satellites thus

  3. EMISSION AND SURFACE EXCHANGE PROCESS

    EPA Science Inventory

    This task supports the development, evaluation, and application of emission and dry deposition algorithms in air quality simulation models, such as the Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. Emission estimates influence greatly the accuracy of air qual...

  4. Impacts of Climate Policy on Regional Air Quality, Health, and Air Quality Regulatory Procedures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thompson, T. M.; Selin, N. E.

    2011-12-01

    Both the changing climate, and the policy implemented to address climate change can impact regional air quality. We evaluate the impacts of potential selected climate policies on modeled regional air quality with respect to national pollution standards, human health and the sensitivity of health uncertainty ranges. To assess changes in air quality due to climate policy, we couple output from a regional computable general equilibrium economic model (the US Regional Energy Policy [USREP] model), with a regional air quality model (the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions [CAMx]). USREP uses economic variables to determine how potential future U.S. climate policy would change emissions of regional pollutants (CO, VOC, NOx, SO2, NH3, black carbon, and organic carbon) from ten emissions-heavy sectors of the economy (electricity, coal, gas, crude oil, refined oil, energy intensive industry, other industry, service, agriculture, and transportation [light duty and heavy duty]). Changes in emissions are then modeled using CAMx to determine the impact on air quality in several cities in the Northeast US. We first calculate the impact of climate policy by using regulatory procedures used to show attainment with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone and particulate matter. Building on previous work, we compare those results with the calculated results and uncertainties associated with human health impacts due to climate policy. This work addresses a potential disconnect between NAAQS regulatory procedures and the cost/benefit analysis required for and by the Clean Air Act.

  5. Indoor Air Quality Manual.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Baldwin Union Free School District, NY.

    This manual identifies ways to improve a school's indoor air quality (IAQ) and discusses practical actions that can be carried out by school staff in managing air quality. The manual includes discussions of the many sources contributing to school indoor air pollution and the preventive planning for each including renovation and repair work,…

  6. EMC: Air Quality Forecast Home page

    Science.gov Websites

    archive NAM Verification Meteorology Error Time Series EMC NAM Spatial Maps Real Time Mesoscale Analysis Precipitation verification NAQFC VERIFICATION CMAQ Ozone & PM Error Time Series AOD Error Time Series HYSPLIT Smoke forecasts vs GASP satellite Dust and Smoke Error Time Series HYSPLIT WCOSS Upgrade (July

  7. 75 FR 65594 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Ohio; Ohio Ambient Air Quality...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2010-10-26

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Ohio; Ohio Ambient Air Quality Standards AGENCY... the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) relating to the consolidation of Ohio's Ambient Air Quality Standards (AAQS) into Ohio's State Implementation Plan (SIP) under the Clean Air Act. On April 8, 2009, and...

  8. 77 FR 12524 - Approval and Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Indiana; Lead Ambient Air Quality...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-03-01

    ... Promulgation of Air Quality Implementation Plans; Indiana; Lead Ambient Air Quality Standards AGENCY... Indiana State Implementation Plan (SIP) for lead (Pb) under the Clean Air Act (CAA). This submittal incorporates the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for Pb promulgated by EPA in 2008. DATES...

  9. Simulation of atmospheric oxidation capacity in Houston, Texas

    EPA Science Inventory

    Air quality model simulations are performed and evaluated for Houston using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The simulations use two different emissions estimates: the EPA 2005 National Emissions Inventory (NEI) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality ...

  10. AIR CLEANING FOR ACCEPTABLE INDOOR AIR QUALITY

    EPA Science Inventory

    The paper discusses air cleaning for acceptable indoor air quality. ir cleaning has performed an important role in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems for many years. raditionally, general ventilation air-filtration equipment has been used to protect cooling coils ...

  11. Air Quality Index (AQI) -- A Guide to Air Quality and Your Health

    MedlinePlus

    ... Guide for Ozone Air Quality Guide for Particle Pollution Other AirNow Publications Other AirNow Publications En Español ... the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particle pollution (also known as particulate matter), carbon monoxide, sulfur ...

  12. Status of Air Quality in Central California and Needs for Further Study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tanrikulu, S.; Beaver, S.; Soong, S.; Tran, C.; Jia, Y.; Matsuoka, J.; McNider, R. T.; Biazar, A. P.; Palazoglu, A.; Lee, P.; Wang, J.; Kang, D.; Aneja, V. P.

    2012-12-01

    Ozone and PM2.5 levels frequently exceed NAAQS in central California (CC). Additional emission reductions are needed to attain and maintain the standards there. Agencies are developing cost-effective emission control strategies along with complementary incentive programs to reduce emissions when exceedances are forecasted. These approaches require accurate modeling and forecasting capabilities. A variety of models have been rigorously applied (MM5, WRF, CMAQ, CAMx) over CC. Despite the vast amount of land-based measurements from special field programs and significant effort, models have historically exhibited marginal performance. Satellite data may improve model performance by: establishing IC/BC over outlying areas of the modeling domain having unknown conditions; enabling FDDA over the Pacific Ocean to characterize important marine inflows and pollutant outflows; and filling in the gaps of the land-based monitoring network. BAAQMD, in collaboration with the NASA AQAST, plans to conduct four studies that include satellite-based data in CC air quality analysis and modeling: The first project enhances and refines weather patterns, especially aloft, impacting summer ozone formation. Surface analyses were unable to characterize the strong attenuating effect of the complex terrain to steer marine winds impinging on the continent. The dense summer clouds and fog over the Pacific Ocean form spatial patterns that can be related to the downstream air flows through polluted areas. The goal of this project is to explore, characterize, and quantify these relationships using cloud cover data. Specifically, cloud agreement statistics will be developed using satellite data and model clouds. Model skin temperature predictions will be compared to both MODIS and GOES skin temperatures. The second project evaluates and improves the initial and simulated fields of meteorological models that provide inputs to air quality models. The study will attempt to determine whether a cloud

  13. Use of a Process Analysis Tool for Diagnostic Study on Fine Particulate Matter Predictions in the U.S.-Part II: Analysis and Sensitivity Simulations

    EPA Science Inventory

    Following the Part I paper that described an application of the U.S. EPA Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system to the 1999 Southern Oxidants Study episode, this paper presents results from process analysis (PA) using the PA tool embedded in CMAQ and s...

  14. Air Quality System (AQS)

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The Air Quality System (AQS) database contains measurements of air pollutant concentrations from throughout the United States and its territories. The measurements include both criteria air pollutants and hazardous air pollutants.

  15. Impact of a nitrogen emission control area (NECA) for ship traffic on the future air quality in the Baltic Sea region

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karl, Matthias; Geyer, Beate; Bieser, Johannes; Matthias, Volker; Quante, Markus; Jalkanen, Jukka-Pekka; Johansson, Lasse; Fridell, Erik

    2017-04-01

    Deposition of nitrogen compounds originating from shipping activities contribute to eutrophication of the Baltic Sea and coastal areas in the Baltic Sea region. Emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from shipping on the Baltic Sea are comparable to the combined land-based emissions of NOx from Finland and Sweden and have been relatively stable over the last decade. However, expected future growth of maritime transport will result in higher fuel consumption and, if not compensated by increased transport efficiency or other measures, lead to higher total emissions of NOx from shipping. For the Baltic Sea a nitrogen emission control area (NECA) will become effective in 2021 - permitting only new built ships that are compliant with stringent Tier III emission limits - with the target of reducing NOx-emissions. In order to study the effect of implementing a Baltic Sea NECA-2021 on air quality and nitrogen deposition two future scenarios were designed; one with implementation of a NECA for the Baltic Sea starting in 2021 and another with no NECA implemented. The same increase of ship traffic was assumed for both future scenarios. Since complete fleet renewal with low NOx-emitting engines is not expected until 20-30 years after the NECA entry date, year 2040 was chosen as future scenario year. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was used to simulate the current and future air quality situation. The nested simulation runs with CMAQ were performed on a horizontal resolution of 4 km × 4 km for the entire Baltic Sea region. The meteorological year 2012 was chosen for the simulation of the current and future air quality situation since the 2m-temperature and precipitation anomalies of 2012 are closely aligned to the 2004-2014 decadal average over Baltic Proper. High-resolution meteorology obtained from COSMO-CLM was used for the regional simulations. Ship emissions were generated with the Ship Traffic Emission Assessment Model (STEAM) by the Finnish Meteorological

  16. Enabling Mobile Air Quality App Development with an AirNow API

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dye, T.; White, J. E.; Ludewig, S. A.; Dickerson, P.; Healy, A. N.; West, J. W.; Prince, L. A.

    2013-12-01

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) AirNow program works with over 130 participating state, local, and federal air quality agencies to obtain, quality control, and store real-time air quality observations and forecasts. From these data, the AirNow system generates thousands of maps and products each hour. Each day, information from AirNow is published online and in other media to assist the public in making health-based decisions related to air quality. However, an increasing number of people use mobile devices as their primary tool for obtaining information, and AirNow has responded to this trend by publishing an easy-to-use Web API that is useful for mobile app developers. This presentation will describe the various features of the AirNow application programming interface (API), including Representational State Transfer (REST)-type web services, file outputs, and RSS feeds. In addition, a web portal for the AirNow API will be shown, including documentation on use of the system, a query tool for configuring and running web services, and general information about the air quality data and forecasts available. Data published via the AirNow API includes corresponding Air Quality Index (AQI) levels for each pollutant. We will highlight examples of mobile apps that are using the AirNow API to provide location-based, real-time air quality information. Examples will include mobile apps developed for Minnesota ('Minnesota Air') and Washington, D.C. ('Clean Air Partners Air Quality'), and an app developed by EPA ('EPA AirNow').

  17. Exploration of OMI Products for Air Quality Applications Through Comparisons with Models and Observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pickering, K. E.; Ziemke, J.; Bucsela, E.; Gleason, J.; Marufu, L.; Dickerson, R.; Mathur, R.; Davidson, P.; Duncan, B.; Bhartia, P. K.

    2006-01-01

    The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board NASA s Aura satellite was launched in July 2004, and is now providing daily global observations of total column ozone, NO2, and SO2, as well as aerosol information. Algorithms have also been developed to produce daily tropospheric ozone and NO2 products. The tropospheric ozone product reported here is a tropospheric residual computed through use of Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) ozone profile data to quantify stratospheric ozone. We are investigating the applicability of OMI products for use in air quality modeling, forecasting, and analysis. These investigations include comparison of the OMI tropospheric O3 and NO2 products with global and regional models and with lower tropospheric aircraft observations. Large-scale transport of pollution seen in the OM1 tropospheric O3 data is compared with output from NASA's Global Modeling Initiative global chemistry and transport model. On the regional scale we compare the OMI tropospheric O3 and NO2 with fields from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Environmental Protection Agency (NOAA/EPA) operational Eta/CMAQ air quality forecasting model over the eastern United States. This 12-km horizontal resolution model output is roughly of equivalent resolution to the OMI pixel data. Correlation analysis between lower tropospheric aircraft O3 profile data taken by the University of Maryland over the Mid-Atlantic States and OMI tropospheric column mean volume mixing ratio for O3 will be presented. These aircraft data are representative of the lowest 3 kilometers of the atmosphere, the region in which much of the locally-generated and regionally-transported ozone exists.

  18. “Exchanges of Aggregate Air Nitrogen Emissions and Watershed Nitrogen Loads”

    EPA Science Inventory

    An approach has been developed to define transfer coefficients that can be used to convert changes in air emissions to changes in air deposition and subsequently to changes in loads delivered to the Bay. This approach uses a special CMAQ version that quantitatively attributes wa...

  19. Impacts of Air Pollution on Health in Eastern China: Implications for future air pollution and energy policies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, X.; Mauzerall, D.

    2004-12-01

    Our objective is to establish the link between energy consumption and technologies, air pollution and resulting impacts on public health in eastern China. We quantify the impacts that air pollution in the Shandong region of eastern China has on public health in 2000 and quantify the benefits in improved air quality and health that could be obtained by 2020, relative to business-as-usual, through the implementation of new energy technology. We first develop a highly-resolved emission inventory for the year 2000 for the Shandong region of China including emissions from large point, area, mobile and biogenic sources. We use the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions Modeling System (SMOKE) to process emissions from this inventory for use in the Community Multi-scale Air Quality modeling system (CMAQ) which we drive with the NCAR/PSU MM5 meso-scale meteorology model. We evaluate the inventory by comparing CMAQ results with available measurements of PM10 and SO2 from air pollution indices (APIs) reported in various Chinese municipalities during 2002-2004. We use epidemiological dose-response functions to quantify health impacts and values of a statistical life (VSL) and years-of-life-lost (YLL) to establish a range for the monetary value of these impacts. To examine health impacts and their monetary value, we focus explicitly on Zaozhuang, a coal-intensive city in the Shandong region of eastern China, and quantify the mortalities and morbidities resulting from air pollutants emitted from this city in 2000, and in 2020 using business-as-usual, best-available control technology, and advanced coal gasification technology scenarios. In all scenarios most health damages arise from exposure to particulate matter. We find that total health damages due to year 2000 anthropogenic emissions from Zaozhuang accounted for 4-10% of its GDP. If all health damages resulting from coal use were internalized in the market price of coal, the year 2000 price would have doubled. With no new

  20. CMAQ Application to the Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study (SOAS)

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    CMAQ was used to simulate conditions during the the Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study (SOAS) in the summer of 2013. Data collected as part of this study have been used to perform diagnostic model evaluation.

  1. Rural southeast Texas air quality measurements during the 2006 Texas Air Quality Study.

    PubMed

    Schade, Gunnar W; Khan, Siraj; Park, Changhyoun; Boedeker, Ian

    2011-10-01

    The authors conducted air quality measurements of the criteria pollutants carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and ozone together with meteorological measurements at a park site southeast of College Station, TX, during the 2006 Texas Air Quality Study II (TexAQS). Ozone, a primary focus of the measurements, was above 80 ppb during 3 days and above 75 ppb during additional 8 days in summer 2006, suggestive of possible violations of the ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) in this area. In concordance with other air quality measurements during the TexAQS II, elevated ozone mixing ratios coincided with northerly flows during days after cold front passages. Ozone background during these days was as high as 80 ppb, whereas southerly air flows generally provided for an ozone background lower than 40 ppb. Back trajectory analysis shows that local ozone mixing ratios can also be strongly affected by the Houston urban pollution plume, leading to late afternoon ozone increases of as high as 50 ppb above background under favorable transport conditions. The trajectory analysis also shows that ozone background increases steadily the longer a southern air mass resides over Texas after entering from the Gulf of Mexico. In light of these and other TexAQS findings, it appears that ozone air quality is affected throughout east Texas by both long-range and regional ozone transport, and that improvements therefore will require at least a regionally oriented instead of the current locally oriented ozone precursor reduction policies.

  2. Final Report: Fourth Peer Review of the CMAQ Model

    EPA Science Inventory

    The CMAQ Model External Peer Review Panel conducted a two and a half day review view on June 27, 28, and 29, 2011. This report summarizes its findings, and follows other reviews conducted in 2004, 2005, and 2006 [Amar et al., 2004; 2005 and 2007].

  3. Air Quality Management Process Cycle

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Air quality management are activities a regulatory authority undertakes to protect human health and the environment from the harmful effects of air pollution. The process of managing air quality can be illustrated as a cycle of inter-related elements.

  4. Air Quality Modeling

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    In this technical support document (TSD) EPA describes the air quality modeling performed to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s Transport Rule proposal (now known as the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule).

  5. [Air quality surveillance in France].

    PubMed

    Téton, S; Robin, D; Genève, C

    2009-10-01

    As air quality has a direct impact on human health, its monitoring is imperative. In France, this task was entrusted by the government (Air Law of 1996) to organisations with territorial responsibility: the Registered Associations for the Surveillance of Air Quality. The type and level of pollution evolve: from industrial and sulphur pollution in the seventies, to urban and photochemical pollution today and to nanoparticles, pesticides and pollutants in buildings tomorrow. The tools, the skills and the roles of the different people involved in air quality control follow these sometimes rapid transitions in connection with an increasingly precise understanding of the relationship between health and the environment and of the considerable research on the subject. This article describes the mechanisms of air quality monitoring in France.

  6. Process air quality data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Butler, C. M.; Hogge, J. E.

    1978-01-01

    Air quality sampling was conducted. Data for air quality parameters, recorded on written forms, punched cards or magnetic tape, are available for 1972 through 1975. Computer software was developed to (1) calculate several daily statistical measures of location, (2) plot time histories of data or the calculated daily statistics, (3) calculate simple correlation coefficients, and (4) plot scatter diagrams. Computer software was developed for processing air quality data to include time series analysis and goodness of fit tests. Computer software was developed to (1) calculate a larger number of daily statistical measures of location, and a number of daily monthly and yearly measures of location, dispersion, skewness and kurtosis, (2) decompose the extended time series model and (3) perform some goodness of fit tests. The computer program is described, documented and illustrated by examples. Recommendations are made for continuation of the development of research on processing air quality data.

  7. Air quality over Europe and Iberian Peninsula for 2004 at high horizontal resolution: evaluation of the CALIOPE modelling system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jorba, O.; Piot, M.; Pay, M. T.; Jiménez-Guerrero, P.; López, E.; Pérez, C.; Gassó, S.; Baldasano, J. M.

    2009-09-01

    In the frame of the CALIOPE project (Baldasano et al., 2008a), a high-resolution air quality forecasting system, WRF-ARW/HERMES/CMAQ/DREAM, is under development and applied to the European domain (12km x 12km, 1hr) as well as to the Iberian Peninsula domain (4km x 4km, 1hr) to provide air quality forecasts for Spain (http://www.bsc.es/caliope/). The simulation of such high-resolution model system is possible by its implementation on the MareNostrum supercomputer. To reassure potential users and reduce uncertainties, the model system must be evaluated to assess its performances in terms of air quality levels and dynamics reproducibility. The present contribution describes a thorough quantitative evaluation study performed for a reference year (2004). CALIOPE is a complex system that integrates a variety of environmental models. WRF-ARW provides high-resolution meteorological fields to the system. It is configured with 38 vertical layers reaching up to 50 hPa. Meteorological initial and boundary conditions are obtained from the NCEP final analysis data. The HERMES emission model (Baldasano et al., 2008b) computes the emissions for the Iberian Peninsula simulation at 4 km horizontal resolution every hour using a bottom-up approach. For the European domain, HERMES disaggregates the EMEP expert emission inventory for 2004. The CMAQ chemical transport model solves the physico-chemical processes in the system. The vertical resolution of CMAQ for gas-phase and aerosols has been increased from 8 to 15 layers in order to simulate vertical exchanges more accurately. Chemical boundary conditions are provided by the LMDz-INCA2 global climate-chemistry model (see Hauglustaine et al., 2004). Finally, the DREAM model simulates long-range transport of mineral dust over the domains under study. In order to evaluate the performances of the CALIOPE system, model simulations were compared with ground-based measurements from the EMEP and Spanish air quality networks. For the European

  8. 32 CFR 989.30 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Air quality. 989.30 Section 989.30 National... ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS PROCESS (EIAP) § 989.30 Air quality. Section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act..., Air Quality Compliance. 10 10 See footnote 1 to § 989.1. ...

  9. 32 CFR 989.30 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Air quality. 989.30 Section 989.30 National... ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS PROCESS (EIAP) § 989.30 Air quality. Section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act..., Air Quality Compliance. 10 10 See footnote 1 to § 989.1. ...

  10. 32 CFR 989.30 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Air quality. 989.30 Section 989.30 National... ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS PROCESS (EIAP) § 989.30 Air quality. Section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act..., Air Quality Compliance. 10 10 See footnote 1 to § 989.1. ...

  11. 32 CFR 989.30 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Air quality. 989.30 Section 989.30 National... ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS PROCESS (EIAP) § 989.30 Air quality. Section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act..., Air Quality Compliance. 10 10 See footnote 1 to § 989.1. ...

  12. 32 CFR 989.30 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 32 National Defense 6 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Air quality. 989.30 Section 989.30 National... ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS PROCESS (EIAP) § 989.30 Air quality. Section 176(c) of the Clean Air Act..., Air Quality Compliance. 10 10 See footnote 1 to § 989.1. ...

  13. Air Quality System (AQS) Metadata

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency compiles air quality monitoring data in the Air Quality System (AQS). Ambient air concentrations are measured at a national network of more than 4,000 monitoring stations and are reported by state, local, and tribal

  14. Modeling reactive ammonia uptake by secondary organic aerosol in CMAQ: application to the continental US

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Shupeng; Horne, Jeremy R.; Montoya-Aguilera, Julia; Hinks, Mallory L.; Nizkorodov, Sergey A.; Dabdub, Donald

    2018-03-01

    Ammonium salts such as ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate constitute an important fraction of the total fine particulate matter (PM2.5) mass. While the conversion of inorganic gases into particulate-phase sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium is now well understood, there is considerable uncertainty over interactions between gas-phase ammonia and secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). Observations have confirmed that ammonia can react with carbonyl compounds in SOA, forming nitrogen-containing organic compounds (NOCs). This chemistry consumes gas-phase NH3 and may therefore affect the amount of ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate in particulate matter (PM) as well as particle acidity. In order to investigate the importance of such reactions, a first-order loss rate for ammonia onto SOA was implemented into the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model based on the ammonia uptake coefficients reported in the literature. Simulations over the continental US were performed for the winter and summer of 2011 with a range of uptake coefficients (10-3-10-5). Simulation results indicate that a significant reduction in gas-phase ammonia may be possible due to its uptake onto SOA; domain-averaged ammonia concentrations decrease by 31.3 % in the winter and 67.0 % in the summer with the highest uptake coefficient (10-3). As a result, the concentration of particulate matter is also significantly affected, with a distinct spatial pattern over different seasons. PM concentrations decreased during the winter, largely due to the reduction in ammonium nitrate concentrations. On the other hand, PM concentrations increased during the summer due to increased biogenic SOA (BIOSOA) production resulting from enhanced acid-catalyzed uptake of isoprene-derived epoxides. Since ammonia emissions are expected to increase in the future, it is important to include NH3 + SOA chemistry in air quality models.

  15. Air Quality Analysis

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    This site provides information for air quality data analysts inside and outside EPA. Much of the information is in the form of documented analyses that support the review of the national air qualiyt standards.

  16. "OZONE SOURCE APPORTIONMENT IN CMAQ' | Science ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Ozone source attribution has been used to support various policy purposes including interstate transport (Cross State Air Pollution Rule) by U.S. EPA and ozone nonattainment area designations by State agencies. Common scientific applications include tracking intercontinental transport of ozone and ozone precursors and delineating anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic contribution to ozone in North America. As in the public release due in September 2013, CMAQ’s Integrated Source Apportionment Method (ISAM) attributes PM EC/OC, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, ozone and its precursors NOx and VOC, to sectors/regions of users’ interest. Although the peroxide-to-nitric acid productions ratio has been the most common indicator to distinguish NOx-limited ozone production from VOC-limited one, other indicators are implemented in addition to allowing for an ensemble decision based on a total of 9 available indicator ratios. Moreover, an alternative approach of ozone attribution based on the idea of chemical sensitivity in a linearized system that has formed the basis of chemical treatment in forward DDM/backward adjoint tools has been implemented in CMAQ. This method does not require categorization into either ozone regime. In this study, ISAM will simulate the 2010 North America ozone using all of the above gas-phase attribution methods. The results are to be compared with zero-out difference out of those sectors in the host model runs. In addition, ozone contribution wil

  17. “Application and evaluation of the two-way coupled WRF ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    The DISCOVER-AQ project (Deriving Information on Surface conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality), is a joint collaboration between NASA, U.S. EPA and a number of other local organizations with the goal of characterizing air quality in urban areas using satellite, aircraft, vertical profiler and ground based measurements (http://discover-aq.larc.nasa.gov). In July 2011, the DISCOVER-AQ project conducted intensive air quality measurements in the Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C. area in the eastern U.S. To take advantage of these unique data, the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, coupled with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to simulate the meteorology and air quality in the same region using 12-km, 4-km and 1-km horizontal grid spacings. The goal of the modeling exercise is to demonstrate the capability of the coupled WRF-CMAQ modeling system to simulate air quality at fine grid spacings in an urban area. Development of new data assimilation techniques and the use of higher resolution input data for the WRF model have been implemented to improve the meteorological results, particularly at the 4-km and 1-km grid resolutions. In addition, a number of updates to the CMAQ model were made to enhance the capability of the modeling system to accurately represent the magnitude and spatial distribution of pollutants at fine model resolutions. Data collected during the 2011 DISCOVER-AQ campa

  18. Improving and monitoring air quality.

    PubMed

    DuPont, André

    2018-05-01

    Since the authorization of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the air quality in the USA has significantly improved because of strong public support. The lessons learned over the last 25 years are being shared with the policy analysts, technical professionals, and scientist who endeavor to improve air quality in their communities. This paper will review how the USA has achieved the "high" standard of air quality that was envisioned in the early 1990s. This document will describe SO 2 gas emission reduction technology and highlight operation of emission monitoring technology. This paper describes the basic process operation of an air pollution control scrubber. A technical review of measures required to operate and maintain a large-scale pollution control system will be described. Also, the author explains how quality assurance procedures in performance of continuous emission monitoring plays a significant role in reducing air pollution.

  19. An annual assessment of air quality with the CALIOPE modeling system over Spain.

    PubMed

    Baldasano, J M; Pay, M T; Jorba, O; Gassó, S; Jiménez-Guerrero, P

    2011-05-01

    The CALIOPE project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, aims at establishing an air quality forecasting system for Spain. With this goal, CALIOPE modeling system was developed and applied with high resolution (4km×4km, 1h) using the HERMES emission model (including emissions of resuspended particles from paved roads) specifically built up for Spain. The present study provides an evaluation and the assessment of the modeling system, coupling WRF-ARW/HERMES/CMAQ/BSC-DREAM8b for a full-year simulation in 2004 over Spain. The evaluation focuses on the capability of the model to reproduce the temporal and spatial distribution of gas phase species (NO(2), O(3), and SO(2)) and particulate matter (PM10) against ground-based measurements from the Spanish air quality monitoring network. The evaluation of the modeling results on an hourly basis shows a strong dependency of the performance of the model on the type of environment (urban, suburban and rural) and the dominant emission sources (traffic, industrial, and background). The O(3) chemistry is best represented in summer, when mean hourly variability and high peaks are generally well reproduced. The mean normalized error and bias meet the recommendations proposed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) and the European regulations. Modeled O(3) shows higher performance for urban than for rural stations, especially at traffic stations in large cities, since stations influenced by traffic emissions (i.e., high-NO(x) environments) are better characterized with a more pronounced daily variability. NO(x)/O(3) chemistry is better represented under non-limited-NO(2) regimes. SO(2) is mainly produced from isolated point sources (power generation and transformation industries) which generate large plumes of high SO(2) concentration affecting the air quality on a local to national scale where the meteorological pattern is crucial. The contribution of mineral dust from the Sahara desert through

  20. Air quality and exercise-related health benefits from reduced car travel in the midwestern United States.

    PubMed

    Grabow, Maggie L; Spak, Scott N; Holloway, Tracey; Stone, Brian; Mednick, Adam C; Patz, Jonathan A

    2012-01-01

    Automobile exhaust contains precursors to ozone and fine particulate matter (PM ≤ 2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter; PM2.5), posing health risks. Dependency on car commuting also reduces physical fitness opportunities. In this study we sought to quantify benefits from reducing automobile usage for short urban and suburban trips. We simulated census-tract level changes in hourly pollutant concentrations from the elimination of automobile round trips ≤ 8 km in 11 metropolitan areas in the upper midwestern United States using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Next, we estimated annual changes in health outcomes and monetary costs expected from pollution changes using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Benefits Mapping Analysis Program (BenMAP). In addition, we used the World Health Organization Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) to calculate benefits of increased physical activity if 50% of short trips were made by bicycle. We estimate that, by eliminating these short automobile trips, annual average urban PM2.5 would decline by 0.1 µg/m3 and that summer ozone (O3) would increase slightly in cities but decline regionally, resulting in net health benefits of $4.94 billion/year [95% confidence interval (CI): $0.2 billion, $13.5 billion), with 25% of PM2.5 and most O3 benefits to populations outside metropolitan areas. Across the study region of approximately 31.3 million people and 37,000 total square miles, mortality would decline by approximately 1,295 deaths/year (95% CI: 912, 1,636) because of improved air quality and increased exercise. Making 50% of short trips by bicycle would yield savings of approximately $3.8 billion/year from avoided mortality and reduced health care costs (95% CI: $2.7 billion, $5.0 billion]. We estimate that the combined benefits of improved air quality and physical fitness would exceed $8 billion/year. Our findings suggest that significant health and economic benefits are possible if bicycling replaces short

  1. Determining the Uncertainties in Prescribed Burn Emissions Through Comparison of Satellite Estimates to Ground-based Estimates and Air Quality Model Evaluations in Southeastern US

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Odman, M. T.; Hu, Y.; Russell, A. G.

    2016-12-01

    Prescribed burning is practiced throughout the US, and most widely in the Southeast, for the purpose of maintaining and improving the ecosystem, and reducing the wildfire risk. However, prescribed burn emissions contribute significantly to the of trace gas and particulate matter loads in the atmosphere. In places where air quality is already stressed by other anthropogenic emissions, prescribed burns can lead to major health and environmental problems. Air quality modeling efforts are under way to assess the impacts of prescribed burn emissions. Operational forecasts of the impacts are also emerging for use in dynamic management of air quality as well as the burns. Unfortunately, large uncertainties exist in the process of estimating prescribed burn emissions and these uncertainties limit the accuracy of the burn impact predictions. Prescribed burn emissions are estimated by using either ground-based information or satellite observations. When there is sufficient local information about the burn area, the types of fuels, their consumption amounts, and the progression of the fire, ground-based estimates are more accurate. In the absence of such information satellites remain as the only reliable source for emission estimation. To determine the level of uncertainty in prescribed burn emissions, we compared estimates derived from a burn permit database and other ground-based information to the estimates by the Biomass Burning Emissions Product derived from a constellation of NOAA and NASA satellites. Using these emissions estimates we conducted simulations with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and predicted trace gas and particulate matter concentrations throughout the Southeast for two consecutive burn seasons (2015 and 2016). In this presentation, we will compare model predicted concentrations to measurements at monitoring stations and evaluate if the differences are commensurate with our emission uncertainty estimates. We will also investigate if

  2. Evaluating ammonia (NH3) predictions in the NOAA National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) using in situ aircraft, ground-level, and satellite measurements from the DISCOVER-AQ Colorado campaign

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Battye, William H.; Bray, Casey D.; Aneja, Viney P.; Tong, Daniel; Lee, Pius; Tang, Youhua

    2016-09-01

    The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is responsible for forecasting elevated levels of air pollution within the National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC). The current research uses measurements gathered in the DISCOVER-AQ Colorado field campaign and the concurrent Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry Experiment (FRAPPE) to test performance of the NAQFC CMAQ modeling framework for predicting NH3. The DISCOVER-AQ and FRAPPE field campaigns were carried out in July and August 2014 in Northeast Colorado. Model predictions are compared with measurements of NH3 gas concentrations and the NH4+ component of fine particulate matter concentrations measured directly by the aircraft in flight. We also compare CMAQ predictions with NH3 measurements from ground-based monitors within the DISCOVER-AQ Colorado geographic domain, and from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) on the Aura satellite. In situ aircraft measurements carried out in July and August of 2014 suggest that the NAQFC CMAQ model underestimated the NH3 concentration in Northeastern Colorado by a factor of ∼2.7 (NMB = -63%). Ground-level monitors also produced a similar result. Average satellite-retrieved NH3 levels also exceeded model predictions by a factor of 1.5-4.2 (NMB = -33 to -76%). The underestimation of NH3 was not accompanied by an underestimation of particulate NH4+, which is further controlled by factors including acid availability, removal rate, and gas-particle partition. The average measured concentration of NH4+ was close to the average predication (NMB = +18%). Seasonal patterns measured at an AMoN site in the region suggest that the underestimation of NH3 is not due to the seasonal allocation of emissions, but to the overall annual emissions estimate. The underestimation of NH3 varied across the study domain, with the largest differences occurring in a region of intensive agriculture near Greeley, Colorado, and in the vicinity of Denver. The

  3. Indoor Air Quality in Schools.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Torres, Vincent M.

    Asserting that the air quality inside schools is often worse than outdoor pollution, leading to various health complaints and loss of productivity, this paper details factors contributing to schools' indoor air quality. These include the design, operation, and maintenance of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; building…

  4. DIAGNOSTIC MODEL EVALUATION FOR CARBONACEOUS PM 2.5 USING ORGANIC MARKERS MEASURED IN THE SOUTHEASTERN U.S.

    EPA Science Inventory

    Summertime concentrations of fine particulate carbon in the southeastern United States are consistently underestimated by air quality models. In an effort to understand the cause of this error, the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is instrumented to track primary org...

  5. PARADIGM USING JOINT DETERMINISTIC GRID MODELING AND SUB-GRID VARIABILITY STOCHASTIC DESCRIPTION AS A TEMPLATE FOR MODEL EVALUATION

    EPA Science Inventory

    The goal of achieving verisimilitude of air quality simulations to observations is problematic. Chemical transport models such as the Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system produce volume averages of pollutant concentration fields. When grid sizes are such tha...

  6. 77 FR 52277 - Approval of Air Quality Implementation Plans; California; South Coast Air Quality Management...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-08-29

    ... Quality Implementation Plans; California; South Coast Air Quality Management District; Prevention of... rule. SUMMARY: EPA is proposing approval of a permitting rule submitted for the South Coast Air Quality Management District (District) portion of the California State Implementation Plan (SIP). The State is...

  7. Indoor Air Quality in Chemistry Laboratories.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hays, Steve M.

    This paper presents air quality and ventilation data from an existing chemical laboratory facility and discusses the work practice changes implemented in response to deficiencies in ventilation. General methods for improving air quality in existing laboratories are presented and investigation techniques for characterizing air quality are…

  8. Megacity and Air Pollution in the Eastern Mediterranean: Istanbul Case Study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Unal, Alper; Kindap, Tayfun; Im, Ulas; Markakis, Kostas; Mihalopoulos, Nikos; Gerasopoulos, Evangelos; Kocak, Mustafa; Mangir, Nizamettin; Kubilay, Nilgun; Kanakidou, Maria

    2010-05-01

    Turkey, with a population of 75 million, is located at the confluence of Europe and Asia. Istanbul is at the hearth of Turkey's fast economic growth. The city has an annual growth of 3.7% and, according to a study conducted by OECD, is ranked 12th among 45 OECD metro-regions. Istanbul generates 27% of Turkey's Gross Domestic Product (GDP); 40% of tax revenues; and 38% of total industrial output (OECD, 2008). As a result, Istanbul is facing a variety of challenging environmental problems affecting more than 15 million people. Observations show that the number of days exceeding the 24-hour limit value of 50 μgm-3 reached 157 in 2008, with a significant increase from previous years. The city is also a hot spot of pollutant emissions for the surrounding Eastern Mediterranean area. As part of the CityZEN project, in order to quantify the contribution of this megacity as a source of air pollution in the Eastern Mediterranean, a climatological trajectory analysis using a regional climate model output (RegCM3) and a high resolution regional modeling study were performed using the Models-3 WRF meteorological and CMAQ air quality models. Trajectory approach was used to identify the effects of Istanbul emissions on other cities in regional scale. A 30-year (1961-1990) period RegCM3 simulations were used to get a meaningful evaluation. The trajectories were computed according to a method described by Pettersen (1956) as a forward trajectory approach in a 27-km grid resolution. An air parcel was released once every 6h and a total of 42,368 air parcels (trajectories) were released during these 30 years. Long-term meteorological observations in Istanbul show northeasterly and southwesterly prevailing winds over the city. According to these prevailing winds, the distributions of trajectories were mainly observed from the north and south directions of the city. In order to run an air quality model, anthropogenic emission inventory was compiled from a number of different sources

  9. Enhancing indoor air quality -The air filter advantage.

    PubMed

    Vijayan, Vannan Kandi; Paramesh, Haralappa; Salvi, Sundeep Santosh; Dalal, Alpa Anil Kumar

    2015-01-01

    Air pollution has become the world's single biggest environmental health risk, linked to around 7 million deaths in 2012 according to a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report. The new data further reveals a stronger link between, indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure and cardiovascular diseases, such as strokes and ischemic heart disease, as well as between air pollution and cancer. The role of air pollution in the development of respiratory diseases, including acute respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, is well known. While both indoor and outdoor pollution affect health, recent statistics on the impact of household indoor pollutants (HAP) is alarming. The WHO factsheet on HAP and health states that 3.8 million premature deaths annually - including stroke, ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer are attributed to exposure to household air pollution. Use of air cleaners and filters are one of the suggested strategies to improve indoor air quality. This review discusses the impact of air pollutants with special focus on indoor air pollutants and the benefits of air filters in improving indoor air quality.

  10. Colorado Air Quality Control Regulations and Ambient Air Quality Standards.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Colorado State Dept. of Health, Denver. Div. of Air Pollution Control.

    Regulations and standards relative to air quality control in Colorado are defined in this publication. Presented first are definitions of terms, a statement of intent, and general provisions applicable to all emission control regulations adopted by the Colorado Air Pollution Control Commission. Following this, three regulations are enumerated: (1)…

  11. The Impacts of Policies To Meet The UK Climate Change Act Target on Air Quality - An Explicit Modelling Study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Williams, M.; Beevers, S.; Lott, M. C.; Kitwiroon, N.

    2016-12-01

    This paper presents a preliminary analysis of different pathways to meet the UK Climate Change Act target for 2050, of an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide equivalent emissions on a base year of 1990. The pathways can result in low levels of air pollution emissions through the use of renewables and nuclear power. But large increases in biomass burning and the continued use of diesel cars they can result in larger air quality impacts. The work evaluated the air quality impacts in several pathways using an energy system optimisation model (UK TIMES) and a chemical transport model (CMAQ). The work described in this paper goes beyond the `damage cost' approach where only emissions in each are assessed. In this work we used scenarios produced by the UK TIMES model which we converted into air pollution emissions. Emissions of ammonia from agriculture are not attributed to the energy system and are thus not captured by energy system models, yet are crucial in forming PM2.5, acknowledged to be currently the most important pollutant associated with premature deaths. Our model includes these emissions and other non-energy sources of hydrocarbons which lead to the formation of ozone, another significant cause of air pollution health impacts. A key policy issue is how much biogenic hydrocarbons contribute to ozone formation compared with man-made emissions. We modelled pollution concentrations at a resolution of 7 km across the UK and at 2km in urban areas. These results allow us to estimate changes in premature mortality and morbidity associated with the changes in air pollution and subsequently the economic cost of the impacts on public health. The work shows that in the `clean' scenario, urban exposures to particles (PM2.5) and NO2 could decrease by very large amounts, but ozone exposures are likely to increase without further significant reductions world-wide. Large increases in biomass use however could lead to increases in urban levels of carcinogens and primary PM.

  12. Indoor Air Quality in Schools: Clean Air Is Good Business.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guarneiri, Michele A.

    2003-01-01

    Describes the effect of poor indoor air quality (IAQ) on student health, the cost of safeguarding good IAQ, the cause of poor IAQ in schools, how to tell whether a school has an IAQ problem, and how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can help schools improve indoor air quality though the use of their free "Indoor Air Quality Tools for…

  13. Top-Down Constraints on Air Quality Model Emissions of NH3, NOx, and SO2 using Surface, Aircraft, and Satellite Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alvarado, M. J.; Lonsdale, C. R.; Winijkul, E.; Brodowski, C. M.; Cady-Pereira, K.; Henze, D. K.; Capps, S.

    2016-12-01

    Accurate modeling of the formation of ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) requires accurate estimates of the emissions of precursor species such as ammonia (NH3), nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO+NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Here we present an evaluation of the 2011 EPA National Emission Inventory for NH3, NOx, and SO2 using CMAQv5.0.2 and data from the 2013 NOAA Southeast Nexus (SENEX) field campaign. Model results are compared to surface and aircraft measurements during each campaign, as well as satellite NH3 observations from the NOAA Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and satellite observations of NO2 and SO2 from the NASA Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). We also present an evaluation of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) NH3 emissions for 2012 using CMAQ and the CrIS NH3 observations. We discuss the lessons learned in using CrIS NH3 observations in the southeast US, where CMAQ predicts most of the gas-phase NH3 is very close to the surface, and contrast this with the use of CrIS NH3 observations over California. We discuss the use of two methods - a mass balance approach and an approach using the CMAQ adjoint - to optimize these emissions and evaluate the improvement in model performance for gas-phase NH3, NOx, and SO2, as well as for the formation of O3 and PM2.5.

  14. ADAPTATION AND APPLICATION OF THE COMMUNITY MULTISCALE AIR QUALITY (CMAQ) MODELING SYSTEM FOR REAL-TIME AIR QUALITY FORECASTING DURING THE SUMMER OF 2004

    EPA Science Inventory

    The ability to forecast local and regional air pollution events is challenging since the processes governing the production and sustenance of atmospheric pollutants are complex and often non-linear. Comprehensive atmospheric models, by representing in as much detail as possible t...

  15. EVALUATION TECHNIQUES AND TOOL DEVELOPMENT FOR FY 08 CMAQ RELEASE

    EPA Science Inventory

    In this task, research efforts are outlined that relate to the AMD Model Evaluation Program element and support CMAQ releases within the FY05-FY08 time period. Model evaluation serves dual purposes; evaluation is necessary to characterize the accuracy of model predictions, and e...

  16. The Economic Value of Air Quality Forecasting

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anderson-Sumo, Tasha

    Both long-term and daily air quality forecasts provide an essential component to human health and impact costs. According the American Lung Association, the estimated current annual cost of air pollution related illness in the United States, adjusted for inflation (3% per year), is approximately $152 billion. Many of the risks such as hospital visits and morality are associated with poor air quality days (where the Air Quality Index is greater than 100). Groups such as sensitive groups become more susceptible to the resulting conditions and more accurate forecasts would help to take more appropriate precautions. This research focuses on evaluating the utility of air quality forecasting in terms of its potential impacts by building on air quality forecasting and economical metrics. Our analysis includes data collected during the summertime ozone seasons between 2010 and 2012 from air quality models for the Washington, DC/Baltimore, MD region. The metrics that are relevant to our analysis include: (1) The number of times that a high ozone or particulate matter (PM) episode is correctly forecasted, (2) the number of times that high ozone or PM episode is forecasted when it does not occur and (3) the number of times when the air quality forecast predicts a cleaner air episode when the air was observed to have high ozone or PM. Our collection of data included available air quality model forecasts of ozone and particulate matter data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s AIRNOW as well as observational data of ozone and particulate matter from Clean Air Partners. We evaluated the performance of the air quality forecasts with that of the observational data and found that the forecast models perform well for the Baltimore/Washington region and the time interval observed. We estimate the potential amount for the Baltimore/Washington region accrues to a savings of up to 5,905 lives and 5.9 billion dollars per year. This total assumes perfect compliance with

  17. Using satellite observations in performance evaluation for regulatory air quality modeling: Comparison with ground-level measurements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Odman, M. T.; Hu, Y.; Russell, A.; Chai, T.; Lee, P.; Shankar, U.; Boylan, J.

    2012-12-01

    Regulatory air quality modeling, such as State Implementation Plan (SIP) modeling, requires that model performance meets recommended criteria in the base-year simulations using period-specific, estimated emissions. The goal of the performance evaluation is to assure that the base-year modeling accurately captures the observed chemical reality of the lower troposphere. Any significant deficiencies found in the performance evaluation must be corrected before any base-case (with typical emissions) and future-year modeling is conducted. Corrections are usually made to model inputs such as emission-rate estimates or meteorology and/or to the air quality model itself, in modules that describe specific processes. Use of ground-level measurements that follow approved protocols is recommended for evaluating model performance. However, ground-level monitoring networks are spatially sparse, especially for particulate matter. Satellite retrievals of atmospheric chemical properties such as aerosol optical depth (AOD) provide spatial coverage that can compensate for the sparseness of ground-level measurements. Satellite retrievals can also help diagnose potential model or data problems in the upper troposphere. It is possible to achieve good model performance near the ground, but have, for example, erroneous sources or sinks in the upper troposphere that may result in misleading and unrealistic responses to emission reductions. Despite these advantages, satellite retrievals are rarely used in model performance evaluation, especially for regulatory modeling purposes, due to the high uncertainty in retrievals associated with various contaminations, for example by clouds. In this study, 2007 was selected as the base year for SIP modeling in the southeastern U.S. Performance of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, at a 12-km horizontal resolution, for this annual simulation is evaluated using both recommended ground-level measurements and non-traditional satellite

  18. An Elevated Reservoir of Air Pollutants over the Mid-Atlantic States During the 2011 DISCOVER-AQ Campaign: Airborne Measurements and Numerical Simulations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    He, Hao; Loughner, Christopher P.; Stehr, Jeffrey W.; Arkinson, Heather L.; Brent, Lacey C.; Follette-Cook, Melanie B.; Tzortziou, Maria A.; Pickering, Kenneth E.; Thompson, Anne M.; Martins, Douglas K.; hide

    2013-01-01

    During a classic heat wave with record high temperatures and poor air quality from July 18 to 23, 2011, an elevated reservoir of air pollutants was observed over and downwind of Baltimore, MD, with relatively clean conditions near the surface. Aircraft and ozonesonde measurements detected approximately 120 parts per billion by volume ozone at 800 meters altitude, but approximately 80 parts per billion by volume ozone near the surface. High concentrations of other pollutants were also observed around the ozone peak: approximately 300 parts per billion by volume CO at 1200 meters, approximately 2 parts per billion by volume NO2 at 800 meters, approximately 5 parts per billion by volume SO2 at 600 meters, and strong aerosol optical scattering (2 x 10 (sup 4) per meter) at 600 meters. These results suggest that the elevated reservoir is a mixture of automobile exhaust (high concentrations of O3, CO, and NO2) and power plant emissions (high SO2 and aerosols). Back trajectory calculations show a local stagnation event before the formation of this elevated reservoir. Forward trajectories suggest an influence on downwind air quality, supported by surface ozone observations on the next day over the downwind PA, NJ and NY area. Meteorological observations from aircraft and ozonesondes show a dramatic veering of wind direction from south to north within the lowest 5000 meters, implying that the development of the elevated reservoir was caused in part by the Chesapeake Bay breeze. Based on in situ observations, Community Air Quality Multi-scale Model (CMAQ) forecast simulations with 12 kilometers resolution overestimated surface ozone concentrations and failed to predict this elevated reservoir; however, CMAQ research simulations with 4 kilometers and 1.33 kilometers resolution more successfully reproduced this event. These results show that high resolution is essential for resolving coastal effects and predicting air quality for cities near major bodies of water such as

  19. Parents' Guide to School Indoor Air Quality.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Healthy Schools Network, Inc., Albany, NY.

    This parents' guide presents articles on school indoor air pollution, children's health and the symptoms of indoor air pollution, and how schools can improve their air quality. Also included are tips on what to do if the school ignores air quality problems, and some examples of what school districts should be doing to improve their air quality.…

  20. Ambient air pollution and semen quality.

    PubMed

    Nobles, Carrie J; Schisterman, Enrique F; Ha, Sandie; Kim, Keewan; Mumford, Sunni L; Buck Louis, Germaine M; Chen, Zhen; Liu, Danping; Sherman, Seth; Mendola, Pauline

    2018-05-01

    Ambient air pollution is associated with systemic increases in oxidative stress, to which sperm are particularly sensitive. Although decrements in semen quality represent a key mechanism for impaired fecundability, prior research has not established a clear association between air pollution and semen quality. To address this, we evaluated the association between ambient air pollution and semen quality among men with moderate air pollution exposure. Of 501 couples in the LIFE study, 467 male partners provided one or more semen samples. Average residential exposure to criteria air pollutants and fine particle constituents in the 72 days before ejaculation was estimated using modified Community Multiscale Air Quality models. Generalized estimating equation models estimated the association between air pollutants and semen quality parameters (volume, count, percent hypo-osmotic swollen, motility, sperm head, morphology and sperm chromatin parameters). Models adjusted for age, body mass index, smoking and season. Most associations between air pollutants and semen parameters were small. However, associations were observed for an interquartile increase in fine particulates ≤2.5 µm and decreased sperm head size, including -0.22 (95% CI -0.34, -0.11) µm 2 for area, -0.06 (95% CI -0.09, -0.03) µm for length and -0.09 (95% CI -0.19, -0.06) µm for perimeter. Fine particulates were also associated with 1.03 (95% CI 0.40, 1.66) greater percent sperm head with acrosome. Air pollution exposure was not associated with semen quality, except for sperm head parameters. Moderate levels of ambient air pollution may not be a major contributor to semen quality. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  1. Updating CMAQ secondary organic aerosol properties relevant for aerosol water interactions

    EPA Science Inventory

    Properties of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) compounds in CMAQ are updated with state-of-the-science estimates from structure activity relationships to provide consistency among volatility, molecular weight, degree of oxygenation, and solubility/hygroscopicity. These updated pro...

  2. Global Air Quality and Climate

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fiore, Arlene M.; Naik, Vaishali; Steiner, Allison; Unger, Nadine; Bergmann, Dan; Prather, Michael; Righi, Mattia; Rumbold, Steven T.; Shindell, Drew T.; Skeie, Ragnhild B.; hide

    2012-01-01

    Emissions of air pollutants and their precursors determine regional air quality and can alter climate. Climate change can perturb the long-range transport, chemical processing, and local meteorology that influence air pollution. We review the implications of projected changes in methane (CH4), ozone precursors (O3), and aerosols for climate (expressed in terms of the radiative forcing metric or changes in global surface temperature) and hemispheric-to-continental scale air quality. Reducing the O3 precursor CH4 would slow near-term warming by decreasing both CH4 and tropospheric O3. Uncertainty remains as to the net climate forcing from anthropogenic nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, which increase tropospheric O3 (warming) but also increase aerosols and decrease CH4 (both cooling). Anthropogenic emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and non-CH4 volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) warm by increasing both O3 and CH4. Radiative impacts from secondary organic aerosols (SOA) are poorly understood. Black carbon emission controls, by reducing the absorption of sunlight in the atmosphere and on snow and ice, have the potential to slow near-term warming, but uncertainties in coincident emissions of reflective (cooling) aerosols and poorly constrained cloud indirect effects confound robust estimates of net climate impacts. Reducing sulfate and nitrate aerosols would improve air quality and lessen interference with the hydrologic cycle, but lead to warming. A holistic and balanced view is thus needed to assess how air pollution controls influence climate; a first step towards this goal involves estimating net climate impacts from individual emission sectors. Modeling and observational analyses suggest a warming climate degrades air quality (increasing surface O3 and particulate matter) in many populated regions, including during pollution episodes. Prior Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios (SRES) allowed unconstrained growth, whereas the Representative

  3. Global air quality and climate.

    PubMed

    Fiore, Arlene M; Naik, Vaishali; Spracklen, Dominick V; Steiner, Allison; Unger, Nadine; Prather, Michael; Bergmann, Dan; Cameron-Smith, Philip J; Cionni, Irene; Collins, William J; Dalsøren, Stig; Eyring, Veronika; Folberth, Gerd A; Ginoux, Paul; Horowitz, Larry W; Josse, Béatrice; Lamarque, Jean-François; MacKenzie, Ian A; Nagashima, Tatsuya; O'Connor, Fiona M; Righi, Mattia; Rumbold, Steven T; Shindell, Drew T; Skeie, Ragnhild B; Sudo, Kengo; Szopa, Sophie; Takemura, Toshihiko; Zeng, Guang

    2012-10-07

    Emissions of air pollutants and their precursors determine regional air quality and can alter climate. Climate change can perturb the long-range transport, chemical processing, and local meteorology that influence air pollution. We review the implications of projected changes in methane (CH(4)), ozone precursors (O(3)), and aerosols for climate (expressed in terms of the radiative forcing metric or changes in global surface temperature) and hemispheric-to-continental scale air quality. Reducing the O(3) precursor CH(4) would slow near-term warming by decreasing both CH(4) and tropospheric O(3). Uncertainty remains as to the net climate forcing from anthropogenic nitrogen oxide (NO(x)) emissions, which increase tropospheric O(3) (warming) but also increase aerosols and decrease CH(4) (both cooling). Anthropogenic emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and non-CH(4) volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) warm by increasing both O(3) and CH(4). Radiative impacts from secondary organic aerosols (SOA) are poorly understood. Black carbon emission controls, by reducing the absorption of sunlight in the atmosphere and on snow and ice, have the potential to slow near-term warming, but uncertainties in coincident emissions of reflective (cooling) aerosols and poorly constrained cloud indirect effects confound robust estimates of net climate impacts. Reducing sulfate and nitrate aerosols would improve air quality and lessen interference with the hydrologic cycle, but lead to warming. A holistic and balanced view is thus needed to assess how air pollution controls influence climate; a first step towards this goal involves estimating net climate impacts from individual emission sectors. Modeling and observational analyses suggest a warming climate degrades air quality (increasing surface O(3) and particulate matter) in many populated regions, including during pollution episodes. Prior Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios (SRES) allowed unconstrained growth, whereas

  4. 30 CFR 75.321 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Air quality. 75.321 Section 75.321 Mineral... SAFETY STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Ventilation § 75.321 Air quality. (a)(1) The air in areas where... air current in these areas shall be sufficient to dilute, render harmless, and carry away flammable...

  5. 30 CFR 75.321 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Air quality. 75.321 Section 75.321 Mineral... SAFETY STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Ventilation § 75.321 Air quality. (a)(1) The air in areas where... air current in these areas shall be sufficient to dilute, render harmless, and carry away flammable...

  6. 30 CFR 75.321 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Air quality. 75.321 Section 75.321 Mineral... SAFETY STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Ventilation § 75.321 Air quality. (a)(1) The air in areas where... air current in these areas shall be sufficient to dilute, render harmless, and carry away flammable...

  7. 30 CFR 75.321 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Air quality. 75.321 Section 75.321 Mineral... SAFETY STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Ventilation § 75.321 Air quality. (a)(1) The air in areas where... air current in these areas shall be sufficient to dilute, render harmless, and carry away flammable...

  8. 30 CFR 75.321 - Air quality.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Air quality. 75.321 Section 75.321 Mineral... SAFETY STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Ventilation § 75.321 Air quality. (a)(1) The air in areas where... air current in these areas shall be sufficient to dilute, render harmless, and carry away flammable...

  9. Differences Between Magnitudes and Health Impacts of BC Emissions Across the United States Using 12 km Scale Seasonal Source Apportionment

    EPA Science Inventory

    Recent assessments have analyzed the health impacts of PM2.5 from emissions from different locations and sectors using simplified or reduced-form air quality models. Here we present an alternative approach using the adjoint of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, wh...

  10. MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING FOR SEMI-VOLATILES (ATRAZINE)

    EPA Science Inventory

    The Community Multi-Scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, air quality model within EPA's Models-3 system, can be adapted to simulate the fate of semi-volatile compounds that are emitted into the atmosphere. "Semi-volatile" refers to compounds that partition their mass between two ph...

  11. Linking Global to Regional Models to Assess Future Climate Impacts on Surface Ozone Concentrations in the United States

    EPA Science Inventory

    The UCD sectional aerosol model has been coupled to the CMAQ air quality model and used to simulate air quality in Tampa, Florida. Sea salt emissions are parameterized as a function of modeled wind speed and relative humidity. Modeled aerosol sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, sodium,...

  12. Modelling the urban air quality in Hamburg with the new city-scale chemistry transport model CityChem

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karl, Matthias; Ramacher, Martin; Aulinger, Armin; Matthias, Volker; Quante, Markus

    2017-04-01

    Air quality modelling plays an important role by providing guidelines for efficient air pollution abatement measures. Currently, most urban dispersion models treat air pollutants as passive tracer substances or use highly simplified chemistry when simulating air pollutant concentrations on the city-scale. The newly developed urban chemistry-transport model CityChem has the capability of modelling the photochemical transformation of multiple pollutants along with atmospheric diffusion to produce pollutant concentration fields for the entire city on a horizontal resolution of 100 m or even finer and a vertical resolution of 24 layers up to 4000 m height. CityChem is based on the Eulerian urban dispersion model EPISODE of the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU). CityChem treats the complex photochemistry in cities using detailed EMEP chemistry on an Eulerian 3-D grid, while using simple photo-stationary equilibrium on a much higher resolution grid (receptor grid), i.e. close to industrial point sources and traffic sources. The CityChem model takes into account that long-range transport contributes to urban pollutant concentrations. This is done by using 3-D boundary concentrations for the city domain derived from chemistry-transport simulations with the regional air quality model CMAQ. For the study of the air quality in Hamburg, CityChem was set-up with a main grid of 30×30 grid cells of 1×1 km2 each and a receptor grid of 300×300 grid cells of 100×100 m2. The CityChem model was driven with meteorological data generated by the prognostic meteorology component of the Australian chemistry-transport model TAPM. Bottom-up inventories of emissions from traffic, industry, households were based on data of the municipality of Hamburg. Shipping emissions for the port of Hamburg were taken from the Clean North Sea Shipping project. Episodes with elevated ozone (O3) were of specific interest for this study, as these are associated with exceedances of the World

  13. Predicted impact of thermal power generation emission control measures in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region on air pollution over Beijing, China.

    PubMed

    Wang, Liqiang; Li, Pengfei; Yu, Shaocai; Mehmood, Khalid; Li, Zhen; Chang, Shucheng; Liu, Weiping; Rosenfeld, Daniel; Flagan, Richard C; Seinfeld, John H

    2018-01-17

    Widespread economic growth in China has led to increasing episodes of severe air pollution, especially in major urban areas. Thermal power plants represent a particularly important class of emissions. Here we present an evaluation of the predicted effectiveness of a series of recently proposed thermal power plant emission controls in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region on air quality over Beijing using the Community Multiscale Air Quality(CMAQ) atmospheric chemical transport model to predict CO, SO 2 , NO 2 , PM 2.5 , and PM 10 levels. A baseline simulation of the hypothetical removal of all thermal power plants in the BTH region is predicted to lead to 38%, 23%, 23%, 24%, and 24% reductions in current annual mean levels of CO, SO 2 , NO 2 , PM 2.5 , and PM 10 in Beijing, respectively. Similar percentage reductions are predicted in the major cities in the BTH region. Simulations of the air quality impact of six proposed thermal power plant emission reduction strategies over the BTH region provide an estimate of the potential improvement in air quality in the Beijing metropolitan area, as a function of the time of year.

  14. “Modeling Trends in Air Pollutant Concentrations over the ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Regional model calculations over annual cycles have pointed to the need for accurately representing impacts of long-range transport. Linking regional and global scale models have met with mixed success as biases in the global model can propagate and influence regional calculations and often confound interpretation of model results. Since transport is efficient in the free-troposphere and since simulations over Continental scales and annual cycles provide sufficient opportunity for “atmospheric turn-over”, i.e., exchange between the free-troposphere and the boundary-layer, a conceptual framework is needed wherein interactions between processes occurring at various spatial and temporal scales can be consistently examined. The coupled WRF-CMAQ model is expanded to hemispheric scales and model simulations over period spanning 1990-current are analyzed to examine changes in hemispheric air pollution resulting from changes in emissions over this period. The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) Atmospheric Modeling and Analysis Division (AMAD) conducts research in support of EPA mission to protect human health and the environment. AMAD research program is engaged in developing and evaluating predictive atmospheric models on all spatial and temporal scales for forecasting the air quality and for assessing changes in air quality and air pollutant exposures, as affected by changes in ecosystem management and regulatory decisions. AMAD is responsible for pr

  15. CityAir app: Mapping air-quality perception using people as sensors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Castell, Nuria; Fredriksen, Mirjam; Cole-Hunter, Thomas; Robinson, Johanna; Keune, Hans; Nieuwenhuijsen, Mark; Bartonova, Alena

    2016-04-01

    Outdoor air pollution is a major environmental health problem affecting all people in developed and developing countries alike. Ambient (outdoor) air pollution in both cities and rural areas was estimated to cause 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide in 2012. In modern society, people are expending an increasing amount of time in polluted urban environments, thus increasing their exposure and associated health responses. Some cities provide information about air pollution levels to their citizens using air quality monitoring networks. However, due to their high cost and maintenance, the density of the monitoring networks is very low and not capable to capture the high temporal and spatial variability of air pollution. Thus, the citizen lacks a specific answer to the question of "how the air quality is in our surroundings". In the framework of the EU-funded CITI-SENSE project the innovative concept of People as Sensors is being applied to the field of outdoor air pollution. This is being done in eight European cities, including Barcelona, Belgrade, Edinburgh, Haifa, Ljubljana, Oslo, Ostrava and Vienna. People as Sensors defines a measurement model, in which measurements are not only taken by hardware sensors, but in which also humans can contribute with their individual "measurements" such as their subjective perception of air quality and other personal observations. In order to collect the personal observations a mobile app, CityAir, has been developed. CityAir allows citizens to rate the air quality in their surroundings with colour at their current location: green if air quality is very good, yellow if air quality is good, orange if air quality is poor and red if air quality is very poor. The users have also the possibility of indicating the source of pollution (i.e. traffic, industry, wood burning) and writing a comment. The information is on-line and accessible for other app users, thus contributing to create an air-quality map based on citizens' perception

  16. A PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF THE 2004 RELEASE OF MODELS-3 CMAQ

    EPA Science Inventory

    This performance evaluation compares a full annual simulation (2001) of CMAQ (Version4.4) covering the contiguous United States against monitoring data from four nationwide networks. This effort, which represents one of the most spatially and temporally comprehensive performance...

  17. The AirQuality SenseBox

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Demuth, Dustin; Nuest, Daniel; Bröring, Arne; Pebesma, Edzer

    2013-04-01

    In the past year, a group of open hardware enthusiasts and citizen scientists had large success in the crowd-funding of an open hardware-based sensor platform for air quality monitoring, called the Air Quality Egg. Via the kickstarter platform, the group was able to collect triple the amount of money than needed to fulfill their goals. Data generated by the Air Quality Egg is pushed to the data logging platform cosm.com, which makes the devices a part of the Internet of Things. The project aims at increasing the participation of citizens in the collection of data, the development of sensors, the operation of sensor stations, and, as data on cosm is publicly available, the sharing, visualization and analysis of data. Air Quality Eggs can measure NO2 and CO concentrations, as well as relative humidity and temperature. The chosen sensors are low-cost and have limited precision and accurracy. The Air Quality Egg consists of a stationary outdoor and a stationary indoor unit. Each outdoor unit will wirelessly transmit air quality measurements to the indoor unit, which forwards the data to cosm. Most recent versions of the Air Quality Egg allow a rough calibration of the gas sensors and on-the-fly conversion from raw sensor readings (impedance) to meaningful air quality data expressed in units of parts per billion. Data generated by these low-cost platforms are not intended to replace well-calibrated official monitoring stations, but rather augment the density of the total monitoring network with citizen sensors. To improve the usability of the Air Quality Egg, we present a new and more advanced concept, called the AirQuality SenseBox. We made the outdoor platform more autonomous and location-aware by adding solarpanels and rechargeable batteries as a power source. The AirQuality SenseBox knows its own position from a GPS device attached to the platform. As a mobile sensor platform, it can for instance be attached to vehicles. A low-cost and low-power wireless chipset

  18. BaP (PAH) air quality modelling exercise over Zaragoza (Spain) using an adapted version of WRF-CMAQ model.

    PubMed

    San José, Roberto; Pérez, Juan Luis; Callén, María Soledad; López, José Manuel; Mastral, Ana

    2013-12-01

    Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) is one of the most dangerous PAH due to its high carcinogenic and mutagenic character. Because of this reason, the Directive 2004/107/CE of the European Union establishes a target value of 1 ng/m(3) of BaP in the atmosphere. In this paper, the main aim is to estimate the BaP concentrations in the atmosphere by using last generation of air quality dispersion models with the inclusion of the transport, scavenging and deposition processes for the BaP. The degradation of the particulated BaP by the ozone has been considered. The aerosol-gas partitioning phenomenon in the atmosphere is modelled taking into a count that the concentrations in the gas and the aerosol phases. If the pre-existing organic aerosol concentrations are zero gas/particle equilibrium is established. The model has been validated at local scale with data from a sampling campaign carried out in the area of Zaragoza (Spain) during 12 weeks. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Deep learning architecture for air quality predictions.

    PubMed

    Li, Xiang; Peng, Ling; Hu, Yuan; Shao, Jing; Chi, Tianhe

    2016-11-01

    With the rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, many developing countries are suffering from heavy air pollution. Governments and citizens have expressed increasing concern regarding air pollution because it affects human health and sustainable development worldwide. Current air quality prediction methods mainly use shallow models; however, these methods produce unsatisfactory results, which inspired us to investigate methods of predicting air quality based on deep architecture models. In this paper, a novel spatiotemporal deep learning (STDL)-based air quality prediction method that inherently considers spatial and temporal correlations is proposed. A stacked autoencoder (SAE) model is used to extract inherent air quality features, and it is trained in a greedy layer-wise manner. Compared with traditional time series prediction models, our model can predict the air quality of all stations simultaneously and shows the temporal stability in all seasons. Moreover, a comparison with the spatiotemporal artificial neural network (STANN), auto regression moving average (ARMA), and support vector regression (SVR) models demonstrates that the proposed method of performing air quality predictions has a superior performance.

  20. New Federal Air Quality Standards.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stopinski, O. W.

    The report discusses the current procedures for establishing air quality standards, the bases for standards, and, finally, proposed and final National Primary and Secondary Ambient Air Quality Standards for sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nonmethane hydrocarbons, photochemical oxidants, and nitrogen dioxide. (Author/RH)

  1. NEIGHBORHOOD SCALE AIR QUALITY MODELING IN HOUSTON USING URBAN CANOPY PARAMETERS IN MM5 AND CMAQ WITH IMPROVED CHARACTERIZATION OF MESOSCALE LAKE-LAND BREEZE CIRCULATION

    EPA Science Inventory

    Advanced capability of air quality simulation models towards accurate performance at finer scales will be needed for such models to serve as tools for performing exposure and risk assessments in urban areas. It is recognized that the impact of urban features such as street and t...

  2. 77 FR 30087 - Air Quality Designations for the 2008 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2012-05-21

    ...This rule establishes initial air quality designations for most areas in the United States, including areas of Indian country, for the 2008 primary and secondary national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone. The designations for several counties in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin that the EPA is considering for inclusion in the Chicago nonattainment area will be designated in a subsequent action, no later than May 31, 2012. Areas designated as nonattainment are also being classified by operation of law according to the severity of their air quality problems. The classification categories are Marginal, Moderate, Serious, Severe, and Extreme. The EPA is establishing the air quality thresholds that define the classifications in a separate rule that the EPA is signing and publishing in the Federal Register on the same schedule as these designations. In accordance with that separate rule, six nonattainment areas in California are being reclassified to a higher classification.

  3. Observations and impacts of transported Canadian wildfire smoke on ozone and aerosol air quality in the Maryland region on June 9-12, 2015.

    PubMed

    Dreessen, Joel; Sullivan, John; Delgado, Ruben

    2016-09-01

    Canadian wildfire smoke impacted air quality across the northern Mid-Atlantic (MA) of the United States during June 9-12, 2015. A multiday exceedance of the new 2015 70-ppb National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone (O3) followed, resulting in Maryland being incompliant with the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) revised 2015 O3 NAAQS. Surface in situ, balloon-borne, and remote sensing observations monitored the impact of the wildfire smoke at Maryland air quality monitoring sites. At peak smoke concentrations in Maryland, wildfire-attributable volatile organic compounds (VOCs) more than doubled, while non-NOx oxides of nitrogen (NOz) tripled, suggesting long range transport of NOx within the smoke plume. Peak daily average PM2.5 was 32.5 µg m(-3) with large fractions coming from black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC), with a synonymous increase in carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations. Measurements indicate that smoke tracers at the surface were spatially and temporally correlated with maximum 8-hr O3 concentrations in the MA, all which peaked on June 11. Despite initial smoke arrival late on June 9, 2015, O3 production was inhibited due to ultraviolet (UV) light attenuation, lower temperatures, and nonoptimal surface layer composition. Comparison of Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model surface O3 forecasts to observations suggests 14 ppb additional O3 due to smoke influences in northern Maryland. Despite polluted conditions, observations of a nocturnal low-level jet (NLLJ) and Chesapeake Bay Breeze (BB) were associated with decreases in O3 in this case. While infrequent in the MA, wildfire smoke may be an increasing fractional contribution to high-O3 days, particularly in light of increased wildfire frequency in a changing climate, lower regional emissions, and tighter air quality standards. The presented event demonstrates how a single wildfire event associated with an ozone exceedance of the NAAQS can prevent the Baltimore region

  4. Mining Environmental Data from a Coupled Modelling System to Examine the Impact of Agricultural Management Practices on Groundwater and Air Quality

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garcia, V.; Cooter, E. J.; Hayes, B.; Murphy, M. S.; Bash, J. O.

    2014-12-01

    Excess nitrogen (N) resulting from current agricultural management practices can leach into sources of drinking water as nitrate, increasing human health risks of 'blue baby syndrome', hypertension, and some cancers and birth defects. Nitrogen also enters the atmosphere from land surfaces forming air pollution increasing human health risks of pulmonary and cardio-vascular disease. Characterizing and attributing nitrogen from agricultural management practices is difficult due to the complex and inter-related chemical and biological reactions associated with the nitrogen cascade. Coupled physical process-based models, however, present new opportunities to investigate relationships among environmental variables on new scales; particularly because they link emission sources with meteorology and the pollutant concentration ultimately found in the environment. In this study, we applied a coupled meteorology (NOAA-WRF), agricultural (USDA-EPIC) and air quality modelling system (EPA-CMAQ) to examine the impact of nitrogen inputs from corn production on ecosystem and human health and wellbeing. The coupled system accounts for the nitrogen flux between the land surface and air, and the soil surface and groundwater, providing a unique opportunity to examine the effect of management practices such as type and timing of fertilization, tilling and irrigation on both groundwater and air quality across the conterminous US. In conducting the study, we first determined expected relationships based on literature searches and then identified model variables as direct or surrogate variables. We performed extensive and methodical multi-variate regression modelling and variable selection to examine associations between agricultural management practices and environmental condition. We then applied the regression model to predict and contrast pollution levels between two corn production scenarios (Figure 1). Finally, we applied published health functions (e.g., spina bifida and cardio

  5. NCEP Air Quality Forecast(AQF) Graphics

    Science.gov Websites

    Forecasts CMAQ PM Bias Corr. Forecasts Change Plot Type: Comparison plots Difference plots Year: 2018 2017 2016 2015 Month: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Day: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Select Cycle: 06Z 12Z Select Region

  6. Agriculture: Agriculture and Air Quality

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    Information on air emissions from agricultural practices, types of agricultural burning, air programs that may apply to agriculture, reporting requirements, and links to state and other federal air-quality information.

  7. Innovations in projecting emissions for air quality modeling

    EPA Science Inventory

    Air quality modeling is used in setting air quality standards and in evaluating their costs and benefits. Historically, modeling applications have projected emissions and the resulting air quality only 5 to 10 years into the future. Recognition that the choice of air quality mana...

  8. Indoor air quality: A psychosocial perspective

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Boxer, P.A.

    1990-05-01

    The incidence of indoor air quality problems has increased dramatically over the past decade. Investigation of these problems has yielded a definitive cause in only one third of the cases. Psychosocial factors may play a key role in the development and propagation of symptoms attributed to poor indoor air quality. Guidelines for managing indoor air quality problems from the organizational perspective are based upon psychosocial principles and elements of risk perception.

  9. Clean air through transportation : challenges in meeting national air quality standards

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    1993-08-01

    This report, required by Section 108(f)(3) of the Clean Air Act, as amended in 1990, addresses the issues of motor vehicles and air quality. The report discusses the challenges faced in attempting to improve air quality through transportation program...

  10. 78 FR 47191 - Air Quality Designations for the 2010 Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Primary National Ambient Air Quality...

    Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

    2013-08-05

    ... Air Quality Designations for the 2010 Sulfur Dioxide (SO[bdi2]) Primary National Ambient Air Quality... air quality designations for certain areas in the United States for the 2010 primary Sulfur Dioxide... of this document? III. What is sulfur dioxide? IV. What is the 2010 SO 2 NAAQS and what are the...

  11. Evaluation of model-predicted hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) near a mid-sized U.S. airport

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vennam, Lakshmi Pradeepa; Vizuete, William; Arunachalam, Saravanan

    2015-10-01

    Accurate modeling of aircraft-emitted pollutants in the vicinity of airports is essential to study the impact on local air quality and to answer policy and health-impact related issues. To quantify air quality impacts of airport-related hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), we carried out a fine-scale (4 × 4 km horizontal resolution) Community Multiscale Air Quality model (CMAQ) model simulation at the T.F. Green airport in Providence (PVD), Rhode Island. We considered temporally and spatially resolved aircraft emissions from the new Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT). These model predictions were then evaluated with observations from a field campaign focused on assessing HAPs near the PVD airport. The annual normalized mean error (NME) was in the range of 36-70% normalized mean error for all HAPs except for acrolein (>70%). The addition of highly resolved aircraft emissions showed only marginally incremental improvements in performance (1-2% decrease in NME) of some HAPs (formaldehyde, xylene). When compared to a coarser 36 × 36 km grid resolution, the 4 × 4 km grid resolution did improve performance by up to 5-20% NME for formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. The change in power setting (from traditional International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) 7% to observation studies based 4%) doubled the aircraft idling emissions of HAPs, but led to only a 2% decrease in NME. Overall modeled aircraft-attributable contributions are in the range of 0.5-28% near a mid-sized airport grid-cell with maximum impacts seen only within 4-16 km from the airport grid-cell. Comparison of CMAQ predictions with HAP estimates from EPA's National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) did show similar annual mean concentrations and equally poor performance. Current estimates of HAPs for PVD are a challenge for modeling systems and refinements in our ability to simulate aircraft emissions have made only incremental improvements. Even with unrealistic increases in HAPs aviation emissions the model

  12. Time to harmonize national ambient air quality standards.

    PubMed

    Kutlar Joss, Meltem; Eeftens, Marloes; Gintowt, Emily; Kappeler, Ron; Künzli, Nino

    2017-05-01

    The World Health Organization has developed ambient air quality guidelines at levels considered to be safe or of acceptable risk for human health. These guidelines are meant to support governments in defining national standards. It is unclear how they are followed. We compiled an inventory of ambient air quality standards for 194 countries worldwide for six air pollutants: PM 2.5 , PM 10 , ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide. We conducted literature and internet searches and asked country representatives about national ambient air quality standards. We found information on 170 countries including 57 countries that did not set any air quality standards. Levels varied greatly by country and by pollutant. Ambient air quality standards for PM 2.5 , PM 10 and SO 2 poorly complied with WHO guideline values. The agreement was higher for CO, SO 2 (10-min averaging time) and NO 2 . Regulatory differences mirror the differences in air quality and the related burden of disease around the globe. Governments worldwide should adopt science based air quality standards and clean air management plans to continuously improve air quality locally, nationally, and globally.

  13. 40 CFR 52.2682 - Air quality surveillance.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Air quality surveillance. 52.2682... (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) Guam § 52.2682 Air quality... Pollution Control Standards and Regulations” (buffer zones—air quality sampling) are not in conformance with...

  14. 40 CFR 52.2682 - Air quality surveillance.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 5 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Air quality surveillance. 52.2682... (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) Guam § 52.2682 Air quality... Pollution Control Standards and Regulations” (buffer zones—air quality sampling) are not in conformance with...

  15. 40 CFR 52.2682 - Air quality surveillance.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 5 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Air quality surveillance. 52.2682... (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) Guam § 52.2682 Air quality... Pollution Control Standards and Regulations” (buffer zones—air quality sampling) are not in conformance with...

  16. 40 CFR 52.2682 - Air quality surveillance.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 5 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Air quality surveillance. 52.2682... (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) Guam § 52.2682 Air quality... Pollution Control Standards and Regulations” (buffer zones—air quality sampling) are not in conformance with...

  17. 40 CFR 52.2682 - Air quality surveillance.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 4 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Air quality surveillance. 52.2682... (CONTINUED) APPROVAL AND PROMULGATION OF IMPLEMENTATION PLANS (CONTINUED) Guam § 52.2682 Air quality... Pollution Control Standards and Regulations” (buffer zones—air quality sampling) are not in conformance with...

  18. Alternative Fuels Data Center: City of Hoover Fleet Boasts 200-Plus Flex

    Science.gov Websites

    Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program. In response, the City of Hoover submitted a proposal to install a flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) in hopes of reducing emissions and improving the region's air quality. At the : Municipal Fuel: E85 Flex Fuel Vehicles: 212 Infrastructure: Municipal E85 station Motivations: Air quality

  19. Air Quality Criteria for Ozone and Related Photochemical ...

    EPA Pesticide Factsheets

    In February 2006, EPA released the final document, Air Quality Criteria for Ozone and Other Photochemical Oxidants. Tropospheric or surface-level ozone (O3) is one of six major air pollutants regulated by National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) under the U.S. Clean Air Act. As mandated by the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must periodically review the scientific bases (or criteria) for the various NAAQS by assessing newly available scientific information on a given criteria air pollutant. This document, Air Quality Criteria for Ozone and Other Photochemical Oxidants, is an updated revision of the 1996 Ozone Air Quality Criteria Document (O3 AQCD) that provided scientific bases for the current O3 NAAQS set in 1997. The Clean Air Act mandates periodic review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six common air pollutants, also referred to as criteria pollutants, including ozone.

  20. SIMULATING URBAN AIR TOXICS OVER CONTINENTAL AND URBAN SCALES

    EPA Science Inventory

    The US EPA is evaluating a version of the CMAQ model to support risk assessment for the exposure to Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs). The model uses a variant of the CB4 chemical mechanism to simulate ambient concentrations of twenty HAPs that exist primarily as gaseous compounds...