Air Quality Modeling - Resources: Publications and Reports

Publications and Reports

Public Audiences: A Guide to Positive Matrix Factorization

Technical Audience: Air Dispersion Modeling Conversions and Formulas
Clean Air World: Modeling Links
European Environmental Agency (EEA) Ambient Air Quality, Pollutant Dispersion and Transport Models
Fact Sheet: U.S. EPA's Air Quality Modeling and Assessment System
New Zealand Guide for Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling
Photochemical Model Comparison Study
Reports on Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) Applications
Spain Environmental Software and Modelling Group
UK Air Quality Modelling and Assessment Unit (AQMAU)
UK Atmospheric Research and Information Centre (ARIC)
Urban Air Quality Management Systems - Abstracts
U.S. EPA Air Quality Modeling Group
U.S. Air Quality Modeling Group - UC Riverside
U.S. Climate and Carbon Cycle Modeling Group
U.S. Comprehensive Atmospheric Modeling Program
U.S. EPA Emissions Modeling Clearinghouse
U.S. EPA's Modeling and Inventories
U.S. EPA's Regulatory Air Quality Modeling Systems: Development and Applications
U.S. Laboratory for Atmospheric Research
U.S. Meteorological Modeling
U.S. Modeling and Database Development
U.S. National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center
U.S. NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) Atmospheric Modeling Division (AMD)
U.S. State of Texas Air Quality Modeling and Data Analysis
World Health Organization (WHO) Air Management Information System (AMIS)

http://www.epa.gov/ttnamti1/files/ambient/pm25/workshop/laymen.pdf (PDF, 16 pp., 216KB)

This guide by Philip K. Hopke at Clarkson University describes Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF), its applications, its advantages, and provides a comparison with the Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) model.

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http://www.air-dispersion.com/formulas.html

This online technical article, part of the book, "Fundamentals Of Stack Gas Dispersion," by Milton R. Beychok, provides a number of useful unit conversions and formulas pertaining to air dispersion modeling.

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http://www.cleanairworld.org/TopicDetails.asp?parent=21

General information is provided on the Clean Air World website related to measuring air pollution, including a brief description of air quality modeling and related links.

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http://reports.eea.eu.int/92-9167-028-6/en/page001.html/index_html_RLR

The present report is an overview of air pollution models employed (but not necessarily developed) in Europe. The presentation focuses on a summarised description of the most important existing models, their use and purposes. Particular emphasis is offered to models applicable to regulatory and policy purposes. The needs of models for the air pollution control strategies and planning, links to economical aspects and integrated assessment are discussed. Additionally, the needs for new/improved models to support decision making for the most important air pollution problems foreseen in the future are also addressed. The principal objective of this document is to facilitate subsequent activities aiming to give guidance on selection of different models to be used for air pollution regulatory and policy purposes in Europe.

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Full text follows

Full Text - Under the direction of the Clean Air Act (CAA), U.S.EPA is responsible for identifying and setting national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for pollutants that cause adverse effects to public health and the environment. The CAA in 1970 required USEPA to set national air quality standards for six common air pollutants: ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), lead (Pb), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and particulate matter (PM). Air quality trends in the past thirty years have showed that the CAA has lead to significant improvement of air quality in the United States. However, there are still over 100 million people living in the NAAQS non-attainment areas in which O3 and PM exceed the new NAAQS standards proposed by U.S.EPA in 1997.

- Over the last two decades, U.S.EPA has devoted significant efforts to developing air quality models for the assessment of air pollution issues and evaluation of feasible solutions. From O3 and PM control strategies assessment to evaluation of acid deposition and air toxics, models are widely used to predict and assess the environmental and socioeconomic effects of current and proposed human activities. Significant developments in model capabilities have lead the models to an important role in various applications among the environmental regulatory and research community. For instance, the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) has required O3 non-attainment areas that are classified as serious targets subject to the possible demonstration of control strategies through photochemical grid modeling.

- Secondary pollutants, such as O3 and fine PM (PM2.5), have become major air quality concerns in the United States. In contrast to primary pollutants that are directly emitted from their sources to the atmosphere, secondary pollutants are formed through a series of complex chemical reactions among its emitted precursors, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur oxides (SOx). The lifetime of secondary pollutants usually lasts for several days, which further allows meteorological processes to complicate their formation processes. Because of the complexity of secondary pollutants formation, it is difficult and impractical to assess their environmental impacts and understand their formation processes solely by experimental studies and field observations. Instead, research scientists use air quality models to simulate the formation and transport of secondary pollutants and to provide guidance for reducing the air pollution problems.

- Air quality models have become widely recognized and routinely utilized tools for attainment demonstration and assessment of effective control strategies. As the primary federal pollution control agency, U.S.EPA has sponsored the developments of a series of air quality models for studying the formation of secondary pollutants. These models range from the first-generation Lagrangian trajectory models to the second-generation Eulerian grid models and to the latest U.S. EPA's one-atmosphere "Third-Generation Air Quality Modeling System" or "Models-3."

- Over the last decade, The U.S. EPA has devoted major resources to developing an advanced modeling system with a "one-atmosphere" perspective, i.e., the U.S. EPA's Models 3/Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling. The "one-atmosphere" Models-3/CMAQ system was designed to approach air quality as a whole by including state-of-the-science capabilities for modeling multiple air quality issues, including ozone, particulate matter, visibility degradation, acid deposition, and air toxics, at multiple scales. The Models-3/CMAQ system was first released to the public in July 1998 and had a recent update release in May 2001.

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http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/air/atmospheric-dispersion-modelling-jun04/index.html

This site provides guidance on dispersion modeling through a series of recommended protocols that aim to improve consistency and accuracy in air modeling.

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http://ams.confex.com/ams/AFAPURBBIO/techprogram/paper_80097.htm

In this study, the authors compared the predictions of two photochemical models, CAMx and CMAQ, in Central California and examined the sensitivity of both models to pollutant emissions and other inputs known to be uncertain in the models.

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http://www.nescaum.org/projects/regional-pams-assessment/nescaum-2002-pams-assessment/documents-and-resources/pmf-report.pdf (PDF, 14 pp., 508KB) and http://www.epa.gov/ttn/amtic/files/ambient/pm25/workshop/pphoenix.pdf (PDF, 27 pp., 776KB)

In these reports (by authors at Clarkson University), positive matrix factorization was (1) applied to VOC data obtained from three Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Station (PAMS) network sites in the northeastern U.S. and (2) used for the analysis of chemical composition data for fine and coarse particles collected in a site in the southwestern U.S.

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http://artico.lma.fi.upm.es/Research%20Areas/pro.html

This page describes the dispersion modeling research programs of the Environmental Software and Modelling Group in the Computer Science School at the Polytechnical University in Madrid, Spain. Of interest is the IMW program, developed by this group, which is a Visual Basic model based on the U.S. EPA's ISCT3 model. Also included are links to several other models developed and used by the Group.

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http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/regulation/31839.aspx

The Air Quality Modelling and Assessment Unit, (AQMAU) is the national focus of expertise on air qualtiy modelling and assessment within the Environment Agency providing both leadership and operational support. AQMAU deals with noise, odour, dispersion and dense gas modelling. It also offers training, and technical support. Links are provided on this page to these various activities.

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http://www.cate.mmu.ac.uk/areas.asp?chg=research

Based at the Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, ARIC is a research center for study of atmospheric pollution issues caused by industrial, power generation, and transportation sources. Activities at this research center include several types of dispersion models.

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http://aix.meng.auth.gr/eurosustain/urban_air_qm_system.pdf (PDF, 5 pp., 180 KB)

This document includes several abstracts discussing various air models used within air management systems in Europe. It is the result of a conference held called Euro Sustain concerning implementing the Integrated Product Policy.

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http://pah.cert.ucr.edu/aqm/

The mechanical engineering department of the University of California at Riverside (UCR) has an air quality modeling group performing research in the development and application of small-scale dispersion models, as well as the development of simplified and comprehensive photochemical models.

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https://eed.llnl.gov/department.php

The Climate and Carbon Cycle Modeling Group (CCCM) is part of the University of California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The principal mission of CCCM is to improve the scientific understanding of the mechanisms of global environmental and climate change through the development and diagnosis of state-of-the-art models that represent key processes affecting the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere. We pursue this mission for the purpose of improving national energy and security policies that impact climate and environmental change.

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http://camp.gmu.edu

The Comprehensive Atmospheric Modeling Program (CAMP), within the School of Computational Sciences (SCS) at George Mason University (GMU), is an atmospheric modeling group offering a competitive research environment. The focus of research at CAMP is atmospheric transport and dispersion modeling in cooperation with other related atmospheric research programs at SCS such as global climate modeling (IGES/COLA), remote sensing of the atmosphere by satellites and upper-atmosphere chemistry and dynamics (CEOSR), as well as with the Computational Fluid Dynamics group (CFD). This page has links to specific research areas, publications, and conferences held by the program.

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The Air Quality Modeling Group is responsible for providing leadership and direction on the full range of atmospheric dispersion models and other mathematical simulation techniques used in assessing source impacts and control strategies. The Group serves as the focal point on modeling techniques for other EPA headquarters staff, Regional Offices, and State and local agencies. It coordinates with ORD on the development of new models and techniques, as well as wider issues of atmospheric research. Finally, the Group conducts modeling analyses to support policy/regulatory decisions in OAQPS.

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http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/emch/index.html

The Emissions Modeling Clearinghouse (EMCH) has been designed to support and promote emission modeling activities both internal and external to EPA. Through this site the EPA intends to distribute emissions model input formatted inventories based on the latest versions of its National Emission Inventory databases. In addition to the emissions data, this site will be used to document and distribute the Agency's latest versions of the ancillary files used to support the temporal, spatial, speciation, and projection of these emissions.

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http://www.epa.gov/otaq/models.htm

This website contains information from the US EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality on modeling and inventories. Specifically, four models are included: MOBILE Model, NONROAD Model, MOVES, and Fuel Model.

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You can download the file (PDF, 29pp., 332 KB). To open the file for reading, double-click it.

This paper describes the evolution of U.S. EPA's air quality modeling systems and their regulatory applications over the last two decades. Emphasis is placed upon the latest development of the "one-atmosphere" Models-3 system that is capable of simulating multiple pollutants and air quality issues by incorporating advanced sciences and state-of-the-art computer hardware and software technologies

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http://lar.wsu.edu/research/research_regional_air.html

Located at the Washington State University (in Pullman, Washington, USA), the Laboratory for Atmospheric Research (LAR) investigates the fundamental nature of pollutant transport and dispersion through a combination of halogenated tracer field programs and advanced numerical modeling. The LAR has developed regional air quality models for windblown dust and photochemical ozone formation by incorporating existing state-of-the-art models into a comprehensive modeling system. The major components of these modeling systems include the Mesoscale Meteorological Model Version 5.0 (MM5), detailed gridded emission inventory modules, CALMET, a diagnostic wind field and boundary layer model, and CALGRID, a photochemical transport model.

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http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/nav/eq/eq_air_model.html

This Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website discusses the purpose and importance of meteorological modeling in an air quality management system.

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http://www.undeerc.org/catm/index.html

This program area of the Center for Air Toxics Metals (CATM) at the University of North Dakota Energy &Environmental Research Center (EERC) involves the development of tools to predict the fate of air toxic metals in combustion, gasification, and incineration systems. Specifically, this page includes links to detailed descriptions of two projects: modeling and database development and computer modeling and database.

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http://narac.llnl.gov/

Located at the University of California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (NARAC) is a national emergency response service for real-time assessment of incidents involving accidental releases of nuclear, chemical, biological, or natural hazardous material. NARAC is a distributed system, providing modeling and geographical information tools for deployment to an end user's computer system, as well as real-time access to global meteorological and geographical databases and advanced three-dimensional model predictions from the national center. Initial predictions using NARAC-supported tools on the end user's computer are available in less than a minute.

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http://www.arl.noaa.gov/

The Atmospheric Modeling Division (AMD) of the U.S. National Oceanic &Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) was established to collaborate with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in developing advanced air quality models that can simulate the transport and fate of pollutants in the atmosphere. The AMD's mission is to: develop and evaluate predictive models on all spatial and temporal scales for assessing changes in air quality and air pollutant exposures, as affected by changes in ecosystem management and regulatory decisions. The models developed by AMD are being used by EPA and the general air pollution community in understanding not only the magnitude of the air pollution problem, but also in developing emission control policies and regulations.

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http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/nav/main/air_main.html

This Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website includes links to information on the following topics related to modeling: Photochemical Modeling for Ozone Pollution Reproducing the Past and Predicting the Future The Urban Airshed Model Meteorological Modeling External Links Related to Air Quality Modeling and Data Analysis

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http://www.emro.who.int/ceha/cehanet1_database_topics.asp

The Air Management Information System (AMIS) is a set of user-friendly MSAccess-based databases aimed at transferring information on air quality management, including dispersion modeling tools, between countries and cities, and thus acting as a global air quality information exchange system. A core database contains summary statistics of air pollution data like annual means, 95-percentiles, and the number of days on which WHO guidelines are exceeded. AMIS 3.0, 2001 is now available on CD-ROM with data (mostly from 1986 to 1999) from about 150 cities in 45 countries. The data are made available by the WHO Department for the Protection of Environmental Health to AMIS participants and also distributed to interested non profit organizations free of charge.

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