Estimating the impact of the 2004 Alaskan forest fires on episodic particulate matter pollution over the eastern United States through assimilation of satellite-derived aerosol optical depths in a regional air quality model

Abstract. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transformation, transport, and fate of the many different air pollutant species that comprise particulate matter (PM), including dust (or soil). The CMAQ model version 5.0 (CMAQv5.0) has several enhancements over the previous version of the model for estimating the emission and transport of dust, including the ability to track the specific elemental constituents of dust and have the model-derived concentrations of those elements participate in chemistry. The latest version of the model also includes a parameterization to estimate emissions of dust due to wind action. The CMAQv5.0 modeling system was used to simulate the entire year 2006 for the continental United States, and the model estimates were evaluated against daily surface-based measurements from several air quality networks. The CMAQ modeling system overall did well replicating the observed soil concentrations in the western United States (mean bias generally around ±0.5 μg m−3); however, the model consistently overestimated the observed soil concentrations in the eastern United States (mean bias generally between 0.5–1.5 μg m−3), regardless of season. The performance of the individual trace metals was highly dependent on the network, species, and season, with relatively small biases for Fe, Al, Si, and Ti throughout the year at the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) sites, while Ca, K, and Mn were overestimated and Mg underestimated. For the urban Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) sites, Fe, Mg, and Mn, while overestimated, had comparatively better performance throughout the year than the other trace metals, which were consistently overestimated, including very large overestimations of Al (380%), Ti (370%) and Si (470%) in the fall. An underestimation of nighttime mixing in the urban areas appears to contribute to the overestimation of trace metals. Removing the anthropogenic fugitive dust (AFD) emissions and the effects of wind-blown dust (WBD) lowered the model soil concentrations. However, even with both AFD emissions and WBD effects removed, soil concentrations were still often overestimated, suggesting that there are other sources of errors in the modeling system that contribute to the overestimation of soil components. Efforts are underway to improve both the nighttime mixing in urban areas and the spatial and temporal distribution of dust-related emission sources in the emissions inventory.

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Effect of the uncertainty in meteorology on air quality model predictions

Időjárás ◽

10.28974/idojaras.2021.4.5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 125 (4) ◽

pp. 625-646

Author(s):

Zita Ferenczi ◽

Emese Homolya ◽

Krisztina Lázár ◽

Anita Tóth

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Particulate Matter ◽

Air Quality ◽

Weather Prediction ◽

Horizontal Resolution ◽

Model System ◽

Air Quality Model ◽

Quality Model ◽

Near Surface ◽

The Impact

An operational air quality forecasting model system has been developed and provides daily forecasts of ozone, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter for the area of Hungary and three big cites of the country (Budapest, Miskolc, and Pécs). The core of the model system is the CHIMERE off-line chemical transport model. The AROME numerical weather prediction model provides the gridded meteorological inputs for the chemical model calculations. The horizontal resolution of the AROME meteorological fields is consistent with the CHIMERE horizontal resolution. The individual forecasted concentrations for the following 2 days are displayed on a public website of the Hungarian Meteorological Service. It is essential to have a quantitative understanding of the uncertainty in model output arising from uncertainties in the input meteorological fields. The main aim of this research is to probe the response of an air quality model to its uncertain meteorological inputs. Ensembles are one method to explore how uncertainty in meteorology affects air pollution concentrations. During the past decades, meteorological ensemble modeling has received extensive research and operational interest because of its ability to better characterize forecast uncertainty. One such ensemble forecast system is the one of the AROME model, which has an 11-member ensemble where each member is perturbed by initial and lateral boundary conditions. In this work we focus on wintertime particulate matter concentrations, since this pollutant is extremely sensitive to near-surface mixing processes. Selecting a number of extreme air pollution situations we will show what the impact of the meteorological uncertainty is on the simulated concentration fields using AROME ensemble members.

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Regional Air Quality: Local and Interstate Impacts of NOxand SO2Emissions on Ozone and Fine Particulate Matter in the Eastern United States

Environmental Science & Technology ◽

10.1021/es062302s ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 41 (13) ◽

pp. 4677-4689 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Michelle S. Bergin ◽

Jhih-Shyang Shih ◽

Alan J. Krupnick ◽

James W. Boylan ◽

James G. Wilkinson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Particulate Matter ◽

Air Quality ◽

Fine Particulate Matter ◽

Eastern United States ◽

Fine Particulate ◽

Regional Air Quality

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Evaluation of dust and trace metal estimates from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model version 5.0

Geoscientific Model Development Discussions ◽

10.5194/gmdd-6-1859-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 1859-1899 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

K. W. Appel ◽

G. A. Pouliot ◽

H. Simon ◽

G. Sarwar ◽

H. O. T. Pye ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Air Quality ◽

Trace Metals ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Temporal Distribution ◽

Air Pollutant ◽

Eastern United States ◽

Air Quality Model ◽

Quality Model ◽

Model Version

Abstract. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a state-of-the-science air quality model that simulates the emission, transformation, transport and fate of the many different air pollutant species that comprise particulate matter (PM), including dust (or soil). The CMAQ model version 5.0 (CMAQv5.0) has several enhancements over the previous version of the model for estimating the emission and transport of dust, including the ability to track the specific elemental constituents of dust and have the model-derived concentrations of those elements participate in chemistry. The latest version of the model also includes a parameterization to estimate emissions of dust due to wind action. The CMAQv5.0 modeling system was used to simulate the entire year 2006 for the continental United States, and the model estimates were evaluated against daily surface based measurements from several air quality networks. The CMAQ modeling system generally did well replicating the observed soil concentrations in the western United States; however the model consistently overestimated the observed soil concentrations in the eastern United States, regardless of season. The performance of the individual trace metals was generally good at the rural network sites, with relatively small biases for Fe, Al, Si and Ti throughout the year, while Ca, K and Mn were overestimated and Mg underestimated. For the urban sites, Fe, Mg and Mn, while overestimated, had comparatively better performance throughout the year than the other trace metals, which were consistently overestimated, including very large overestimations of Al, Ti and Si in the fall. An underestimation of nighttime mixing in the urban areas appears to contribute to the overestimation of trace metals. Removing the anthropogenic fugitive dust (AFD) emissions and the effects of wind-blown dust (WBD) lowered the model soil concentrations. However, even with both AFD emissions and WBD effects removed, soil concentrations were still often overestimated, suggesting that there are other sources of errors in the modeling system that contribute to the overestimation of soil components. Efforts are underway to improve both the nighttime mixing in urban areas and the spatial and temporal distribution of dust related emissions sources in the emissions inventory.

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Evaluating a Canadian regional air quality model using ground-based observations in north-eastern Canada and United States

Journal of Environmental Monitoring ◽

10.1039/b204784p ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 40-46 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ray J. Yang ◽

Adam G. Xia ◽

Diane V. Michelangeli ◽

David A. Plummer ◽

Lori Neary ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Air Quality ◽

Air Quality Model ◽

Quality Model ◽

Eastern Canada ◽

North Eastern ◽

Regional Air Quality

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Assessing the Impact of Advected African Dust on Air Quality and Health in the Eastern United States

Human and Ecological Risk Assessment An International Journal ◽

10.1080/10807039.1999.10518872 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 471-479 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Joseph M. Prospero

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Air Quality ◽

Eastern United States ◽

African Dust ◽

The Impact

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Seasonal ozone vertical profiles over North America using the AQMEII group of air quality models: model inter-comparison and stratospheric intrusions

10.5194/acp-2018-98 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Marina Astitha ◽

Ioannis Kioutsoukis ◽

Ghezae Araya Fisseha ◽

Roberto Bianconi ◽

Johannes Bieser ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Air Quality ◽

North America ◽

Vertical Profiles ◽

Lateral Boundary ◽

Air Quality Model ◽

Quality Model ◽

Mixing Ratios ◽

Lateral Boundary Conditions ◽

Stratospheric Intrusions

Abstract. This study evaluates simulated vertical ozone profiles produced in the framework of the third phase of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII3) against ozonesonde observations in North America for the year 2010. Four research groups from the United States (U.S.) and Europe have provided ozone vertical profiles to conduct this analysis. Because some of the modeling systems differ in their meteorological drivers, wind speed and temperature are also included in the analysis. In addition to the seasonal ozone profile evaluation for 2010, we also analyze chemically inert tracers designed to track the influence of lateral boundary conditions on simulated ozone profiles within the modeling domain. Finally, cases of stratospheric ozone intrusions during May–June 2010 are investigated by analyzing ozonesonde measurements and the corresponding model simulations at Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment Ozonesonde Network Study (IONS) experiment sites in the western United States. The evaluation of the seasonal ozone profiles reveals that at a majority of the stations, ozone mixing ratios are under-estimated in the 1–6 km range. The seasonal change noted in the errors follows the one seen in the variance of ozone mixing ratios, with the majority of the models exhibiting less variability than the observations. The analysis of chemically inert tracers highlights the importance of lateral boundary conditions up to 250 hPa for the lower tropospheric ozone mixing ratios (0–2 km). Finally, for the stratospheric intrusions, the models are generally able to reproduce the location and timing of most intrusions but underestimate the magnitude of the maximum mixing ratios in the 2–6 km range and overestimate ozone up to the first km possibly due to marine air influences that are not accurately described by the models. The choice of meteorological driver appears to be a greater predictor of model skill in this altitude range than the choice of air quality model.

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