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WILDLAND FIRE EMISSION MODELING: INTEGRATING BLUESKY AND SMOKE
Citation:
POULIOT, G., T. E. PIERCE, W. G. BENJEY, S. M. ONEILL, AND S. A. FERGUSON. WILDLAND FIRE EMISSION MODELING: INTEGRATING BLUESKY AND SMOKE. Presented at 14th Annual International Emission Inventory Conference, Las Vegas, NV, April 11 - 14, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
The objectives of this task are to develop, improve, and evaluate EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, as an air quality management and NAAQS implementation tool. CMAQ is a multiscale and multi-pollutant chemistry-transport model (CTM) that includes the necessary critical science process modules for atmospheric transport, deposition, cloud mixing, emissions, gas- and aqueous-phase chemical transformation processes, and aerosol dynamics and chemistry. To achieve the advances in CMAQ, research will be conducted to develop and test appropriate chemical and physical mechanisms, improve the accuracy of emissions and dry deposition algorithms, and to develop and improve state-of-the-science meteorology models and contributing process parameterizations.
The model will be tested and evaluated to thoroughly characterize the performance of the emissions, meteorological and chemical/transport modeling components of the CMAQ system, with an emphasis on the chemical/transport model, CMAQ. Emissions-based models are composed of highly complex scientific hypotheses concerning natural processes that can be evaluated through comparison with observations, but not truly validated. Both operational and diagnostic evaluations, together with sensitivity analyses are needed to both establish credibility and build confidence within the client and scientific community in the simulation results for policy and scientific applications. The characterization of the performance of Models-3/CMAQ is also a tool for the model developers to identify aspects of the modeling system that require further improvement.
Description:
This presentation is a summary of an improved method to estimate emissions from wildland fires. An interagency agreement between the US Forest Service and the US EPA has made it possible for these two agencies to collaborate in the study of wildland fires.