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SOURCE APPORTIONMENT OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CARBONACEOUS AEROSOL IN THE UNITED STATES USING MODELS AND MEASUREMENTS
Citation:
BHAVE, P. SOURCE APPORTIONMENT OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CARBONACEOUS AEROSOL IN THE UNITED STATES USING MODELS AND MEASUREMENTS. Presented at Asian Aerosol Conference, Mumbai, INDIA, December 13 - 16, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
The objectives of this task are to continue development and improvement of EPA's mesoscale (regional through urban scale) air quality modeling systems, such as the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, as air quality management and NAAQS implementation tools. This task focuses on needed research and development of air quality models targeted for a major CMAQ model release in FY08. Model development for a broad scope of application is envisioned. For example, CMAQ will need to be able to simulate air quality feedbacks to meteorology and climate as well as intercontinental transport. The 2008 release of CMAQ is timed to coincide with EPA/OAR's and the states' needs for an improved model for assessments of progress (mid-course corrections) in the post-SIP submittal timeframe.
Description:
In this presentation, three diagnostic evaluation methods of model performance for carbonaceous aerosol are reviewed. The EC-tracer method is used to distinguish primary and secondary carbon, radiocarbon data are used to distinguish fossil-fuel and contemporary carbon, and organic tracer data are used to quantify the primary carbon contributions from specific source categories. All three data sources are used to evaluate the CMAQ model results. The results indicate that current air quality models underestimate carbonaceous aerosol in the Southeast, primarily due to an underestimation of secondary organic aerosol from biogenic sources.