Citation:

FRUIN, S. A. AND V. ISAKOV. ULTRAFINE PARTICLE CONCENTRATIONS NEAR FREEWAYS AT NIGHT OR EARLY MORNING UNDER CALM WEATHER CONDITIONS. Presented at Internatrional Aerosol Conference (AAAR), St. Paul, MN, September 10 - 15, 2006.

Impact/Purpose:

The objective of this task is to improve EPA's ability to accurately predict the concentrations and deposition of air pollutants in the atmosphere that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects to humans, or adverse environmental effects. It is an essential component of EPA's National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA), which seeks to identify and quantify the concentrations and sources of those hazardous air pollutants which are of greatest potential concern, in terms of contribution to population risk. It is a major contributor to NERL's Air Toxics Research Program.

"Air toxics" or "hazardous air pollutants" (HAPs) is a category that covers a large variety of chemicals, which range from relatively non reactive to extremely reactive; can exist in the gas, aqueous, and/or particle phases; display a large range of volatilities; experience varying deposition velocities, including in some cases revolatilization; and are emitted from a wide variety of sources at a large variety of different scales. In addition, concentrations of air toxics are needed by regulators for both short (days) as well as long (up to a year) time scales. These requirements challenge our current capabilities in air quality models far beyond the needs for other pollutants, such as ozone. The specific work being done under this task involves 1.) developing and testing chemical mechanisms which are appropriate for describing the chemistry of air toxics; 2.) incorporating these chemical and physical mechanisms into EPA's CMAQ modeling system and applying the model at a variety of scales; and 3.) developing the methods for using models to predict HAPs concentrations at subgrid or neighborhood scales; and 4.) using these tools to assess the magnitude and variability of concentrations to which urban populations are exposed.

Description:

There is evidence that ultrafine (UF) particles dominate the number concentrations in close proximity to the roadway. The UF particles are also known to be more toxic than larger sizes of PM on an equal mass basis. In this work, UF particle number concentrations were measured under calm, nighttime conditions near highway 50 in Sacramento, CA. The results indicate that the influence of freeway traffic late at night, under cool and calm conditions, may influence an order of magnitude larger area than has been predicted by previous daytime measurements.

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