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NEAR ROADWAY RESEARCH IN THE ATMOSPHERIC MODELING DIVISION
Citation:
PIERCE, T. E. AND V. ISAKOV. NEAR ROADWAY RESEARCH IN THE ATMOSPHERIC MODELING DIVISION. Presented at CRC Mobile Source Air Toxics Workshop, Phoenix, AZ, October 23 - 25, 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:
This is a presentation to the CRC Mobile Source Air Toxics Workshop in Phoenix, AZ, on 23 October 2006. The presentation provides an overview of air quality modeling research in the USEPA/ORD/NERL's Atmospheric Modeling Division, with an emphasis on near-road pollutant characterization. This near-road modeling project is a part of the ORD multi-laboratory effort to assess impacts of traffic emissions on near road air quality, population exposures, and adverse health effects. The presentation discusses a modeling methodology to include near-road impacts, shows examples of applications, discusses configurations for the planned wind tunnel modeling, and also shows first modeling results and data analyses to evaluate and improve existing assessment methods for near-road applications (sound barriers, road configuration, etc.)