Citation:

Wong, David-C, C. Cai, Jon Pleim, R. Mathur, AND M. Murphy. Validation of the WRF-CMAQ Two-Way Model with Aircraft Data and High Resolution MODIS Data in the CA 2008 Wildfire Case. Chapter 85, Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXIV. Springer International Publishing AG, Cham (ZG), Switzerland, , 531-535, (2016).

Impact/Purpose:

The National Exposure Research Laboratory’s Atmospheric Modeling Division (AMAD) conducts research in support of EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment. AMAD’s research program is engaged in developing and evaluating predictive atmospheric models on all spatial and temporal scales for forecasting the Nation’s air quality and for assessing changes in air quality and air pollutant exposures, as affected by changes in ecosystem management and regulatory decisions. AMAD is responsible for providing a sound scientific and technical basis for regulatory policies based on air quality models to improve ambient air quality. The models developed by AMAD are being used by EPA, NOAA, and the air pollution community in understanding and forecasting not only the magnitude of the air pollution problem, but also in developing emission control policies and regulations for air quality improvements.

Description:

A new WRF-CMAQ two-way coupled model was developed to provide a pathway for chemical feedbacks from the air quality model to the meteorological model. The essence of this interaction is focused on the direct radiative effects of scattering and absorbing aerosols in the troposphere that in turn affect radiation calculations in the meteorological model, WRF. We tested this two-way coupled model with a high aerosol loading episode resulting from a wildfire outbreak in California in June 2008. We evaluate various aspects of the model with traditional statistical approaches, a comparison with radiation measurements, and AOD measurements from high resolution (500 m) MODIS data.

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