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Scale Issues in Air Quality Modeling
Citation:
Hogrefe, C., R. Mathur, AND S. Rao. Scale Issues in Air Quality Modeling. MAC-MAQ Conference, Sacramento, CA, September 16 - 18, 2015.
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:
This presentation reviews past model evaluation studies investigating the impact of horizontal grid spacing on model performance. It also presents several examples of using a spectral decomposition technique to separate the forcings from processes operating on different time scales that are embedded in time series of atmospheric variables. Finally, it illustrates how this technique can be used to identify relevant processes during ozone episodes and to evaluate whether atmospheric models adequately capture these processes.
