Grantee Research Project Results

Guiding Future Air Quality Management in California: Sensitivity to Changing Climate

EPA Grant Number: R830964
Title: Guiding Future Air Quality Management in California: Sensitivity to Changing Climate
Investigators: Harley, Robert A.
Current Investigators: Harley, Robert A. , Goldstein, Allen H. , Steiner, Allison L , Cohen, Ronald , Tonse, Shaheen
Institution: University of California - Berkeley
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: March 22, 2003 through March 23, 2006 (Extended to March 22, 2009)
Project Amount: $900,000
RFA: Assessing the Consequences of Global Change for Air Quality: Sensitivity of U.S. Air Quality to Climate Change and Future Global Impacts (2002) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Air , Climate Change

Objective:

The overall objective of this research is to assess the impacts of changes in climate on regional air quality in California. Sensitivity of tropospheric ozone will be quantified in response to changes in climate-sensitive processes such as photochemical reaction rates, biogenic emissions, anthropogenic emissions, inflow of pollutants from the Pacific Ocean, and land surface deposition. Overall effects on air quality and process-level contributions of changes in each climate variable will be presented.

Approach:

The research includes three major tasks: (1) air quality modeling in conjunction with online sensitivity analysis techniques to quantify how ozone responds to changes in key factors such as anthropogenic and biogenic emissions; (2) process-level analysis of the impacts of climate-related variables on atmospheric chemistry, biogenic and anthropogenic emissions, and atmospheric transport and mixing; and (3) integration of the results of the first two tasks into an overall assessment of the impacts of climate change on air quality.

Expected Results:

Contributions to the overall effect of climate change on air quality will be presented separately and combined into a graphical assessment summary similar to what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has done for climate change due to changes in greenhouse gases, aerosols, clouds, etc. Estimates of uncertainties and our assessment of the current level of scientific understanding of each process will be included. A general air quality assessment approach will be developed–we will use California as a test-bed for application of this approach. Better understanding of the linkages between air pollution problems on local, regional, and global scales will help support more cost-effective allocation of federal and state environmental protection resources.

Publications and Presentations:

Publications have been submitted on this project: View all 27 publications for this project

Journal Articles:

Journal Articles have been submitted on this project: View all 8 journal articles for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

air, ozone, global climate, modeling, community multi-scale air quality model (CMAQ),, RFA, Air, Scientific Discipline, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Chemistry, particulate matter, Air Quality, Atmosphere, tropospheric ozone, Monitoring/Modeling, Air Pollution Effects, Atmospheric Sciences, Air Pollutants, climate change, Environmental Monitoring, aerosols, atmospheric dispersion models, biogenic ozone precursors, Global Climate Change, ambient aerosol, airborne aerosols, air sampling, atmospheric models, global change, aerosol formation, atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric transport, ecological models, climate models, environmental measurement, climate variability, air pollution models, atmospheric monitoring, California, atmospheric aerosol particles, environmental stress, air quality model, meteorology, ozone, ambient air pollution, air quality models, atmospheric particulate matter, greenhouse gases, climatic influence, anthropogenic stress

Progress and Final Reports:

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.