Grantee Research Project Results
2012 Progress Report: Regional Air Quality Management Aspects of Global Change: Impact of Climate-ResponsiveControls and Forest Management Practices on Regional Air Quality and Associated Uncertainties
EPA Grant Number: R834281Title: Regional Air Quality Management Aspects of Global Change: Impact of Climate-ResponsiveControls and Forest Management Practices on Regional Air Quality and Associated Uncertainties
Investigators: Russell, Armistead G. , Bergin, Michelle S. , Wang, Y. T. , Nenes, Athanasios , Rudokas, Jason
Current Investigators: Russell, Armistead G. , Bergin, Michelle S. , Wang, Y. T. , Tsimpidi, A.P. , Nenes, Athanasios , Tian, D. , Klieman, G. , Yang, H. , Rudokas, J. , Fahey, K. , Tsigaridis, K. , Trail, M. , Liu, P. , Amar, Praveen , Hu, Y.T.
Institution: NESCAUM , Georgia Institute of Technology
Current Institution: Georgia Environmental Protection Division , Georgia Institute of Technology , NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies , NESCAUM
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2012 (Extended to September 30, 2013)
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2011 through September 30,2012
Project Amount: $599,963
RFA: Adaptation for Future Air Quality Analysis and Decision Support Tools in Light of Global Change Impacts and Mitigation (2008) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Air , Climate Change
Objective:
This project has four primary objectives:
- Assess and compare how climate-responsive control choices will impact air quality.
- Assess how forest management practices, including biomass fuel production will impact future air quality.
- Quantify the sensitivities and uncertainties in results.
- Provide decision support analyses for use by air quality decision makers.
Progress Summary:
As noted in the prior progress report, one of the main activities of year 2 was to prepare meteorological fields for the current years (2008-2010) and future (2049-2051) by downscaling GISS Model E output using WRF. This was completed, and written up as a journal submission (Trail, et al., 2012), which is to be submitted shortly. Through the analysis of the meteorological variables that most strongly influence air quality we found consistent changes in regional climate that would enhance ozone levels in four regions of the United States during the fall, one region during the summer, and one region where changes potentially would lead to better air quality during the spring. We now are in the process of using MARKAL modeling results to simulate air quality for a base case future emissions scenario in CMAQ. MARKAL modeling of climate strategy impacts on air quality-relevant emissions is under way. (Recall, many more MARKAL runs are conducted than can be simulated using the detailed air quality system.) Another major focus of this year has been simulating the impact of forest changes that might result from greater use of forest products for production of cellulosic fuels. The meteorological portion was completed, and written up as a journal submission (Trail, et al., 2012), which currently is undergoing peer review. Our simulations suggest that afforestation in the Southeastern United States can cause warming in the future while cropland has a cooling effect. We also will simulate the air quality impacts of afforestation using the CMAQ model and the base case future emissions from MARKAL.
Another achievement of the project was a modification to the regional meteorological model we are using, WRF, that we call “Loop Noah” (Liu, et al., in preparation). In this extension of WRF, the code has been modified such that we can better track the impact of specific land uses on meteorology, and are able to simulate the subgrid scale skin temperatures by land use (as opposed to using just the dominant land use).
Future Activities:
The focus of our activities over the coming year are:
- Finish conducting MARKAL modeling of strategies or technologies to mitigate climate change that also impact ozone and PM-related emission and process strategies using SMOKE.
- Prepare pollutant concentration fields for the current years (2008-2010) and future (2049-2051) by using WRF downscaling results and MARKAL/SMOKE emissions as inputs to CMAQ.
- Prepare pollutant concentration fields for the year 2050 simulating forest management practices.
We will be using a variety of computational resources (servers, disk arrays). The programs to be used include WRF/SMOKE/CMAQ.
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 14 publications | 5 publications in selected types | All 5 journal articles |
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Liu P, Tsimpidi AP, Hu Y, Stone B, Russell AG, Nenes A. Differences between downscaling with spectral and grid nudging using WRF. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 2012;12(8):3601-3610. |
R834281 (2011) R834281 (2012) R834281 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
air quality, climate policy, downscale, nudging, RFA, Air, Scientific Discipline, POLLUTION PREVENTION, Atmosphere, Air Pollution Effects, climate change, Environmental Monitoring, Energy, air quality, Global Climate Change, particulate matter, forests, ecosystem sustainability, deforestation, energy efficiency, land use, atmospheric nitrogen, decision makingProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe 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.