The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has published a Standard Guide D 6589 for Statistical Evaluation of Atmospheric Dispersion Model Performance. Within the Annex to this ASTM Guide, a procedure is outlined for assessing the performance of atmospheric transport and diffusion models to predict the average maximum 'centerline' concentration values of a chemical species that has been released from a point source. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted an analysis to apply D 6589 in which four atmospheric transport and diffusion models were applied to simulate the variation of the maximum ('centerline') concentration of chemical species emitted from point sources during three field studies. The four transport and diffusion models were the American Meteorological Society/Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model (AERMOD), the Hybrid Plume Dispersion Model (HPDM), the Industrial Source Complex (ISCST3) Model, and the Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling System (ADMS). The three field experiments were the Project Prairie Grass experiment and two field experiments sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the EPRI Indianapolis experiment and the EPRI Kincaid experiment. This report documents the steps taken to develop the characterizations of meteorological conditions needed by each model for each of the three field experiments. This work involved a collaboration with the Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants, who are the authors of the ADMS model.

Project Officer: John Irwin. "August 2003." "EPA-454/R-03-007." Includes bibliographical references. Pacific Environmental Serices, Inc., a MACTEC Co.