You are here:
USER MANUAL FOR THE EPA THIRD-GENERATION AIR QUALITY MODELING SYSTEM (MODELS-3 VERSION 3.0)
Citation:
Atmospheric Modeling Division, AND EPA Systems Development Center. USER MANUAL FOR THE EPA THIRD-GENERATION AIR QUALITY MODELING SYSTEM (MODELS-3 VERSION 3.0). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-99/055 (NTIS PB2000-100247), 1999.
Description:
Models-3 is a flexible software system designed to simplify the development and use of environmental assessment and other decision support tools. It is designed for applications ranging from regulatory and policy analysis to understanding the complex interactions of atmospheric chemistry and physics. The June 1999 release of Models-3 contains a Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system for urban to regional scale air quality simulation of tropospheric ozone, acid deposition, visibility, and fine particles. Principal improvements since the initial release in June 1998 include improve particulate modeling capability in CMAQ, modeling of particulate emissions from vehicles as part of emission data processing, improved flexibility in assigning parameters from meteorological models to vertical layers, and the availability of a full port of Models-3 to Windows-NT based computers. Models-3 and CMAQ in combination form a powerful third generation air quality modeling and assessment system that enables a user to execute air quality simulation models and visualize their results. Models-3/CMAQ also assists the model developer to assemble, test, and evaluate science process components and their impact on chemistry-transport model predictions by facilitating the interchange of science codes, transparent use of multiple computing platforms, and access of data across the network. The Models-3/CMAQ provides flexibility to change key model specifications such as grid resolution and chemistry mechanisms without rewriting the code. Models-3/CMAQ is intended to serve as a community framework for continual advancement and use of environmental assessment tools. This User Manual serves as a reference on how to use the software system. Companion documents detail the installation procedures and provide a step-by-step tutorial, and describe the scientific algorithms.