HR: 17:00h
AN: A34A-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Modeling the Dispersion of Inert Particles Using the SAQM Model
AU: * Pearson, R
EM: rrpearso@utep.edu
AF: Physics Dpt.-University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX 79968-0515 United States
AU: Fitzgerald, R M
EM: rfitzgerald@utep.edu
AF: Physics Dpt.-University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX 79968-0515 United States
AB: Cities throughout the U.S are subject to the emission of particulate matter (PM) into the atmosphere from a variety of sources. The impact of these emissions has been studied extensively in for regulatory compliance in the area of health effects, air quality and visibility. Little work has been done to study the fate and transport of the inert particulate matter within the El Paso-Juarez Airshed. The Environmental Physics Group at The University of Texas at El Paso has recently applied the SARMAP Air Quality Model (SAQM) to model the dispersion of inert particulate matter in the El Paso-Juarez Airshed. The meteorological data for the SAQM was created with the Penn State/NCAR meteorological modeling system, version 5 (MM5). The SAQM was used to simulate two common occurrences for large particulate emission and concentration. The first was periods of heavy traffic volume at the international bridges which cause large numbers of cars to sit, with engines running, for extended periods of time. The second was moderate to high wind events that cause large amounts of coarse particulate matter to become entrained in the atmosphere and transported into and around the region. Output from the MM5 was used as the meteorological driver for the SAQM. The MM5 was initialized with data from the NCAR reanalysis project. Meteorological data collected in the region by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and by EPA was used for Four Dimensional Data Assimilation. The MM5 was nudged with gridded, surface and observational data. Statistical analysis was done on the MM5 for the variables, wind speed, wind direction, temperature and mixing ratio. The statistics performed included RMSE, RMSEs, RMSEu and index of agreement SAQM was applied to the domain with grid cell sizes of 1.3 km per side. Temporal comparisons were done between EPA's PM2.5 to identify similarities in the evolution of the SAQM with observation. The experience gained in this work will facilitate further studies of dispersion of inert particles throughout other U.S Southwest cities.
DE: 3311 Clouds and aerosols
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005