HR: 1340h
AN: A43C-0081    [Abstracts]
TI: The Regional Atmospheric Measurement Modeling and Prediction Program (RAMMPP)
AU: * Marufu, L T
EM: marufu@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Taubman, B F
EM: btaubman@met.psu.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802 United States
AU: Piety, C
EM: charles@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Stehr, J
EM: stehr@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Bueno, P A
EM: pedro@umd.edu
AF: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Doddridge, B G
EM: bruce@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Zhang, D
EM: dalin@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Dickerson, R R
EM: russ@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AB: Many parts of the mid-Atlantic region are in violation of EPA air quality standards. Factors that influence air quality in this region include local and regional emissions, synoptic and meso-scale meteorology, and boundary layer chemistry and dynamics. Unfortunately, some of these processes are not well characterized and their fractional contributions to air pollution in the region are not well understood. In 1992, in response to this challenge, a consortium of mid-Atlantic states initiated a research program called Regional Atmospheric Measurement Modeling and Prediction Program (RAMMPP) to conduct holistic, long-term air quality studies in the region. RAMMPP aims at developing a state of the art scientific research tool to gain an informed understanding of the factors controlling air quality over the mid-Atlantic region and involves four elements: i) Forecasting; daily air quality forecasts for ozone are issued from May through September (http://www.atmos.umd.edu/$\sim$forecaster/ozone\_fcst.html). ii) Meso-scale Modeling; year-round daily, real-time numerical weather forecasts are produced for the mid-Atlantic area using the meso-scale model 5 (MM5) operating on a triply (36/12/4 km) nested grid with innermost domain centered on the Baltimore-Washington urban corridor (http://www.atmos.umd.edu/$\sim$Emm5). iii) Measurements; observations of meteorology, selected trace gases, and aerosol chemistry, microphysics, and optical properties are made at selected surface sites throughout the region. Further-more, measurements of upper air meteorology and chemistry are made using radio-sondes, profilers, and an instrumented light aircraft (http://www.atmos.umd.edu/$\sim$RAMMPP/). iv) Chemical Transport Modeling; the three elements above are combined in an emissions and chemical transport modeling program using the SMOKE and EPA CMAQ framework, constrained and evaluated using assimilated field data. Noteworthy RAMMPP results include the discovery that aerosols can accelerate photochemistry, the improvement of GOME SO2 retrievals to make them usable for air pollution detection, the observance of a Quebec forest fire plume over the mid-Atlantic, thereby demonstrating the role of long range pollution transport on air quality in the northeast US and measurements during the 2003 electrical blackout that show the impact of power plant emissions on ozone and aerosols. Here we present a chemical climatology of the mid Atlantic region based on analysis of all data generated since the inception of RAMMPP, with special emphasis on airborne measurements.
UR: http://www.atmos.umd.edu/$\sim$RAMMPP/
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0345 Pollution--urban and regional (0305)
DE: 0365 Troposphere--composition and chemistry
DE: 0368 Troposphere--constituent transport and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting