Characterizing Air Quality Impacts Related to North Atlantic Offshore Emissions Sources.

Wind energy projects are being planned and constructed off the northern Atlantic coast to provide additional energy capacity to the eastern U.S. Emissions related to construction, operation, and routine maintenance of these offshore wind projects and the chemical transformation of these emissions in the atmosphere can result in pollutants that have known negative human health effects.

Gas-Phase Water-Soluble Organic Carbon: CMAQ Model Evaluation in Baltimore County.

Prediction of gas-phase water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), a precursor for secondary organic aerosol formed through processing in atmospheric waters (aqSOA), has not yet been evaluated in models. We pair the WSOC predictions from the U.S.

Wildland fire smoke adds to disproportionate PM exposure in the United States.

Wildland fire (i.e., prescribed fire and wildfire) smoke exposure is an emerging public health threat, in part due to climate change.

Expediated modeling of burn events results (EMBER): A screening-level dataset of 2023 ozone fire impacts in the US.

The Expedited Modeling of Burn Events Results (EMBER) dataset consists of 36-km grid-spacing Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) photochemical modeling for the summer of 2023. For emissions, these simulations utilized representative monthly and day-of-week anthropogenic emissions from a recent year and preliminary day-specific 2023 fire emissions derived using BlueSky pipeline. The base model run simulated ozone concentrations across the contiguous US during Apr 11-Sep 29, 2023.

Encountering Prescribed Fire: Characterizing the Intersection of Prescribed Fire and Wildfire in the CONUS.

Prescribed fire is applied across the United States as a fuel treatment to manage the impact of wildfires and restore ecosystems. While the recent application of prescribed fire has largely been confined to the southeastern US, the increase in catastrophic wildfires has accelerated the growth of prescribed fire more broadly. To effectively achieve wildfire risk reduction benefits, which includes reducing the amount of smoke emitted, the area treated by prescribed fire must come into contact with a subsequent wildfire.

Quantifying Multipollutant Health Impacts Using the Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program-Community Edition (BenMAP-CE): A Case Study in Atlanta, Georgia.

Background: Air pollution risk assessments do not generally quantify health impacts using multipollutant risk estimates, but instead use results from single-pollutant or copollutant models. Multipollutant epidemiological models account for pollutant interactions and joint effects but can be computationally complex and data intensive. Risk estimates from multipollutant studies are therefore challenging to implement in the quantification of health impacts.

Source-Receptor Relationships Between Precursor Emissions and O and PM Air Pollution Impacts.

Reduced complexity tools that provide a representation of both primarily emitted particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM), secondarily formed PM, and ozone (O) allow for a quick assessment of many iterations of pollution control scenarios. Here, a new reduced complexity tool, Pattern Constructed Air Pollution Surfaces (PCAPS), that estimates annual average PM and seasonal average maximum daily average 8 h (MDA8) O for any source location in the United States is described and evaluated.

Photochemical model assessment of single source NO and O plumes using field study data.

Single source contribution to ambient O and PM has been estimated with photochemical grid models to support policy demonstrations for National Ambient Air Quality Standards, regional haze, and permit related programs. Limited field data exists to evaluate model representation of the spatial extent and chemical composition of plumes emitted by specific facilities. New tropospheric column measurements of NO and in-plume chemical measurements downwind of specific facilities allows for photochemical model evaluation of downwind plume extent, grid resolution impacts on plume concentration gradients, and source attribution methods.

Evaluating reduced-form modeling tools for simulating ozone and PM monetized health impacts.

Reduced-form modeling approaches are an increasingly popular way to rapidly estimate air quality and human health impacts related to changes in air pollutant emissions. These approaches reduce computation time by making simplifying assumptions about pollutant source characteristics, transport and chemistry. Two reduced form tools used by the Environmental Protection Agency in recent assessments are source apportionment-based benefit per ton (SA BPT) and source apportionment-based air quality surfaces (SABAQS).

Comparison of ozone formation attribution techniques in the northeastern United States.

The Integrated Source Apportionment Method (ISAM) has been revised in the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. This work updates ISAM to maximize its flexibility, particularly for ozone (O) modeling, by providing multiple attribution options, including products inheriting attribution fully from nitrogen oxide reactants, fully from volatile organic compound (VOC) reactants, equally from all reactants, or dynamically from NO or VOC reactants based on the indicator gross production ratio of hydrogen peroxide (HO) to nitric acid (HNO). The updated ISAM has been incorporated into the most recent publicly accessible versions of CMAQ (v5.

Photochemical Model Representation of Ozone and Precursors During the 2017 Lake Michigan Ozone Study (LMOS).

Several areas in the Lake Michigan region are violating the human health-based ozone (O) National Ambient Air Quality Standard. Land-water meteorology driven build-up of precursor pollutants (NO and VOC) from mobile and stationary sources undergo photochemical O production and result in seasonal high O episodes during the spring and summertime. Routine and specialized surface measurements coupled with airborne and remotely sensed measurements from the 2017 Lake Michigan Ozone Study (LMOS) provide an opportunity to evaluate photochemical grid model representation of these processes.

Using wildland fire smoke modeling data in gerontological health research (California, 2007-2018).

Widespread population exposure to wildland fire smoke underscores the urgent need for new techniques to characterize fire-derived pollution for epidemiologic studies and to build climate-resilient communities especially for aging populations. Using atmospheric chemical transport modeling, we examined air quality with and without wildland fire smoke PM. In 12-km gridded output, the 24-hour average concentration of all-source PM in California (2007-2018) was 5.

Hydrogen chloride (HCl) at ground sites during CalNex 2010 and insight into its thermodynamic properties.

Gas phase hydrogen chloride (HCl) was measured at Pasadena and San Joaquin Valley (SJV) ground sites in California during May and June 2010 as part of the CalNex study. Observed mixing ratios were on average 0.83 ppbv at Pasadena, ranging from below detection limit (0.

Confronting Uncertainties of Simulated Air Pollution Concentrations during Persistent Cold Air Pool Events in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah.

Air pollutant accumulations during wintertime persistent cold air pool (PCAP) events in mountain valleys are of great concern for public health worldwide. Uncertainties associated with the simulated meteorology under stable conditions over complex terrain hinder realistic simulations of air quality using chemical transport models. We use the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to simulate the gaseous and particulate species for 1 month in January 2011 during the Persistent Cold Air Pool Study (PCAPS) in the Salt Lake Valley (SLV), Utah (USA).

Satellite Formaldehyde to Support Model Evaluation.

Formaldehyde (HCHO), a known carcinogen classified as a hazardous pollutant by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), is measured through monitoring networks across the U.

Predicting wildfire particulate matter and hypothetical re-emission of radiological Cs-137 contamination incidents.

Radiological release incidents can potentially contaminate widespread areas with radioactive materials and decontamination efforts are typically focused on populated areas, which means radionuclides may be left in forested areas for long periods of time. Large wildfires in contaminated forested areas have the potential to reintroduce these radionuclides into the atmosphere and cause exposure to first responders and downwind communities. One important radionuclide contaminant released from radiological incidents is radiocesium (Cs) due to high yields and its long half-life of 30.

Evaluation of 15 years of modeled atmospheric oxidized nitrogen compounds across the contiguous United States.

Atmospheric nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide (NO + NO, together termed as NO ) estimates from annual photochemical simulations for years 2002-2016 are compared to surface network measurements of NO and total gas-phase-oxidized reactive nitrogen (NO ) to evaluate the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system performance by U.S. region, season, and time of day.

The recent and future health burden of the U.S. mobile sector apportioned by source.

Mobile sources emit particulate matter as well as precursors to particulate matter (PM) and ground-level ozone, pollutants known to adversely impact human health. This study uses source-apportionment photochemical air quality modeling to estimate the health burden (expressed as incidence) of an array of PM- and ozone-related adverse health impacts, including premature death, attributable to 17 mobile source sectors in the US in 2011 and 2025. Mobile sector-attributable air pollution contributes a substantial fraction of the overall pollution-related mortality burden in the U.

Field Evaluation of Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors for Measuring Wildfire Smoke.

Until recently, air quality impacts from wildfires were predominantly determined based on data from permanent stationary regulatory air pollution monitors. However, low-cost particulate matter (PM) sensors are now widely used by the public as a source of air quality information during wildfires, although their performance during smoke impacted conditions has not been thoroughly evaluated. We collocated three types of low-cost fine PM (PM) sensors with reference instruments near multiple fires in the western and eastern United States (maximum hourly PM = 295 µg/m).

A database for evaluating the InMAP, APEEP, and EASIUR reduced complexity air-quality modeling tools.

Policy analysts and researchers often use models to translate expected emissions changes from pollution control policies to estimates of air pollution changes and resulting changes in health impacts. These models can include both photochemical Eulerian grid models or reduced complexity models; these latter models make simplifying assumptions about the emissions-to-air quality relationship as a means of reducing the computational time needed to simulate air quality. This manuscript presents a new database of photochemical- and reduced complexity-modelled changes in annual average particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.

Mapping Modeled Exposure of Wildland Fire Smoke for Human Health Studies in California.

Wildland fire smoke exposure affects a broad proportion of the U.S. population and is increasing due to climate change, settlement patterns and fire seclusion.

Assessing PM Model Performance for the Conterminous U.S. with Comparison to Model Performance Statistics from 2007-2015.

Previous studies have proposed that model performance statistics from earlier photochemical grid model (PGM) applications can be used to benchmark performance in new PGM applications. A challenge in implementing this approach is that limited information is available on consistently calculated model performance statistics that vary spatially and temporally over the U.S.

Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Prescribed Burning in Tallgrass Prairie Ecosystems.

Prescribed pasture burning plays a critical role in ecosystem maintenance in tallgrass prairie ecosystems and may contribute to agricultural productivity but can also have negative impacts on air quality. Volatile organic compound (VOC) concentrations were measured immediately downwind of prescribed tallgrass prairie fires in the Flint Hills region of Kansas, United States. The VOC mixture is dominated by alkenes and oxygenated VOCs, which are highly reactive and can drive photochemical production of ozone downwind of the fires.

Reflecting on progress since the 2005 NARSTO emissions inventory report.

Emission inventories are the foundation for cost-effective air quality management activities. In 2005, a report by the public/private partnership North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone (NARSTO) evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of North American emissions inventories and made recommendations for improving their effectiveness. This paper reviews the recommendation areas and briefly discusses what has been addressed, what remains unchanged, and new questions that have arisen.

Fire behavior and smoke modeling: Model improvement and measurement needs for next-generation smoke research and forecasting systems.

There is an urgent need for next-generation smoke research and forecasting (SRF) systems to meet the challenges of the growing air quality, health, and safety concerns associated with wildland fire emissions. This review paper presents simulations and experiments of hypothetical prescribed burns with a suite of selected fire behavior and smoke models and identifies major issues for model improvement and the most critical observational needs. The results are used to understand the new and improved capability required for the next-generation SRF systems and to support the design of the Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment (FASMEE) and other field campaigns.