Publication Date:
2014-05-06
Description:
Evaluation of a regional air quality forecasting system for the Pacific Northwest was carried out for the 2007 and 2008 fire seasons using suite of surface and satellite observations. Wildfire events in the Pacific Northwest during the summers of 2007 and 2008 were simulated using the Air Information Report for Public Access and Community Tracking v.3 (AIRPACT-3) framework utilizing the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Fire emissions were simulated using the BlueSky framework with fire locations determined by the Satellite Mapping Automated Reanalysis Tool for Fire Incident Reconciliation (SMARTFIRE). Plume rise was simulated using two different methods: the Fire Emission Production Simulator (FEPS) and the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) model. Predicted plume top heights were compared to the Cloud-Aerosol LIDAR with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument aboard the Cloud Aerosol LIDAR and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) satellite. Carbon monoxide predictions were compared to the Atmospheric InfraRed Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite. Horizontal distributions of column aerosol optical depth (AOD) were compared to retrievals by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite. Model tropospheric nitrogen dioxide distributions were compared to retrievals from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard the Aura satellite. Surface ozone and PM2.5 predictions were compared to surface observations. The AIRPACT-3 model captured the location and transport direction of fire events well, but sometimes missed the timing of fire events and overall underestimated the impact of wildfire events at regional surface monitor locations. During the 2007 fire period the fractional biases of AIRPACT-3 for average 24 h PM2.5, maximum daily average 8 h Ozone, AOD, total column CO, and tropospheric column NO2 were found to be −33%, −8%, −61%, −10%, and −39%, respectively; while during the 2008 fire period the fractional biases were −27%, +1%, −53%, −5%, and −28%, respectively. Fractional biases of AIRPACT-3 plume tops were found to be −46% above mean sea level (a.m.s.l.), but only −28% above ground level (a.g.l.), partly due to the under-estimation of AIRPACT-3 elevation in complex terrain that results from the 12 km grid-cell smoothing.
Electronic ISSN:
1680-7375
Topics:
Geosciences
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