Atmospheric Modeling Research
 

• EPA-NOAA Scientist to Scientist Meetings


• Memorandum of Understanding (PDF, 6 pp, 1512 KB)
• Memorandum of Agreement (PDF, 6 pp, 1008 KB)
• March 2004 RTP Meeting
• October 2004 Boulder Meeting



• Forecasting Air Quality over the United States Increased awareness of national air quality issues on the part of the media and the general public have recently led to more demand for short-term (1-2 day) air quality forecasts for use in assessing potential health impacts (e.g., on children, the elderly, and asthmatics) and potential mitigation actions in local communities (e.g., increased use of carpools and mass transit, decreased industrial operations).
  
  
• EPA and NOAA Join Forces to Conduct Atmospheric Modeling Research and Produce Air Quality Forecasts
  The two agencies will join forces to enhance research in air quality modeling and atmospheric measurements for developing a consistent national numerical air quality model for short-term air quality forecasts for ozone, fine particulate matter, and visibility.
   
• Modeling of the World Trade Center (WTC) Disaster Site
  The collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers brought considerable focus to the need for adequate simulation tools for determining exposure and risk from such catastrophic events. An important first step in a methods development program is to examine the exposure pathways through a reconstruction of the transport and dispersion of pollutants released from the WTC site using available modeling and monitoring approaches. Central to development and evaluation of exposure modeling methods is a laboratory scale model simulation of pollutant transport and dispersion in Lower Manhattan.
   
• Modeling of air quality at neighborhood scales (PDF, 19 pp, 490 KB)
  
  
• Information Technology Research and Development
  
  • Multimedia Integrated Modeling System (MIMS)
    There is a growing interest in studying and addressing issues that have influences and effects that cross physical media, such as air, water, and soil. Examples of multimedia problems include atmospheric emissions of nitrogen and mercury that eventually affect surface water and burial of hazardous wastes that leak into groundwater.
     
• The Krakow Urban Air Pollution Project
  Local urban air pollution, including pollution from mobile sources, was recognized by the Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference as an area of high priority for the countries of the region. The EPA and Polish Ministry of Environment made this environmental problem one of six focal points for their cooperation. By focusing on the City of Krakow, this project seeks to build upon five years of cooperation between Poland and the United States in improving the air quality in the Krakow Metropolitan Area.

• Nitrogen Deposition
  • Chesapeake Bay Nitrogen Assessment
    A Division scientist is a member of the Air Subcommittee, a working subcommittee of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Previously this Subcommittee was an advisory group to the Implementation Committee. The subcommittee has responsibility for advice and leadership on issues of atmospheric deposition to the watershed and the Bay, on overseeing application of the Extended Regional Acid Deposition Model (Extended RADM) to link atmospheric deposition with watershed models, and in dealing with the potential role of atmospheric deposition on Bay restoration efforts.
     
  • Nitrogen Deposition to Coastal Estuaries
    Using the procedure developed for the Chesapeake Bay and outlined in Dennis (1997), airsheds for 20 coastal watersheds along the East and Gulf Coasts were developed. These oxidized nitrogen airsheds are expected to be available on the Division’s multi-media web site. This work is presented in the NOAA assessment of atmospheric deposition to coastal estuaries (Paerl et al., 2001).

• Photochemical Oxidants
  • NARSTO
    The North American Research Strategy for Tropospheric Ozone (NARSTO) program was established in FY-1995 to address ozone research and coordinate collaborative research among all North American organizations performing and sponsoring tropospheric ozone studies.
     
  • Southern Oxidant Study
    The Southern Oxidants Study (SOS) is a comprehensive study of ozone and photochemical oxidants in the southern United States. The study, which began by Congressional mandate in 1991, continued through 1995, and included both regular and intermittent intensive field monitoring. The SOS was designed and executed chiefly by principal investigators from the academic community in the southeast United States.

• Environmental Monitoring  
  • Dry Deposition
    An analysis of dry deposition data from three forest field studies was completed. The forests were in central North Carolina, northwestern Pennsylvania, and the Adirondack region of New York. The study included a thorough description of deposition processes to forests, and an evaluation of the performance of the multi-layer deposition velocity model in a forest environment.