Chapter 39
Performance Differences of the National
Air Quality Forecasting Capability When
There is a Major Upgrade
in the Chemistry Modules
Pius Lee, Li Pan, Youhua Tang, Daniel Tong, Barry Baker, Hyuncheol Kim
and Rick Saylor
Abstract There have been large advancement in modeling science and chemical
constituent measurement of air pollutants harmful to the public health. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Air Quality Forecasting
Capability (NAQFC) is a vital service that NOAA provides to the general public to
help safeguarding the public health as well as the environmental resilience through
announcement of information-driver mitigation and adaptation action. NAQFC is
poised to upgrade from using the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ)
version 5.0.2 to version 5.2. This is noticeable a multiple sub-version number leaping forward corresponding to major upgrades in chemistry and emission sciences.
The following lists the major science upgrade: (a) upgrade gas chemistry for the
Carbon-Bond Mechanism version 5 (CB05) to version 5 Revision1 (CB05R1); (b)
Inclusion of Halogen chemistry; (c) Employed more explicit speciation for isoprene
and monoterpenes from biogenic sources; (d) Upgraded the aerosol module using a
more sophisticated secondary aerosol production suite of multi-generational oxidation mechanism; and (e) Application of a fuller set of National Emission Inventory
(NEI) from base year 2014. We tested the new system for a summer case retrospectively and compared its forecast performance with the real-time operational NAQFC.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) AIRNow monitoring network was
used to verify the forecast accuracy. We noticed considerable discrepancies in the
performance of the two realization of forecasting simulations.
P. Lee (B) · L. Pan · Y. Tang · D. Tong · B. Baker · H. Kim
NOAA/Air Resources Laboratory, College Park, MD, USA
e-mail: pius.lee@noaa.gov
L. Pan · Y. Tang · D. Tong · B. Baker · H. Kim
UMD/Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, College Park, MD, USA
D. Tong · R. Saylor
NOAA/ARL/Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
P. Lee · L. Pan · Y. Tang · D. Tong · B. Baker · H. Kim · R. Saylor
Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, George Mason University,
Fairfax, VA, USA
This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign
copyright protection may apply 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_39
249
Performance Differences of the National
Air Quality Forecasting Capability When
There is a Major Upgrade
in the Chemistry Modules
Pius Lee, Li Pan, Youhua Tang, Daniel Tong, Barry Baker, Hyuncheol Kim
and Rick Saylor
Abstract There have been large advancement in modeling science and chemical
constituent measurement of air pollutants harmful to the public health. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Air Quality Forecasting
Capability (NAQFC) is a vital service that NOAA provides to the general public to
help safeguarding the public health as well as the environmental resilience through
announcement of information-driver mitigation and adaptation action. NAQFC is
poised to upgrade from using the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model (CMAQ)
version 5.0.2 to version 5.2. This is noticeable a multiple sub-version number leaping forward corresponding to major upgrades in chemistry and emission sciences.
The following lists the major science upgrade: (a) upgrade gas chemistry for the
Carbon-Bond Mechanism version 5 (CB05) to version 5 Revision1 (CB05R1); (b)
Inclusion of Halogen chemistry; (c) Employed more explicit speciation for isoprene
and monoterpenes from biogenic sources; (d) Upgraded the aerosol module using a
more sophisticated secondary aerosol production suite of multi-generational oxidation mechanism; and (e) Application of a fuller set of National Emission Inventory
(NEI) from base year 2014. We tested the new system for a summer case retrospectively and compared its forecast performance with the real-time operational NAQFC.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) AIRNow monitoring network was
used to verify the forecast accuracy. We noticed considerable discrepancies in the
performance of the two realization of forecasting simulations.
P. Lee (B) · L. Pan · Y. Tang · D. Tong · B. Baker · H. Kim
NOAA/Air Resources Laboratory, College Park, MD, USA
e-mail: pius.lee@noaa.gov
L. Pan · Y. Tang · D. Tong · B. Baker · H. Kim
UMD/Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, College Park, MD, USA
D. Tong · R. Saylor
NOAA/ARL/Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
P. Lee · L. Pan · Y. Tang · D. Tong · B. Baker · H. Kim · R. Saylor
Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, George Mason University,
Fairfax, VA, USA
This is a U.S. government work and not under copyright protection in the U.S.; foreign
copyright protection may apply 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_39
249