EQUATES: EPA’s Air QUAlity TimE Series Project
Kristen Foley1, George Pouliot2, Jesse Bash3 and Donna Schwede4
The Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system (CMAQ; https://www.epa.gov/cmaq) estimates atmospheric concentrations and deposition for numerous chemicals, including ozone, PM2.5 and its constituents, and deposition of important nitrogen and sulfur species. CMAQ concentration and deposition values are an important input to the NADP Total Deposition (TDep) maps and grids. The current TDep maps are based on a time series (2002-2012) of model values using CMAQv5.0.2. The US EPA is developing a set of 2002 through 2017 meteorology and air quality simulations to be used to update the TDep maps and support other EPA tools and data products (e.g. EnviroAtlas, model-observation “fused” maps of ozone and PM2.5). Modeled datasets cover the Conterminous US at a 12km horizontal grid spacing and the Northern Hemisphere at a 108km using WRFv4.1.1 for meteorology and CMAQv5.3.2 for air quality modeling. CMAQv5.3.2 contains many important science updates which can impact both concentration and deposition. New hemispheric and North American emissions inventories were also developed using, to the extent possible, consistent input data and methods across all years to improve model estimated trends. This poster presentation will describe the development of the model simulations and plans for sharing the model output to support a wide variety of human health and ecological applications.
1U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, foley.kristen@epa.gov 2US EPA, pouliot.george@epa.gov 3US EPA, bash.jesse@epa.gov 4US EPA, schwede.donna@epa.gov