Constructing AERMOD-Ready Meteorological Input Using Climatological WRF Output and Its Impact on Regulatory AERMOD Applications

摘要

The object of this analysis was to compare the maximum ground-level concentrations predicted by AERMOD using WRF generated meteorological data and AQMD observation based meteorological data in order to determine the implications to permit processing should WRF generated meteorological data be used in lieu of on-site or AQMD provided meteorological data for projects within the South Coast air basin. Our analysis shows that using WRF generated meteorological data will generally lead to an under-prediction of impacts for area and volume sources, while the impacts from point sources will generally be over-predicted. Furthermore, the annual impacts will be most closely predicted, while the impacts for 1-hour, 3-hour, 8-hour, and 24-hour averaging times will be increasingly over-predicted. The over-prediction observed using the WRF generated data is consistent with prior analyses. In all, the use of WRF generated meteorological data in AERMOD would be acceptable as it generally leads to a conservative estimation of impacts, except for area and point sources, when impacts could be under-predicted.