Case Study Using AERMOD and CALPUFF in Complex Terrain

摘要

This study reviews concentrations predicted by AERMOD and CALPUFF for an identical emission source in the mountainous region of central Mexico. The meteorological data used in each analysis was derived from three years of MM5 output run at 4 km resolution. The CALMET meteorological preprocessor was used to generate CALPUFF-compatible meteorological data from the full 4 km gridded MM5 data set. To generate an AERMOD-ready meteorological dataset valid for central Mexico, where few surface meteorological stations are present, surface and upper air data sets in a raw data format were produced from the MM5 data sets using a recently developed tool. These two files were processed through AERMET to provide AERMOD-ready meteorological data. Also, although U.S. EPA generally recommends that CALMET be run with a resolution no finer than 4 km, CALMET has the capability to diagnostically generate meteorological data fields at finer resolutions starting with coarser resolution MM5 data. A secondary analysis was performed in this study comparing CALPUFF output using CALMET-generated data fields at both 4 km and at 1.33 km resolution.