Regional Air Quality in the Four Corners Studys Region: Modeling Approach

摘要

A two-dimensional Eulerian air pollutant transport model was used in an air quality study of the Four Corners region conducted for the National Commission on Air Quality. The regional modeling methodology and some sample results from the regional air quality analysis are presented. One major advantage of the regional transport model that was employed is that its solution involves the calculation of transfer coefficients that relate emissions to ambient concentrations and deposition and which can be used repeatedly to evaluate alternative scenarios and regulatory policies which represent different emission source configurations. The regional transport model was used in the calculation of the concentration and deposition of SO sub 2 , SO sub 4 , and primary fine particulates; and these estimates were used as inputs to regional atmospheric visibility and mass budget calculations. Previous studies have shown that the methods used in the regional air quality analysis give good agreement when comparing observed and estimated values.