Photo: S. Sandberg, NOAAResearch Highlight Forecasting Regional Air Quality: To accurately forecast wintertime bad air days in Utah's Uintah Basin, researchers use atmospheric measurements to estimate chemical emissions from nearby oil and natural gas fields.
Regional Chemical Modeling
Dr. Michael K. Trainer, Program Lead
Jane August, Admin Support Assistant (303) 497-4165
NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Division
325 Broadway R/CSD4
Boulder, CO 80305 USA
Focus
The Regional Chemical Modeling group undertakes research that improves our ability to forecast regional air quality in the lower troposphere, and increases our understanding of the free tropospheric ozone budget.
Model Studies
Our primary research tool is the WRF-Chem chemical transport model with which we develop and evaluate state-of-the-art capabilities to describe the emission, transport and chemical evolution of pollutants in the atmosphere. We evaluate the model's performance with comparison to measurements of ozone and particulate matter made during integrated field studies. Related topics include examination of the impact of pollutants on low level cloud formation, and the influence of coastal dynamics on pollution export from North America. Beyond the continental and marine boundary layer we combine hemispheric scale tracer transport studies, satellite observations, and both coordinated and opportunistic measurements to improve our understanding of the North American free tropospheric ozone budget.
Recent Publications |
Meteorological Products Forecasting regional air quality |
Tracer Forecasts Using FLEXPART in combination with |
Regional Model Evaluation Verifying model results against |