89th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting

Thursday, 15 January 2009: 9:15 AM
Improving air quality forecasts using CMAQ with satellite observations
Room 127A (Phoenix Convention Center)
Eun-Su Yang, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL; and S. Christopher, Y. Wu, and S. Kondragunta
Air quality forecasts for the Georgia/Florida fires in 2007 are presented using CMAQ simulations. We use both satellite-based (GOES) fire emission inventories and local emission estimates made using an emission inventory model (SMOKE). We show transport and transformation of fire emissions superimposed on local emissions. For comparison we also show AERO-RAMS simulations in which no chemical processes are used. The CMAQ simulations are performed with and without local emissions to evaluate contributions of local emissions to episodes of high aerosol concentrations over Atlanta and Birmingham areas during the fires. The CMAQ air quality estimates are compared to the ground-based PM2.5 observations and AERONET aerosol retrievals. The CMAQ simulations are also compared with satellite aerosol products such as MODIS, OMI, MISR, and GOES.

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