Modeling Impacts of Energy and Non-Energy-Related Sources on Urban Air Quality (Invited Presentation)

In addition to transportation and other energy-related sources, it has been suggested that volatile chemical product (VCP) emissions comprise a significant fraction of the anthropogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). To assess impacts on air quality, we construct a Fuel-based Inventory of Vehicle Emissions (FIVE) of nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and VOCs to model impacts of mobile source emissions on ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Similarly, we construct a bottom-up inventory of VCP emissions to assess non-energy related impacts on ozone and SOA. The emission inventories are evaluated with in-situ VOC measurements from the NOAA Chemical Sciences Division mobile laboratory and tropospheric NO2 columns retrieved from the Sentinel-5P Tropospheric Ozone Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Both the FIVE and VCP emission inventories are modeled in the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model during the Long Island Sound of Tropospheric Ozone Study (LISTOS) in 2018. We also assess impacts on air quality of mobile source and VCP emissions across the Continental United States. The WRF-Chem modeling results indicate that anthropogenic emissions of VOCs can contribute to high ozone during air pollution episodes in the New York City region, along with elevated levels of NO_x and biogenic sources of VOCs. Amongst anthropogenic contributions, the sensitivity of the model to mobile source and VCP emissions of VOCs are similar.