Evaluation of the AIRPACT forecast system for Boise, ID during stagnant wintertime conditions

During Dec, 2008 and Jan, 2009, The Treasure Valley PM Precursor Field Program was conducted in Boise, ID during wintertime conditions characterized by periods of stagnation, snowcover, and some days with heavy fog. A relatively complete set of gas and aerosol phase data was collected with high time resolution, including NOy, CO, VOCs using a PTR-MS, aerosol size distribution, and aerosol chemical speciation using a PILS sampling system. Lidar measurements of aerosol vertical and horizontal distributions were also obtained. These data are used to evaluate the performance of the AIRPACT air quality forecast system using a nested 4 km gridded domain for the two month period. The AIRPACT system employs the WRF/SMOKE/CMAQ suite of modeling components and operates on a daily basis for the Pacific Northwest.