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TrajStat: GIS-based software that uses various trajectory statistical analysis

methods to identify potential sources from long-term air pollution
measurement data

Article in Environmental Modelling & Software · August 2009

DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2009.01.004 · Source: DBLP

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 Environmental Modelling & Software 24 (2009) 938–939

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Environmental Modelling & Software

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envsoft

TrajStat: GIS-based software that uses various trajectory statistical analysis

methods to identify potential sources from long-term air pollution
measurement data
Y.Q. Wang a, *, X.Y. Zhang a, Roland R. Draxler b
a
Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Centre for Atmosphere Watch and Services, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, 46 Zhong-Guan-Cun South Avenue, Beijing 100081,
China
b
NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, Silver Spring, MD, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Statistical analysis of air mass back trajectories combined with long-term ambient air pollution
Received 17 November 2008 measurements are useful tools for source identification. Using these methods, the geographic informa-
Received in revised form tion system (GIS) based software, TrajStat, was developed to view, query, and cluster the trajectories and
9 January 2009
compute the potential source contribution function (PSCF) and concentration weighted trajectory (CWT)
Accepted 9 January 2009
Available online 20 February 2009
analyses when measurement data are included.
Ó 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords:
Trajectory statistics
GIS
Clustering
PSCF
CWT

Software availability
Program name: TrajStat – Trajectory Statistics.
Developer: Yaqiang Wang.
Contact address: wangyq@cams.cma.gov.cn
Year first available: 2008.
Software required: MS Windows with Microsoft .NET Framework
2.0 installed.
Program language: Visual Basic.
Program size: 9.3 MB.
Availability: http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/hysplit4.html
Cost: Free of charge
1. Software description
Identification of pollutant sources using ambient air quality data
is essential for air pollution management. Air mass back trajectory
statistical analyses, such as clustering (Harris and Kahl, 1990; Sirois
and Bottenheim, 1995), potential source contribution function
(PSCF) (Ashbaugh et al., 1985) and concentration weighted trajec-
tory (CWT) (Hsu et al., 2003; Seibert et al., 1994), are frequently
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 10 58995237; fax: þ86 10 62176414.
E-mail address: wangyq@cams.cma.gov.cn (Y.Q. Wang).
used to point out the direction and sources of air pollution at
a receptor site. For air trajectory calculation, the software programs
of HYSPLIT (Draxler and Hess, 1998) and FLEXTRA (Stohl, 1999) have
been widely used. Recently, METEX (Zeng et al., 2008) was devel-
oped with an emphasis on flexibility and ease-of-use.
For air mass trajectory visualization and statistical analysis
applications, a new software application called TrajStat was
developed in which clustering, PSCF and CWT methods were
included and a geographic information systems (GIS) technique
built from the open-source GIS component MapWindowGIS
ActiveX control (MapWindow open source team, 2007) was used
for spatial data management, visualization and analyses.
The HYSPLIT model is used to calculate trajectories, which are
loaded into the system as an external process. The trajectory files
with three-dimensional endpoint data could be converted to the
ESRI ‘‘PolylineZ’’ shape file format. In this type of shape file the x, y
and z properties of each point are defined by its longitude, latitude
and air pressure along the trajectory. The trajectories can be shown
in various spatial patterns. For instance, using only the level (x, y) or
height (z) coordinates, each trajectory can be shown as a two-
dimensional figure. When combined height with longitude and
latitude values, the three-dimensional trajectories can be plotted.
The long-term measurement data could be assigned to their cor-
responding trajectories. A query function was developed to identify
the trajectories to which a user can distinguish the polluted

1364-8152/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2009.01.004
 Y.Q. Wang et al. / Environmental Modelling & Software 24 (2009) 938–939
trajectories with high measurement concentration from a large
number of trajectories and then the pollutant pathway could be
roughly estimated. Euclidean distance or angle distance (Sirois and
Bottenheim, 1995) can be selected as the cluster model. A reason-
able maximum cluster number can be decided through visual
inspection and comparison of the mean-trajectory maps. The mean
pollutant concentration for each cluster can be computed using the
cluster statistics function. Pollutant pathways could then be asso-
ciated with the high concentration clusters. After calculating the
PSCF and CWT value, an arbitrary weight function (Polissar et al.,
1999) is applied to reduce the uncertainty of cells with few
endpoints. Then the potential source regions with high PSCF or
CWT value could be identified.
Additional functions will be considered for future upgrades such
as applying confidence intervals and smoothing functions for CWT
(Seibert et al., 1994) and adding the RTWC (Stohl, 1996) analysis
function.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by grants from the Fund of CAMS
(2008Z004) and National Basic Research Program of China
(2006CB403700).
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