Background

There are several different types of air quality models, all used for different
purposes. The most common models are broadly known as Atmospheric
Dispersion Models (ADM). The dispersion models are used to estimate the
downwind ambient concentration of air pollutants or toxins emitted from
sources such as industrial plants, traffic or chemical leaks. They can also be
used to predict future concentrations under specific scenarios when there is
a change in emission sources. Therefore, they are the dominant type of model
used in air quality policy making.

Input parameters

 Meteorological conditions such as wind speed and direction, the

amount of atmospheric turbulence, cloud cover and solar
radiation.
 The concentration or quantity of toxins in emission and temperature of
the material
 Source location and height, type of source and exit velocity, exit
temperature and mass flow rate or release rate.
 Terrain elevations at the source location and at the receptor
location(s), such as nearby homes, schools, businesses and
hospitals.
 The location, height and width of any obstructions (such as buildings
or other structures) in the path of the emitted gaseous plume
CALPUFF

One of the most widely-used ADMs is CALPUFF and it is a model for

assessing long range transport of pollutants and their impacts on areas or
surfaces with complex meteorological conditions. Non-steady state means the
associated data for this model is often varying and difficult to interpret or
identify, wind flow and wind velocity. CALPUFF are typically designed for
specific situations such as chemical leaks and forest fires. It can be used at a
wide range of scales – from a few kilometres to several hundred kilometres. The
CALPUFF is one of the ADMs that is adopted by EPA Victoria and EPA US
to predict air quality.

stack tip downwash, building downwash, transitional buoyant and momentum plume rise, rain cap effects,
partial plume penetration, subgrid scale terrain and coastal interactions effects, and terrain impingement

CALPUFF is a multi-layer, multi-species non-steady-state puff dispersion model

that simulates the effects of time- and space-varying meteorological conditions on
pollution transport, transformation and removal. CALPUFF can be applied on
scales of tens to hundreds of kilometers. It includes algorithms for subgrid scale
effects (such as terrain impingement), as well as, longer range effects (such as
pollutant removal due to wet scavenging and dry deposition, chemical
transformation, and visibility effects of particulate matter concentrations).

From April 2003 until January 2017, CALPUFF was the EPA preferred model for long-
range transport for the purposes of assessing NAAQS and/or PSD increments. With
the 2017 revisions to the Guideline on Air Quality Models (Appendix W to 40 CFR Part
51), the EPA has established in Section 4.2(c)(ii) a screening approach for long-
range transport assessments for NAAQS and PSD increments. This screening
approach will streamline the time and resources necessary to conduct such
analyses and provides a technically credible and appropriately flexible way to use
CALPUFF or other Lagrangian models as a screening technique. With the
establishment of the screening approach for long-range transport, CALPUFF was
delisted as an EPA preferred model in the 2017 revised Guideline. Should a
cumulative impact analysis for NAAQS and/or PSD increments be necessary
beyond 50 km, the selection and use of an alternative model shall occur in
agreement with the appropriate reviewing authority and approval by the EPA
Regional Office based on the requirements of Appendix W, Section 3.2.
The CALPUFF Modelling System includes 3 main components: CALMET,
CALPUFF, and CALPOST and a large set of pre-processing programs designed
to interface the model to meteorological datasets.

CALMET

CALMET is a meteorological model that develops hourly wind and

temperature fields on a 3D grid domain. The wind field is developed by a
generator containing analysis with parameters of slope flows of hills, kinematic
terrain effects, terrain blocking effects etc. These are the essentially the
parameters that could affect the behaviour of wind over complex landscapes and
under different weather conditions. For example, slope flows describes the
flow of wind when it goes over hills at different slopes. This is important
because the behaviour of wind can ultimately affect how emissions from
different sources are travelled and dispersed. In simple terms, CALMET
simulates an environment from the emission source to potential receiving
locations, taking into account all factors that could impact the flow of air
particles.

CALPUFF

CALPUFF is a transport and dispersion model based on the Lagranigian

dispersion model. The model simulates units or ‘puffs’ of material emitted
from modelled sources as well as its dispersion and transformation processes
along the way. This could be units of carbon dioxide, methane or any type of
harmful gas. Temporal and spatial variations are included with modules for
complex terrain effects, overwater transport, coastal interaction effects,
building downwash and simple chemical transformation. These modules can
simulate the behaviour of air particles when it interacts with the environment.
For example, building downwash refers to the dispersion of air particles when it
flows over and around buildings.
We can think of the process as this, the purpose of CALMET is to create a
setting with specific environmental conditions and CALPUFF simulates the
behaviour of units of air particles within that setting.

CALPOST

CALPOST is a processing program used to process the predictions of

CALPUFF and CALMET, producing spreadsheets to summarize the results of
the simulation. For example, the spreadsheet can show the results from
identifying the times in a day with the highest average CO2 concentrations at
each receptor locations.

CALPUFF System Diagram

Lagrangian Dispersion model

Lagrangian dispersion models are designed to predict the atmospheric

transport and deposition of airborne substances and particles. Transport of
pollutants in the atmosphere is modelled using a stochastic framework. This is
to simulate the movement of particles with the presence of wind and
fluctuations or anything that could influence its velocities.

The model is mainly developed based on the Langevin equation for particle
velocity. The equation is a stochastic differential equation developed by the
renowned French physicist Paul Langevin.
Input Data

Meteorological data needed to run air quality models like CALMET is usually
developed by Grid models. In this case, the US EPA uses Weather Research
and Forecasting Model to develop the data needed to run CALMAT. The
Weather Research and forecasting mode pulls in observations and archived data
from the region around the modelling site and uses the same physical equations
of atmospheric motion that are used in weather forecasting. The output data can
then be used by models like CALMET

Here are some examples of the meteorological input data for CALMET.

Examples of applications

Near-field pollutants dispersion is the interaction of a plume with an

environment that has obstacles such as buildings and hills, so the behaviour of
the plume is often very difficult to predict

Review
Advantage

CALPUFF is used for air quality predictions up to 200 km

CALPUFF accounts for the effects of varying temporal or spatial conditions

on pollution transport and transformation.

CALPUFF utilizes meteorological data both from multiple observation sites

and from meteorological grid models. GOOD and accurate representation
of meteorological data

Disadvantage

Since CALPUFF uses data from multiple sites, this means that preparation of
meteorological data for CALPUFF requires more expertise and greater
computational resources.

CALPUFF process large files of meteorological data, so takes much longer to

process the data

CALPUFF are typically designed for specific situations such as chemical leaks
and forest fires, so it typically requires specific approval from the appropriate
regulatory authority before it is used.