Tutorial for AERMOD View, an

interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Nima A-Mohajer

ENV 6146, Atmospheric

Dispersion Modeling
February 2010 http://www.weblakes.com/
 Outline
 Introduction to AERMOD
 Installation, AERMOD View environment
 AERMET
 Making the model in AERMOD View
 AERMOD pathways
 AERMAP
 Running AERMOD View

Goal
 Pursuing an example for air dispersion modeling by using
the AERMOD short-term model
An introduction to AERMOD
AERMOD
stands for American Meteorological Society/ Environmental
Protection Agency Regulatory Model

 COMPONENTS
1) AERMET – a meteorological preprocessor
2) AERMAP – a terrain data preprocessor
3) AERMOD – a dispersion model

 SUPPORT TOOLS
1) AER-SURFACE – processes surface characteristics data
2) AER-SCREEN – provides a screening tool

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

AERMET environment

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Minimum AERMET input data
1) Hourly surface data
2) Upper air data
3) Location of the pertinent site, sectors and surface data
4) On-site data

 Hourly surface data 7) Ceiling height (m)

8) Precipitation amount
1) Cloud cover (Tenth)
(hundredths of inches)
2) Dry bulb temperature (o C)
9) Global horizontal radiation
3) Relative humidity (%)
(wh/m2)
4) Station pressure (mb)
5) Wind direction (deg)
6) Wins speed (m/s)

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

AERMET (Hourly surface data)

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Input hourly surface data

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Quality assessment feature
QA is an optional process helping potential problems in data to
be excluded or included.

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

AERMET (Upper air data)

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Input upper air data
How does it look after clicking preview button?

http://www.webmet.com/MetGuide/TD6200.html

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Quality assessment for upper data
QA is an optional process helping potential problems in data to
be excluded or included.

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Application site, sectors and surface parameters
Site of model (application site)

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Application site, sectors and surface parameters

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Application site, sectors and surface parameters
1) Albedo for each land type → reflective power of the surface
2) Bowen ratio for each land type → portion of transferred
energy from the surface to the atmosphere
3) Surface roughness foe each land type

A combination of
different types of land
use data may be used
for a particular case.

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Running the AERMET/Outputs
 Output files
1) Surface file, *.SFC
2) Profile file, *.PFL
3) Wind rose

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

AERMOD View
 Assumptions 3) SO2 as pollutant in flue gas
1) A factory in a rural area 4) Assumed value for stacks
2) 2 stacks with a building 5) Surface file, *.SFC
in between 6) Profile file, *.PFL

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Defining initial parameters

 UTM (Universal
Transverse Mercator)
Zones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Tran
sverse_Mercator_coordinate_system

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Defining initial parameters
 Site geometry

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

AERMOD environment

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Importing base map
 A raster map as an image file (JPEG, TIFF, DXF, …) should be
imported
 Import → Base maps…
 Then, map extents should be geo-referenced

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Importing stacks and building
 Extents of the building foundation and stacks are imported by
a DXF file. Import → base maps…

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Defining building
 Drawing tools

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Defining stacks
 Zooming to the extents of interest

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Defining stacks
 Drawing tools

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

3-D Visualization

Export → Google Earth

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

AERMOD pathways
1) Control pathway
2) Source pathway
3) Receptor pathway
4) Meteorology pathway
5) Output pathway

Control pathway Receptor pathway

 Dispersion options  Receptor summary
 Pollutant/Averaging  Grids
 Terrain options Meteorological pathway
Source pathway  Met input data
 Source summary  Data period
 Building downwash  Wind speed categories

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Control pathway
1) Dispersion options

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Control pathway
2) Pollutant/Averaging

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Control pathway
2) Pollutant/Averaging

 If the land use

types including
industrial,
commercial and
residential uses
account for 50% or
more of an area
within 3 km radius
from the source,
the site is classified
as urban;
otherwise, it is
classed as rural.

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Control pathway
3) Terrain options

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Source pathway
1) Source summary

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Source pathway
2) Building downwash

Will be calculated
later on by the
software

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Receptor pathway
1) Receptor summary

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Receptor pathway
2) Grids or

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Meteorology pathway
1) Met input data

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Meteorology pathway
2) Data period

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Meteorology pathway
3) Wind speed categories

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Output pathway
1) Tabular outputs

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Terrain, (AERMAP processor)
 Terrain or AERMAP feature of AERMOD, is used for
processing the elevated terrains. It creates a digital terrain file
that covers modeling domain.

Digital Elevated Maps (DEM)

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Terrain, (AERMAP processor)
 Determining the extensions in DEM

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Terrain, (AERMAP processor)
 Import elevations/hill heights

Reviewing Receptor
pathway, Source pathway,
and Building Inputs, shows
the imported elevations
and hill heights generated
by AERMAP

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

AERMAP output

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Running BPIP
 BPIP is an acronym for Building Input Profile Program and it
is for obtaining building downwash calculation results.

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Running BPIP

 Run → BPIP

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Running AERMOD

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Final output

AERMOD View, an interface for US-EPA AERMOD Model

Thank you for your attention.