Evaluating CMAQ Particulate Matter Simulations in Central Valley California with Ground and Airborne LIDAR Observations

Abstract

Models-3/Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model particulate matter (PM) simulations for February 11-18 in the Central Valley California were evaluated against ground-based PM2.5 observations and the United Stated (US) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Advanced Monitoring Initiative (AMI) field campaign aerosol optical depth (AOD) data. The comparisons showed that the modeled AOD peaks corresponding to the observed peaks well, although the modeled AOD values were generally smaller than the observations. The modeled surface PM2.5 concentrations showed different temporal variation trend than that of the AOD sometimes. The modeled hourly dry PM2.5 (with which water components excluded) compared better with the Beta Attenuation Monitors observations than modeled PM2.5 including water contents.