# Appendix E Air Quality and Meteorological Preparations and Results

### 1. Air Quality Data for 2002

As part of the VISTAS Phase I modeling study, the VISTAS emissions a nd air quality modeling team of ENVIRON International Corporation, Al pine Geophysics (AG) and the University of California at Riverside (UCR) compiled ambient monitoring data for both gas and particulate species to be used in the VISTAS regional haze model performance evaluation. UCR took the lead in this activity. The cont ractor’s report (found in Appendix E .1) describes the sources of the ambient data and the steps taken in the processi ng and quality assurance (QA) of the data. In addition, the ambient data is being processed and formatted in preparation for use in software packages designed for the model performance evaluation.

The goal was to preprocess the ambient data and present plots of ambien t data on the project website so model performance evaluations when the model simulations were completed. The ambient data are available from the follo wing 9 monitoring networ ks or databases:

• EPA’s AQS (Environmental Protection Agen cy’s Air Quality System) database

• PAMS (Photochemical Assessment Monitoring Stations)

• IMPROVE (The Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visu al Environments)

• SEARCH (Southeastern Aerosol Re search and Characterization)

• EPA’s STN (Speciati on Trends Network)

• NADP (National Atmospheric Deposition Program)

• CASTNET (Clean Air Status and Trend Network)

• PM Supersites

• NARSTO SOS99 Aircraft data (for the July 1999 episode only)

• TVA measurement network

• Georgia Institute of Technology Assessmen t of Spatial Aerosol Composition in Atlanta (ASACA) monitors.

Note that there is some overlap in the above monitoring networks . For example, some data from PAMS (such as ozone and nitrogen oxides) are included in the AQS database, and it appears that the STN network may also include speciated par ticulate matter data from IMPROVE and other monitoring networks. Appendix E .1 contains maps of many of the existing and planned (as of January 2002) urban and rural fine particulate matter speciation networks. The available data from the above monitoring networks for the th ree episodes of VISTAS regional haze modeling (July 9-22, 1999, July 7-28, 2001 and January 1- 21, 2002) was obtained. The attempt was made to reconcile data from the various networks and to perform a high level QA of the ambient data. The monitoring networks, the available data, and QA efforts are described in their entirety in the previously mentioned VISTAS report.

Additional data used in the air quality mode ling include the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). TOMS data is available fo r 24-hour average and is obtained from http://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov/eptoms/ep.html . The TOMS data is used in the CMAQ radiation model (JPROC) to calculate photolysis rates.

AQ & Met – Preparations & Results Appendix E - 2 Pre-Hearing Draft January 18, 2008 Regional Haze SIP for TN Class I Areas1.1 Quality Assurance -- Overview

The VISTAS Phase II emissions and air qua lity modeling team received emissions, meteorological and air quality data from other VISTAS contractors or other sources. As a first line of QA, a Gatekeeper function was defined to assure the data have been received correctly, evaluate the quality of the data, and docume nt the data received. Separate air quality, meteorological and emissions Gatekeepers have b een identified whose roles are defined below. In addition, a Data Management Gatekeeper ha s been defined who will post data, reports and results to the project website and archiv e all key data generated in the project.

• Air Quality Data Gatekeeper . Obtain air quality data as appropriate for model input development and model performance evaluati on and assure quality of all air quality data obtained, consistent with approved QA pl an. This gatekeeper will also provide documentation of evaluation and generate IC/BC inputs for CMAQ for all modeling

runs.

• Meteorological Gatekeeper . Obtain meteorologi cal data, as MM5 or MCIP files, as appropriate for annual 2002 modeling runs and other episode periods and perform data quality checks as approved in QA plan together with appropriate documentation of model performance evaluation activities.

1.2 Quality Assurance of Air Quality Data

In gathering data from the monitoring networks it is assumed that the agency or researcher responsible for collecting the data performed quality assurance on the data. However, it is possible that the data sets may contain e rroneous data (i.e., missing data, zeros during calibration, unrealistic values, etc). Due to poor documentation or poor formatting of some data sets it is also possible that mist akes may be made in our processing of the data. To guard against this possibility, a plan to pe rform a high level QA by visually inspecting time-series plots and scatter plots of the ambient data was developed and is outlined as follows:

Plots of Time Series Time series plots are generated for PAMS sp ecies. The plots should be inspected for the following:

• Large "jumps" or "dips" in the concentrations

• Periodicity of peaks, calibration carryover

• Unexpected diurnal beha vior (i.e., isoprene)

• Unexpected relationships among species

• High single-hour concentrations of less abundant species

AQ & Met – Preparations & Results Appendix E - 3 Pre-Hearing Draft January 18, 2008 Regional Haze SIP for TN Class I AreasScatter Plots Scatter plots may be prepared for the following:

• Total NMOC vs. species group totals, vs. individual species

• Benzene vs. Toluene, Acetylene, Ethane

• Scatter plots comparing data for a single species measured with different sampling methods

• Plots of reconstructed mass versus measured mass (to reveals if anything unusual is happening with the chemical measurements)

• Plots of molal particulate ammonium versus the molal sum of sulfate and particulate nitrate (as a sanity check on the ion bala nce in the PM chemical measurements)

If data is identified that appears flawed it will be flagged and either corrected if the error is in the processing step, or removed from the data set.

IMPROVE site Quality Assurance The IMPROVE data have passed the “Level 0 and Level 1” quality assurance and control procedure conducted by the Crocker Nuclear Laborat ory at UC Davis. In addition, the data are added to the online database af ter a 30 day period to allow th e States, Tribes, Federal Land Managers’ or any other organization a chan ce to review and comment on the accuracy, credibility, and/or representative ness of aerosol speciation data collected and the reconciliation of any issues these organizations may find. In the past, additional QA was not performed on the IMPROVE data, but simply used the data obtain ed from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Atmosphere (CIRA) website: http://vista.cira.colostate.edu/improve

. Further detail on the quality assu rance of air quality data modeling data can be found in the VISTAS document in Appendix E.1. Additiona l information on quality assurance procedures can be found in the QAPP, as referenced in Appendix C of the Regional Haze State Implementation Plan for the North Carolina Class I Areas.



### 2. Meteorological Data for 2002

The observations used for performance statis tics come primarily from UCAR’s ds472.0 (TDL) archive ( http://dss.ucar.edu/datasets/ds472.0/ ). These data are quality controlled and converted to NetCDF format, thus allowing the data to be visualized on the model fields via a graphical visualization tool such as PAVE. Unfortunately, the precipitation values in this dataset are not reliable, so precipitation statis tics were calculated based on the 24-hour gridded accumulations available online from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) ( http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov ). These fields, originally at 0.25- degree resolu tion, undergo grid transformation to match the VISTAS 36-km and 12-km domains. Since the CPC analyses are derived primarily from rain gauges, the statistics are only calculated over cells that MM5 deems to be land.

AQ & Met – Preparations & Results Appendix E - 4 Pre-Hearing Draft January 18, 2008 Regional Haze SIP for TN Class I AreasFor aloft analyses standard sounding obser vations from the NCEP ds353.4 archive ( http://dss.ucar.edu /datasets/ds353.4/ ) were processed. These obser vations are quality controlled and used to produce model/observation skewT soundi ng plots for selected sites. Additionally, the observations were integrated into sigma le vels that match the MM5 specifications, after which the performance can be statistically analyzed at si gma levels 9, 17, and 22 (~500m, ~1600m, ~3400m, respectively). Qualitative profiler plots sh owing model/observed hourly winds are also created based upon the data stored at the Forecast Systems Lab ( http://www.profiler.noaa.gov/jsp). For additional evaluation deta ils and results, please refer to the Protocol for Annual MM5 Modeling in Suppor t of VISTAS (DRAFT) Task 3a Deliverable found in Appendix E.2.

AQ & Met – Preparations & Results Appendix E - 5 Pre-Hearing Draft January 18, 2008 Regional Haze SIP for TN Class I Areas

# Appendix E.1
Review and Assessment of Available Ambient Air Quality Data to Support Modeling and

Modeling Performance Evaluation for the Three VISTAS Phase I Episodes

# Appendix E.2 Protocol for Annual MM5 Modeling in Support of VISTAS