Abstract
The deteriorating air quality has become a matter of concern throughout the world with significant seasonal variations on a regional and transboundary scale. The selection of control strategies is comparatively more challenging on a regional or transboundary scale owing to the lack of accurate assessment of the contribution of various pollution sources. The present paper attempts to review the application of regional air quality models for accurate prediction. The main focus of the review is to understand the operational challenges of carrying out WRF-Chem model simulation considering technical expertise, time and computational requirements. WRF-Chem is a regional-scale chemistry transport model, which has been used by researchers in the past to assess transboundary and regional ambient air quality and its impacting sources. The model generally takes input from global databases which are mostly dynamic variables and need to be updated with primary survey data. The high-resolution local information, including Land-Use-Land-Cover, local anthropogenic emissions and biomass emissions, is an important database for the model and must be updated at regular intervals. This regional scale chemistry transport model is computationally expensive and requires specialised knowledge, thus, challenging to be used by various air quality managing agencies operating at state and city levels. The review also discusses agencies involved in regional scale modelling in different countries with their roles and responsibilities. Considering this complexity, it is recommended to phase-wise develop a centre of excellence for regional air quality modelling in the country.
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Abbreviations
- AAQFS:
-
Australian Air Quality Forecasting System
- AERMOD:
-
American Meteorological Society/Environmental Protection Agency Regulatory Model
- AQEWS:
-
Air Quality Early Warning System
- AQUM:
-
Air Quality in the Unified Model
- BoM:
-
Bureau of Meteorology
- CALPUFF:
-
California Puff
- CAM-Chem:
-
Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry
- CAMS:
-
Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service
- CAMx:
-
Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions
- CBMZ:
-
Carbon bond mechanism-Z
- CFD:
-
Computational Fluid Dynamics
- CMAQ:
-
Community Multiscale Air Quality Model
- CSIRO:
-
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- DEHM:
-
Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model
- ECLIPSE:
-
Evaluating the Climate and Air Quality Impact of Short-Lived Pollutants
- ECMWF:
-
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
- EDGAR-HTAP:
-
Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research—Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution
- EMEP:
-
European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme
- EPA:
-
Environmental Protection Agency
- EURAD:
-
EURopean Air pollution Dispersion
- FINN:
-
Fire INventory from NCAR
- FNL:
-
‘Final’ analysis [though it is now mainly referred to as the GDAS analysis, a part of the Global Data Assimilation System]
- GEM-AQ:
-
Global Environmental Multiscale model with Air Quality processes
- GFS:
-
Global Forecast System
- GOCART:
-
Goddard Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport
- IEP-NRI:
-
Institute of Environmental Protection – National Research Institute
- IITM:
-
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology
- IMD:
-
India Meteorological Department
- INERIS:
-
National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks
- INTEX-B:
-
Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-Phase B
- KNMI:
-
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
- KPP:
-
Kinetic Pre-Processor
- LOTOS-EUROS:
-
Long Term Ozone Simulation- European Operational Smog
- MACC/CityZEN:
-
Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate and megacity Zoom for the Environment projects
- MADE/SORGAM:
-
Modal Aerosol Dynamics Model for Europe/Secondary Organic Aerosol Model
- MAM:
-
Modal Aerosol Module
- MATCH:
-
Multi-scale Atmospheric Transport and Chemistry
- MEGAN:
-
Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature
- MetUM:
-
Met Office Unified Model
- MOCAGE:
-
Modèle de Chimie Atmosphérique de Grande Echelle
- MOSAIC:
-
Model for Simulating Aerosol Interactions and Chemistry
- MOZART:
-
Model of Ozone and Related chemical Tracers
- NAQFC:
-
National Air Quality Forecast Capability
- NCEP:
-
National Centres for Environmental Prediction
- NOAA:
-
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- RACM:
-
Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Mechanism
- RADM2:
-
Regional Acid Deposition Model—2nd generation
- RETRO:
-
REanalysis of the TROpospheric chemical composition
- SAFAR:
-
System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research
- SEAC4RS:
-
Southeast Asia Composition, Cloud, Climate Coupling Regional Study
- SILAM:
-
System for Integrated Modeling of Atmospheric Composition
- SMHI:
-
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
- TNO:
-
Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research
- WACCM:
-
Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model
- WRF Chem:
-
Weather Research Forecast model coupled with Chemistry
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Nidhi Shukla: literature review, original writing and design of paper; Sunil Gulia: conceptualization, critical review and re-write; S.K. Goyal: conceptualization, critical review and supervision.
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Shukla, N., Gulia, S. & Goyal, S.K. Regional scale air quality modelling system in India: issues, challenges and suggestive framework. Arab J Geosci 16, 387 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11474-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11474-2