Development of a Numerical Prediction Model System for the Assessment of the Air Quality in Budapest

Abstract

Air pollution can severely affect the health of citizens living in urban environment. Monitoring and assessment of air pollution by applying appropriate modeling tools are essential to provide information on air quality to the public. Several air quality forecast and information systems exist in Europe calculating present and predicted concentrations and potential exceedances using a combination of weather forecasting and chemical composition simulations. This paper presents an air quality prediction model system for the area of Budapest. The forecasting modeling system recently consists of a version of the WRF meteorological model and the CHIMERE chemistry transport model. The model system calculates the PM₁₀, NO₂, SO₂ and O₃ concentration values for the city area with 1-h temporal resolution. In this work we present the results of the validation of the prediction system. In the evaluation work, the PM₁₀, NO₂ and O₃ data detected by the air quality monitoring network of Budapest, as well as the forecasted air pollutant concentration values of the air quality prediction model system are used.