The Western Regional Air Partnership Technical Support System as a Model for

Technical Data Sharing

Patrick Barickman, Brock LeBaron, Utah Division of Air QualityShawn McClure, CIRA, Tom Moore, WRAP

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

Aerosol & Atmospheric Optics: Visual Air Quality and Radiation

AWMA Specialty ConferenceMoab, Utah April 30, 2008

Extending the Regional Haze Tools

1) Distribution of Large Datasets Archive, Manage and Distribute Data in Manageable Bytes

3) Expanding and Adding Observational DataIntegration Of Satellite-based Observational Data

2) Climate Change – Mitigation Strategies and Costs Collecting and Analyzing Greenhouse Gas Inventories

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

Large Datasets

2003 – Clean Air Corridors

Perl program to extract and prepare gridded inventory

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

2006 – Oil and gas development in N.E. Utah

• Adapt Perl to extract subsets of emissions and modeling data• Extend scripting for further analysis

Large Datasets

2008 – New desktop GIS tools

Handle netCDF directly

Still use Perl scripts for analysis

Relevant needs now are for temporal subsets rather than spatial subsets of data

netCDF files are already in single-day format

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

Why Is This Capability Important?

1) As time moves On So do modeling needs and the capability to address them

Large Datasets

2) Regionally Consistent Emission Inventories• State agencies• International• Windblown dust• Fire3) Comprehensive Emission Inventories•Natural/anthropogenic•Controllable/uncontrollable

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

RPO Unified Grid/WRAP 36 km domainWRAP 12 km domain4-Corners 4 km ozone study (CAMx)

IPAMS 12 km ozone studyCounties exceeding new ozone NAAQS

Additional counties very near the new NAAQS

Counties potentially affected by new PM2.5 NAAQS

Use of the TSS for Housing and Analyzing GHG Inventories

Leveraging existing analysis tools to address new regional questions; same

sources, different pollutants.

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

Climate Change

States are Establishing GHG Inventories

• Historical trends and projected growth• Identify best areas to reduce emissions• Registering emissions to establish baseline – TCR• Response to public demand for action• All western/WRAP states now have a GHG inventory

– Most developed by CCS and utilize a consistent methodology– Include the same GHGs listed by the IGCC– Cover the same historical and projection years

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

Climate Change

Need Tools for Tracking GHGs and Evaluating Reduction Strategies

• Analysis by sector using totals, percentages and apportionment

• Traceability and support for certification• Regional, state, sector, or source focus• Same sources as for Criteria or RH pollutants• Some differences from Criteria pollutants or RH

pollutants:– Consumption or Production Based– Indirect vs. direct sources– Sector based not SCC code based

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

Climate Change

TSS Could Add Value With Limited Development Cost

• Government, public and industry review of emissions for all sources

• Spatial mapping of emissions and sources using GIS• Ability to view totals by source sector, geography,

GHG species or other characteristics• Links to current understanding of GHG forcing;

absorption, scattering, secondary effects• Cross sector comparisons of cost and energy

efficiency

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

Climate Change

TSS Data Links

• GHG inventories - State, Federal and Registry • GHG radiative equivalency calculations - IPCC• GHG accounting protocol – WRI ISO14064• GHG scenario cost comparison -WCI

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

Climate Change

TSS Enhancement of The Climate Registry

• View emissions trends over time• Geographic mapping of participants and reductions• Comparisons of emissions calculation

methodologies • Compare composite changes by source type

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

Climate Change

Expanding and Adding Observational Data

Continuing Improvements

Integration Of Satellite-based Observational Data

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

VIEWS/TSS Data Inventory

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

• Add satellite data in conjunction with NASA ROSES contract • Add additional NAAQS (ozone, for example) and global data

• Develop more tools that offer region- and locale-specific analyses

• Develop appropriate new functionality as web services

• Refine decision tools for making interpretations and recommendations

• Expand and refine guidance documentation

• Establish case studies from the user community as guidance

• Allow users to upload and immediately work with their data

• Develop modular, reusable, components for other developers

• Establish reusable precedents for air quality decision support

VIEWS/TSS Project: Future Near-Term Plans

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality

• 2007 NASA ROSES Solicitation for “Enhancing a Decision Support System” with NASA satellite data

• End users for project are WRAP, EPA, NPS, + others• Awarded to CIRA and UNC Chapel Hill as Co-P.I.s• 3-year project starts May 2008 – activities include:

– Acquire and import relevant satellite data into the TSS database• Quantitative concentration values, aerosol optical depth, other• Qualitative satellite vertical profiles, maps

– Incorporate and use satellite data in CMAQ - utilize for model evaluation• Enhance/build upon recent work in the scientific community to integrate ground-

based and satellite data for fire activity and emissions as input to air quality models

– Enhance TSS tools to provide access to and visualization of satellite data• Display vertical profiles for a given site to investigate aerosol events• “Fill in” sparse monitoring data to produce better contour maps• Correlate satellite data to ground-based monitoring data• Investigate long-term transport, evaluate substituted data, additional QA of

monitored data, etc.

Acquisition and Import of NASA Satellite Data into VIEWS/TSS

Division of Air QualityUtah Department of Environmental Quality