Gallagher CL, Holloway T, Tessum CW, Jackson CM, Heck C. Combining Satellite-Derived PM
2.5 Data and a Reduced-Form Air Quality Model to Support Air Quality Analysis in US Cities.
GEOHEALTH 2023;
7:e2023GH000788. [PMID:
37181009 PMCID:
PMC10169548 DOI:
10.1029/2023gh000788]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2023] [Revised: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 04/06/2023] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
Air quality models can support pollution mitigation design by simulating policy scenarios and conducting source contribution analyses. The Intervention Model for Air Pollution (InMAP) is a powerful tool for equitable policy design as its variable resolution grid enables intra-urban analysis, the scale of which most environmental justice inquiries are levied. However, InMAP underestimates particulate sulfate and overestimates particulate ammonium formation, errors that limit the model's relevance to city-scale decision-making. To reduce InMAP's biases and increase its relevancy for urban-scale analysis, we calculate and apply scaling factors (SFs) based on observational data and advanced models. We consider both satellite-derived speciated PM2.5 from Washington University and ground-level monitor measurements from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, applied with different scaling methodologies. Relative to ground-monitor data, the unscaled InMAP model fails to meet a normalized mean bias performance goal of <±10% for most of the PM2.5 components it simulates (pSO4: -48%, pNO3: 8%, pNH4: 69%), but with city-specific SFs it achieves the goal benchmarks for every particulate species. Similarly, the normalized mean error performance goal of <35% is not met with the unscaled InMAP model (pSO4: 53%, pNO3: 52%, pNH4: 80%) but is met with the city-scaling approach (15%-27%). The city-specific scaling method also improves the R 2 value from 0.11 to 0.59 (ranging across particulate species) to the range of 0.36-0.76. Scaling increases the percent pollution contribution of electric generating units (EGUs) (nationwide 4%) and non-EGU point sources (nationwide 6%) and decreases the agriculture sector's contribution (nationwide -6%).
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