Development of a national interregional transport matrix for respirable particulates

Abstract

The Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) long-range transport model was used to produce monthly, average air concentrations of respirable particulates produced by 86 unit emission sources located at points on a grid spanning the continental United States. These monthly assessments were interpolated to provide monthly, average air concentrations resulting from a unit source located at the centroid of each of 238 Air Quality Control Regions (AQCR). The air concentration field from each emitter AQCR was averaged over each receptor AQCR to produce a population-weighted, average air concentration of respirable particulates. The final product is a matrix of the monthly, average air concentration of respirable particulates over each receptor AQCR resulting from the unit emission from each emitter AQCR. Matrices were generated using meteorological data from the months of January, April, July, and October 1974. The program was undertaken to develop a useful method of assessing the air quality impacts resulting from various predicted energy-technology use scenarios. The AQCR-to-AQCR matrix can be used with any siting scenario of energy technologies to predict the air quality impact on any AQCR of the projected emissions from other AQCRs by multiplying the matrix elements by the projected emissions and summing the products over the emittingmore » AQCRs. The matrix approach will allow the ranking of the air quality impacts of various siting scenarios of energy technology use without rerunning the long-range transport model.« less