Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Hysplit In Simulating The Atmospheric Dispersion Of Hazardous Aerosols: A Case Study In St. Louis, Missouri, Ahmet Tolga Odabasi

Masters Theses

"Atmospheric dispersion and transmission play an important role in the behavior and effects of air pollution. Human health can be adversely affected by air pollution in a variety of ways, both immediately and over time. The Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT) modeling program, a computer model and software package, tracks the transport trajectories and distributions of air pollution and various pollutants, including radioactive pollutants, in the atmosphere. It also facilitates research on pollution sources. This study simulated the transport of hazardous aerosols in St. Louis region for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022 using the HYSPLIT modeling …

Monitoring Personal Exposure To Air Quality Gradients While Biking On An Elevated Urban Trail, Gavin D. Salas

DePaul Discoveries

Air pollution is a major global health concern, specifically as it relates to the human exposome. The EPA criteria pollutants, including particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and NO_x can have severe impacts on respiratory and cardiovascular health, particularly in populations with chronic illnesses such as asthma, those facing economic hardships and individuals who frequently spend time outdoors, such as bicyclists and runners. To understand the impact of air pollution on human health, it is essential to assess personal exposure. This study aimed to investigate personal exposure to air pollution levels while biking along …

Possible Overestimation Of Nitrogen Dioxide Outgassing During The Beirut 2020 Explosion, Ashraf Farahat, Nayla El-Kork, Ramesh P. Singh, Feng Jing

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

On 4 August 2020, a strong explosion occurred near the Beirut seaport, Lebanon and killed more than 200 people and damaged numerous buildings in the vicinity. As Amonium Nitrate (AN) caused the explosion, many studies claimed the release of large amounts of NO₂ in the atmosphere may have resulted in a health hazard in Beirut and the vicinity. In order to reasonably evaluate the significance of NO₂ amounts released in the atmosphere, it is important to investigate the spatio-temporal distribution of NO₂ during and after the blast and compare it to the average day-to-day background emissions from …

Assessing Changes In Actual Air Quality And Public Perceptions Of Air Quality In Kathmandu Valley Nepal Pre And Post Covid-19 Lockdown, Robin Margherita Rives

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Air pollution is a global concern. Cities around the world fail to meet air quality standards set by the World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines, which has a significant impact on public health. As the capital city and largest metropolitan region of Nepal, Kathmandu is a hotspot for urban pollution in South Asia. Nepal faces emissions from both internal and external sources. External sources include emissions from Nepal’s neighboring countries of India and China and emissions resulting from tourism. Internal sources of pollution in the country include brick and cement factories, consumption of energy from traditional sources such as biomass, …

Long-Term Aerosol Trends And Variability Over Central Saudi Arabia Using Optical Characteristics From Solar Village Aeronet Measurements, Mohammed Al Otaibi, Ashraf Farahat, Bassam Tawabini, M. Hafidz Omar, Emad Ramadan, Abdelgadir Abuelgasim, Ramesh Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Natural and anthropogenic aerosols over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) play a major role in affecting the regional radiation budget. The long-term variability of these aerosols’ physical and optical parameters, including aerosol optical depth (AOD) and Ångström exponent (α), were measured at a location near central KSA using the Solar Village (SV) AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) station during the period December 1999–January 2013. The AERONET measurements show an overall increase in AOD on an annual basis. This upward trend is mainly attributed to a prolonged increase in the monthly/seasonal mean AOD during March–June and during August– September. In contrast, …

Studying The Impact On Urban Health Over The Greater Delta Region In Egypt Due To Aerosol Variability Using Optical Characteristics From Satellite Observations And Ground-Based Aeronet Measurements, Wenzhao Li, Elham Ali, Islam Abou Al-Magd, Moustafa Mohamed Mourad, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

This research addresses the aerosol characteristics and variability over Cairo and the Greater Delta region over the last 20 years using an integrative multi-sensor approach of remotely sensed and PM10 ground data. The accuracy of these satellite aerosol products is also evaluated and compared through cross-validation against ground observations from the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) project measured at local stations. The results show the validity of using Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on the Terra and Aqua platforms for quantitative aerosol optical depth (AOD) assessment as compared to Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Sea-viewingWide Field-of-view …

Spatio-Temporal Pattern Estimation Of Pm2.5 In Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region Based On Modis Aod And Meteorological Data Using The Back Propagation Neural Network, Xialing Ni, Chunxiang Cao, Yuke Zhou, Xianghui Cui, Ramesh Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

With the economic growth and increasing urbanization in the last three decades, the air quality over China has continuously degraded, which poses a great threat to human health. The concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) directly affects the mortality of people living in the polluted areas where air quality is poor. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, one of the well organized urban regions in northern China, has suffered with poor air quality and atmospheric pollution due to recent growth of the industrial sector and vehicle emissions. In the present study, we used the back propagation neural network model approach to estimate …

Outdoor Air Quality, Taylor Curley

Global Issues in Public Health

Outdoor air quality is a significant issue for the entire world. It affects any and all people, but is more of an issue in low-income countries and among people that are more susceptible to respiratory issues such as young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people who already suffer from respiratory problems like asthma. Poor air quality is caused by the burning of fossil fuels which releases particles and chemicals into the air like carbon dioxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen to name a few. It can cause multiple health issues such as respiratory problems to people who are exposed to …

The Mobile Monitoring Of Particulate Matter Through Wearable Sensors And Their Influence On Students' Environmental Attitudes, Joseph M. Abbate

DePaul Discoveries

While we have a comprehensive understanding of air pollutants, and their spatiotemporal characteristics across global, and even regional, scales, we are quite limited in our capacity to monitor neighborhood-scale emissions. The mobile monitoring of air pollution is a growing field, prospectively filling in these gaps while personalizing air quality-based tools and risk assessment. In the present study, we developed wearable sensors for particulate matter (PM); and through a citizen science approach, students of partnering Chicago schools monitored PM concentrations throughout their commutes over a five-day period. While their recorded findings would be used to explore the relationship between PM concentrations …

Contributions Of Wood Smoke And Vehicle Emissions To Ambient Concentrations Of Volatile Organic Compounds And Particulate Matter During The Yakima Wintertime Nitrate Study, Graham Vanderschelden, Benjamin De Foy, Courtney Herring, Susan D. Kaspari, Tim Vanreken, Bertram Jobson

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

A multiple linear regression (MLR) chemical mass balance model was applied to data collected during an air quality field experiment in Yakima, WA, during January 2013 to determine the relative contribution of residential wood combustion (RWC) and vehicle emissions to ambient pollutant levels. Acetonitrile was used as a chemical tracer for wood burning and nitrogen oxides (NOx) as a chemical tracer for mobile sources. RWC was found to be a substantial source of gas phase air toxics in wintertime. The MLR model found RWC primarily responsible for emissions of formaldehyde (73%), acetaldehyde (69%), and black carbon (55%) and mobile sources …

Dispersion Of Ammonia From Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, Austin D. Wardall

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this research is to investigate the dispersion of ammonia (NH3) from three Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in western Kentucky, as well as to investigate the Weather Research and Forecasting – Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model’s sensitivity response to initial NH3 concentrations under both wet conditions (significant precipitation) and dry conditions (no precipitation). As expected, pollutant concentrations generally were significantly higher near their points of origin and generally declined away from the sources. Contrary to expectations, ammonia tended to rise through the planetary boundary layer (PBL) regardless of atmospheric conditions. Results showed modeled NH3 pollution levels at the surface …

Fine Particulate Air Pollution And Hospital Emergency Room Visits For Respiratory Disease In Urban Areas In Beijing, China, In 2013, Qin Xu, Xia Li, Shuo Wang, Chao Wang, Fangfang Huang, Qi Gao, Lijuan Wu, Lixin Tao, Jin Guo, Wei Wang, Xiuhua Guo

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background

Heavy fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) air pollution occurs frequently in China. However, epidemiological research on the association between short-term exposure to PM_2.5 pollution and respiratory disease morbidity is still limited. This study aimed to explore the association between PM_2.5 pollution and hospital emergency room visits (ERV) for total and cause-specific respiratory diseases in urban areas in Beijing. Methods Daily counts of respiratory ERV from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2013, were obtained from ten general hospitals located in urban areas in Beijing. Concurrently, data on PM_2.5 were collected from the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, …

Climate. A Period Of Consequence: Environmental Literature Of 2006 (2006), Shaun O’Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author talks about the consequences of not respecting the climate and understanding global warming will cause ecocide and our own extinction.

Reprinted from New England Journal of Public Policy 21, no. 2 (2007), article 5.

Household Bush Burning Practice And Related Respiratory Symptoms In Grenada, The Caribbean, Muge Akpinar-Elci, Kareem Coomansingh, James Blando, Larissa Mark

Center for Global Health Publications

The practice of household bush burning in Grenada occurs frequently, though it is not well documented. The effects of the emissions from bush burning on respiratory health of the population have never been researched in Grenada. The goal of the study was to measure the frequency of bush burning and to investigate the relationship between bush burning practice and respiratory health in Grenada. In this cross-sectional study, a questionnaire was used to gather information from households in the parishes of St. George and St. Andrew, Grenada. In total, 225 participants were recruited and their responses on household bush burning and …

Obliczenia Rozprzestrzeniania Się Pyłu Drobnego W Powietrzu Atmosferycznym Z Wykorzystaniem Dyfuzyjnych Modeli Gaussa, Robert Oleniacz, Mateusz Rzeszutek

Robert Oleniacz

The chapter presents a comparison of results of modelling concentrations of fine dust (suspended dust PM10) in the air with the use of two diffusion models: the Gaussian plume model (used commonly in Poland), and the Gaussian puff model CALPUFF (used significantly less frequently). It indicates discrepancies in obtained results of calculations for point emitters taking into consideration three dimensional options (with the following heights: 20, 40 and 60 m and diameters of respectively: 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 m). For particular variants, errors were visualised, resulting from use of the simple Gaussian plume model in place of the advanced CALPUFF …

Zastosowanie Systemu Modeli Calmet/Calpuff O Wysokiej Rozdzielczości Do Oceny Wpływu Na Jakość Powietrza Spalarni Odpadów Komunalnych W Krakowie, Mateusz Rzeszutek, Robert Oleniacz

Robert Oleniacz

In this paper there was presented a comprehensive assessment of the impact on air for the Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI) plant in Krakow with the planned start of operation by the end of 2015. Construction of the plant started in autumn 2013 in the district of Nowa Huta in Krakow. Modeling of the spread of pollutants in ambient air was conducted using an advanced multi-layer cloud CALPUFF Gaussian model, whose algorithms include, among other things, diversity of terrain. Spatial data of land area in the admitted computational domain are obtained from digital terrain model Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM3) …

Tb196: Temperature, Soil Moisture, And Streamflow At The Bear Brook Watershed In Maine (Bbwm), Ivan J. Fernandez, Joseph E. Karem, Stephen A. Norton, Lindsey E. Rustad

Ivan J. Fernandez

The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine is a whole-ecosystem chemical manipulation initiated in 1987 to study the effects of acid deposition on forests and surface waters. The focus of this research was to understand the biogeochemical response of watersheds with emphasis on chemistry and hydrology. In 2001 a program was initiated to provide more detailed measurements of temperature and moisture to examine critical linkages amongst chemical, biological, and physical processes that ultimately work together to define ecosystem function. The purpose of this publication is to provide data from the initial phase of soil temperature, air temperature, and soil moisture measurements …

Meteorologiczne Determinanty Jakości Powietrza W Krakowie, Robert Oleniacz, Marek Bogacki, Mateusz Rzeszutek, Agata Kot

Robert Oleniacz

Air quality in the Agglomeration of Krakow is determined by many factors, which include, among others, unfavorable location and the resulting meteorological conditions unfavorable for self-cleaning of ambient air. The paper presents a few examples illustrating the impact of selected meteorological factors on some pollutant concentrations in the air in Krakow. Among these, special attention was paid to the ambient air temperature (indirectly influencing the level of air emissions from the municipal sector in the winter season) as well as the wind speed and the mixing layer height. On the basis performed analyzes were to draw conclusions on meteorological restrictions …

Annual Patterns Of Atmospheric Pollutions And Episodes Over Cairo Egypt, Y. Aboel Fetouh, Hesham El-Askary, Mohamed El Raey, Mohamed Allali, W. A. Sprigg, Menas Kafatos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The Nile Delta major cities, particularly Cairo, experienced stagnant air pollution episodes, known as Black Cloud, every year over the past decade during autumn. Low-elevated thermal inversion layers play a crucial role in intensifying pollution impacts. Carbon monoxide, ozone, atmospheric temperature, water vapor, and methane measurements from the tropospheric emission spectrometer (TES) on board the Aura have been used to assess the dominant component below the inversion layer. In this study, time series analysis, autocorrelations, and cross correlations are performed to gain a better understanding of the connections between those parameters and their local effect. Satellite-based data were obtained for …

An Application Of Camx Process Analysis Tools : Exploring Process Contributions To Extreme Ozone, Nitrogen Oxides And Sulfur Dioxide, David-Anthony Murray

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The University at Albany Air Quality Forecasting Modeling System (AQFMS) is a state-of-the-art model that generates reliable daily and "day-ahead" air quality forecasts for the Northeastern United States. The three major categories of processes which dictate regional air quality are production from emission sources, horizontal and vertical transport driven by the prevailing meteorology, and chemical transformations. The Advanced Research WRF (ARW) produces meteorological fields. The Sparse Matrix Operator for Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) processes available emission inventories for air quality modeling. The Comprehensive Air Quality Model with extension (CAMx) handles both chemical processes and the integration of ARW-WRF and SMOKE in …

Aerosol Characterizaton In El Paso-Juarez Airshed Using Optical Methods, Angel E. Esparza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The assessment and characterization of atmospheric aerosols and their optical properties are of great significance for several applications such as air pollution studies, atmospheric visibility, remote sensing of the atmosphere, and impacts on climate change. Decades ago, the interest in atmospheric aerosols was primarily for visibility impairment problems; however, recently interest has intensified with efforts to quantify the optical properties of aerosols, especially because of the uncertainties surrounding the role of aerosols in climate change. The main objective of the optical characterization of aerosols is to understand their properties. These properties are determined by the aerosols' chemical composition, size, shape …

Aerosol Climatology Over Nile Delta Based On Modis, Misr And Omi Satellite Data, H. S. Marey, J. C. Gille, Hesham El-Askary, E. A. Shalaby, Mohamed El Raey

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Since 1999 Cairo and the Nile delta region have suffered from air pollution episodes called the “black cloud” during the fall season. These have been attributed to either burning of agriculture waste or long-range transport of desert dust. Here we present a detailed analysis of the optical and microphysical aerosol properties, based on satellite data. Monthly mean values of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm were examined for the 10 yr period from 2000–2009. Significant monthly variability is observed in the AOD with maxima in April or May (_0.5) and October (_0.45), and a …

Slides: Shale And Air Quality: The View From The Other Side, Jeremy Nichols

Shale Plays in the Intermountain West: Legal and Policy Issues (November 12)

Presenter: Jeremy Nichols, Climate & Energy Program Director, WildEarth Guardians, Denver, CO

18 slides

Slides: The Peril Of Energy Usage, Mike Tupper

The Promise and Peril of Oil Shale Development (February 5)

Presenter: Mike Tupper, Executive Vice President, Composite Technology Development, Inc.

9 slides

Slides: The Logistics And Energy Needs Of Oil Shale Extraction, Alan K. Burnham

The Promise and Peril of Oil Shale Development (February 5)

Presenter: Dr. Alan K. Burnham, Chief Technology Officer, American Shale Oil, LLC

10 slides

Slides: Energy Production And The West's Wild Places, Amy Mall

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Natural Resources Defense Council

28 slides

Slides: Paying The Price For Power: When L.A. Turns On The Lights, Northwestern New Mexico Feels It, Jonathan Thompson

Shifting Baselines and New Meridians: Water, Resources, Landscapes, and the Transformation of the American West (Summer Conference, June 4-6)

Presenter: Jonathan Thompson, Editor, High Country News

23 slides

Tb196: Temperature, Soil Moisture, And Streamflow At The Bear Brook Watershed In Maine (Bbwm), Ivan J. Fernandez, Joseph E. Karem, Stephen A. Norton, Lindsey E. Rustad

Technical Bulletins

The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine is a whole-ecosystem chemical manipulation initiated in 1987 to study the effects of acid deposition on forests and surface waters. The focus of this research was to understand the biogeochemical response of watersheds with emphasis on chemistry and hydrology. In 2001 a program was initiated to provide more detailed measurements of temperature and moisture to examine critical linkages amongst chemical, biological, and physical processes that ultimately work together to define ecosystem function. The purpose of this publication is to provide data from the initial phase of soil temperature, air temperature, and soil moisture measurements …

Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Nitrogen Deposition In China: Synthesis Of Observational Data, Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu, Hanqin Tian

Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu

Anthropogenic nitrous pollutant emissions in China significantly increased during the last decades, which contributed to the accelerated nitrogen (N) deposition. In order to characterize spatial pattern of nitrogen deposition, we employed the kriging technique to interpolate sampling data of precipitation chemistry and ambient air concentration from site-network observations over China. The estimation of wet deposition in China was limited to aqueous NO3− and NH4+, while ambient NO2 was the only species involved in the predicted dry deposition fluxes. To obtain wet deposition fluxes, precipitation concentration was multiplied by 20-year mean precipitation amounts with a resolution of 10 × 10 km. …

Climate. A Period Of Consequence: Environmental Literature Of 2006, Shaun O'Connell

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author talks about the consequences of not respecting the climate and understanding global warming will cause ecocide and our own extinction.