Group D1 – AQ & Deposition Characterization for Trends and Accountability
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Attendees
- Bret Schichtel
- David McCabe
- Ed Lillis
- Frank Lindsay
- Gary Lear Co-Chair)
- Gregory Leptoukh
- Jerry Johnston
- Jill Engel-Cox
- Lewis Weinstock
- Louis Sweeny
- Mike Uhl
- Neil Frank (Co-Chair)
- Norm Possiel
- Randy Waite
- Rich Poirot (Co-Chair)
- Richard Payton
- Rudy Husar
- Sig Christensen
- Steve Goranson
- Susan Lundquist
- Tesh Rao (Notes1)
Session Questions
Current Business Uses and Users
Who are example important business users and what do they want to DO with the data and why? If they were here, what three things would they tell us to focus on now?
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Ad-Hoc Events Analysis – Attract regional interest, Spring-up in near-real time, feed off of (& into forecasts), health advisories. Often Transboundary (special data merging needs). May lead to “Exceptional Event” designation. FASTNET http://datafedwiki.wustl.edu/index.php/FASTNET, Smog Blog http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/ Would benefit from better faster access to other (than O3 & PM) continuous (hourly) data, like SO2, NO2, NOy, CO, Babs, ASOS, etc.
CAMD – http://www.epa.gov/airmarkt/ Continuing need to show that market-based systems are working to improve effects, CASTNET, etc. Also generator of a unique – but not well-distributed or explored – set of hourly CEMS data for US utilities. Nice set of on-line tools. Projection (& distriburtion) of future emissions is especially challenging here & elsewhere.
Critical Loads (& Exceedances of) – Needs deposition & local environmental data, changes over time as emissions generally decrease. Current Secondary SOx & NOx NAAQS reviews. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/standards/no2so2sec/data/200712_external_peer_review.pdf NADP Ad Hoc CLAD workgroup, http://nadp.sws.uiuc.edu/meetings/spr07/clad2007Spr.pdf NEG/ECP Forest Mapping http://www.ecosystems-research.com/fmi/2007-Forest-Mapping-Report.pdf
EPA Air Quality & Emissions Trends - and Regional, State, Local & International counterparts: http://epa.gov/airtrends/. Historical emissions data problems, data completeness issues for trend analysis. Jurisdictional and gridded data needed where feasible. Traditional County emissions maps don’t convey much.
Exceptional Events – Identification and Documentation. http://datafedwiki.wustl.edu/index.php/2005/6_Exceptional_Events_Project How exceptional is it? This review might be interesting as a periodic regional group process. Becomes more important with lower standards. Not clear how these should be handled for haze regs. Opportunity for community involvement http://wiki.esipfed.org/index.php/Exceptional_Air_Pollution_Event_Analysis_Community_Workspace
Federal Land Managers – Review Permit Applications with unique view to “Air Quality Related Values” including but not limited to visibility, Shenandoah Study, BRAVO, ROMANS, FLAG, http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/Permits/flag/flagDoc/index.cfm IMPROVE participants, AQ and Environmental Data Generators.
NAAQS Reviews - “Policy Relevant Background” (Natural & Non North American contributions) Will become more important as US emissions & Standards decrease and the Developing World develops. “Air Quality Characterization” (at different metrics for potential standards) is needed in more timely manner for new NAAQS review process.
Regional Haze SIPS & Tracking – VIEWS http://vista.cira.colostate.edu/views/ Regs require very formalized definition of baseline and trends. Measurement methods changes can pose problems. Why aren’t worst 20% days improving? RPOs were a good idea but currently inactive with no funding (and SIPs due).
Remote Sensors - NASA, NOAA satellite data needs “ground truth” for calibration. Need units conversion/ harmonization. Can we convert tropospheric OMI NO2 to ppb and ‘auto-compare’ to surface obs? http://datafedwiki.wustl.edu/index.php/2007-07-18_ESIP_Demo_OMI_NO2 Info content in ratio of total column to surface? What are time fuses for current/future products?
US-Canada Air Quality Agreement - EPA, NOAA, NPS, States, Environment Canada, Provinces, – Subcommittee on Scientific Coop. Progress Reports every 2 years, New PM Annex. See: http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/progsregs/usca/index.htm
Need Emissions, Air Quality, Deposition and environmental data to evaluate progress on agreements on reducing transboundary emissions and effects of Acid Deposition, Ozone, PM – in PEMA region; New England Governors/ Eastern Canadian Premiers - Acid Rain, Mercury, Climate Change Action Plans & Workgroups: http://www.scics.gc.ca/cinfo98/acid-e.html Need Data on Deposition, Emissions, Forest Sensitivity Mapping, Aquatic Monitoring, Transboundary PM, Hg, CO2. Special needs & problems merging/mapping data across borders & over time.
Future Business Uses and Users
What trends/needs do you see, or do your users tell you about for future business uses? Where is/could this go, even if all your users are not thinking about it/asking yet?
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IT Issues
What are broad data needs and capabilities to support these uses? What are the gaps and opportunities? What do these needs and capabilities require of US as a community of providers?
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Non-Technical Issues
What are key non-IT requirements and challenges to delivering those needs/capabilities? What do WE need to do as individual resources and as a community? Examples of what we mean by non-IT: Security: that agency policy around access is unclear, or there is no incentive to work through the process for approval to get access. Don't want a discussion of gaps in joint authentication mechanisms; Discovery: that we lack a common way to describe data resources and an incentive to register them. Don't' want a discussion of UDDI vs. FDGC.
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Things not discussed
What have we missed in this discussion? (its ok if this is just a list for parking lot lists)
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Session Notes
Data System Profile
| Charcterization, Trends, Accountability | |
|---|---|
| 3D-AQS | Not Given |
| AIRNow | |
| CASTNET | More than 50 CASTNET sites have been collecting data consistently for over 15 years and are used extensively for determining trends in air chemistry and deposition. CASTNET data is used by the EPA as an accountability tool for regulated emissions reductions programs. |
| CMAQ | The predictions from CMAQ simulations for multiple years provide a means to complement air quality measurements for characterizing trends and for evaluating the effectiveness of control programs as part of “accountability” analyses and dynamic evaluation of the model. The US EPA is building a dataset of annual CMAQ predictions which began with model simulations for 2002. |
| DataFed | |
| EMF | Can handle data from every year, if available. Emissions modeling includes emissions projections, which are also performed from the EMF. |
| EPA AIRQuest Data Warehouse | Not Given |
| EPA AQS | AQS is the basis for EPA’s characterization of air quality effecting the populations and ecosystems, the efficacy of control strategies, and exposure to toxic pollutants – all top level EPA air quality management goals. |
| ESIP | Not Given |
| GIOVANNI | Not Given |
| GeoWeb | Not Given |
| HEI | Yes, based on existing user community |
| NARSTO | Yes, in places and times where data exist. |
| NASA Atmospheric Science Data Center | Anthropogenic emissions monitoring |
| NEISGEI | Not Given |
| RSIG | Not Given |
| Unidata IDD Data System | Not sure what this means. |
| VIEWS | Not Given |
