Assessing the potential visibility benefits of Clean Air Act Title IV emission reductions
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
Assessments are made of the benefits of the 1990 Clean Air Act Title IV (COVE), Phase 2, SO2 and NOX reduction provisions, to the visibility in typical eastern and western Class 1 areas. Probable bands of visibility impairment distribution curves are developed for Shenandoah National Park, Smoky Mountain National Park and the Grand Canyon National Park, based on the existing emissions, ``Base Case``, and for the COVE emission reductions, ``CAAA Case``. Emission projections for 2010 are developed with improved versions of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program emission projection models. Source-receptor transfer matrices created with the Advanced Statistical Trajectory Regional Air Pollution (ASTRAP) model are used with existing emission inventories and with the emission projections to calculate atmospheric concentrations of sulfate and nitrate at the receptors of interest for existing and projected emission scenarios. The Visibility Assessment Scoping Model (VASM) is then used to develop distributions of visibility impairment. VASM combines statistics of observed concentrations of particulate species and relative humidity with ASTRAP calculations of the relative changes in atmospheric sulfate and nitrate particulate concentrations in a Monte Carlo approach to produce expected distributions of hourly particulate concentrations and RH. Light extinction relationships developed in theoretical and field studies are then used to calculate the resulting distribution of visibility impairment. Successive Monte Carlo studies are carried out to develop sets of visibility impairment distributions with and without the COVE emission reductions to gain insight into the detectability of expected visibility improvements.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31-109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 97281
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ER/CP-85032; CONF-950196-2; ON: DE95013499; TRN: 95:019201
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) conference on acid rain & electric utilits: permits, allowances, monitoring & meteorology, Tempe, AZ (United States), 23-25 Jan 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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