Title:
Data fusion of monitor data and chemical transport model simulations

dc.contributor.advisor Mulholland, James A.
dc.contributor.author Metcalf, Francesca
dc.contributor.committeeMember Sarnat, Stefanie E.
dc.contributor.committeeMember Russell, Armistead G.
dc.contributor.department Civil and Environmental Engineering
dc.date.accessioned 2017-06-07T17:49:29Z
dc.date.available 2017-06-07T17:49:29Z
dc.date.created 2017-05
dc.date.issued 2017-04-28
dc.date.submitted May 2017
dc.date.updated 2017-06-07T17:49:29Z
dc.description.abstract Associations between air quality and acute health effects vary across pollutants and across spatial and temporal metrics of concentration. Studies that investigate these associations require data that are both spatially and temporally complete across many pollutants. The objective of this study was to create accurate and complete pollutant concentration fields by combining the benefits of observed data and a chemical transport model, CMAQ, while reducing the effects of their incomplete spatial and temporal coverage and limited accuracy, respectively.Using a previously developed approach, these spatially and temporally resolved pollution fields were created over the domain of Georgia for 12 pollutants (8-hr maximum O3, 1-hr maximum NO2, NOx, CO and SO2, and 24-hr average PM10, PM2.5 and five PM2.5 subspecies) and four years (2009 - 2012). It was found that the results from this data fusion agree very well with observations as well as results from previous studies. Through a cross-validation analysis, it was found that the fusion is also able to estimate concentrations far from monitor locations with reasonable accuracy. SO2 is predicted most poorly due to difficulties in capturing plumes from coal combustion. For the other 11 pollutants considered, R2 values ranged from 35.8% to 83.8% from the cross-validation analysis. Because of their ability to capture spatial and temporal variations, concentration fields produced here are well suited for use in epidemiological studies. Two one-step methods were also investigated. When implemented for NO2 and PM2.5 in 2010, these alternatives were not able to predict concentrations as well as the original method,but are computationally much more efficient. It was found that developing and using models of annual mean concentration fields can account for some of the mismatch between point measurements and 12-km gridded CMAQ simulations and thus improves predictions. For larger scale applications, such as over the entire U.S., it is recommended that a one-step method incorporating annual mean models be implemented to provide results for use in health studies.
dc.description.degree M.S.
dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/58335
dc.language.iso en_US
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology
dc.subject Data fusion
dc.subject Ambient air quality
dc.subject CMAQ
dc.subject Air quality modeling
dc.title Data fusion of monitor data and chemical transport model simulations
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Thesis
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.advisor Mulholland, James A.
local.contributor.corporatename School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename College of Engineering
relation.isAdvisorOfPublication 5a9d5952-ce03-49f6-81f0-b0681cc8ffa0
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 88639fad-d3ae-4867-9e7a-7c9e6d2ecc7c
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication 7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
thesis.degree.level Masters
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