Simulating near-road reactive dispersion of gaseous air pollutants using a three-dimensional Eulerian model Original Research Article

In this study, the TAMNROM-3D model, a 3D Eulerian near-road air quality model with vehicle induced turbulence parameterization and a MOVES based emission preprocessor, is tested using near-road gaseous pollutants data collected near a rural freeway with 34% heavy duty vehicle traffic. Exhaust emissions of gasses from the vehicles are estimated using a lumped vehicle classification scheme based on the number of vehicle axles and the default county-level MOVES vehicle fleet database. The predicted dilution of CO and NOx in the downwind direction agrees well with observation, although the total NOx emission has to be scaled to 85% of its original emission rate estimated by the MOVES model. Using the atmospheric turbulent diffusion coefficient parameterization of with variable horizontal turbulent diffusion coefficient (Kxx) leads to slightly better predictions than a traditional non-height-dependent Kxx parameterization. The NO2 concentrations can be better predicted when emission of total NOx is split into NO and NO2 using the NO2 to NOx ratio of 29% measured near the road. Simulations using the SAPRC99 photochemical mechanism do not show significant changes in the predicted NO and NO2 concentrations near the road compared to simulations using a simple three-reaction mechanism that involves only NOx and O3. A regional air quality simulation in Houston, Texas during a high O3 episode in August 2000 shows that using the NO2 to NOx ratio of 29% instead of the traditional 5% leads to as much as 6 ppb increase in 8-h O3 predictions.