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Air Quality Research and Contract Reports: Meteorological Modeling

Reports related to meteorological modeling written by contractors for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Reports from Air Quality Research and Contract Projects related to meteorological modeling are posted here as PDF files (Help with PDF) unless otherwise specified. Some reports have companion data files in various formats.

For comments and questions regarding these reports, please e-mail us at amda@tceq.texas.gov, put "Meteorological Modeling Contract Report Inquiry" in the subject line, and include the web address of the report PDF file in the e-mail text or attach the original report PDF file.

Development and Implementation of a WRF Planetary Boundary Layer Height Operator - AER developed a software to help TCEQ air modeling staff compare model predicted planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) to weather radar-derived PBLH. The PBLH is a meteorological parameter that helps determine air quality. Being able to assess model predicted PBLH will help ensure modeling for air quality purposes is more accurate and robust. (June 2023)

Multiscale Lightning Data Assimilation for Improved Weather and Air Quality Modeling - This report, provided by AER, describes how to improve TCEQ’s simulation of ozone photochemistry by applying a proven lightning data assimilation (LDA) method in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The method will force deep convection in the meteorological model where lightning is observed and only allow shallow convection where it is not, which will improve the representation of clouds in the meteorological and photochemical models. (June 2022)

Using NWS Radars to Constrain PBLH Simulations - This project developed a technique to estimate daytime PBLH using National Weather Service data. (June 2022)

High-Resolution Meteorological Simulations of DISCOVER-AQ Houston - This report, provided by AER, describes meteorological modeling of the DISCOVER-AQ field study in Houston, which took place in September 2013. For the high ozone days of September 25-26, 2013, the WRF model was run on a nested grid at 1.33 kilometer resolution. The high resolution model output is available upon request from the TCEQ. (August 2015)

Investigation of nocturnal surface wind bias by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)/ Advanced Research WRF (ARW) meteorological model for the Second Texas Air Quality Study (TexAQS-II) in 2006 - This report, provided by NOAA/ARL, provides details on a project exploring the nocturnal surface wind bias in the WRF-ARW model for the TexAQS-II period. The report investigates the earlier findings by TCEQ modeling staff that had identified this bias. NOAA staff relied on theoretical work by Van de Wiel et al. that extended the study of inertial oscillations by accounting for frictional effects within the nocturnal boundary layer. Despite better understanding of model performance, this hypothesis did not fully account for the nocturnal bias. (March 15, 2012)

Improvement of Meteorological Modeling by Accurate Prediction of Soil Moisture in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model - This report, provided by NOAA/ARL, provides details on a project where NOAA conducted indirect assimilation of soil moisture and soil temperature with the Pleim and Xiu land-surface model (PX LSM) in WRF. Sensitivity tests with the May 31 – July 2, 2006 episode were conducted over eastern and central Texas with and without soil nudging to investigate the response of indirect assimilation in PX LSM. Improved 2-meter temperature and 10-meter wind performance was shown. (March 31, 2011)

Cloud Assimilation into the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) Model - This report, provided by the University of Alabama Huntsville, evaluated the performance of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model to simulate clouds and established baseline model cloud performance for an air quality episode. The report documents progress to streamline, transition, and test a satellite assimilation technique. The goal included improvements over earlier work that were easy to implement, computationally inexpensive and operationally feasible for regulatory air quality modeling applications. (February 28, 2011)

Evaluating the Low-Level Jet and Ozone Transport in Central Texas: Phase 2 – Influence of Other Constituents on Ozone - This report, provided by NOAA/ESRL, shows that nighttime low-level jet exists, but only occasionally brings high ozone concentrations into the tower area during the summer months. However, during the other seasons, high ozone pulses coming in the nighttime jet are more frequent. Whether the high ozone pulses from those cities affect the surface-level ozone is dependent on whether vertical mixing is present at the time of the pulse. (February 28, 2011)

Influence of Transport by the Nocturnal Jet on Ozone Levels in Central Texas - This report, provided by NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory, provides details on a project to determine whether ozone levels in central Texas are influenced by the nocturnal low level jet (LLJ) transporting ozone and precursors from upwind sources. Continuous-sampling at multiple vertical levels to measure meteorological data, ozone, carbon monoxide, and other trace gases was conducted between May-December, 2009, at the KWKT-TV tower near Moody, Texas. The study also included ozonesonde launches between August and September, 2009. Download data from NOAA FTP site . (March 12, 2010)

MM5 Meteorological Modeling of Texas for June 2006 - This report, provided by Environ Corp., summarizes the meteorological modeling work completed under Environ Work Order No. 582-07-83986-FY08-02. MM5 modeling was conducted for the eastern half of Texas during part of June 2006. (July 31, 2009)

Improvement of MM5 Surface Characteristics and Appendix A: Improvement of MM5 Urban Surface Characteristics - This project was designed to improve the Penn State/National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model v5 (MM5) meteorological modeling system for East Texas, including Dallas-Fort Worth and the Houston-Galveston Area. Accurate representation of surface characteristics in a mesoscale model is critically important to the production of meteorological inputs used for air quality modeling. (August 31, 2008)

Analysis of TexAQS-II Meteorological Data - This report, provided by Texas A&M University, summarizes the meteorological analysis work completed under TAMU grant 582564593FY0820. The projects described include the collection of TexAQS-II meteorological data, evaluation of modeling inputs, and creation of data assimilation files. (May 16, 2008)

Spatial and Temporal Characteristics of Winds and Mixing during TexAQS-II , Appendix A: Examples of Synoptic Patterns and Appendix B: Case Study Plots - This report, provided by Sonoma Technology, Inc. and Texas A&M University, investigates the relationship between wind characteristics and mixing heights. The report provides a climatological summary as well as TexAQS-II case study analyses. (April 11, 2008)

Met Model Configuration and Performance with Wind Profiler Nudging - This report, provided by Texas A&M University, evaluates the observational nudging files created under Texas A&M University grant 582564593FY0820 for use in TCEQ meteorological modeling of TexAQS-II ozone episodes. This report also evaluates appropriate atmospheric base state constants for the MM5 meteorological model pre-processor INTERPF. MM5 met model runs are conducted as part of the evaluation. (March 21, 2008)

Evaluation of Retrospective MM5 and CMAQ Simulations of TexAQS-II Period with CAMS Measurements - This report, provided by the University of Houston, details the evaluation of retrospective meteorological and photochemical model runs of TexAQS II ozone episodes when using enhanced data assimilation techniques. Much of the assimilated data came from NOAA's Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS ). (February 2008)

TexAQS-II Dual-Doppler Wind Data - Met Model Assimilation Feasibility - This report, provided by Texas A&M University, describes the development of wind fields from the Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research and Teaching (SMART) Radar and the National Weather Services weather surveillance Doppler radar in the Houston area in 2005. The report also investigates the possibility of assimilating the wind fields into a meteorological model. (December 12, 2007)

Improved Met Modeling Inputs: Land Use and Sea-Surface Temperature - This report, provided by the University of Houston, describes the creation of improved land use/land cover (LULC) and sea surface temperature characteristics from satellite data for meteorological modeling. High resolution land cover data from the University of Texas Center for Space Research was converted and mapped to the standard MM5 land use categories. High resolution sea surface temperature data from hourly GOES satellite measurements was gridded and interpolated to TCEQ's meteorological modeling domain structure. (August 31, 2007)

TexAQS-II Upper Air Meteorological Data QC and Mixing Height Derivation - This report, provided by Sonoma Technology, Inc. and Texas A&M University, describes the quality control of upper air meteorological measurements from radar wind profilers (RWPs), Radio Acoustic Sounding Systems (RASS), sodars, and a lidar during the Texas Air Quality Study II (TexAQS-II). Details are given regarding the operational history of the instruments and how the data is taken from raw to quality assured formats. The data collected and quality controlled from this project will be used for meteorological model evaluation and nudging. (August 31, 2007)

Performance Evaluation of an MM5 Simulation of May 29-July 3, 2006 - This report, provided by Environ International Corp., describes the development of meteorological modeling for an extended episode that included three distinct periods of high ozone in central Texas. The report focuses on evaluating the performance of the meteorological model with the intent of optimizing wind speed and direction by comparing model output to statistical benchmarks. Model performance on the 4km grid was not as good as on the 12km grid, probably because the large 4km grid was not nudged and so the model was running unconstrained in forecast mode. A series of additional sensitivity tests is proposed to address the wind speed and direction errors, the moist bias, and anomalous convection. (August 31, 2007)

Summary of the Offshore Brazos A-19 2005 & 2006 Radar Profiler Operations and Data Availability - This report, provided by Sonoma Technology, Inc. and Texas A&M University, describes the operation of a 915-MHz radar wind profiler (RWP), Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS), and surface meteorological station at the Brazos A-19 Offshore Platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The instrument was funded as part of the Texas Air Quality Study II (TexAQS-II) and was in operation for much of 2005 and 2006. Difficulties encountered on this unique monitoring platform were discussed including evacuation due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Data quality control and mixing height derivation is also detailed. (December 28, 2006)

Summary of the New Braunfels 2005 & 2006 Radar Profiler Operations and Data Availability - This report, provided by Sonoma Technology, Inc. and Texas A&M University, describes the operation of a 915-MHz radar wind profiler (RWP), Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS), and surface meteorological station at the New Braunfels Municipal Airport. The instrument was funded as part of the Texas Air Quality Study II (TexAQS-II) and was in operation for much of 2005 and 2006. Data quality control and mixing height derivation is also detailed. (December 28, 2006)

MM5 Simulations for TexAQS 2000 Episode - Final Report - This report, provided by ATMET, LLC, describes MM5 modeling for the extended TexAQS 2000 episode of August 18 - September 6. It covers the topics on basic modeling configuration, use of the NOAA land surface model, and experimental modeling results. Also included is discussion of modeling sensitivity runs that addressed the questions of wind speed bias during daytime hours. (August 14, 2003)

MM5 Simulations for TexAQS 2000 Episode - Task 3: Sensitivities to modifications of the MRF PBL scheme - This report, provided by ATMET, LLC, documents modifications to the MRF PBL scheme and a series of sensitivity simulations of TexAQS 2000 Episode. (September 30, 2003)

MM5 Simulations for TexAQS 2000 Episode - Task 4: Review of the TKE PBL schemes in MM5 - This report, provided by ATMET, LLC, assesses the possibility of future TKE analyses using available MM5 options. (September 30, 2003)

Application of Microwave Temperature Profiler (MTP) Data to MM5 Modeling of the August 2000 Houston-Galveston Ozone Episode - This report, provided by Dr. Nielsen-Gammon of Texas A&M University, attempts to validate the model output against microwave temperature profiler (MTP) that was deployed on NOAA aircraft during the TexAQS 2000. This is the preliminary report describing the preparation of MTP data for model validation purposes. (August 30, 2002)

Evaluation of the 4-km Coupled MM5/TOPLATS/SSATS Modeling System for the August 1998 Houston-Galveston Area Ozone Exceedance Episode - This report, provided by John McHenry of MCNC and Christa Peters-Lidard of the Georgia Institute of Technology, evaluates the application of the coupled meteorological - hydrological - emission - air quality modeling system - Advanced Texas Air Quality Model (ATAQM) - to the August 1998 Ozone Exceedance Episode in Houston-Galveston Area. (October 7, 2002)

Evaluation of Houston Sea Breeze and Circulation of Pollutants - This report, provided by NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, evaluates data from two lidars sited at La Porte during the TexAQS study to review development of the bay-sea breeze (strength, timing, direction and depth) and how the bay-sea breeze affects ozone concentrations. The report discusses several key, typical days during TexAQS. The report integrates data from several types of surface and high-tech instruments. (2002)

Spatial and Temporal Variations in Mixing Height in Houston - This report, provided by the University of Colorado and NOAA, compares rawinsonde, profiler, and aircraft data on Mixing Height during the TexAQS modeling period (Aug. 23 - Sep. 1, 2000) and includes wind flow patterns calculated from the profiler data. All three data types give fairly consistent results. The most interesting part of this report is that the aircraft data allow us to evaluate mixing heights over the water, where as the sounder and profiler data only give data over the land areas. Mixing heights over the Gulf of Mexico average 500 - 600 meters; over Galveston Bay, 1000 - 1200 meters. (2002)

Meteorological Modeling for the August 2000 Houston-Galveston Ozone Episode: PBL Characteristics, Nudging Procedure, and Performance Evaluation - This is the third report from John Nielsen-Gammon of Texas A&M regarding the MM5 modeling of the August 2000 ozone episode. It documents the final preparation of meteorological modeling. Key topics include the development of the planetary boundary layer during the TexAQS 2000 study period, the appropriate nudging of the model towards observations, and performance evaluation of the modeling results. (February 28, 2002)

High Resolution (1.33 km) MM5 Modeling of the September 1993 COAST Episode: Sensitivity to Model Configuration and Performance Optimization - This report, from Environ and ATMET, provides the information on over 20 different MM5 simulations performed in the sensitivity tests for the Sep. 1993 COAST episode. These tests investigated the effects of modeling grid resolutions (down to 12 km, 4 km, and 1.33 km respectively), microphysical parameterizations, PBL parameterizations, and FDDA grid nudging. (February 15, 2002)

Evaluation and Comparison of Preliminary Meteorological Modeling for the August 2000 Houston-Galveston Ozone Episode - This is the second report from John Nielsen-Gammon of Texas A&M University regarding the MM5 modeling of the August 2000 ozone episode. It evaluates the quality of MM5 simulations of the episode to help guide the final selection of a model configuration. The report also evaluates the viability of MCNC's real-time forecasting system as an alternative meteorological model for regulatory work. (February 5, 2002)

Initial Modeling of the August 2000 Houston-Galveston Ozone Episode - This report from John Nielsen-Gammon of Texas A&M University describes the initial MM5 modeling of the August 2000 ozone episode. It covers meteorological conditions, procedures for developing MM5 simulations, basic modeling setup, and experimental modeling results. (December 19, 2001)

Progress Report for Model Bay/Sea Breeze - This report, from Texas A&M University, discusses selection of vertical layers in the MM5 modeling for accurate simulation of the bay-sea breeze. (August 31, 2001)

RAMS Meteorological Modeling For the September 6 - 11, 1993 Houston Ozone Episode - This report, provided by Environ, describes the initial RAMS meteorological modeling of the September 6 - 11, 1993 Houston ozone episode. Following development of the meteorological fields, CAMx sensitivities were done with the RAMS modeling results. (February 16, 2001)

MM5/RAMS Fine Grid Meteorological Modeling for September 8 - 11, 1993 Ozone Episode - This report from Environ International Corp. provides information on a project to produce new wind fields for the referenced episode using RAMS at about a 1 km grid resolution and to compare those results with equivalent simulations from MM5. (August 31, 2001)

Enhanced Meteorological Modeling and Performance Evaluation for Two Texas Ozone Episodes - This report from Environ International Corp. provides results from their study to develop a quantitative objective assessment capability of the performance of the meteorological model, similar to the techniques employed for air quality modeling over the past 10 years. (August 31, 2001)

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