CAR-FMI, Contaminants in the Air from a Road
CAR-FMI, Contaminants in the Air from a Road
CAR-FMI (Härkönen et al., 1996; Karppinen et al., 2000a) is a Gaussian finite line source dispersion model i.e., a plume model for an open road network. Road is treated as a straight line of finite length. The traffic volume of the road during one hour is assumed constant and thus the traffic emissions can be interpreted as a finite line source. The model computes an hourly time-series of the pollutant dispersion for CO, NO, NO2, NOx, O3, PM2.5 and C6H6 concentrations with input information from
• the number and locations of the line sources
• the hourly traffic volumes of the roads
• compounds to be computed and details of statistical interests of the output
• hourly time-series of the meteorology and the background concentration.
CAR-FMI uses the general analytical solution of Luhar anf Patil (1989) for the dispersion of gaseous compounds. The dispersion parameters are modelled as function of the Monin-Obukhov length, the friction velocity and the mixing height (Gryning et al., 1987). The meteorological time-series is computed by the meteorological pre-processing model (MPP-FMI; Karppinen et al., 2000b). Traffic-originated turbulence is modelled with a semi-empirical treatment (Petersen, 1980). The model includes a treatment for the basic reactions of nitrogen oxides, oxygen and ozone, using a receptor-oriented discrete parcel method, and the dry deposition of the fine particles.
The final results of statistically analysed hourly concentrations are available in tabular form or presented graphically utilizing the GIS (Geographic Information System) MapInfo.
More information
Ari Karppinen
Jari Härkönen
email: firstname.lastname@fmi.fi
See also the long description of CAR-FMI at the Model Documentation System website of the European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change, ETC/ACC:
http://pandora.meng.auth.gr/mds/showlong.php?id=103&MTG_Session=adcb543570ae2e70262c574669c9f699