Title: Validation of atmospheric dispersion models using ETEX data

Authors: Irina Sandu, Francois Bompay, Sabina Stefan

Addresses: Atmospheric Physics Department, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, P.O.Box MG-11, Bucharest, Romania. ' Meteo-France, Direction de la Production, Services/Environnement, 42 avenue Coriolis, 31057 Toulouse Cedex, France. ' Atmospheric Physics Department, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, P.O. Box MG-11, Bucharest, Romania

Abstract: Two models frequently used to simulate the dispersion of pollutants in the atmosphere have been compared. This is necessary because only a well-tested and well-calibrated simulation model can be a good representation of the reality of the dispersion of pollutants. The models evaluated (HYSPLIT_4 with its four variants and MEDIA) were run using as input parameters the same meteorological dataset (for 23-26 October 1994) from the French model ARPEGE. The following statistical criteria were compared: the space and time evolution of the pollutant cloud; the variation of statistical parameters in time and space; and the differences between the simulated and measured values of concentration in time for six different stations. The results emphasise the characteristics of the two models and their abilities in the framework of the air quality monitoring.

Keywords: air pollution; European Tracer Experiment (ETEX); models; statistical parameters.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2003.004315

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2003 Vol.19 No.4, pp.367 - 389

Published online: 10 May 2004 *

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