Title: Numerical study of the air quality in the city of Sofia - some preliminary results

Authors: Ivelina Georgieva; Georgi Gadzhev; Kostadin Ganev; Maria Prodanova; Dimiter Syrakov; Nikolay Miloshev

Addresses: National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Boncev str. bl. 3, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria ' National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Boncev str. bl. 3, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria ' National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Boncev str. bl. 3, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria ' National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 66 Tzarigradsko Chausee, Sofia 1784, Bulgaria ' National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 66 Tzarigradsko Chausee, Sofia 1784, Bulgaria ' National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. G. Boncev str. bl. 3, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria

Abstract: Some extensive numerical simulations of the atmospheric composition fields in the city of Sofia have been recently performed. The simulations were carried out using the following set of models: the model WRF used as meteorological pre-processor; CMAQ - the community multiscale air quality system - the chemical transport model; SMOKE - the sparse matrix operator kernel emissions modelling system - the emission model. As the NCEP global analysis data with one degree resolution was used as meteorological background, the WRF and CMAQ nesting capabilities were applied for downscaling the simulations to a 1 km resolution over Sofia. The national emission inventory was used as an emission input for Bulgaria, while outside the country the emissions were taken from the TNO inventory. The biogenic emissions of VOC are estimated by the model SMOKE. Different characteristics of the numerically obtained concentration fields, including air quality indices will be demonstrated in the present paper.

Keywords: numerical modelling; numerical simulation; air quality indices; AQI; urban scale atmospheric composition; air pollution; Sofia; Bulgaria; emission inventory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2015.074500

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2015 Vol.57 No.3/4, pp.162 - 174

Received: 26 Dec 2014
Accepted: 14 Jul 2015
Published online: 02 Feb 2016 *

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