Lakes Environmental e-Newsletter

Lakes Environmental’s Screen View is a complete and comprehensive interface for the U.S. EPA screening model, SCREEN3. The SCREEN3 model is a single source Gaussian plume model which can be used to estimate worst-case ground level concentrations for point, area, flare, and volume sources as well as concentrations in the cavity zone, and concentrations due to inversion break-up and shoreline fumigation.

SCREEN3 is the screening version of the ISC3 model. Screening runs allow users to quickly determine whether a source poses a potential threat to air quality and the conservative calculations used provide reasonable assurance that maximum concentrations will not be underestimated. This eliminates the need for further analysis for sources that will clearly not cause an exceedance.

Screen View can model scenarios with simple or complex terrain, with or without building downwash and give results at discrete or automated distances with minimal input requirements. Screen View is ideal for initial air dispersion screening runs and can remove the need for more complicated modeling, saving you time and resources.

Screen View contains all the available options of the U.S. EPA SCREEN3 model in addition to many useful features, including:

• Screen View contains a full range of checks on all parameters, run time error checking, and intelligent error and warning messages which will keep your projects error free.
• The Terrain Height Viewer offers you many options to visualize the complex terrain and automated and discrete distances that you have specified as your input.
• Detailed reports on expected conditions including alerts when specific conditions are expected
• Model results can be displayed in graphical format. The SCREEN3 output results are displayed in text and as a XY plot, automatically generated after the model run. The plots display the pollutant concentration versus the downwind distance [m].

Screen View is available FREE from the Lakes Environmental website. Should further analysis be required, our AERMOD View software will provide all the software tools you need to get your air quality analysis done on time!

Lakes Environmental at Pollutec in Paris, France

Next week Lakes Environmental will travel to Paris, France to take part as exhibitors at the Pollutec Horizons Conference & Exhibition. We invite you to stop by our booth in the International Pavilion to meet Dr. Jesse Thé and Mrs. Cristiane Thé, as well as our German partner, Wolfram Bahmann. They will be happy to speak with you regarding our technologically advanced environmental software solutions and services. Wolfram will also be on hand providing information and demonstrations on both AUSTAL View and ARTM View.

AERMOD & CALPUFF Courses in Spain – March 2010

Lakes Environmental is pleased to be returning to Spain for a week of AERMOD and CALPUFF training in Barcelona. We are proud to be a leading provider worldwide of powerful training for US EPA air dispersion models, with instructors being continuously rated as “outstanding” by course attendees.

The course will be hosted by our Spanish distributor, Addlink Software Cientifico from March 15-19, 2010.  Presentation of the course as well as all course materials will be in English.  Register before December 31st and receive 10% off your registration fee. If you are interested in registering for the AERMOD and CALPUFF courses, please contact Addlink at info@addlink.es or visit their website for further details.

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Upcoming Courses

For more information on the above courses, including registration information, location, and course outlines, please visit our web site: https://www.weblakes.com/courses.html.

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Modeling Tip

Checking AERMET Output for Errors

AERMET, the US EPA meteorological pre-processor for AERMOD, produces a surface (*.SFC) and a profile (*.PFL) file which is used in AERMOD. After running AERMET, it is important to review these output files to ensure that the data is accurate.

There are many checks that can be performed; one simple one is explained here.

Convective Conditions

Convective atmospheric conditions are created by incoming solar radiation and will occur during some daylight hours. Examining which hours of the day are convective is a quick check that can be performed on the surface file produced by AERMET.

• Sensible Heat Flux: positive for convective conditions
• Monin-Obukhov Length: negative for convective conditions

Checking the Surface File

After a successful AERMET run, open the surface file and compare either the sensible heat flux or the Monin-Obukhov length to the hour of day. You should expect to see convective conditions in the middle of the day rather than overnight. The time of year and location of your site will affect how long convective conditions will last during the day; some days may remain stable with no convective hours.

If you see convective periods occurring at night or at unlikely hours, or no convective periods at all, it can indicate that some inputs in AERMET may be incorrect. A common example is forgetting to set the time zone for your application site, or specifying the wrong time zone.

Submit Your Modeling Tip Today!

We are currently accepting submissions for the Monthly Modeling Tip that appears in our newsletters. If you have a modeling tip that may benefit a variety of people, please send it to us at support@weblakes.com. Your name and the name of your organization will appear below the tip providing you with greater exposure.

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Articles

Copenhagen deal to help boost climate fund flows

LONDON (Reuters) (Nov. 16, 2009 ) - Agreement in Copenhagen next month on a new pact to fight climate change will encourage long-term investors to move into firms better placed to cope with a likely and eventual rise in the cost of carbon emissions.

A strong political deal including targets for emission cuts at the Dec 7-18 summit might be just enough to accelerate moves by investors such as pension funds or sovereign wealth funds to adjust portfolios to better reflect long-term risks from climate change, asset managers reckon.
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A National Security Perspective on Climate Change

(Nov. 16, 2009) - One key aspect of the discussion this week at the Transatlantic Media Dialog — part of the ongoing effort of climate and energy cooperation began earlier this years as the "Transatlantic Climate Bridge" was the issue of perception. Specifically how climate change and climate policy is perceived in the US and EU, as well as across the globe.
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"Don't expect binding climate pact", Clinton says

MANILA, Philippines (Nov. 13, 2009) - Next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen is not likely to produce a legally binding treaty to cut the greenhouse gas emissions that are widely blamed for global warming, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday.

Speaking to a town hall meeting of students at a university in the Philippine capital, Clinton said the Obama administration would push instead for a strong "framework agreement" that could become a template for an eventual enforceable pact.
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How fast can our climate change - very fast apparently

GLOBE-Net (Nov. 12, 2009) – Swings in climate from hot to cold, and wet to dry, are much more common than we thought, according to William Patterson, from the University of Saskatchewan and his team of palaeoclimate researchers.

In an article on environmentalresearchweb, contributing editor Kate Ravilious reports that Patterson’s team has developed a robot sampler that can be programmed to slice samples is set to revolutionize palaeoclimate studies, shaving off ultrathin slices that represent less than one day of weather. Previous palaeoclimate records haven’t shown the full extent of climate changes because the resolution of the record has not been high enough, and the extremes have been averaged out.
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CO2 Emissions are not Changing the Ratio of Airborne CO2 to that taken up by the Oceans and Plants

WASHINGTON (Nov. 11, 2009) – The University of Bristol in the UK has published a study based not on climate modeling, but on statistical analysis of data including historical data from Antarctic ice cores.

The study shows that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of carbon dioxide having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now. This suggests that terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb CO2 than had been previously expected.
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Upcoming Conferences & Trade Shows

* Lakes Environmental is attending Pollutec Horizons, CANECT, and A&WMA

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About this Newsletter

This newsletter contains information gleaned from various sources on the web, with complete links to the sources cited. Organizations cited are in no way affiliated with Lakes Environmental Software.

Lakes Environmental Software is a leading environmental IT company that offers a complete line of air dispersion modeling, risk assessment, emissions inventory, and emergency release software as well as training and custom software services. With satisfied users located around the globe, Lakes Environmental Software will continue to revolutionize the environmental software field.

For more information please visit our web site at: www.weblakes.com.  You may also contact us by phone at (519) 746-5995 or by fax at (519) 746-0793.

All comments and suggestions are welcome.  You can e-mailus at: support@weblakes.com.

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