Linkage between an advanced air quality model and a mechanistic watershed model

Abstract. An offline linkage between two advanced multi-pollutant air quality and watershed models is presented. The models linked are (1) the Advanced Modeling System for Transport, Emissions, Reactions and Deposition of Atmospheric Matter (AMSTERDAM) (a three-dimensional Eulerian plume-in-grid model derived from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model) and (2) the Watershed Analysis Risk Management Framework (WARMF). The pollutants linked include gaseous and particulate nitrogen, sulfur and mercury compounds. The linkage may also be used to obtain meteorological fields such as precipitation and air temperature required by WARMF from the outputs of the meteorology chemistry interface processor (MCIP) that processes meteorology simulated by the fifth generation Mesoscale Model (MM5) or the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model for input to AMSTERDAM. The linkage is tested in the Catawba River basin of North and South Carolina for ammonium, nitrate and sulfate. Modeled air quality and meteorological fields transferred by the linkage can supplement the conventional measurements used to drive WARMF and may be used to help predict the impact of changes in atmospheric emissions on water quality.