Seasonality of Black Carbon over the Great Lakes

We employ a 2001 annual simulation with the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model to identify patterns in the mass concentration and aerosol fraction of elemental carbon in the Upper Midwestern United States. CMAQ 4.3 is run at 36 km resolution using the 2001 EPA Clean Air Interstate Rule emissions inventory, MM5 meteorology, and boundary conditions from the MOZART global atmospheric chemistry model. Results are compared to daily-average surface observations from the IMPROVE and EPA Speciation Trends networks. Effects of CMAQ model configuration (plume-in-grid dispersion, advection scheme, sectional PM) are compared, identifying common findings and model-dependent features.