Application of the Receptor Oriented Approach in Mesoscale Dispersion Modeling

Abstract

A traditional source oriented approach in dispersion modeling consists in solving model equations forward in time for given sources of pollutant (Figure 1). As a result time and space dependent concentration fields C are obtained. In order to investigate another variant of emission Q, the solution of the model equations must be repeated. In many practical applications, air pollution at a given receptor is of primary interest and an alternative receptor oriented modeling should be considered as a more effective approach. In this case, air quality at the receptor is characterized by an integral of pollution concentration over the modeling domain and time of simulation Φ[C]. The integral can be defined in accordance to the aim of the study using a receptor function R. Instead of concentration, an influence function C* is calculated which provides information on contributions from different sources to air pollution at the receptor.

on leave from Technical University of Warsaw, Poland