This ongoing project evaluates several state-of-the-art regional air quality models through the integration of a highly explicit representation of atmospheric chemistry and meteorological model. Critical to this model evaluation would be the meteorological data, detailed emission data and chemical mechanism scheme.
The Western Australian Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) has conducted numerous sensitivity analyses using the Weather Research Forecast (WRF) model in the priority airsheds in Western Australia. The recent update of the Perth metropolitan emissions inventory offers a great opportunity to incorporate a state-of-the-art meteorological model with detailed emissions in the metropolitan area and other priority airsheds. This project involves the development of the next-generation regional photochemical transport model that extends the existing representation of the atmospheric chemistry. The preliminary modelled results have been evaluated and compared to long term observational data.