15 Apr 2016CERC at the recent 'Air Quality - Science and Application' conference in Milan

In March, Dr. Jenny Stocker from CERC attended the Air Quality - Science and Application conference in Milan, presenting recent work on regional to roadside modelling and co-chairing a session on 'Development / application / evaluation of air quality and related models' . Jenny's presentation showed analyses derived from ADMS-Urban RML system output, including the influence of local and regional pollutant transport on air quality in London. ADMS-Urban pollutant concentration contours were also shown during Stijn Janssen's presentation on 'FAIRMODE's Composite Mapping Exercise'. Other session topics included measurement and modelling of non-exhaust particulates and urban meteorology. Presentations are now available for download from the conference website.

30 Mar 2016Colchester joins the airTEXT air quality forecasting service

We are delighted to welcome Colchester Borough Council to the airTEXT air quality and health forecasting service. Colchester residents can now sign up for free air quality alerts by SMS text message, email, voicemail, and Twitter. The forecasts are also available on free phone apps for Android and iPhone.

CERC and the Council have worked together to extend the airTEXT service to the council area. airTEXT provides three-day forecasts of NO₂, PM₁₀, PM_2.5 and ozone at street-scale resolution using CERC's ADMS-Urban modelling system. For more information on airTEXT, ADMS-Urban or forecasting services please contact CERC.

4 Mar 2016CERC completes comprehensive air quality assessment for Johnson Matthey, Royston

CERC have used ADMS 5 to carry out dispersion modelling for all relevant processes on Johnson Matthey's Royston site. Impacts on both human health and natural habitats were assessed, including nitrogen and acid deposition at nearby Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).

The site is complex: there are many emission points and buildings to be taken into account, and terrain effects are also significant. Due to the batch nature of some processes, 'typical' and 'peak' emission rates were used for assessment of long- and short term impacts, respectively. CERC has modelled emissions on the Royston site since 2002.

26 Feb 2016FLOWSTAR-Energy: a high resolution air flow model for wind farm assessments

Flowstar-Energy is an exciting new software product from CERC; it is a practical, high resolution model that simulates air flow and turbulence over flat or complex terrain, including the effects of stratification, variable surface roughness and wind turbines in operation. FLOWSTAR-Energy is an extended version of CERC's FLOWSTAR model of flow over complex terrain; it provides the flow field and turbulence output familiar to FLOWSTAR users and in addition provides a range of essential outputs for wind farm planning, including estimates of free stream, gross and net energy yields. The model simulates wind turbine wakes, their interaction and their effect on the flow field and wind energy resource. FLOWSTAR-Energy can be used at scales from 5 metres up to 60 kilometres and for both onshore and offshore sites. The picture shows a map of the predicted wind speed within an offshore wind farm.

10 Feb 2016Model Evaluation Toolkit Version 4.0 now available

CERC's Model Evaluation Toolkit is a free toolkit for the evaluation of local and regional air quality forecasting models. It uses openair tools to create report-ready graphs and statistics, assesses model performance in terms of concentration, forecast index and alert accuracy, it supports a range of modelled data formats including ADMS PST files and it includes a facility to automatically download and import Londonair and UK AURN monitoring data.

Version 4.0 of the Toolkit was released in January 2016 and is now available to download from the Model Evaluation Toolkit web page. This version of the Toolkit has a completely new user interface; the RGGRunner program is no longer used to run the Toolkit. The picture shows the new user interface for the Model Evaluation Tool. Please see the 'What's New in Version 4.0?' document for a complete list of all the new features and improvements in Version 4.0 of the Model Evaluation Toolkit.