Instructor: Rudolf B. Husar Students: Kristin Burford Kurt Fisher Sean King Sean Raffuse

1. ME 449 Sustainable Air Quality Class Report, Spring 2001Sources and Emissions Particulate Matter Instructor: Rudolf B. Husar Students: Kristin Burford Kurt Fisher Sean King Sean Raffuse Robert Surrago Megan Yu

2. Class Project Background • The class was loosely structured around the the theme ‘Sustainable Air Quality’ with special emphasis on particulate matter, PM. • For this class, sustainability was defined as the ability to maintain a desired level of air quality using a feedback system with sensory-motor functionality. • The three components of sustainable AQ management were identified as: (1) sensing the current level of AQ; (2) comparing it to the desired level; (3) acting to remedy the ‘exceedances’. • Sustainable management of PM is made difficult by the poor understanding of emissions, particularly for windblown dust and biomass smoke • PM emissions are highly uncertain, they are caused by largely uncontrollable factors and they are frequently out of jurisdiction of management agencies. • For these reasons, significant effort was invested in a class project “Sources and Emissions of PM”

3. Example: Dynamic Aerosol Pattern at Big Bend, TX • The chemical mass balance of PM2.5 aerosols at Big Bend National Park shows a dynamic seasonal pattern. • Sulfate from SOx emissions is the major contributor through most of the year. • The peak concentration in May is primarily due to organics, smoke organics and light absorbing carbon, most probably caused by springtime agricultural and wild fires in Mexico. • During the spring and summer seasons, uncontrollable windblown dust from Sahara and local sources are a significant portion of the PM2.5 mass. • The figure illustrates that uncontrollable factors (dust) and out of jurisdiction events (Mexican smoke) may be significant contributors to PM2.5.

4. The Class Product and the Class Process • The product of the class is a set of PowerPoint presentations by each student and this overview by the instructor. • The brief presentations (8-10 slides each) were developed over a period of a month. • The feedback from several class rehearsals was used to polish the presentations. • Interaction & collaboration and learning (copying) from each other was encouraged. • To reinforce general awareness, during one session students were asked to present one of their randomly chosen peer's presentation. • The class grade was based on the overall participation in class work and the PowerPoint presentation of the chosen topic.

5. Student Reports (will be linked) • M. Yu: US 1996 Emission Inventory for SOx, NOx and PM County-by-county mapping of the official EPA emission inventory. • K. Burford: Emissions of SOx Emission factors for the major SOx sources. • R. Fowler: Emissions of NOx Emission factors for the major NOx sources. • R. Surrago: Emissions of Dust Emission factors for the major dust sources. • S. King: The Dust Bowl Data and reports from the ‘dust bowl’ in the 1930s. • K. Fisher: Satellite Fire Detection The physics of satellite fire detection • S. Raffuse: Fire Climatology The pattern of fire frequency and the applied QC algorithms.

6. Student Feedback on the Class (Anonymous) • Give it to me! Be constructive.