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THE ASSESSMENT OF AIR QUALITY STATUS IN SOFIA CITY - NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF THE DOMINANT POLLUTANTS THAT DETERMINES THE AIR QUALITY INDEX

Ivelina Georgieva

Abstract

Based on 3D modelling tools, an extensive database was created and used for differentstudies of atmospheric composition. The simulations were based on the US EPA Model-3 system. The models in the system were adapted and validated for Bulgaria. This gavethe opportunity to conduct extensive studies on a fully competitive modern level of theclimate of atmospheric composition in the country. On this basis, a statistically significantensemble of Air Quality indexes (AQI) was calculated, and their typical recurrence,space, and temporal variability for the territory of the country was constructed. InBulgaria, the AQI is operationally calculated in the frame of the Bulgarian ChemicalWeather Forecast System. The Bulgarian Chemical Weather Forecast and InformationSystem (BgCWFIS) runs on five nested domains with an increasing spatial resolution to1 km for the territory of Sofia city. The AQ impact on human health is evaluated in termsof AQI, which gives an integrated assessment of the impact of pollutants. All the AQIevaluations are based on air pollutants concentrations obtained from the numericalmodelling. The operational results of BgCWFIS created an ensemble sufficientlyexhaustive and representative to allow making reliable conclusions for the atmosphericcomposition status and behavior. The generalization and analysis of these results, inparticular, AQI, is the objective of the present work.The presented results allow us to estimate the highest recurrence of the indices for thewhole ensemble annually and seasonally and analyze the possible reason for high valuesin different bands and AQI statuses in the city.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2021v/4.2/s19.16

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