How does rainfall affect Eco v6 pollution estimates?

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azelaya
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Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:50 am

How does rainfall affect Eco v6 pollution estimates?

Post by azelaya » Tue Feb 26, 2019 7:04 pm

The yearly total precipitation in i-Tree Eco v6 NCDC weather stations can vary depending on individual stations for multiple reasons. In some cases for stations outside the US,there is no precipitation data available. In addition to the avoided runoff estimate being affected, precipitation also affects gaseous and particulate pollution estimates in Eco v6.

Here is a snapshot of how precipitation affects pollution estimates in i-Tree Eco from our Environmental Modeler.
  • For carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), air pollutant removal becomes greater without precipitation. This is because dry deposition only happens when no precipitation occurs. When it is raining, dry deposition doesn't happen.
  • For particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), air pollutant removal becomes much smaller without precipitation. PM2.5 is considered removed from the atmosphere when those particles accumulated on leaves are washed off by precipitation. In other words, without precipitation PM2.5 only goes back and forth between atmosphere and leaves (re-suspension) and thus no PM2.5 is removed. For the annual result, the final value accumulated on the leaves is considered removed in Eco.
For more details on Eco pollution modeling descriptions, See the i-Tree Methods and Files under the Resources website section https://www.itreetools.org/resources/archives.php

i-Tree Eco Dry Deposition Model Descriptions - Provides an overview of the i-Tree Eco dry deposition model and descriptions of its calculations, updated Feb 27, 2015.
https://www.itreetools.org/eco/resource ... ptions.pdf
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