title: Multi-pollutant surface objective analyses and mapping of air quality health index over North America.
abstract: Air quality, like weather, can affect everyone, but responses differ depending on the sensitivity and health condition of a given individual. To help protect exposed populations, many countries have put in place real-time air qualitynowcastingand forecasting capabilities. We present in this paper an optimal combination of air quality measurements and model outputs and show that it leads to significant improvements in the spatial representativeness of air quality. The product is referred to as multi-pollutant surface objective analyses (MPSOAs). Moreover, based on MPSOA, a geographical mapping of the Canadian Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) is also presented which provides users (policy makers, public, air quality forecasters, and epidemiologists) with a more accurate picture of the health risk anytime and anywhere in Canada and the USA. Since pollutants can also behave as passive atmospheric tracers, they provide information about transport and dispersion and, hence, reveal synoptic and regional meteorological phenomena. MPSOA could also be used to build air pollution climatology, compute local and national trends in air quality, and detect systematic biases in numerical air quality (AQ) models. Finally, initializing AQ models at regular time intervals with MPSOA can produce more accurate air quality forecasts. It is for these reasons that the Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC) in collaboration with the Air Quality Research Division (AQRD) of Environment Canada has recently implemented MPSOA in their daily operations.
authors: Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2121 Trans Canada Highway, Dorval, Québec H9P 1J3 Canada.
authors: Alain
authors: A
authors: Robichaud
authors: Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2121 Trans Canada Highway, Dorval, Québec H9P 1J3 Canada.
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Ménard
authors: Canadian Meteorological Centre, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2121 Trans Canada Highway, Dorval, Québec H9P 1J3 Canada.
authors: Yulia
authors: Y
authors: Zaïtseva
authors: Canadian Meteorological Centre, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2121 Trans Canada Highway, Dorval, Québec H9P 1J3 Canada.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Anselmo
keywords: Air Quality Health Index; Nitrogen dioxide; Objective analyses; Ozone; Particulate matter; Pollutants