AERMOD View – Tracking AERMOD and AERMET Version

Since the AERMOD model was first promulgated by the U.S. EPA as the preferred regulatory model back in 2005, numerous versions of the model executable and its meteorological pre-processor, AERMET, have been published. The U.S. EPA periodically releases new versions of these models to fix bugs, include new features, and to account for recent changes in environmental regulations. While numerous versions of AERMOD and AERMET have been released, only the most recent version is maintained on the EPA’s SCRAM website.

The current releases of AERMOD and AERMET have the version number 16216r (released January 18, 2017). The five-digit version number is based on the following:

• 2-digit year (16 = 2016


• 3-digit Julian day (216 = August 3rd)

The r defines that the executable was revised from the previous version (16216 released December 20, 2016) but maintains the core elements of the model.

So that users can keep track of which version of the model was used to produced output for a specific project, the output files keep track of the model version numbers. Below represents where you can locate which version of the model was used to produce a specific output file.

AERMOD Main Output File

Throughout the main output file, AERMOD writes the version of the model and the version of the meteorological data files used.

AERMOD Additional Output Files

AERMOD can produce a variety of output files such as contour plot files (PLOTFILE), post-processing files (POSTFILE), and more. These files also contain version information in their header. The image below shows a header from a sample AERMOD PLOTFILE.

AERMET Surface File

The version of AERMET used to create a meteorological dataset can be verified in the SFC file header.