Lakes Environmental at AMERICANA 07

A special thank you to visitors to our booth at AMERICANA - The International Environmental Technology Trade Show and Conference in Montreal, Quebec from March 20-22nd. We look forward to seeing you next year.

Customized On-Site Training Courses

On April 2nd and 3rd, Lakes Environmental offered a customized AERMOD training course for CenSARA (Central States Air Resource Agencies), which has members from Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas and the local agencies within those states.

From March 25th to March 29th, Lakes Environmental trained personnel at BP Consultancy in Kuwait on both AERMOD and IRAP.

Global Meteorological Data Available

Lakes Environmental Software prepares global meteorological data for the CALPUFF, AERMOD, and ISC air dispersion models. Data is created using the MM5 model and further processed to be compatible with the above mentioned models.

For pricing and other information related to this service, please contact our sales team by emailing sales@weblakes.com.

Lakes Environmental Closed for Victoria Day

Lakes Environmental will be closed on Monday, May 21, 2007 to observe the Canadian Victoria Day holiday. If you have any pressing needs during that time, please email us at support@weblakes.com and we will contact you May 22nd, 2007 when we re-open.

We’ve set a number of training dates for 2007, with additional courses to be announced soon! Be sure to register for courses 30 days in advance to receive a 10% discount.

AERMOD Courses

*Includes new section regarding MOE Reg. 419/05 (see Outline)

For more information on the above courses, such as registration information, location, and course outlines, please visit our web site: https://www.weblakes.com/courses.html.

AERMET Time Zone Adjustment Factor

The correct use of the time zone adjustment factor (parameter tadjust) required by the US EPA AERMET* model often causes some confusion. The incorrect use of this parameter may lead to a failed AERMET run or incorrect output.

The Time Zone Adjustment Factor (tadjust) is an adjustment factor that is subtracted from the reported hour to convert the time to local standard time. The parameter tadjust should be specified in the AERMET Input File for the following:

• Hourly surface data file
• Upper air data file
• Application site

Hourly Surface Data

The hourly surface data in AERMET requires the following adjustment:

Typically, hourly surface data is recorded in local time - that is, the same time zone which the meteorological station is located. This means that for most cases, the adjustment to local time for surface data will be zero (tadjust = 0).

The Time Zone Adjustment Factor (tadjust) is entered in the AERMET Stage 1 input file, under the Surface LOCATION keyword, following the Latitude and Longitude parameters as follows:

LOCATION  24157  47.633N  117.533W  0

Upper Air Data

The upper air data in AERMET requires the following adjustment:

Typically, upper air data is recorded in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), which means that in most cases the adjustment to local time will be a non-zero value.

The Time Zone Adjustment Factor (tadjust) is entered in the AERMET Stage 1 input file, under the Upper Air LOCATION keyword, following the Latitude and Longitude parameters as follows:

LOCATION  00024157  47.633N  117.533W  8

Note that the above example is for a station located in the Pacific Time Zone (GMT -8). For stations west of Greenwich, a positive number should be specified (e.g., for GMT -8 the adjustment is 8). For stations east of Greenwich, a negative number should be specified (e.g., . for GMT +8 Beijing, the adjustment is -8)

Application Site

Under the application site (e.g., location of the modeling area) AERMET requires the following adjustment:

In most cases, this value will be the same as the Time Zone Adjustment Factor for the upper air data. As before, for stations west of Greenwich, a positive number should be specified and for stations east of Greenwich, a negative number should be specified.

The Time Zone Adjustment Factor (tadjust) is entered in the AERMET Stage 3 input file, under the Application Site LOCATION keyword, following the Latitude and Longitude parameters as follows:

LOCATION  MySite  47.633N  117.533W  8

* AERMET is the US EPA meteorological preprocessor for AERMOD. AERMOD is the US EPA Gaussian Plume air dispersion model.

We are currently accepting submissions for the Monthly Modeling Tip which appears in our newsletters.  If you have a modeling tip that may benefit a variety of people, please send it to us at support@weblakes.com.   Your name and the name of your organization will appear below the tip providing you with greater exposure.

White House Pulls Nomination to Top EPA Air Post

WASHINGTON, April 12, 2007 (Reuters) -- The White House Wednesday withdrew its choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency's air pollution office after he ran afoul of key U.S. lawmakers.

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Clean Air, Climate Change, and Clean Energy in Ontario

TORONTO, April 11, 2007 (GLOBE-Net) –- Perhaps nowhere else in the world is the intersection of energy and environmental issues more pressing than in Ontario and the Great Lakes region. The industrial epicentre of North America is at the forefront of the greatest challenges that business and society may face in the next century: the need to balance economic growth and energy supplies with clean air and climate change.
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US: Abrupt climate change far more common than previously thought

April 2, 2007 -- It came on quickly and then lasted nearly two decades, eventually killing more than one million people and affecting 50 million more. All of this makes the Sahel drought, which first struck West Africa in the late 1960s, the most notorious example of an abrupt climatic shift during the last century.
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Pricing tomorrow's coal-fired power plant

March 28, 2007 -- The price tag for a new coal-fired power plant runs into the billions of dollars. With energy demand rising at 1% per year in the U.S. and carbon-control legislation being discussed enthusiastically in Congress, some utility executives are in gridlock over which technology to choose for future power needs. New research published today on ES&T’s Research ASAP website (DOI: 10.1021/es062198e) shows utility executives and policy makers that coal, and lots of it, can continue to be burned without consumer costs rising much higher than they are today, provided that several policy actions are taken soon.
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Pollution link to diabetes

April 12, 2007 -- Links between the levels of pollutants typically found in oily fish and pesticides and the chances of suffering diabetes have been explored by Korean and American scientists. Scientists have put forward a possible link between diabetes and POPs but could it be that, as in the animal kingdom, those with more fat store more pollutants?
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Here are a few conferences and trade shows coming up in the next few months: