Integration of AERMOD into EDMS

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires the use of the Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System (EDMS) for air quality analysis involving aviation sources. Dispersion in EDMS has previously been computed by CALINE3 and PAL2. With the advent of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) AERMOD dispersion model, the FAA has made a commitment to replacing the older dispersion models in EDMS with AERMOD. AERMOD's dispersion algorithms are state-of-the-art and have been shown through validation efforts to model the physics of the atmosphere more accurately than previous algorithms. In addition to accuracy, the robust features in AERMOD allow a more complete modeling scheme (e.g., such as the use of polygon-area sources and polar coordinates for receptors). This paper discusses the technical aspects of integrating AERMOD into EDMS.