APTI 423 Air Pollution Dispersion Models & Applications

APTI 423: Air Pollution Dispersion Models & Applications | July 19-23, 2021
SessionDateDaily Schedule
Day 1 July 19, 2021 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EST | 1 hour lunch
Day 2 July 20, 2021 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EST | 1 hour lunch
Day 3 July 21, 2021 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EST | 1 hour lunch
Day 4 July 22, 2021 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EST | 1 hour lunch
Day 5 – Optional AERSCREEN training July 23, 2021 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EST | 1 hour lunch
Agenda: Will be available on the LMS in the near future.
Instructors: Alan Cimorelli and Steve Perry. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Alan Cimorelli (93048cim@gmail.com).
LMS Links: LMS Registration | LMS Filer | LMS WebEx User Guide.
Pre-Course Activities: Prior to attending the course, students will be provided with a link to MARAMA’s Share File (in mid to late June) which contains a zip file to be downloaded. Once the files are unzipped, the full directory structure with the appropriate files embedded will be constructed on their computer. There will also be a readme.txt file in the .zip file that will explain the files and directory structure.
Registration Contact Information: For registration information, please contact your agency’s training coordinator or Sue Dilli / Jackie Burkhardt (training@marama.org) , Sharon Ray (sray@marama.org).


Course Description: APTI 423 is a five-day course intended for entry-level or novice air dispersion modelers to give them a better understanding of how the AERMOD software works. Updated material includes an expanded section of AERMET, AERSCREEN, and AERSURFACE including the incorporation of the amendments made to appendix W. This is the bare bones model of AERMOD used by EPA and state governments and does not cover any common Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). That is, all runs will be performed by developing input flat files for each preprocessor and AERMOD for execution. There are no prerequisites for this course, however, it would helpful for students to have a background in modeling.

Target Audience: This training series is for new, entry-level permit modelers as well as semi-experienced stationary souce permit engineers, rulemaking or planning staff and environmental scientists in government.

Learning Objectives:

  • Upon completion of this course, student should be able to:
  • Describe what concepts are important to atmospheric dispersion and ground-level pollutant concentrations
  • Explain how AERMOD mathematically constructs the primary processes related to dispersion in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL)
  • Define much of the terminology that is used in AERMOD
  • The student should be able to run a complete modeling scenario using the AERMOD modeling system. The student should be able to:
    • Develop the inputs needed to execute AERMOD and its preprocessors
    • Run the model and each preprocessor successfully
    • Troubleshoot an unsuccessful run
    • Analyze the output from the preprocessor and AERMOD