MARAMA hosts and manages a number of technical committees intended to coordinate efforts, educate staff, and disseminate information on air quality topics for members, the region, and the nation. This sharing of information allows agencies to more effective and efficient with resources in developing the strategies needed to meet the Clean Air Act requirements. The following are the technical committees MARAMA is currently hosting and managing:
R EXCHANGE Workgroup
This workgroup provides agency employees who use the R Programming Language an opportunity to discuss and collaborate on work that employs this tool. This group also learns about free online training opportunities as they become available to encourage participants to keep their knowledge of R up to date.
The workgroup meets quarterly on the fourth Wednesday of the month and is led by MARAMA’s Jesse Carpentier and two agency staff, Jess Munyan (NJ DEP) and Min Zhong (PA DEP).
Contact Charles Frank at cfrank@marama.org for more information on this workgroup.
MJO MOVES Workgroup
The Multi-Jurisdictional Organization (MJO) MOVES Workgroup is a national monthly meeting focused on the development of mobile emissions data with EPA for national inventories as well as inputs for air quality models through improved MOVES inputs and better application of the MOVES model itself to produce better emissions estimates. Additionally, this group provides coordination among participating agencies concerning mobile topics.
The workgroup meets on the third Thursday of each month. Contact Charles Frank at cfrank@marama.org for more information about this workgroup.
Emissions Inventory Leads Workgroup
The EI Leads Workgroup is a monthly meeting that provides MARAMA and northeast state and local air agency staff a forum for: discussing emissions inventory topics such as technical and policy aspects of EI development and impacts of changes to EI methodologies, working with other groups such as Ozone Transport Commission (OTC) modelers and EPA staff, conducting remote EI training, and engaging in special breakout discussions as needed. In addition, the workgroup reviews and provides important feedback on regional growth factor development, Collaborative inventory efforts, and the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) leading more complete and robust inventories for regional planning and SIP needs.
The workgroup meets on the first Monday of each month. Contact Susan McCusker at smccusker@marama.org for more information on joining this workgroup.
MARAMA Commercial Marine Vessels (CMV) Workgroup
The MARAMA CMV Workgroup is focused on the development of emissions data with EPA for national inventories. This workgroup is used to better understand Commercial Marine Vehicle (CMV) emissions in the MARAMA region. Conducting data analysis of the CMV data by temporal, spatial and vessel type. Sources will be evaluated to estimate emissions benefit, along with measuring the reduction of emissions by various control measures.
The workgroup meets on the third Wednesday every month. Contact Charles Frank at cfrank@marama.org for more information on joining this workgroup.
MARAMA AERMOD Workgroup
The purpose of this quarterly MARAMA workgroup is to learn and share information that pertains to the EPA AERMOD Model / Dispersion Modeling along with gathering new information and gaining perspective from our neighboring state & local agencies.
The workgroup meets quarterly on the first Wednesday of the month. Contact Charles Frank at cfrank@marama.org for more information on this workgroup.