The possibility of using diffusional models is subordinate to the availability of representative weather data for the area in question. Very often, it is not possible to find sufficient data, due to a lack of weather stations in the area, or because of the poor quality of the data collected.

To solve these problems, an archive of meteorological variables has been created, extracted from the fields provided by the forecasting model (RAMS / WRF).

The meteorology archive currently comprises two homogeneous datasets, one obtained from the operating model at a resolution of 12 km over the whole of Italy (from 2 March 2004 to the present day), the other at high resolution (2 Km) covering the region (2 March 2004 until 31 December 2007). The meteorology archives can offer valid support for:

 

To study air pollution it is essential to understand the weather conditions able to inhibit dispersion and promote accumulation: a critical parameter is the mixing layer height (HMIX) that indicated the portion of the near-soil atmosphere characterised by strong turbulent motions.

To forecast the HMIX, a high-resolution modelling chain has been developed using the operational WRF-ARW at 3km of horizontal resolution and CALMET model with 1 km of horizontal resolution and 18 vertical levels (from 10m to 6000m). This forecast is used also for the daily information service for PM10, during the winter season. 

 

A Model Chain Application to Estimate Mixing Layer Height Related to PM10 Dispersion Processes - The Scientific World Journal (2015) - F. Guarnieri, F. Calastrini, C. Busillo, G. Messeri, and B. Gozzini.