Presenter: Ariel Green
Authors: Ariel Green
Faculty Advisor: Bradley Adams
Institution: Brigham Young University
Utah commonly experiences natural events that cause dust to be released into the atmosphere. The analysis of these dust events is important to areas of study such as emissions and health and safety. This presentation will summarize the modeling approach used to simulate the events and the various methods implemented to improve the model accuracy. The model framework consists of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model paired with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model and their respective utility programs. Part of this approach involved changing properties to understand their relevance to dust events. For example, shrinking the Great Salt Lake increased lake shoreline and dust emission sources such that high-wind events increased dust concentration. Other important properties include soil type and land use, and the framework shows that changes to these parameters affect the quantity of dust released.