AN EVALUATION OF THE UoWM MM5-SMOKE-CMAQ MODELING SYSTEM FOR WESTERN MACEDONIA

The University of Western Macedonia (UoWM) has recently set up an operational system for predicting air quality in the Florina–Ptolemais–Kozani basin in Western Macedonia, Greece. This is a mountainous basin where around 65% of the total energy production of Greece takes place in lignite power plants. The concentrations of PM10 is the main air quality concern in the region, and the high particulate matter levels observed are attributed to the activities related to power generation. The system set up by the UoWM makes use of software such as MM5 for weather prediction, SMOKE for emissions processing, and CMAQ for air quality prediction. This paper describes a preliminary effort to evaluate the system by comparing its predictions against ground station observations for a selection of days of the 2007 summer period.