Congressman Charles Taylor Announces $760,500 Grant to UNC Asheville;
NEMAC's ASTEC Project Targets Haze, Air Quality

The prospect of clear skies over Western North Carolina got brighter Friday thanks to a $760,500 award to UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (NEMAC). The award, announced by Congressman Charles Taylor, comes from the U.S. Department of Energy and funds a research project called ASTEC, or Atmospheric Science Tools for Energy Conservation.

The project is starting its second year of work developing computer modeling tools that will be used to predict the air quality benefits of using energy efficient and renewable energy (EERE) technology. A $900,000 award to fund the first year of work came through the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Once developed, the modeling tools can be used throughout the United States by state energy offices to encourage the reduction of “dirty power” and increase the amount of “clean power” used on the electric grid, said Daniel O’Leary, NEMAC’s Project Manager. “State energy offices in the U.S. are under pressure to reduce certain energy sources to meet air quality standards. We are developing a software package that state energy officers and staff can use to input information about a scenario, such as small businesses switching to more energy efficient electric motors, and be able to predict how much less power will need to be generated. It will be a tremendous tool for planning, standard setting and providing the rationale for moving to energy efficient and renewable energy technologies. Once the benefits can be clearly defined and measured, they can be used to help states and communities truly improve their air quality.”

O’Leary sees advantages for small businesses and consumers as well. Encouraging the move toward more energy efficient and renewable energy sources could help to improve air quality and reduce overall energy costs, saving money for both businesses and consumers.

The computer modeling tools require a large amount of data to be brought into a Sensitivity Matrix, which will contain the essential intelligence of scores of air quality modeling runs. Supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s National Center for Computational Science and the Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas are crunching data for air quality, wind and weather from the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville to build the matrix.

“It takes millions of computations to create the Sensitivity Matrix,” O’Leary said. “The matrix itself would be too complex for energy offices to use, and few states have the resources necessary for the air quality modeling runs that underlie the matrix. The modeling software ultimately provided to the states will enable them to go in and grab whatever information they need in order to compare alternative scenarios of energy use. They’ll be able to evaluate a multitude of scenarios. The exciting part of the project is this: no research team has ever attempted to complete this linkage from EERE scenario all the way to predicted air quality benefit. The individual parts of the system, such as EERE scenario development and air quality modeling, have been done before, but putting it all together into a single system intended for states’ regulatory compliance – this is a first.”

The modeling project is a collaboration of NEMAC at UNC Asheville, Baron Advanced Meteorological Systems, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and UNC-Charlotte.

Another component of the ASTEC project could provide visitors to sites such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park a hands-on opportunity to reduce the haze they see around them, at least virtually.

“Researchers are developing a website interface and a kiosk that produces regional haze forecasts which show visitors what is contributing to haze. The interactive website and kiosk will allow visitors to see what different actions they can take, such as using lower wattage light bulbs or hybrid rather than gas-powered vehicle, to reduce the haze and improve air quality,” O’Leary said.

One kiosk is already in use at NEMAC and there are plans to add more at other locations this year, including the Colburn Earth Science Museum, in downtown Asheville. The website interface will feature numerous locations nationwide that the user will be able to view. “This kiosk and website interface is a great way to educate the public about the complex issue of haze, air quality and visibility. Park or museum visitors are drawn to the hands-on display and will come away more informed about how their lifestyle choices can improve air quality and reduce haze in their surroundings,” says Jim Fox, NEMAC Research Associate responsible for their development. 

A third part of the ASTEC project looks at wind data. UNC-Charlotte and UNC Asheville are working to add wind observations from weather radars to create a three-dimensional picture of the atmosphere that can be used as input to complex computer weather forecast models. The ability to successfully incorporate information contained in the radar-observed winds will allow more accurate wind forecasts that will lead directly to better advanced warnings of hazardous air quality episodes.

“It has been shown in research projects focusing on the Central Plains that information contained in radar observations can help computer forecast models do a better job of predicting small-scale weather events, such as thunderstorms. We hope to use these techniques to improve computer forecasts of local wind circulations that are so often difficult to predict due to the strong influence on these circulations by local geographic features such as coastlines and mountains,” added Douglas Miller, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at UNC Asheville and a NEMAC researcher.

Another component of the radar portion of the project is to incorporate weather radar observations into a database that makes their retrieval quicker and more efficient for scientists than any method currently available.

John Stevens, NEMAC Director, sees tremendous potential for this project and says it will, “greatly impact the intellectual development of UNC Asheville along with boosting the intellectual and economic development of the region.”

Media Contacts:

• Merianne Epstein, UNC Asheville Public Information Director, 828/251-6676 (office);
  828/257-5501 (pager)