Natural and transboundary pollution influences on sulfate‐nitrate‐ammonium aerosols in the United States: Implications for policy

We use a global three‐dimensional coupled oxidant‐aerosol model (GEOS‐CHEM) to estimate natural and transboundary pollution influences on sulfate‐nitrate‐ammonium aerosol concentrations in the United States. This work is motivated in part by the Regional Haze Rule of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which requires immediate action to improve visibility in U.S. wilderness areas along a linear trajectory toward an endpoint of “natural visibility conditions” by 2064. We present full‐year simulations for 1998 and 2001 and evaluate them with nationwide networks of observations in the United States and Europe (Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE), Clean Air Status and…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• EP
  Electric Power Research Institute