An Operational Model For Vehicular Pollution From A Road Network

We present a brief review of the mathematical model CAR-FMI (Contaminants in the Air from a Road, by the Finnish Meteorological Institute). The model has been developed for regulatory purposes, for predicting dispersion of pollution from a road network. It consists of an emission module, treatment of the meteorological time-series, an atmospheric dispersion module, and statistical analysis of the computed time-series of concentrations.The dispersion module is based on an analytical solution of the Gaussian diffusion equation for a finite line source; the solution allows for any wind direction with respect to the road. The model also takes into account the chemical transformation of nitrogen oxides. The program is commercially available as a personal computer version in either DOS or Windows environment; using the model does not require specialist training.