AERMOD Modeling System
A steady-state plume model that incorporates air dispersion based on planetary boundary layer turbulence structure and scaling concepts, including treatment of both surface and elevated sources, and both simple and complex terrain.
EPA’s regulatory air-dispersion model for estimating pollutant concentrations from industrial and other emission sources.
About the Project
Why use this?
AERMOD is EPA’s preferred regulatory model for many air-quality dispersion analyses. It estimates ground-level concentrations from point, area, volume, and line sources while incorporating planetary-boundary-layer turbulence structure, plume rise, terrain effects, and meteorological processing.
Environmental engineers use AERMOD for permitting, compliance demonstrations, source-apportionment studies, and industrial air-quality impact assessments. The modeling system includes AERMET for meteorological preprocessing and AERMAP for terrain processing and receptor-grid generation, making it a complete regulatory modeling workflow rather than a single dispersion equation. [326][327][328]
Key Features
- Steady-state Gaussian-plume dispersion modeling
- Surface and elevated sources in simple and complex terrain
- AERMET meteorological preprocessing and AERMAP terrain preprocessing
- Regulatory replacement for ISC3 for applicable modeling applications
- Suitable for permitting, compliance, and industrial impact assessment
- Reference / Repo
- https://www.epa.gov/scram/air-quality-dispersion-modeling-preferred-and-recommended-models
- Tool / Hosted
- https://www.epa.gov/scram/air-quality-dispersion-modeling-preferred-and-recommended-models
- Replaces / Alternative to
- ISC3, proprietary air-dispersion modeling packages
- Free layer
- open-source