What’s Happening Now
2024 Holiday Quiz Answers
Below are the questions and correct answers to last month’s Holiday Quiz. Correct answers are bold.
1. When running the AERSURFACE program, what three kinds of data files are needed as inputs?
a. ISHD, FSL, and ASOS
b. Potential to emit, permit allowable, and startup/shutdown
c. Land cover, impervious cover and canopy cover
d. Excel, SAS, and Word
e. ChatGPT, Claude, and Open AI
2. Eulerian is to CMAQ as lagrangian is to
a. ZZ Top
b. NetCDF
c. SCREEN3
d. CalPuff
e. ALOHA
3. What are two ways in which AERMOD can generate source culpability?
a. MAXDCONT file and EVENT model
b. Urban and rural
c. Gaussian plume equation and Briggs plume rise equations
d. Run or Not
e. Binary and ASCII
4. What are three techniques in AERMOD that are used to estimate NO2 concentrations from total NOX emissions?
a. Ambient ratio method 2, differentiation, and integration
b. Fluid modeling, equivalent building dimensions, and rulemaking
c. Confidence intervals, chi-squared tests, and correlation coefficients
d. Titration, filtration, and oxygenation
e. Ozone limiting method, Plume volume molar ratio method, and General reaction set method
5. IGRA is an acronym for an upper air data format. What does IGRA stand for?
a. Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive
b. Internal General Radiosonde Availability
c. Integrated Grand Radiosonde Archive
d. International Global Radiohead Album
e. Incredibly Generic Radiosonde Archive
Thanks to everyone who took the quiz!
EPA News
GAQM/AERMOD – The Guideline on Air Quality Models (GAQM) rule package was signed on November 20, 2024. It was published in the Federal Register on November 29, 2024 and is currently slated to take effect January 28, 2025. However, with a new Congress and a new Administration coming in, don’t be surprised if the effective date is delayed (much like we saw in 2017). As of this writing, though, EPA has heard nothing regarding delaying the effective date. Cross your fingers! Information on the final rule may be found here and the Federal Register notice can be found here.
New Upper Data Source/Availability and a New Product Coming Soon!
As we noted last month, the only option you now have for getting raw upper air data is from the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) which can be found here.
Also, as we noted last month, AERMET is able to process the data, but we’ve found two potentially daunting issues related to the use of this data set.
First, you may find a very important field labeled as missing. This is the fourth field in the second row, shown here as missing with a missing data flag of -8888.
This is the base elevation of the upper air station, and AERMET needs to have a non-missing value here. If it reads it as missing, the sounding is skipped.
The second issue related to this data set is the size of the files. On the IGRA web site, the data are organized by country, then by station. They are not organized by year, meaning that if you find and download the data set for your station of interest, it will have ALL archived data for that station, going back to when its data was first reported/archived. In some cases, these zipped files approach 100MB in size.
To deal with this, we released our IGRA Files Extractor program. This handy utility allows you to cut out the data set you need, e.g. the most recent five years, replace all occurrences of missing station base elevations, and write out a ready-to-go-into-AERMET upper air data file. IGRA Files Extractor is now out for download on our Providence/Oris web site and is free to all BEEST and AERMOD Wizard users in current maintenance. Download IGRA Files Extractor here.
Conferences and Workshops
2025 TCEQ Environmental Trade Fair and Conference – In 2025, the location of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Environmental Trade Fair and Conference will be in San Antonio, TX on June 3-4, 2025 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Click here for more information as it becomes available.
AWMA ACE 2025 – The 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition (ACE) of the Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) will be held June 9-12, 2025 at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, NC.
For more information on ACE 2025, click here.
If your company, organization, agency, State, etc. has an upcoming modeling or air quality-related event (virtual or otherwise) and you’d like it publicized in Providence/Oris Notes, please send that information to us at info@providenceoris.com, and we’ll be happy to include it.
Providence Products
Simply the best!
Pricing Changes for 2025
Effective January 1, 2025, BEEST prices will be:
- Single user new purchase – $1,550
- Single user annual maintenance renewal – $775
- Existing multi-user annual maintenance renewal – $1,550
- Existing Max-3 annual maintenance renewal – $1,550
There will be no changes to BEEST enterprise license renewals. In addition, there will be no changes to new purchase or maintenance renewals for AerScreen for Windows or AERMOD Wizard.
BEEST Suite
BEEST 12.11 is out! This update includes:
- AERMET GUI upgraded to include support for new PROG and COARE keywords
- BEEST supports new AERMOD 23132 keywords
- Added the ability to select all or none of the pollutants and years on the AERMOD Setup form
- Added the year 2024 to the dropdown list on the File tab in Source Options
- Updated the contour set for annual PM2.5 and
- A new version of the MaxDCont Viewer
We presented webinars on BEEST 12.11 and the new MaxDCont Viewer back in November. If you missed them, you can view the recordings here.
**BEEST 12.12 is coming!** With the release of new versions of AERMOD, AERMAP, AERMET, and AERSURFACE, we will be incorporating these into the next release of BEEST, v12.12. But wait, that’s not all version 12.12 will include. It will also have:
- BEEST keeps the line on the screen after the user measures the distance between two points
- Added a button to edit AREAPOLY source vertices in Source Grid View
- Added the ability to copy sources when viewing inputs
- Added the ability to set met data files for a group of pollutants on the AERMOD Setup form
- The UTM zone must be set in AerMap Options before the user opens MaxDCont Viewer
- Added the ability to specify more than five receptor grids
- Added the ability to import more than five receptor grids from a DTA file
- And last, but not least, some major changes are coming regarding the selection of subsets of receptors and subsets of sources:
- Added the ability to define groups of discrete receptors under a specific Network ID and program generated grids under a specific Grid Name
- During the “Run AERMOD” model execution process, subsets of receptors may be selected rather than all the receptors in the BEEST file
- During the “Run AERMOD” model execution process, subsets of sources (defined by existing source groups) may be selected rather than ALL of the sources in the BEEST file
We’re most excited about the last two items on the list because they’re going to allow much more flexibility with receptors and sources within a single BEEST file. For example – let say you’re working on a NAAQS Analysis for 1-hour NO2, 24-hour PM2.5, and annual PM2.5. All of these pollutants produce project-level concentrations above the SILs and require sitewide cumulative NAAQS modeling. Setting this up in BEEST requires the 4 different BEEST files shown below.
| Analysis | Pollutant/Avg | Receptor Grid | Sources Selected |
| Project Only SIL Modeling | 1-hour NO224-hour PM2.5Annual PM2.5 | Full Gridlarge enough to capture max concentrations | Project Level Sources Only |
| Sitewide Cumulative NAAQS Modeling | 1-hour NO2 | 1-hour NO2 AOI Grid | All Sources (Proposed Project, Existing Sitewide, Off-Property)+ Ambient Background |
| Sitewide Cumulative NAAQS Modeling | 24-hour PM2.5 | 24-hour PM2.5 AOI Grid | All Sources (Proposed Project, Existing Sitewide, Off-Property)+ Ambient Background |
| Sitewide Cumulative NAAQS Modeling | Annual NO2 | Annual PM2.5 AOI Grid | All Sources (Proposed Project, Existing Sitewide, Off-Property)+ Ambient Background |
After the next update, all of this data may be stored in a single BEEST file and the selections about specific receptor grids and included source groups are made at runtime.
Look for BEEST 12.12 to come out in late January. We will also schedule a webinar after it is released to take you through all of the changes/updates.
As always, users in maintenance can download the most recent version of BEEST from https://www.providenceoris.com/software-downloads/.
“Go BEEST Mode !” We still have plenty of Go BEEST Mode t-shirts! You can request one of those by emailing us at info@providenceoris.com.
AerScreen for Windows
AerScreen for Windows 4.04 is now out! The update has these new features/enhancements:
- Runs AERMOD 23132
- Terrain Files Converter has been updated to use Geospatial Data Abstraction Library 3.7
- Terrain Files Converter User Manual has been updated
We will include AERMOD 24142 and AERMAP 24142 in the next release of AerScreen for Windows.
Users in maintenance can download the most recent version of AerScreen for Windows from https://www.providenceoris.com/software-downloads/.
AERMOD Wizard
AERMOD Wizard 1.09 is out and includes these updates:
- Updated AERMET version to 23132
- Ability to download all of the EPA 2023 ambient monitoring data
- Ability to export Class I areas and Class I area receptors to Google Earth
- Ability to download ASOS data from the new NCEI website
- Inclusion of the 2020 National Emissions Inventory (NEI) data set (and ability to export them to Google Earth)
- And more!
We will include AERMET 24142 and AERSURFACE 24142 in the next release of AERMOD Wizard.
Users in maintenance can download AERMOD Wizard from https://www.providenceoris.com/software-downloads/.
We’re off to use the Wizard!
If you have suggestions for an enhancement to any of our modeling software products, please let us know and we’ll do our best to incorporate it into the software ASAP!
Modeling Tip of the Month
As you might imagine, any time a new version of a program is released, there may still be some hiccups for users. EPA has recognized this and has released an errata sheet for the recent updates to the AERMOD system: https://gaftp.epa.gov/Air/aqmg/SCRAM/models/preferred/aermod/AERMOD_System_Bugs_and_Related_Guidance.pdf
One such hiccup we’ve heard about lately concerns running the new version of AERSURFACE. Users have downloaded land cover, impervious cover, and tree canopy cover from the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) web site, and when they try to run AERSURFACE, they get an error message. This is because the MLRC data was recently updated and does not include the Albers Equal Area projection parameters for tree canopy cover data. Although AERSURFACE prompts the user to enter these parameters when missing, AERSURFACE doesn’t recognize them. The AERSURFACE errata information indicates that there are two ways to work around this:
1. Use the 2021 edition of the NLCD files available on the EPA FTP site. The 2021 edition is available for the 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021 NLCD years. The files on the FTP site are separated by EPA region and include either the entire region, part of the region, or part of a single state in a few cases (e.g., CA, TX), depending on the geographic size of the region/states. This data works with AERSURFACE as is and is sufficient if you don’t need any data newer than 2021.
2. The second workaround is to use software such as GDAL to rewrite the canopy TIFF file downloaded from the MRLC to add the necessary projection parameters to the file. The EPA has put together a zip file, “GDAL_MRLC_canopy_preprocessor.zip”, containing the GDAL Warp utility (gdalwarp.exe) and associated library and data files required to add the Albers projection parameters to the canopy TIFF files within the CONUS. The zip file can be found here. This would be the approach to take if you need to process 2023 MRLC data.
So, EPA is aware of this “hiccup” and has provided these two workarounds. In addition, EPA is working with the US Geologic Survey (USGS) to come up with a permanent fix. Stay tuned!
Providence Training
Modeling skills ready for an upgrade? We can help!
We want to note that many folks use our classes as credit toward professional engineer continuing education requirements. Check with your state’s licensing board or the National Society of Professional Engineers (see here or here) for more information on what is required.
**NSR Essentials**
Providence’s next NSR Essentials air permitting class will be February 17, 2025 and it will be online. This class is tailored to those folks who are new to air permitting or perhaps new environmental managers who need a good overview of the basic issues related to air permitting. Topics such as statutes, applicability, netting, emission calculations, and Title V are just some of the areas that are covered. To register for this NSR Essentials class, click here.
AERMOD Modeling for Permits
Our next AERMOD Modeling for Permits class will be February 18-19, 2025 and it will be online. If you are wanting to get started in air modeling, then this class is for you! If you want to register, please click here.
Advanced AERMOD
Similarly, our next Advanced AERMOD class will be February 20-21, 2025, and it will also be online.
Advanced AERMOD covers those topics that are near and dear to modelers, such as:
- NAAQS modeling for 1-hour NO2, 1-hour SO2, and 24-hour PM2.5 (including the new MaxDCont Viewer)
- Meteorological data processing with AERMET/AERMINUTE/AERSURFACE
- Culpability Determination
- Background Concentrations
- Emission scalars and Hourly Emission Rate files
- Changes in Terrain Data Processing
- AERMOD Wizard and its uses
To register for Advanced AERMOD, click here.
Just as a reminder, if you register more than 30 days before your training class(es), you will receive a $100 discount on the course fee (per class, per registrant).
On-demand Meteorological Data Processing webinar
We are planning to launch a new training option – on-demand webinars. The first of these to be released will be “Meteorological Data Processing for AERMOD”. Look for it at www.providenceoris.com coming soon.
On-demand AERSCREEN webinar
We will be releasing an on-demand training webinar for AERSCREEN. Watch this space for details!
Here are our class dates for 2025:
| Dates | Class | Location |
| February 17, 2025 | Essential Air Permitting | Online |
| February 18-19, 2025 | AERMOD Modeling for Permits | Online |
| February 20-21, 2025 | Advanced AERMOD | Online |
| May 5, 2025 | Essential Air Permitting | Online |
| May 6-7, 2025 | AERMOD Modeling for Permits | Online |
| May 8-9, 2025 | Advanced AERMOD | Online |
| August 18, 2025 | Essential Air Permitting | Online |
| August 19-20, 2025 | AERMOD Modeling for Permits | Online |
| August 21-22, 2025 | Advanced AERMOD | Online |
| December 8, 2025 | Essential Air Permitting | Online |
| December 9-10, 2025 | AERMOD Modeling for Permits | Online |
| December 11-12, 2025 | Advanced AERMOD | Online |
Don’t forget, if our schedule of classes doesn’t mesh with your schedule, or if you have several people that need to be trained at once, contact us about setting up your own onsite or online class.
Providence Services
BeestXpress
If you’ve never used our super-fast cloud-based BeestXpress before, now is the time. We have an on-demand webinar that steps you through the process of setting up an BeestXpress account and sending off your first BeestXpress run. You can view the webinar here. New BeestXpress users can complete their first run with up to 50 partitions absolutely FREE. Instructions about receiving the free run are given at the end of the webinar. Beyond the starter run BeestXpress will give you a per-run cost estimate before you begin. If you need help budgeting for BeestXpress, contact us for additional daily rate pricing options.
BeestXpress users have some great system enhancements to work with:
- The “Job Details” webpage now displays the pollutant being modeled
- The “Job Details” webpage now displays run progress for MAXDCONT calculations
- Modeling runs with multiple partitions now include a combined AERMOD input file (*.DTA) in the output .ZIP file
- Added an option to the “Submit Job” webpage that affects modeling runs with multiple partitions: the intermediate output files created by each partition can be omitted from the output .ZIP file
- The “Job Search” webpage now includes the option to search by project number
- Users have access to up to 99 partitions per AERMOD run
To date, BeestXpress has processed over 500,000 AERMOD runs.
BeestXpress users can log on at www.beestxpress.com to take advantage of our AERMOD “force multiplier”. That AERMOD run that might have taken a day or two to process on your desktop computer can finish in an hour or less on BeestXpress. When time is money, BeestXpress is the best modeling return on investment there is!
Meteorological Data Processing Services
Do you need AERMOD-ready meteorological data? If so, we can help! Whether it’s running national weather service data or onsite monitor met data through the AERMET/AERMINUTE system, Providence has the background, know-how, and experience to have your data processed and ready for you ASAP. If you’d like more information, contact us at info@providenceoris.com or jamesred@providenceeng.com.
Consulting Solutions
One thing that we’re very proud of is the depth and range of our modeling experience and expertise. The kinds of air quality models we’ve used include all types, ranging from simple screening tools like SCREEN and AERSCREEN to plume models like ISC and AERMOD. The types of analyses include basic Significant Impact Level, NAAQS, PSD increment consumption, Class I analyses, air toxics and SIP attainment demonstrations. So, we’ve seen it all. To that end, should you or your clients need additional modeling assistance or just a second set of eyes to QA or peer review your modeling (ranging from initial protocol up to final submission), we stand ready to help. Feel free to contact us at 512‑258‑8855, 828‑628‑0634 or info@providenceoris.com.
OR . . . maybe you just need advice about a particular project OR you need someone to do a QA review, OR you have a very small modeling task to complete. It would be too much of a hassle to set up a contract for just a few hours of work. What to do?
Easy! Now you can purchase individual air modeling consulting hours with a credit card online through our website! Just contact us first so we’re on the same page about the scope and schedule. Go to https://www.providenceoris.com/product/1-hour-of-expert-air-modeling-consulting/
For clarity, this small-job purchasing option is for air modeling consulting only. Software customers may receive help from us at any time for software-related issues at no cost (this is included in the maintenance fees). Recent trainees may also call to ask us training-related questions at no cost.
Calendar
NSR Essentials
February 17, 2025
Online
AERMOD Modeling for Permits
February 18-19, 2025
Online
Advanced AERMOD
February 20-21, 2025
Online
TCEQ Environmental Trade Fair and Conference
June 3-4, 2025
San Antonio, TX
AWMA ACE 2025
June 9-12, 2025
Raleigh, NC
Our complete class schedule can always be found at https://www.providenceoris.com/training/
For More Information:
Phone: (512) 258-8855
Email: info@providenceoris.com
Visit our websites:
www.providenceoris.com (software, support, and training)
www.beestxpress.com (cloud-based high speed AERMOD)
