Comparative evaluations are needed to assess the suitability of near-road air pollution models for traffic-related ultrafine particle number concentration (PNC). Our goal was to evaluate the ability of dispersion (CALINE4, AERMOD, R-LINE, and QUIC) and regression models to predict PNC in a residential neighborhood (Somerville) and an urban center (Chinatown) near highways in and near Boston, Massachusetts. PNC was measured in each area, and models were compared to each other and measurements for hot (>18 °C) and cold (<10 °C) hours with wind directions parallel to and perpendicular downwind from highways. In Somerville, correlation and error statistics were typically acceptable, and all models predicted concentration gradients extending ∼100 m from the highway. In contrast, in Chinatown, PNC trends differed among models, and predictions were poorly correlated with measurements likely due to effects of street canyons and nonhighway particle sources. Our results demonstrate the importance of selecting PNC models that align with study area characteristics (e.g., dominant sources and building geometry). We applied widely available models to typical urban study areas; therefore, our results should be generalizable to models of hourly averaged PNC in similar urban areas.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 June 2018.
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#11,075,031
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#12,015
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#146,911
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Outputs of similar age from Environmental Science & Technology
#127
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Altmetric has tracked 33,738,238 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 66th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 25,992 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.0. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 52% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 253 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 48th percentile – i.e., 48% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
