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Volpe Center Air Quality Facility

Volpe Air Quality provides services to clients requiring technical assistance with highly-specialized transportation-related air quality issues.

Please visit How to Start Work to learn more about working with the Volpe Center.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Project Plan: System for Assessing Aviation's Global Emissions
Sponsor: FAA, Office of Environment and Energy (AEE)

• Design, develop, implement, test and document the SAGE computer model for predicting global fuel burn and emissions from commercial aviation.
• Develop global fuel burn and emission inventories for 2000, 2001, 2002, etc.
• Validate and enhance the SAGE model as deemed necessary.
• Conduct analyses with the SAGE model to support policy-related fuel burn and emissions decisions.

Project Plan: Local Air Quality
Sponsor: FAA, Office of Environment and Energy (AEE)

• Validate and enhance the AERMOD dispersion algorithms within FAA's Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System (EDMS).
• Conduct field studies, as necessary, to support of the validation and enhancement of AERMOD, as implemented into EDMS.
• Update and enhance the aircraft performance model within EDMS.
• Conduct research into alternative methods for quantifying particulate matter emissions from commercial aircraft.
• Design, develop, implement, test and document a screening model for assessing local air quality.

Project Plan: Technical Noise and Air Quality Support to Air Tour Management Plans (ATMP)
Sponsor: FAA, Western Pacific Region, Air Tour Management Plans (ATMP)

• Collect aircraft activity data, including operations, flight tracks and schedule.
• Reduce and analyze the data collected and prepare for input to noise and air quality models.
• Prepare and review environmental documentation, as required.

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

Project Plan: Alternative Transportation in the National Parks
Sponsors: FHWA, Federal Lands Highway Core Business Unit

• Conduct vehicle inventories in three national parks.
• Characterize typical visitor routings within these national parks.
• Model emission inventories using existing prediction tools.
• Utilize alternative approaches to quantify the effects of typical visitor routings, as opposed to default routings used in most models.
• Conduct noise measurements of alternative transportation vehicles utilized in the parks.

Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA)

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

Technical Support Working Group (TSWG)

Project Plan: Oklahoma City Dispersion Study
Sponsor: TSWG, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Countermeasures (CBRN)

• Collect bag samples of SF6 tracer gas, along with related information.
• Reduce and analyze the concentrations data collected and prepare for input to dispersion models.
• Validate existing dispersion models using collected data, and make recommendations on improving those models.

California Department of Toxic Substances Control (CA DTSC)

Project Plan: Asbestos Road Study
Sponsor: CA DTSC

• Collect air samples adjacent to a roadway.
• Analyze the samples and quantify asbestos concentrations.
• Make recommendations on the need for a follow-up study and/or remediation program.