Author(s)

M T López, R Villasenor, A I Qunitanar & V Mora

Abstract

Most current wind erosion methods predict average annual or seasonal erosion amounts and only very approximate estimates of suspended dust emissions are available. The main objective of this investigation is to use an empirical USEPA erosion model to estimate dust emissions in the Mexico City Basin, and to compare the predicted concentrations to measured data of geological material. When the emission model is combined with a transport-dispersion model, estimates of downwind particulate concentrations compared reasonably well with measured data. To study the effect on transport and dispersion of PM, observational data from March 5 and 6 of 1997 were used to drive a diagnostic meteorological model and a transport/dispersion model to simulate the local wind circulation and PM concentration distributions. Results show good agreement with the main spatial features of the local wind circulation and windblown dust concentrations.

Keywords