NSF Award
9904792
9904792<br/>Hanna<br/><br/>Description: This award is to support a collaborative project by a US team headed by Dr. Adel Hanna, Environmental Research, MCNC-North Carolina Supercomputing Center, Raleigh, North Carolina and an Egyptian team headed by Dr. Abou Bakr Ramadan, Radiation and Environmental Monitoring Network, National Center for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control, Cairo, Egypt. They plan to study the air pollution in urban locations of Egypt. The study would compile and analyze in-situ data on aerosols (particulate matter, various trace species) and use them in a set of available numerical/statistical schemes, tuned to local conditions. They plan to use meteorological data to study stagnant high pressure systems and the mixed-layer depth at various locations and times of day, and using 3-D regional chemical transport models and regulatory models for further understanding of the physical processes leading to elevated particulate matter and ozone levels in the atmosphere.<br/><br/>Scope: This project may lead to a better understanding of the special regional conditions that contribute to pollutant loading and transport in Egypt, especially in the urban corridor around Cairo and Alexandria. This region has a very concentrated population density; a dry environment with reduced precipitation scavenging mechanisms, and abundant photochemical production processes. The available data and its use in the analyses may yield better understanding and knowledge and affect national policy concerning pollutant loading due to anthropogenic activity is too ambitious. Dr. Hanna has had extensive experience in atmospheric modeling work, and has worked successfully with the Egyptian co-PI before, with resulting joint publication. The collaborators are well placed to access the needed in-situ data as well as numerical schemes from US research community. Postdoctoral scientists from both countries will collaborate on the research, and will gain experience in international scientific activities. This proposal meets the INT objective of supporting collaborative research in areas of mutual interest. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.
