Improved Spatial Resolution in Modeling of Nitrogen Oxide Concentrations in the Los Angeles Basin

The extent to which emission control technologies and policies have reduced anthropogenic NO_x emissions from motor vehicles is large but uncertain. We evaluate a fuel-based emission inventory for southern California during the June 2021 period, coinciding with the Re-Evaluating the Chemistry of Air Pollutants in CAlifornia (RECAP-CA) field campaign. A modified version of the Fuel-based Inventory of Vehicle Emissions (FIVE) is presented, incorporating 1.3 km resolution gridding and a new light-/medium-duty diesel vehicle category. NO_x concentrations and weekday–weekend differences were predicted using the WRF-Chem model and evaluated using satellite and aircraft observations. Model performance was similar on weekdays and weekends, indicating appropriate day-of-week scaling of NO_x emissions and a reasonable distribution of emissions by sector. Large observed weekend decreases in NO_x are mainly due to changes in on-road vehicle emissions. The inventory presented in this study suggests that on-road vehicles were responsible for 55–72% of the NO_x emissions in the South Coast Air Basin, compared to the corresponding fraction (43%) in the planning inventory from the South Coast Air Quality Management District. This fuel-based inventory suggests on-road NO_x emissions that are 1.5 ± 0.4, 2.8 ± 0.6, and 1.3 ± 0.7 times the reference EMFAC model estimates for on-road gasoline, light- and medium-duty diesel, and heavy-duty diesel, respectively.