Supported Analyses

Supported data analysis options in MELODIES MONET are explained below.

Calculating Regulatory Metrics

MDA8 (8-hour daily maximum) ozone and 24 hour average PM2.5 can be calculated within MELODIES MONET from hourly observational and model data. All plots except for the “spatial_overlay” plot and all stats will work with the regulatory metrics.

The MDA8 ozone metric is calculated based on the following:

  1. Local time is used

  2. For each day, rolling 8-hour averages are calculated for each period with at least 6 hours of data

  3. The MDA8 value is the highest of the 8-hour averages in a given day

  4. The MDA8 value is only used for a given day if at least 18 of the 24 possible 8-hour averages are available

As described in the EPA report on Health Risk and Exposure Assessment for Ozone (page 8).

The 24 hour average PM2.5 metric is calculated based on the following:

  1. Local time is used

  2. The average PM2.5 value is calculated over a given day

  3. The PM2.5 value is only used for a given day if at least 18 of the 24 possible hours are available

In order to calculate the regulatory metric, add regulatory: True into the input YAML file under the “obs” section for each variable that you want to apply the calculation. Currently, this option only works for “OZONE” and “PM2.5” variables. There are separate plotting characteristics for the regulatory options (“ylabel_reg_plot”, “vmin_reg_plot”, “vmax_reg_plot”, and “vdiff_reg_plot”) that can also be specified in the input YAML file. An example input YAML file that calculates MDA8 ozone and 24 hr PM2.5 is in examples/yaml/control_rrfs_cmaq_airnow_reg.yaml. These input YAML file options are also further described in the Appendix under Description of All YAML Options.