Grid-enabled air pollution modelling
Air pollution models are useful tools that can predict pollution episodes in advance, allowing local authorities to implement the measures necessary to protect public health. Pollutant emission sources and weather conditions must be properly addressed in order to produce accurate forecasts. This inherent complexity makes the models computationally heavy. An IST project entitled CROSSGRID examined the potential of grid computing to improve the performance of air pollution models. Grid computing takes advantage of distributing computing resources to provide benefits such as decreased model runtimes. The Universidade de Santiago de Compostela used components developed during CROSSGRID to adapt the Sulphur Transport Eulerian Model 2 (STEM-II) to the grid environment. New features, such as fault control with check pointing, were also incorporated and are accessible via a graphical user interface. A comparison with the non-gridded version of STEM-II highlighted significant progress with respect to pollutant dispersion. This in turn yielded important gains in resource management. Energy utilities as well as local authorities stand to benefit from the model enhancements realised by the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela during CROSSGRID.
