CMAQ Resources/Utilities for Model Users

Listed below are different resources and links to help new users get started with the CMAQ system as well as information for more experienced users who are ready to run CMAQ or analyze CMAQ output.

CMAQ Support Through the CMAS Center 

CMAQ support is available from the Community Modeling and Analysis System (CMAS) website. EPA instituted CMAS in 2001 as an approach for supporting community-based air quality modeling. A primary focus of CMAS is to instill a sense of community among the users of environmental models by promoting cooperation within and between the different groups in the environmental modeling community. It is operated under contract by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute for the Environment.

Activities Available Through the CMAS Center 

• Online help desk - get help with CMAQ and other supported CMAS products
• Online user forum - sign up and post your questions to web-based CMAS Forum; search the forum posts for questions similar to yours
• Software clearinghouse - download other software products designed to help with CMAQ evaluation and visualization
• Training courses - attend a training course on the CMAQ system
• Conferences - attend the annual CMAS conference to interact with the community
• Development assistance - add new science to the CMAQ system

Online Resources for Users

Many software programs are available for pre- and post-processing, evaluating and visualizing CMAQ output.

Resources for Running CMAQ on Amazon Web Services

• August 25, 2023 webinar hosted by CMAS: CMAQv5.4 on Amazon Web Services (AWS) [Download Slides | Watch Recording]
• Online tutorial for running CMAQ on AWS including background information, step-by-step instructions, and performance and cost analysis
• CMAS Data Warehouse on AWS with meteorology, emissions, and CMAQ input and output
• CMAQ on AWS HPC Workshop including instructions on running a CMAQ benchmark case using AWS ParallelCluster and a public snapshot that contains the software installation needed for the benchmark

Software Programs for Preparing CMAQ Inputs

• The Sparse Matrix Operator Kernal Emissions (SMOKE) -  emissions processing system designed to create gridded, speciated, hourly emissions for input into a variety of air quality models, including CMAQ
• SPECIATE-to-SMOKE (S2S) Tool  - Converts organic gas, particle, and mercury speciation profiles from the SPECIATE database into a SMOKE-ready format that is chemical mechanism specific. 
• Meteorology - Chemistry Interface Processor (MCIP) - Program to prepare atmospheric fields from the meteorological model WRF for use in CMAQ and SMOKE.  
• The Fertilizer Emission Scenario Tool for CMAQ (FEST-C)  - Generate fertilizer application input for CMAQ bi-directional ammonia modeling.
• Spatial Allocator  - Generate spatial data for emission, meteorology, and air quality modeling. 
• CMAQ Pre-processors - Programs to prepare CMAQ input files including initial and boundary conditions.

Software Programs for Evaluating and Visualizing CMAQ Outputs

Chapter 8 of the CMAQ User's Guide provides information on many tools freely available for visualizing, analyzing and evaluating CMAQ.  Below is a list of some of the tools supported by the EPA and CMAS.

• CMAQ Post-processors - Programs to prepare CMAQ output data for model evaluation.
• The Atmospheric Model Evaluation Tool (AMET) - A suite of software designed to facilitate the analysis and evaluation of meteorological and air quality models. 
• Visualization Environment for Rich Data Interpretation (VERDI) - Visualize gridded netCDF data with this easy-to-use Java program.  
• PseudoNetCDF - Provides reading, plotting, and sometimes writing capabilities for atmospheric science data formats including CMAQ files.

• SMAT-CE - Performs the ozone and PM2.5 attainment tests and calculates changes in future year visibility at Class I areas.