Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-305
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-305
05 Oct 2023
 | 05 Oct 2023
Status: this preprint is currently under review for the journal ESSD.

Brazilian Atmospheric Inventories – BRAIN: A comprehensive database of air quality in Brazil

Leonardo Hoinaski, Robson Will, and Camilo Bastos Ribeiro

Abstract. Developing air quality management systems to control the impacts of air pollution requires reliable data. However, current initiatives do not provide datasets with large spatial and temporal resolutions for developing air pollution policies in Brazil. Here, we introduce the Brazilian Atmospheric Inventories – BRAIN, the first comprehensive database of air quality and its drivers in Brazil. BRAIN encompasses hourly datasets of meteorology, emissions, and air quality. We provide gridded data in two domains, covering the Brazilian territory with 20x20 km of spatial resolution and another covering Southern Brazil with 4x4 km. The emissions dataset includes vehicular emissions derived from the Brazilian Vehicular Emissions Inventory Software (BRAVES), industrial emissions produced with local data from the Brazilian environmental agencies, biomass burning emissions from FINN – Fire Inventory from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and biogenic emissions from the Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature (MEGAN). The meteorology dataset has been derived from Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF). The air quality dataset contains the surface concentration of 216 air pollutants produced from coupling meteorological and emissions datasets with the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System (CMAQ). This paper describes how the datasets were produced, their limitations, and their spatiotemporal features. To evaluate the quality of the database, we compare the air quality dataset with 244 air quality monitoring stations, providing the model’s performance for each measured pollutant by the monitoring stations. We present a sample of the spatial variability of emissions, meteorology, and air quality in Brazil from 2019, revealing the hotspots of emissions and air pollution issues. By making BRAIN publicly available, we aim to provide the required data for developing air quality policies on municipality and state scales, especially for not developed and data-scarce municipalities. We also envision that BRAIN has the potential to create new insights and opportunities for air pollution research in Brazil.

Leonardo Hoinaski et al.

Status: open (until 15 Dec 2023)

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • CC1: 'Air Quality Database', Taciana Toledo, 17 Oct 2023 reply
  • RC1: 'Comment on essd-2023-305', Anonymous Referee #1, 25 Nov 2023 reply

Leonardo Hoinaski et al.

Data sets

Brazilian Atmospheric Inventories - BRAIN: A comprehensive database of air quality in Brazil version 1.0 Leonardo Hoinaski, Robson Will and Camilo Bastos Ribeiro https://brain.ens.ufsc.br/

Model code and software

BRAIN codes repository - CMAQ runner Leonardo Hoinaski https://github.com/leohoinaski/CMAQrunner

BRAIN codes repository - Industrial emissions Leonardo Hoinaski https://github.com/leohoinaski/IND_Inventory

Leonardo Hoinaski et al.

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Short summary
We introduce the Brazilian Atmospheric Inventories – BRAIN, the first comprehensive database for air quality studies in Brazil. The database encompasses hourly datasets of meteorology, emissions sources, and ambient concentration of multiple air pollutants, covering the Brazilian territory. It combines local inventories, consolidated datasets, and internationally recommended models to provide essential data for developing air pollution control policies even in data-scarce areas.
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