MOVESv4 to SMOKE Workflow

Hi all,

I am hoping this is a straightforward question. I’m hoping to learn how to run MOVESv4 using the GUI and convert the resulting emission factors into a format compatible with SMOKE. I’d like to stay consistent with how the EPA develops its SMOKE-based emission modeling platforms. I’ve found several MOVES tutorials online, but most seem geared toward local air agencies and SIP development. I suspect those workflows differ from how MOVES is configured when used to generate inputs for SMOKE (e.g., Inventory v. emission rates modes), but I may be wrong.

Does anyone know of a tutorial, guide, or example that walks through running MOVESv4 in a way that prepares EF outputs for use in SMOKE? I will note that I am aware that I then use the scripts provided by GitHub - CEMPD/SMOKE-MOVES: SMOKE-MOVES Processing Scripts to convert MOVES output to SMOKE-ready EF tables, but would appreciate guidance prior to this step.

Thank you in advance! -VL

Section 2.15 of the SMOKE user’s manual describes the use of the scripts that you highlighted on GitHub to run MOVES in a way consistent with what was done for the EMPs.

Because the MOVES runspecs must be precisely created in order to generate the appropriate emission factors, SMOKE-MOVES automates the process of creating the MOVES runspecs (e.g. Runspec_generator.pl), and so the MOVES GUI isn’t used. If you would like to run MOVES via the GUI, we recommend opening the example runspec files that are included with SMOKE-MOVES in the MOVES GUI to see how they are configured.

These runspec files are available on github: Rate-per-distance, Rate-per-profile, Rate-per-vehicle

Note that the zone-month-hour table in the county-specific inputs is very important for generating the correct temperature bins and profiles, and the MOVES runspecs need to correspond to that data. The SMOKE-MOVES runspec generator handles this by creating import XML files for MOVES to import the appropriate zone-month-hour data for each type of rate run.

Section 5.6 of the 2020 NEI Onroad TSD contains further detailed information on how MOVES and SMOKE-MOVES were configured and run to create both CMAQ-ready emissions and inventory emissions for the NEI.

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This is very helpful. Thank you so much.