# Treatment of Black Carbon in CMAQ simulation **URL:** \ **Category:** Chemistry and Aerosols\ **Tags:** admin\ **Created:** [August 10, 2020, 8:33am UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/treatment-of-black-carbon-in-cmaq-simulation/1713 "2020-08-10T08:33:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Ryan](https://forum.cmascenter.org/u/Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 8:33am UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/treatment-of-black-carbon-in-cmaq-simulation/1713/1 "2020-08-10T08:33:35Z")
Hi all, I am confusing about the treatment of black carbon in CMAQ simulation. As far as I know from Hu et al.,([https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2009JD011987](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2009JD011987)), the Elemental carbon (EC) in the CMAQ model is black carbon, am I right? If it is, may I ask what is the corresponding variable of black carbon in emission file under the CB6r3 mechanism? Can I just use the PM25\_EC in the combined CCTM out file to represent black carbon in PM2.5? Any comments or suggestions are highly appreciated! Thanks! @hogrefe.christian @cgnolte ---
**Author:** ![bbaek](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/forum.cmascenter.org/bbaek/32/22_2.png) [@bbaek](https://forum.cmascenter.org/u/bbaek)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2020, 12:10pm UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/treatment-of-black-carbon-in-cmaq-simulation/1713/2 "2020-10-15T12:10:45Z")
Within the photolysis module in CMAQ, we believe EC is assigned optical parameters associated with BC. ---
**Author:** ![OneStone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e19b73/32.png) [@OneStone](https://forum.cmascenter.org/u/OneStone)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2020, 9:11am UTC](https://forum.cmascenter.org/t/treatment-of-black-carbon-in-cmaq-simulation/1713/3 "2020-11-04T09:11:17Z")
Thank you! I’ve been looking for this for a long time…