BOLCHEM air quality model: Performance evaluation over Italy

The modeling system BOLCHEM for air quality simulations has been run to study the evolution of tropospheric ozone over the Italian peninsula during 1999. The comparison of measured and modeled ozone time series shows that BOLCHEM predicts well the ozone concentrations. The summer cases are better simulated than the winter ones. The model configuration using SAPRC90 meets always the US-EPA criteria for the statistical indexes UPA, MNBE and MANGE.