Introducing Toyota's Tropospheric Ozone-Concentration Simulator. Eat Your Heart Out, Bob Lutz
According to one car guy, global warming is a crock of excrement. Toyota wants to get to the bottom of it. Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Central R&D Labs have developed a simulator able to predict tropospheric ozone concentrations across the whole of South and East Asia.
The ozone layer in the stratosphere (starting at a height of approximately 10 km) is fairly well known. It protects the earth’s ecosystem by absorbing ultraviolet rays. Less known is the ozone in the troposphere, which extends to approximately 10 km above the earth’s surface. The tropospheric ozone is said to be the main cause of photochemical smog, an atmospheric pollutant harmful to human health and plant growth.
Predicting tropospheric ozone concentrations is difficult. And that’s where Toyota’s simulator comes in. It takes as inputs the current and projected energy consumption, along with CO2, NOx, and VOC emissions and meteorological conditions. It then builds a three-dimensional air quality model that predicts tropospheric ozone concentrations.
According to Toyota, “the main benefit of the simulator is the ability to comprehensively investigate policies needed for tropospheric ozone reduction, CO2 reduction scenarios and atmospheric improvement scenarios.”
We have smuggled a 2D demo out of the secret Toyota labs. It’s a PowerPoint. It uses old data. At the top, it says something like “Example of Ozone Concentration Prediction.” Set it in motion by “View Slideshow” (or F5) and you’ll see why I am having qualms about going back to Beijing in two weeks. But hey, it’s 2005 data.
The real thing will be demonstrated on May 26 and 27 at a workshop at Beijing’s Tsinghua University. Let’s hope there will be less red in the clouds moving around in the troposphere.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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This is off-topic, but has anyone heard from or seen obbop on here? From his vague descriptions of where he lives, I think it is southern Missouri. What do you guys think?
Bertel, you've conflated real makes your eyes burn and lungs hurt ground level ozone pollution from photochemical smog, beneficial concentration of ozone in the stratosphere, and the concentration of CO2, atmospheric plant food, with effects that are in dispute. Attempts to predict ground level ozone pollution are no more controversial than attempting to predict the weather. The models may get it wrong, but even an incomplete warning of bad atmospheric conditions is better than no warning at all. At this point I think there is general agreement the pollution control equipment added to cars to greatly reduce their contribution to photochemical smog is a good thing. In the United States, engine horsepower has never been higher while vehicle emissions of real pollution have never been lower. I make more pollution pumping gas and mowing my yard than I do driving my car. Probably time to question how many more decades old coal fired power plants will continue to be grandfathered and when small engines will finally get emissions control systems. Current ground level ozone levels in Texas. http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/cgi-bin/compliance/monops/select_curlev.pl