Introducing Toyota's Tropospheric Ozone-Concentration Simulator. Eat Your Heart Out, Bob Lutz

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

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 project was carried out in collaboration with Tsinghua University in China, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in India, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. The simulator is expected to help in the reduction of energy consumption and limit emissions that cause atmospheric pollution — one factor in global warming.

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
Bertel Schmitt

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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  • Jimbowski Jimbowski on May 24, 2011

    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?

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    • Mazder3 Mazder3 on May 24, 2011

      @Zackman Good to see that he is safe. His poetry and observations would be missed. A quick search reveals that obbop gets around on the 'net pretty well for being a disgruntled old coot. He even has a twitter feed! http://twitter.com/#!/Obbop

  • George B George B on May 24, 2011

    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

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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