University of Arizona Researchers Receive $4.8M NSF Grant to Build Next Generation Air Quality Modeling System
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $4.8 million grant to University of Arizona professor Ave Arellano Jr. and a multi-institution research team to modernize how the nation tracks, forecasts, and communicates air pollution and wildfire smoke. The collaboration brings together the University of Arizona, the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University at Albany, and the University of Iowa to develop a more flexible, modular, community-driven air quality modeling framework.
Current U.S. air quality forecasting relies heavily on legacy systems such as the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System and WRF-Chem. These tools have supported decades of research and regulatory work, but their aging infrastructure makes it difficult to integrate new scientific advances or adapt to the growing impacts of extreme heat, particulate pollution, and wildfire smoke. With WRF-Chem being phased out and the next generation Model for Prediction Across Scales still lacking a modern chemistry component, researchers see an urgent need for a new approach.
The project introduces a game engine inspired architecture that uses modular libraries to represent atmospheric processes, allowing scientists to plug in components or update features without rewriting entire models. This design will enable students and researchers to describe scientific questions using high level scripts that software engineers can translate into fully functional simulations. The goal is to significantly reduce programming barriers and broaden participation in atmospheric chemistry research.
The engine will be jointly developed by atmospheric chemists and software engineers at NCAR, while partner universities lead scientific direction and student recruitment. Undergraduate and graduate students across computer science and atmospheric science will work together to define modeling needs, build components, and participate in annual collaboration visits to NCAR. The project also serves as a training environment that bridges communication gaps between computational and atmospheric sciences, preparing the next generation of interdisciplinary researchers.
By modernizing the nation’s air quality modeling infrastructure, the team aims to provide clearer insights into human generated pollutants, wildfire smoke behavior, and regional climate interactions. For the Southwest, where wildfire seasons continue to grow longer and more severe, the system could lead to improved forecasting, earlier warnings, and more effective public health guidance.
Arellano notes that the long term goal is to create a flexible and future ready platform that empowers the scientific community. By lowering technical barriers and modernizing the modeling ecosystem, the team hopes to accelerate discovery and provide more accurate information to support environmental and public health decisions.
Read More: University of Arizona researchers earn $4.8M NSF grant to build the next generation air quality model