Regional dispersion characteristics of dust from large-scale open-pit coal mines in China driven by WRF-AERMOD and WRF-CALPUFF.

WRF-AERMOD with dry deposition accurately simulates dust dispersion from large-scale open-pit coal mines, achieving a correlation of R = 0.78 with observations.

• Why it matters: Understanding dust transport in remote mining areas is crucial for environmental and health risk management, but regional-scale studies are limited by scarce upper-air meteorological data.
• What they did: A multi-scale coupled modeling framework was developed by integrating WRF with AERMOD and CALPUFF, using high-resolution meteorological data to simulate dust dispersion and deposition in 2021 at the Haerwusu mine.
• The result: The WRF-AERMOD model with dry deposition best matched field data and showed dust mainly confined within 5 km of the mine, with simulated TSP levels meeting China's Class II air quality standards, supporting regional pollution assessment and control.