Development of a high-resolution (1 km  1 km, 1 h) emission model for Spain: The High-Elective Resolution Modelling Emission System (HERMES) Jose ´ Marı ´a Baldasano a, b, * , Leonor Patricia Gu ¨ ereca a , Eugeni Lo ´ pez a , Santiago Gasso ´ a, b , Pedro Jimenez-Guerrero a a Earth Sciences Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center-Centro Nacional de Supercomputacio ´n (BSC-CNS), Barcelona, Spain b Project Engineering Department, Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain article info Article history: Received 7 March 2008 Received in revised form 8 July 2008 Accepted 14 July 2008 Keywords: Emission inventories Anthropogenic emissions Biogenic emissions Models High-resolution modelling abstract This work presents the results of the development and application of the High-Elective Resolution Modelling Emission System (HERMES). HERMES generates the emissions for Spain needed for the application of high-resolution chemistry transport models, taking the year 2004 as reference with a temporal resolution of 1 h and a spatial resolution of 1 km 2 considering both anthropogenic (power generation, industrial activities, on-road traffic, ports, airports, solvent use, domestic and commercial fossil fuel use) and biogenic sources (vegetation), using a bottom–up approach, up-to-date information and state-of-the-art methodologies for emission estimation. HERMES is capable of calculating emissions by sector-specific sources or by individual installations and stacks. The annual addition of hourly sectorial emissions leads to an estimation of total annual emissions as follows: NO x , 795 kt; NMVOCs, 1025 kt; CO, 1236 kt; SO 2 , 1142 kt and TSP, 180 kt; which are distributed principally in the greater areas of the main cities, highways and large point sources. NO x , SO 2 and PM 2.5 highly correlate with the power generation by coal use, achieving higher emission levels during summertime due to the increase of electricity demand by cooling systems. NMVOCs show high correlation with temperature and solar radiation (mainly as a consequence of the important weight of biogenic emissions) causing the maximum emissions during the daylight hours of summer months. CO emissions are mostly influ- enced by the on-road traffic; consequently the higher emissions are attained in summer because of the increase of daily average traffic during holidays. The most significant total emission sources are on-road traffic (38%), combustion in power generation plants (33%), biogenic sources (12%) and combustion in manufacturing industries (9%). The inventory generated with HERMES emission model has been successfully integrated within the Spanish Ministry of the Environment’s air quality forecasting system (Caliope project), being the emission core for the validation and assessment of air quality simulations in Spain. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Emissions models are mathematical representations of the pollutants emitted directly from sources and constitute an essential tool for policy, regulatory and scientific purposes in topics related to air quality (Parra et al., 2006; * Corresponding author. Project Engineering Department, Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Jordi Girona 29, Edificio Nexus II, 08034 Barcelona, Spain. E-mail address: jose.baldasano@bsc.es (J.M. Baldasano). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Atmospheric Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atmosenv 1352-2310/$ – see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.07.026 Atmospheric Environment 42 (2008) 7215–7233