Impact of chemical and meteorological boundary and initial conditions on air quality modeling: WRF-Chem sensitivity evaluation for a European domain

Ritter, Mathias; Müller, Mathias D.; Jorba, Oriol; Parlow, Eberhard; Liu, L.-J. Sally

doi:10.1007/s00703-012-0222-8

Cited by 25 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…O 3 daily maxima were underestimated, while mean O 3 concentrations during spring (autumn) were underestimated (overestimated). Ritter et al (2013) applied the model over a Swiss domain for 2 years on a 2 km horizontal resolution. The model reproduced well temperature and solar radiation, but failed to capture short-term peaks in pollutant concentrations for several days.…”

Section: G K Georgiou Et Al: Summer Eastern Mediterranean Air Qualmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air quality modelling in the summer over the eastern Mediterranean using WRF-Chem: chemistry and aerosol mechanism intercomparison

et al. 2018

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Abstract. We employ the WRF-Chem model to study summertime air pollution, the intense photochemical activity and their impact on air quality over the eastern Mediterranean. We utilize three nested domains with horizontal resolutions of 80, 16 and 4 km, with the finest grid focusing on the island of Cyprus, where the CYPHEX campaign took place in July 2014. Anthropogenic emissions are based on the EDGAR HTAP global emission inventory, while dust and biogenic emissions are calculated online. Three simulations utilizing the CBMZ-MOSAIC, MOZART-MOSAIC, and RADM2-MADE/SORGAM gas-phase and aerosol mechanisms are performed. The results are compared with measurements from a dense observational network of 14 ground stations in Cyprus. The model simulates T 2 m , P surf , and WD 10 m accurately, with minor differences in WS 10 m between model and observations at coastal and mountainous stations attributed to limitations in the representation of the complex topography in the model. It is shown that the south-eastern part of Cyprus is mostly affected by emissions from within the island, under the dominant (60 %) westerly flow during summertime. Clean maritime air from the Mediterranean can reduce concentrations of local air pollutants over the region during westerlies. Ozone concentrations are overestimated by all three mechanisms (9 % ≤ NMB ≤ 23 %) with the smaller mean bias (4.25 ppbV) obtained by the RADM2-MADE/SORGAM mechanism. Differences in ozone concentrations can be attributed to the VOC treatment by the three mechanisms. The diurnal variability of pollution and ozone precursors is not captured (hourly correlation coefficients for O 3 ≤ 0.29). This might be attributed to the underestimation of NO x concentrations by local emissions by up to 50 %. For the fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), the lowest mean bias (9 µg m −3 ) is obtained with the RADM2-MADE/SORGAM mechanism, with overestimates in sulfate and ammonium aerosols. Overestimation of sulfate aerosols by this mechanism may be linked to the SO 2 oxidation in clouds. The MOSAIC aerosol mechanism overestimates PM 2.5 concentrations by up to 22 µg m −3 due to a more pronounced dust component compared to the other two mechanisms, mostly influenced by the dust inflow from the global model. We conclude that all three mechanisms are very sensitive to boundary conditions from the global model for both gas-phase and aerosol pollutants, in particular dust and ozone.

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Section: G K Georgiou Et Al: Summer Eastern Mediterranean Air Qualmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air quality modelling in the summer over the eastern Mediterranean using WRF-Chem: chemistry and aerosol mechanism intercomparison

et al. 2018

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“…These studies mainly focused on ICONs/BCONs of O 3 [e.g., Tang et al , ; Makar et al , ; Akritidis et al , ; Schere et al , ; Ritter et al , ] and particulate matter with diameters less than or equal to 2.5 and 10 µm (PM 2.5 and PM 10 , respectively) [e.g., Samaali et al , ; Pour‐Biazar et al , ; Ritter et al , ], and their impacts on air quality. They concluded that spatial and time‐varying BCONs perform better compared to static or idealized BCONs [ Tang et al , ; Samaali et al , ; Akritidis et al , ; Ritter et al , ]. It is also important to choose appropriate spatial and time‐varying BCONs derived from global models to drive regional simulations because different global models have varying skills in simulating background concentrations.…”

Section: Background and Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiyear applications of WRF/Chem over continental U.S.: Model evaluation, variation trend, and impacts of boundary conditions

Yahya

Zhang

2015

JGR Atmospheres

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Multiyear applications of an online‐coupled meteorology‐chemistry model allow an assessment of the variation trends in simulated meteorology, air quality, and their interactions to changes in emissions and meteorology, as well as the impacts of initial and boundary conditions (ICONs/BCONs) on simulated aerosol‐cloud‐radiation interactions over a period of time. In this work, the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry version 3.4.1 (WRF/Chem v. 3.4.1) with the 2005 Carbon Bond mechanism coupled with the Volatility Basis Set module for secondary organic aerosol formation (WRF/Chem‐CB05‐VBS) is applied for multiple years (2001, 2006, and 2010) over continental U.S. This work also examines the changes in simulated air quality and meteorology due to changes in emissions and meteorology and the model's capability in reproducing the observed variation trends in species concentrations from 2001 to 2010. In addition, the impacts of the chemical ICONs/BCONs on model predictions are analyzed. ICONs/BCONs are downscaled from two global models, the modified Community Earth System Model/Community Atmosphere model version 5.1 (CESM/CAM v5.1) and the Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate model (MACC). The evaluation of WRF/Chem‐CB05‐VBS simulations with the CESM ICONs/BCONs for 2001, 2006, and 2010 shows that temperature at 2 m (T2) is underpredicted for all three years likely due to inaccuracies in soil moisture and soil temperature, resulting in biases in surface relative humidity, wind speed, and precipitation. With the exception of cloud fraction, other aerosol‐cloud variables including aerosol optical depth, cloud droplet number concentration, and cloud optical thickness are underpredicted for all three years, resulting in overpredictions of radiation variables. The model performs well for O3 and particulate matter with diameter less than or equal to 2.5 (PM2.5) for all three years comparable to other studies from literature. The model is able to reproduce observed annual average trends in O3 and PM2.5 concentrations from 2001 to 2006 and from 2006 to 2010 but is less skillful in simulating their observed seasonal trends. The 2006 and 2010 results using CESM and MACC ICONs/BCONs are compared to analyze the impact of ICONs/BCONs on model performance and their feedbacks to aerosol, clouds, and radiation. Comparing to the simulations with MACC ICONs/BCONs, the simulations with the CESM ICONs/BCONs improve the performance of O3 mixing ratios (e.g., the normalized mean bias for maximum 8 h O3 is reduced from −17% to −1% in 2010), PM2.5 in 2010, and sulfate in 2006 (despite a slightly larger normalized mean bias for PM2.5 in 2006). The impacts of different ICONs/BCONs on simulated aerosol‐cloud‐radiation variables are not negligible, with larger impacts in 2006 compared to 2010.

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“…Errors between observation and simulation are associated with several aspects including the selection of different physical parameterization schemes, differences between the initial fields and observations and systematic errors due to the set-up of model. For chemistry elements such as PM 2.5 , simulated results are also affected by meteorological elements (such as wind speed, temperature, and PBL height (PBLH)), emission inventories and chemical mechanisms [8,52,53]. Therefore, whether the model systematically underestimated the PM 2.5 concentration in the PRD region needs to be further investigated through other cases and by improving accuracy of emission inventories, comparing different combinations of physical parameters selections.…”

Section: Evaluation Of the Simulation Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of the Trans-Regional Transport of PM2.5 on a Heavy Haze Event in the Pearl River Delta in January 2015

et al. 2019

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The Pearl River Delta (PRD), a region with the fastest economic development and urbanization in China, sometimes has severe haze pollution caused by fine particulate matter (PM2.5). From October to April of the following year, the PRD is influenced by northerly winds, which can bring pollutants from upwind polluted regions. However, the ways that pollutants are transmitted and the contributions of trans-regional inputs are not yet clear. Observational analysis and numerical simulations are applied to explore the effect of PM2.5 trans-regional transport during a heavy haze event occurring from 14 to 25 January 2015. The results show that northerly winds resulted in an increase in the PM2.5 concentration in the northern PRD one day earlier than in the southern PRD. The main transport path of PM2.5 was located at an altitude of 0.1 to 0.7 km; the maximum total transport intensity below 3 km was 9.7 × 103 μg·m−2·s−1; and the near-surface concentration increased by 13.7 to 34.4 μg/m3 by trans-regional transport, which accounted for 56.5% of the contribution rate on average. Southerly winds could also bring a polluted air mass from the sea to the coast, causing more severe haze in coastal regions blocked by mountains, although the overall effect is reduced pollution.

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Impact of chemical and meteorological boundary and initial conditions on air quality modeling: WRF-Chem sensitivity evaluation for a European domain

Cited by 25 publications

References 42 publications

Air quality modelling in the summer over the eastern Mediterranean using WRF-Chem: chemistry and aerosol mechanism intercomparison

Air quality modelling in the summer over the eastern Mediterranean using WRF-Chem: chemistry and aerosol mechanism intercomparison

Multiyear applications of WRF/Chem over continental U.S.: Model evaluation, variation trend, and impacts of boundary conditions

The Effects of the Trans-Regional Transport of PM2.5 on a Heavy Haze Event in the Pearl River Delta in January 2015

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