Long-term simulations of the sulfur concentrations over the China, Japan and Korea: A model comparison study

Abstract

Three comprehensive acid deposition models were used to simulate the sulfur concentrations over northeast Asia over the period covering entire year of 2002, and discussed the aggregated uncertainties and discrepancies of the three models. The participating models are from the countries participating in the project of Longrange Transboundary Air Pollutants in Northeast Asia (LTP): China, Japan and Korea. The Eulerian Model-3/CMAQ (by China), Regional Air Quality Model (RAQM, by Japan), and Comprehensive Acid Deposition Model (CADM, by Korea) were employed by each country with common emissions data established by the administrative agencies of China, Japan and Korea. The episodic simulation results between 1 to 15, March 2002 are also presented, during which aircraft measurements were carried out over the Yellow sea. The episodic results show both a wide short-term variability in simulations against measurements, and maximum concentration differences of 3~5 times among the three models, requiring that further attention before confidence among the three models can be claimed for short-term simulations. However, the year-long cumulative simulations showed almost the same general features, with lower aggregated uncertainties between the three models, produced by the long term integration over northeast Asia.

Spatial distribution of the source-receptor relationship of sulfur in Northeast Asia

“…Emission inventories of SO 2, NO x, CO, NH 3 , and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were derived from the common dataset used in the LTP project (Choi et al, 2001;Kim et al, 2011). The base year of the emission inventory is same as the simulation period, the year 2002.…”

“…In order to reduce uncertainties and to better estimate the impact of trans-boundary air pollution problems, the importance of the ensemble technique, which incorporates several chemical transport models with various implementations and formulations, has been pointed out in various model intercomparison studies, such as MICS-Asia phase I (Carmichael et al, 2002), MICS-Asia phase II , the joint research on Long-range Trans-boundary Air Pollutants in Northeast Asia (LTP project) of the Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting among Japan, China and Korea (TEMM) (Choi et al, 2001;Kim et al, 2011).…”

“…The model has been used in the MICS-Asia Phase II study and the LTP project (Choi et al, 2001). Verification of the simulation used in this study was made by Kim et al (2011) by comparing the model results with observation data from the LTP stations and the results of the other LTP model participants. In this paper, the model results are also compared with EANET observation data.…”

Introducing the geostationary environment monitoring spectrometer

“…[8][9][10][11] Therefore, multilateral and international efforts have been proposed to determine the effects of long-range air pollutant transport and thus to improve air quality in East Asia. These efforts include the launching of joint research groups between South Korea and China, the operation of long-range transboundary air pollutant (LTP) projects among South Korea, Japan, and China, 12,13 and discussions at the Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting and Korea-United States Air Quality Campaign. 14,15 The South Korean government is in the process of expanding its ground observation network used for monitoring air quality.…”

Analysis of the origin of peak aerosol optical depth in springtime over the Gulf of Tonkin

“…Compared with long-range transport issues in Northeast Asia (Carmichael et al, 2002;Kim et al, 2011), transport of Indo-China Peninsula (IC) emissions to surrounding countries or areas has raised relatively less concern. Even in the international joint project 7SEAS (7-Southeast Asian Studies), which is focused on the SEA region, few research works related to transport of IC emission have been carried out (Reid et al, 2013).…”