Multi-scale modeling study of the source contributions to near-surface ozone and sulfur oxides levels over California during the ARCTAS-CARB period

Huang, Min; Carmichael, Gregory R.; Spak, S. N.; Adhikary, Bhupesh; Kulkarni, S.; Cheng, Yafang; Wei, Chao; Tang, Youhua; D’Allura, A.; Wennberg, P. O.; Huey, G.; Dibb, Jack E.; Jiménez, José; Cubison, M. J.; Weinheimer, A. J.; Kaduwela, A. P.; Cai, Chenxia; Wong, Min Minnie; Pierce, R. B.; Al-Saadi, J.; Streets, D. G.; Zhang, Q.

doi:10.5194/acpd-10-27777-2010

Cited by 7 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…As shown in Figure S1, SO 2 inland emissions decrease significantly from 2001 to 2006 and from 2006 to 2010. The NEI 2001 emissions include emissions around the port area but do not include the shipping emissions over the open ocean, which is different from the emissions for the other years [ Huang et al , ]. Emissions of SO 4 2− , POA, and EC also show a decrease from 2001 to 2006 and from 2006 to 2010.…”

Section: Variation Trends In Air Quality and Meteorology From 2001 Tomentioning

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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Section: Variation Trends In Air Quality and Meteorology From 2001 Tomentioning

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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“…Northwesterly winds prevailed over the coastal and CV regions together with sea‐land breezes. The predicted mixing layer height (PBLHT) over the ocean was less than 600 m, while over the land it reached up to 1500 m during the daytime [ Huang et al , 2011]. Details of the meteorology and impact of large‐scale circulation during the campaign period have been reported elsewhere [ Fuelberg et al , 2010].…”

Section: Aircraft Observations and Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On June 21, particularly extensive wildfires were reported at several locations over both northern and southern California. During June 18–20, fires were detected along the California‐Mexico border [ Huang et al , 2011]. The fire count data (hot spots) detected by the Along Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR), which represent the locations of major wild fires, are plotted in Figure 1.…”

Section: Aircraft Observations and Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Emission characteristics of black carbon in anthropogenic and biomass burning plumes over California during ARCTAS‐CARB 2008

et al. 2012

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[1] The impact of aerosols on regional air quality and climate necessitates improved understanding of their emission and microphysical properties. The size distributions of black carbon (BC) and light scattering particles (LSP) were measured with a single particle soot photometer on board the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the ARCTAS mission 2008. Air sampling was made in the air plumes of both urban and forest fire emissions over California during the CARB (California Air Resources Board) phase of the mission. A total of eleven plumes were identified using SO 2 and CH 3 CN tracers for fossil fuel (FF) combustion and biomass burning (BB), respectively. The enhancements of BC and LSP in BB plumes were significantly higher compared to those in FF plumes. The average mass concentration of BC in BB plumes was more than twice that in FF plumes. Except for the BC/CO ratio, distinct emission ratios of BC/CO 2 , BC/CH 3 CN, CH 3 CN/CO, and CO/CO 2 were observed in the plumes from the two sources. Similarly, the microphysical properties of BC and LSP also showed distinct behaviors. The BC count median diameter (CMD) of 115 AE 5 nm in FF plumes was smaller compared to 141 AE 9 nm in the BB plumes. BC aerosols were thickly coated in BB plumes, the average shell/core ratios were 1.47 and 1.24 in BB and FF plumes, respectively. In the total mass of submicron aerosols, organic aerosols constituted about 67% in the FF plumes and 84% in BB plumes. The contribution of sulfate was also significant in the FF plumes.

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“…The Long Beach area has one of the world's largest ports, and its air quality is affected by both maritime (mainly shipping) and terrestrial emissions in SoCal [ Huang et al ., ]. Similar to the findings by Brioude et al .…”

Section: Methods and Data Setsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The model calculates gas‐phase chemistry reactions based on the Statewide Air Pollution Research Center (SAPRC) gaseous chemical mechanism (SAPRC‐99) [ Carter , ] with 30 photolysis rates calculated online by the TUV radiation model. STEM has been used and evaluated in a number of field campaigns in the past decade [ Carmichael et al ., , ; Tang et al ., , ; Stith et al ., ; Adhikary et al ., ; Huang et al ., , ]. STEM simulations were conducted on 60 km and 12 km horizontal resolution grids for CalNex period, and the O 3 fields have been carefully compared with various observations and other chemical transport models [ Huang et al ., ; Lapina et al ., ].…”

Section: Methods and Data Setsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in nitrogen oxides emissions in California during 2005–2010 indicated from top‐down and bottom‐up emission estimates

et al. 2014

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In California, emission control strategies have been implemented to reduce air pollutants. Here we estimate the changes in nitrogen oxides (NO x = NO + NO 2 ) emissions in 2005-2010 using a state-of-the-art four-dimensional variational approach. We separately and jointly assimilate surface NO 2 concentrations and tropospheric NO 2 columns observed by Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) into the regional-scale Sulfur Transport and dEposition Model (STEM) chemical transport model on a 12 × 12 km 2 horizontal resolution grid in May 2010. The assimilation generates grid-scale top-down emission estimates, and the updated chemistry fields are evaluated with independent aircraft measurements during the NOAA California Nexus (CalNex) field experiment. The emission estimates constrained only by NO 2 columns, only by surface NO 2 , and by both indicate statewide reductions of 26%, 29%, and 30% from~0.3 Tg N/yr in the base year of 2005, respectively. The spatial distributions of the emission changes differ in these cases, which can be attributed to many factors including the differences in the observation sampling strategies and their uncertainties, as well as those in the sensitivities of column and surface NO 2 with respect to NO x emissions. The updates in California's NO x emissions reduced the mean error in modeled surface ozone in the Western U.S., even though the uncertainties in some urban areas increased due to their NO x -saturated chemical regime. The statewide reductions in NO x emissions indicated from our observationally constrained emission estimates are also reflected in several independently developed inventories:~30% in the California Air Resources Board bottom-up inventory,~4% in the 2008 National Emission Inventory, and~20% in the annual mean top-down estimates by Lamsal et al. using the global Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)-Chem model and OMI NO 2 columns. Despite the grid-scale differences among all top-down and bottom-up inventories, they all indicate stronger emission reductions in the urban regions. This study shows the potential of using space-/ground-based monitoring data and advanced data assimilation approach to timely and independently update NO x emission estimates on a monthly scale and at a fine grid resolution. The well-evaluated results here suggest that these approaches can be applied more broadly.

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Multi-scale modeling study of the source contributions to near-surface ozone and sulfur oxides levels over California during the ARCTAS-CARB period

Cited by 7 publications

References 24 publications

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

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

Emission characteristics of black carbon in anthropogenic and biomass burning plumes over California during ARCTAS‐CARB 2008

Changes in nitrogen oxides emissions in California during 2005–2010 indicated from top‐down and bottom‐up emission estimates

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