Two-way coupled meteorology and air quality models in Asia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of impacts of aerosol feedbacks on meteorology and air quality

Abstract

Abstract. Atmospheric aerosols can exert influence on meteorology and air quality through aerosol-radiation interactions (ARI) and aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) and this two-way feedback has been studied by applying two-way coupled meteorology and air quality models. As one of regions with high aerosol loading in the world, Asia has attracted many researchers to investigate the aerosol effects with several two-way coupled models (WRF-Chem, WRF-CMAQ, GRAPES-CUACE and WRF-NAQPMS) over the last decade. This paper attempts to offer bibliographic analysis regarding the current status of applications of two-way coupled models in Asia, related research focuses, model performances and the effects of ARI or/and ACI on meteorology and air quality. There are total 157 peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2019 in Asia meeting the inclusion criteria, with more than 81 % of papers involving the WRF-Chem model. The number of relevant publications has an upward trend annually and East Asia, India, China, as well as the North China Plain are the most studied areas. The effects of ARI and both ARI and ACI induced by natural aerosols (particularly mineral dust) and anthropogenic aerosols (bulk aerosols, different chemical compositions and aerosols from different sources) are widely investigated in Asia. Through the meta-analysis of surface meteorological and air quality variables simulated by two-way coupled models, the model performance affected by aerosol feedbacks depends on different variables, simulation time lengths, selection of two-way coupled models, and study areas. Future research perspectives with respect to the development, improvement, application, and evaluation of two-way coupled meteorology and air quality models are proposed.

Reduction in Near‐Surface Wind Speeds With Increasing CO2 May Worsen Winter Air Quality in the Indo‐Gangetic Plain

“…We find that the relationship between changes in the sfcWind distribution and global temperature is similar to that derived from the idealized 1pctCO2 simulation (Figures S5 and S10 in Supporting Information ). In contrast, we find that the response of INV is much stronger (Figures S7 and S11 in Supporting Information ), consistent with previous studies (Gao et al., 2022; Hingmire et al., 2021; Ramanathan et al., 2005; Yang et al., 2016), which have demonstrated that higher anthropogenic aerosols tend to increase atmospheric stability.…”

Intercomparison of multiple two-way coupled meteorology and air quality models (WRF v4.1.1–CMAQ v5.3.1, WRF–Chem v4.1.1, and WRF v3.7.1–CHIMERE v2020r1) in eastern China

“…The DOIs and links regarding the output data of each simulation scenario are presented in Table S9. All data used to create figures and tables in this study are provided in an open repository on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7750907, Gao et al, 2023i).…”

Predicted Particle Properties (P3) Microphysics Scheme Coupled With WRF‐Chem Model: Evaluation With Convective and Stratiform Cases

“…Although observational studies have greatly improved our understanding of aerosol effects (Hoeve et al., 2016; Li, 2009; Rosenfeld et al., 2019), there are still many limitations, such as low temporal resolution of satellite data, low spatial resolution of ground observation sites, and lack of vertical distribution information of aerosols and clouds (Gao et al., 2022; Rosenfeld et al., 2014; Sato & Suzuki, 2019; Yu, 2006). Therefore, it is necessary to obtain high‐resolution and multi spatial‐temporal scales of cloud simulations through models.…”

“…WRF‐Chem is a fully compressible, Eulerian nonhydrostatic, 3‐dimensional (3D) mesoscale model with a hydrostatic option able to simulate and predict weather, emission and transport of chemical constituents, and direct and indirect aerosol forcing (Grell et al., 2005; Skamarock et al., 2008), and provide high resolution simulation output results. The WRF‐Chem model has been widely used to study aerosol–cloud interactions (Gao et al., 2022). At present, WRF‐Chem has only been coupled with cloud microphysics schemes from Lin et al.…”