Abstract
Simulated meteorological fields, ground values of aerosol concentrations (PM2.5) and aerosol concentration profiles, all calculated within the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII) for the year 2006 for Europe are used to investigate the relation of the height of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) to the modelled aerosol concentrations. It was found that in many cases simulated PBL heights match the observed values at Lindenberg, Germany, quite well at noon and under convective conditions. On the other hand, in winter and at night time, when the atmosphere is more frequently stably stratified, the modelled values underestimate the observed PBL height quite significantly. A strong relationship between the simulated PBL height and the aerosol concentrations at ground was found. While those models which showed good agreement with the observed PBL height typically underestimate PM2.5, too low PBL heights were connected with higher aerosol concentrations close to ground and therefore lower bias. Model biases in PBL height and in PM2.5 concentration at ground were found to be highly anti-correlated.
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References
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Acknowledgments
F. Beyrich from the German Weather Service, Meteorologisches Observatorium Lindenberg, is gratefully acknowledged for the observed PBL heights. We thank all AQMEII participants who delivered data for the European domain.
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Questioner Name: Jordi Vila
Q: Would it be useful to extend the data treatment and classify it according to the PBL prototypes: convective, stable, morning transition and afternoon transition?
A: Yes, this would certainly be useful. Part of this classification is already done by looking at the different starting times of the radiosondes. However one could further classify the data set into stable, neutral and unstable cases. This would give more insight into the reasons why some models underestimate the PBL height even at noon. One problem with the current data set from Lindenberg is that it is too small to give a good statistics if additional separations are made. Therefore I will look into additional data sets from other locations.
Questioner Name: Golam Sarwar
Q: Published articles suggest air quality models have difficulty in predicting clouds accurately. This has influence on sulphate predictions. Any comments?
A: We used profiles of sulphate in PM2.5 to investigate the vertical distribution of atmospheric aerosols in AQMEII. We are well aware of the fact that sulphate production is influenced by clouds and other meteorological parameters like radiation. Nevertheless we believe it is the most suitable variable that is available in the AQMEII data set to compare vertical profiles of aerosol components. Besides sulphate only PM2.5 is stored in the data set and this variable is even more sensitive to variations in chemistry, emissions (e.g. fire emissions were not considered by all groups) and meteorological conditions.
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Matthias, V., Aulinger, A., Bieser, J., Quante, M. (2014). The Relation of the Planetary Boundary Layer Height to the Vertical Aerosol Distribution in Chemistry Transport Models. In: Steyn, D., Builtjes, P., Timmermans, R. (eds) Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXII. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5577-2_93
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5577-2_93
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