Summary
Because of the obvious importance of aerosols for atmospheric modelling, an aerosol module has been developed as part of the European Acid Deposition Model (EURAD). The chemical and physical processes have been restricted to the sulfate-nitrate-ammonia system to study the influence of aerosols on acid deposition. Special consideration is given to the reversible formation process ofNH 4 NO 3 aerosols and the influence of the dissociation constant on the aerosol and gas phase concentrations. This component appears to be important in particular for regions where large ammonia emissions are found as in Europe.
Concentration and deposition fields as predicted by EURAD are analysed for a simulation with and without the new aerosol module. Due to their smaller dry deposition velocities in the aerosol phase, the amount of nitrogen species in air is larger and the spatial distribution is considerably different if aerosols are taken into account. On the other hand wet deposition of nitrogen is enhanced due to the presence of easily soluble ammonium nitrate aerosols.
A comparison with observations from the EMEP network has been conducted to evaluate the performance of the aerosol module. Modelling with the aerosol phase leads to a much better agreement between modelled and measured concentration fields.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackermann, I. J., 1993: Aerosolbehandlung im EURAD-Modell. Diploma Thesis. Institut für Geophysik und Meteorologie der Universität zu Köln.
Allen, A. G., Harrison, R. M., Erisman, J. W., 1989: Field measurements of the dissociation of ammonium nitrate and ammonium chloride aerosols.Atmos. Environ. 23, 1591–1599.
Anthes, R. A., Hsie, E. Y., Kuo, Y.-H., 1987: Description of the Penn State/NCAR Mesoscale Model Version 4 (MM4). NCAR Technical Note, NCAR/TN-282+STR, 66pp.
Binkowski, F. S., Shankar, U., 1994: The regional particulate model: Part I, Model description and preliminary results.J. Geophys. Res., (submitted).
Ebel, A., Hass, H., Jakobs, H. J., Memmesheimer, M., Laube, M., Oberreuter, A., Geiss, H., Kuo, Y. H., 1991: Simulation of Ozone intrusion caused by a tropopause fold and cut-off low.Atmos. Environ.,25A, 2131–2144.
Hass, H., Ebel, A., Feldmann, H., Jakobs, H. J., Memmesheimer, 1993: Evaluation studies with a regional chemical transport model (EURAD) using air quality data from the EMEP monitoring network.Atmos. Environ.,27A, 867–887.
Jaffe, D. H., 1988. Accuracy of measured ammonium nitrate equilibrium values.Atmos. Environ. 22, 2329–2330.
Kötz, A., 1991: Bedeutung der Aerosole für den Ferntransport von Schadstoffen in der Atmosphäre. In: Ebel, A. et al., (eds.) Mitteilungen aus dem Institut für Geophysik und Meteorologie der Universität zu Köln, Report 81.
Memmesheimer, M., Tippke, J., Ebel, A., Hass, H., Jakobs, H. J., Laube, M. 1991. On the use of EMEP emission inventories for European scale air pollution modelling with the EURAD model. In: Pankrath, J., (ed.)Proceedings of the EMEP Workshop on Photooxidant Modelling for Long-Range Transport in Relation to Abatement Strategies. Berlin, Germany: UBA, 307–324.
Mozurkewich, M., 1993: The dissociation constant of ammonium nitrate and its dependence on temperature, relative humidity and particle size.Atmos. Environ.,27A, 261–270.
Saxena, P., Hudischewskyj, A. B., Seigneur, C., Seinfeld, J. H., 1986. A comparative study of equilibrium approaches to the chemical characterization of atmospheric aerosol.Atmos. Environ.,20, 1471–1483.
Seinfeld, J. H., 1986.Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics of Air Pollution, New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Stelson, A. W., Friedlander, S. K., Seinfeld, J. H., 1979: Note on the equilibrium relationship between ammonia and nitric acid and particulate ammonium nitrate.Atmos. Environ.,13, 369–371.
Stelson, A. W., Seinfeld, J. H., 1982: Relative humidity and temperature dependence of the ammonium nitrate dissociation constant.Atmos. Environ. 16, 983–992.
Wexler, A. S., Seinfeld, J. H., 1990: The distribution of ammonium salts among a size and composition dispersed aerosol.Atmos. Environ.,24A, 1231–1246.
Wexler, A. S., Seinfeld, J. H., 1991: Second-generation inorganic aerosol model.Atmos. Environ.,25A, 2731–2748.
Wexler, A. S., Seinfeld, J. H., 1992: Analysis of aerosol ammonium nitrate: departures from equilibrium during SCAQS.Atmos. Environ.,26A, 579–591.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
With 12 Figures
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ackermann, I.J., Hass, H., Memmesheimer, M. et al. The parametrization of the sulfate-nitrate-ammonia aerosol system in the long-range transport model EURAD. Meteorl. Atmos. Phys. 57, 101–114 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01044156
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01044156