Abstract
In this study, we analyzed ozone and total and speciated PM2.5 fields from two sets of WRF/CMAQ simulations over the continental US. Results show that differences in trends of ozone boundary conditions affect trends in modeled surface ozone concentrations within the domain, especially during fall and winter. The analysis of total and speciated PM2.5 showed best model performance for SO42− and revealed that modeled seasonal cycles of organic carbon in urban areas differed from observations for both simulations. It is likely that uncertainties in primary PM2.5 emissions along with assumptions about the volatility of primary organic aerosols and the formation of secondary organic aerosols made in these simulations caused these differences and that recent updates made to the treatment of organic aerosol processes in CMAQ would lead to improved model performance.
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Questioner: Limei Ran
Question: Do the two runs use the 12 km domain grid? What is the influence of grid resolution on the trend?
Answer: No, the DOE simulations were performed on a 36 km grid while the ECODEP simulations were performed on a 12 km grid. Gan et al. (2016) investigated the effects of grid resolution on selected periods of the DOE simulations and found that simulated O3 and PM2.5 trends were generally comparable between the 36 and 12 km grids.
Questioner: Volker Matthias
Question: In a previous investigation of SO2 and SO42− trends in Europe we found that SO42− doesn’t decrease as much as the emissions would imply. I wonder if you found that for your study in the US as well.
Answer: We did not yet analyze these simulations from that perspective but would be interested in doing so in the future.
Questioner: K. Wyat Appel
Question: Are there any plans to do additional long-term simulations with updated model version, more consistent emissions across time, etc.?
Answer: Yes, our group is currently preparing new emission and boundary condition inputs to perform 2002–2017 simulations with CMAQv5.3.1
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Hogrefe, C. et al. (2021). Evaluating Long-Term Ozone and PM2.5 Simulations Over the United States. In: Mensink, C., Matthias, V. (eds) Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVII. ITM 2019. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-63760-9_50
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-63760-9_50
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