Identification

Title

Effect of meteorological variability on fine particulate matter simulations over the contiguous United States

Abstract

This study quantifies the impact of meteorological variability on the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model-simulated particulate matter of aerodynamic diameter 2.5 m or smaller (particulate matter 2.5 [PM2.5]) over the contiguous United States (CONUS). The meteorological variability is represented using the Short-Range Ensemble Forecast (SREF) produced operationally by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A hierarchical cluster analysis technique is applied to down-select a subset of the SREF members that objectively accounts for the overall meteorological forecast variability of SREF. Three SREF members are selected to drive off-line CMAQ simulations during January, April, July, and October 2016. Changes in emissions, vertical diffusion, and aerosol processes due to meteorological variability dominate changes in aerosol mass concentrations over 55-73% of the domain except in July when dry deposition dominates emissions and aerosol processes. Weather Research and Forecasting-Advanced Research WRF (WRF-ARW) simulations reproduced the variability of surface temperature very well but overestimated the 10-m wind speed, precipitation, and at some sites the planetary boundary layer height. Averaged over CONUS, CMAQ simulations driven by all three meteorological configurations capture the observed daytime low and nighttime high PM2.5 mass concentrations but underestimated the observed concentrations likely due to faster advection and higher wet deposition in the model. PM2.5 levels across the three simulations agreed well during daytime but showed larger variability during nighttime due to dominance of aerosol, clouds, and advection processes in nighttime. The meteorology-induced variability in PM2.5 is estimated to be 0.08-24 g/m(3) over the CONUS with larger variability over the eastern United States.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7gq6z9m

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2019-05-27T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact