Developing Multi-scale Modeling Over Australia for the 2019/2020 Extreme
Wildfire Season
Abstract
Modeling atmospheric chemistry across scales with the Multi-Scale
Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols (MUSICA) leverages a new
regional refinement capability within the NCAR Community Earth System
Model (CESM). This framework allows for simultaneous simulation at
human-relevant and policy-relevant scales at the same time as
hemispheric and global-scales. Here, we present the development of a
regional refined grid over the Australian region and assess initial
simulations for the 2019/2020 wildfire season. The Australian wildfire
events of 2019/2020 saw large local emissions of pollution with
wide-scale impacts across the southeast of the continent, where smoke
and haze degraded air quality for many days for millions of people.
Hemispheric transport of pollution at low and lofted altitudes also
occurred, creating an atmospheric signature over New Zealand and South
America, and had a direct influence on climate. These multiple-scale
impacts from wildfire in the Australian region make it ideal for testing
the new capability of multi-scale modeling.