Impact of cumulus parameterization options on clouds, ozone, and PM2.5
in regional- to urban-scale WRF-CMAQ simulations
Abstract
The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model is a
state-of-the-science chemical transport model (CTM) capable of
simulating the emission, transport and fate of numerous air pollutants.
Similarly, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is a
state-of-the-science meteorological model capable of simulating
meteorology at many scales (e.g. global to urban). The coupled WRF-CMAQ
system integrates these two models in a “two-way” configuration which
allows feedback effects between the chemical (e.g. aerosols) and
physical (e.g. solar radiation) states of the atmosphere and more
frequent communication between the CTM and meteorological model than is
typically done in uncoupled WRF-CMAQ simulations. In this study we apply
the various cumulus parameterization (CP) options available in WRF at
horizontal grid spacings ranging from regional scale (i.e. 12-km) to
urban scale (i.e. 4 and 1 km), focused on the July 2011 DISCOVER-AQ
campaign that took place over the Baltimore-Washington D.C region. Of
particular interest is the evaluation of the WRF simulated clouds, as
analysis of previous WRF-CMAQ simulations using a “standard” 12-km
configuration for the model suggest that WRF has difficulty predicting
clouds (particularly fair-weather clouds), with decreasing skill at
finer horizontal grid spacings. Here we will examine the impact that the
WRF CP options have on cloud predictions, using available satellite data
to evaluate model the performance. We then examine how changes in the
WRF simulated clouds affect CMAQ predictions of ozone and PM2.5 at the
various scales.