Abstract
A high-resolution simulation of CO2 at 1×1 km horizontal resolution
using the Weather Research and Forecasting Greenhouse gas (WRF-GHG)
model was conducted, focusing on the Kanto region in Japan. The WRF-GHG
simulations were performed using different anthropogenic emission
inventories: EAGrid (Japan, 1 km), EDGAR (0.1o), and EDGAR-downscaled
(0.01o). Our analysis showed that the simulations using EAGrid better
captured the diurnal variability in observed CO2 compared to EDGAR and
EDGAR-downscaled emissions at two continuous monitoring sites. The 1×1
km simulation performed better in simulating CO2 variability observed in
surface sites (hourly) and aircraft observations, compared to the 27×27
km simulations. We compared the vertical profile distribution of CO2 and
found that all the simulations performed similarly. During February
(May), the anthropogenic (land biosphere) fluxes were the primary
contributor to the vertical distribution of CO2 up to an altitude of
3200 m (4500 m), beyond which long-range transport influenced by lateral
boundary conditions from Eurasia played a greater role. The sensitivity
analysis of boundary conditions showed a systematic bias
(~ 4 ppm) persisting above 3200 m altitude when fixed (a
constant value) boundary conditions are applied, as compared to the
simulation with boundary conditions from a global model. We also
compared the WRF-GHG simulated column-averaged XCO2 from Orbiting Carbon
Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite and found a statistically significant
spatial correlation (r=0.47) in February. However, we found a weaker
spatial correlation (0.17) in May, which could be caused due to
under-representation of intense land biosphere activity in WRF-GHG.