Impact/Purpose:

1) Develop condensed chemical and/or meteorological mechanisms suitable for inclusion in 3-dimensional photochemical transport models (CTMs), to simulate cloud production of particulate "brown" carbon (BC_cld) from a variety of organic precursors, 2)Identify conditions and precursors that have the largest impact on BC_cld for climate (e.g., those for which the vertical distribution is the most sensitive) and for air quality. Conduct CMAQsimulations for the continental U.S. using different emissions to simulate a variety of control strategies to estimate the controllable fraction of BC_cld and assign relative importance to individual source sectors. 3) Incorporate findings into the coupled Weather Research Forecasting-Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model to be released to the public in Fall 2011. Explore the magnitude and change in radiative calculations when the vertical profiles of BC and other SLCFs change as a consequence of more robust representation of cloud processing.

Description:

Advanced model descriptions of cloud processing of atmospheric pollutants will improve predicted vertical profiles of optically active particulate carbon (e.g., black carbon (Be) and other short lived climate forcers (SLCFs) such as "brown" carbon). More accurate prediction of vertical profiles will improve raditative transfer calculations (because scattering is altitude dependent) and better describe long-range pollution transport. Effective control strategies for climate and air quality can be designed using models, often used in regulatory applications (e.g., CMAQ) when they better represent the vertical structure of atmospheric pollution.

URLs/Downloads:

2012 Progress Report

Record Details:

Record Type:PROJECT( ABSTRACT )

Start Date:09/01/2011

Completion Date:08/31/2014

Record ID: 252896

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Related Organizations:

Role :OWNER

Organization Name :RUTGERS SUNJ

Mailing Address :610 Taylor Road

Citation :Piscataway

State :NJ

Zip Code :8854

Project Information:

Approach :

1) Update existing chemistry and chemistry/cloud models to include newly-identified compounds likely to contribute to BC_cld) , (e.g., methacrolein, glycoaldehyde, phenols. Conduct a variety of cloud parcel model simulations to develop mechanisms with condensed chemistry and/or meteorological inputs, suitable for incorporation into CTMs. 2) Use the updated mechanisms in CMAQ's aqueous chemistry module (aqchem.F) to explore the sensitivity of BC_cld formation to anthropogenic pollution by individual source sector and calculate the controllable fraction. Analyze the results separately for climate and air quality effects. 3) Conduct coupled WRF-CMAQ simulations for the continental U.S. and/or Northern Hemisphere with and without the expanded BC_cld mechanism using base and new BC emission inventories developed from other STAR grantees funded by this call. Evaluate forcing predictions using existing data sources (e.g., IMPROVE and AERONET). All code developments will be open source and findings will be made widely available.

Cost :$449,916.00

Research Component :Global Climate Change

Project IDs:

ID Code :R835041

Project type :EPA Grant