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Feedbacks between Air Pollution and Weather, Part 1: Effects on Weather
Citation:
Makar, P., J. Milbrandt, C. Hogrefe, Y. Zhang, G. Curci, R. Zabkar, U. Im, A. Balzarini, R. Baro, R. Bainconi, P. Cheung, R. Forkel, S. Gravel, M. Hirtl, L. Honzak, A. Hou, P. Jimenez Guerrero, M. Langer, M. Moran, B. Pabla, J. Perez, G. Pirovano, R. San Jose, P. Tuccella, J. Werhahn, J. Zhang, AND S. Galmarini. Feedbacks between Air Pollution and Weather, Part 1: Effects on Weather. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 115:442-469, (2015).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory’s Atmospheric Modeling Division (AMAD) conducts research in support of EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment. AMAD’s research program is engaged in developing and evaluating predictive atmospheric models on all spatial and temporal scales for forecasting the Nation’s air quality and for assessing changes in air quality and air pollutant exposures, as affected by changes in ecosystem management and regulatory decisions. AMAD is responsible for providing a sound scientific and technical basis for regulatory policies based on air quality models to improve ambient air quality. The models developed by AMAD are being used by EPA, NOAA, and the air pollution community in understanding and forecasting not only the magnitude of the air pollution problem, but also in developing emission control policies and regulations for air quality improvements.
Description:
The meteorological predictions of fully coupled air-quality models running in “feedback” versus “nofeedback” simulations were compared against each other as part of Phase 2 of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative. The model simulations included a “no-feedback” mode, in which the aerosol direct and indirect effects were disabled, with the models reverting to either climatologies of aerosol properties, or a no-aerosol weather simulation. In the “feedback” mode, the model-generated aerosols were allowed to modify the radiative transfer and/or cloud formation parameterizations of the respective models. Annual simulations with and without feedbacks were conducted on domains over North America for the years 2006 and 2010, and over Europe for the year 2010. Combined direct and indirect feedbacks were shown to result in increases in winter surface temperatures and decreases in summer surface temperatures in North America, while in Europe, these combined feedbacks resulted in winter temperature decreases and summer temperature increases. Summer simulations incorporating the direct effect only resulted in temperature decreases, with the maximum decreases in the summer, and the largest decreases in Europe resulting from the Russian forest fires during the summer of 2010. Surface downward shortwave radiation decreased with the incorporation of feedbacks for all models – for North America, these decreases were the largest in the eastern part of the continent.
URLs/Downloads:
MAKARETAL_PART1_FINAL_ACCEPTED_COMPLETE.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 6072.858 KB, about PDF)Atmospheric Environment
