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Seasonal ozone vertical profiles over North America using the AQMEII group of air quality models: model inter-comparison and stratospheric intrusion
Citation:
Astitha, M., I. Kioutsioukis, G. Fisseha, J. Bieser, J. Christensen, O. Cooper, C. Hogrefe, U. Im, B. Johnson, P. Liu, U. Nopmongcol, I. Petropavlovskikh, D. Tarasick, AND G. Yarwood. Seasonal ozone vertical profiles over North America using the AQMEII group of air quality models: model inter-comparison and stratospheric intrusion. ITM 2018 - 36th International Technical Meeting on Air Pollution Modelling and its Application, Ottawa, CANADA, May 14 - 18, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This study presents an evaluation of ozone vertical profiles simulated over North America by four modeling groups participating in the third phase of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII). Evaluating vertical profiles is critical to ensure that models properly characterize long-range transport and stratosphere/troposphere exchange processes that regulate free tropospheric ozone abundance and in turn can affect ground-level ozone through vertical mixing.
Description:
This study utilizes simulations for the North American domain from four modeling groups that participated in the third phase of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII3) to evaluate seasonal ozone vertical profiles simulated for the year 2010 against ozonesonde observations. The objectives of this analysis are to: a) evaluate simulated seasonal ozone vertical profiles with ozonesonde measurements; b) assess variations in model performance related to ozone vertical distribution (model inter-comparison), c) assess influence of lateral boundary conditions to ozone profiles within the modeling domain and d) investigate a case of stratospheric ozone intrusion in western U.S. Four research groups from the US and Europe have provided ozone vertical profiles and tracer concentrations to conduct this analysis. The modeling systems differ in meteorological drivers, therefore wind speed and temperature are also part of the evaluation which is conducted on a seasonal basis. In addition to the ozone profile evaluation for 2010, we analyze chemically inert tracer concentrations that demonstrate the influence of lateral boundary conditions to ozone profiles within the modeling domain. Case studies of stratospheric ozone intrusions are also discussed by analyzing ozonesondes for the Western United States through the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment Ozonesonde Network Study (IONS) experiment sites, a component of the CalNex (Research at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change) 2010 experiment, which focused on understanding the effects of air pollutants on air quality across California. The similarities and discrepancies of the four modeling systems with regards to the vertical distribution of ozone concentrations, the influence of the lateral boundary conditions and the ability to simulate stratospheric ozone intrusion will be presented and discussed.
