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Atmosphere
Special Issues
Regional Scale Air Quality Modelling
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Regional Scale Air Quality Modelling

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2018) | Viewed by 36854

Special Issue Editors

Dr. William R. Stockwell

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Physics; University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA
2. Department of Chemistry, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA
Interests: atmospheric chemistry; air quality modeling; biosphere–atmosphere interactions; public policy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Rosa Fitzgerald

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Physics, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA
Interests: regional air quality; air quality modeling; dust
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Regional air quality is important to society because of its impact on human health, forests, waterways and ecosystems. Regional air quality provides a background to urban air pollution and it may limit the effectiveness of control strategies in cities. Air quality is affected by climate and in turn regional air quality may affect climate as well. Regional scale air quality models are used for forecasting ozone, particulate matter, acid deposition and other pollutants over spatial domains that range from a few hundred kilometers to the continental scale. Regional models are used to develop air quality improvement policies, to forecast air quality and for scientific research.

Regional air quality models are integrated systems that involve emissions inventories, meteorological models, air quality monitoring data and modules that describe atmospheric radiation, homogeneous and heterogeneous chemical transformation, advection and deposition of air pollutants. A complete regional air quality model may include algorithms for treating air pollutants in the gas, cloud and aerosol-phases. Recently, there have been important advancements in the development of sophisticated regional air quality models. This Special Issue of Atmosphere is devoted to papers that provide in-depth reviews of these developments. Papers are welcome on new developments in regional air quality modeling systems, their testing and evaluation and advances in the treatment of relevant atmospheric processes.

Dr. William R. Stockwell
Prof. Dr. Rosa Fitzgerald
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Regional air quality models
  • Atmospheric transport
  • Turbulent mixing
  • Atmospheric radiation and photochemical reactions
  • Acid deposition
  • Cloud processes
  • Homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions
  • Particulate matter
  • Ozone
  • Anthropogenic emissions
  • Natural emissions
  • Model evaluation

Published Papers (6 papers)

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17 pages, 5753 KiB  
Article
Differences in Sulfate Aerosol Radiative Forcing between the Daytime and Nighttime over East Asia Using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) Model
by Hongyue Zhang, Siyu Chen, Nanxuan Jiang, Xin Wang, Xiaorui Zhang, Jian Liu, Zhou Zang, Dongyou Wu, Tiangang Yuan, Yuan Luo and Dan Zhao
Atmosphere 2018, 9(11), 441; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9110441 - 13 Nov 2018
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 4227
Abstract
The effect of aerosols is an important indicator of climate change. Sulfate aerosols, as the major scattering aerosols, which have attracted more and more attention in recent years. The Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) were utilized to investigate the [...] Read more.
The effect of aerosols is an important indicator of climate change. Sulfate aerosols, as the major scattering aerosols, which have attracted more and more attention in recent years. The Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) were utilized to investigate the spatial distribution of sulfate aerosols and their radiative forcing characteristics over East Asia in 2010. Results showed that sulfate aerosols were mainly distributed over eastern China (24–43° N, 101–126° E), especially in the Sichuan Basin. The concentration of sulfate aerosols decreased with increasing altitude over East Asia. It also exhibited obvious seasonal variations, where the largest range of sulfate aerosol concentrations was found in summer, with a maximum of 2.4 μg kg−1 over eastern China. Although sulfate aerosol concentrations varied slightly during day and night, there was still a significantly difference in the sulfate aerosol radiative forcing. Specifically, the magnitude of the direct radiative forcing induced by sulfate aerosols at the surface was approximately −3.02 W m−2 in the daytime, while that was +0.24 W m−2 in the nighttime. This asymmetric change that was caused by the radiative forcing of sulfate aerosols between day and night would have significant impacts on climate change at the regional scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Regional Scale Air Quality Modelling)
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17 pages, 8034 KiB  
Article
Effects of a Detailed Vegetation Database on Simulated Meteorological Fields, Biogenic VOC Emissions, and Ambient Pollutant Concentrations over Japan
by Satoru Chatani, Motonori Okumura, Hikari Shimadera, Kazuyo Yamaji, Kyo Kitayama and Sou N. Matsunaga
Atmosphere 2018, 9(5), 179; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9050179 - 09 May 2018
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 5304
Abstract
Regional air quality simulations provide powerful tools for clarifying mechanisms of heavy air pollution and for considering effective strategies for better air quality. This study introduces a new vegetation database for Japan, which could provide inputs for regional meteorological modeling, and estimating emissions [...] Read more.
Regional air quality simulations provide powerful tools for clarifying mechanisms of heavy air pollution and for considering effective strategies for better air quality. This study introduces a new vegetation database for Japan, which could provide inputs for regional meteorological modeling, and estimating emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), both of which are essential components of simulations. It includes newly developed emission factors (EFs) of BVOCs for major vegetation types in Japan, based on existing literature. The new database contributes to improved modeling of meteorological fields due to its updated representation of larger urban areas. Using the new vegetation and EF database, lower isoprene and monoterpene, and higher sesquiterpene emissions are estimated for Japan than those derived from previously available default datasets. These slightly reduce the overestimation of ozone concentrations obtained by a regional chemical transport model, whereas their effects on underestimated secondary organic aerosol (SOA) concentrations are marginal. Further work is necessary, not only on BVOC emissions but also the other simulation components, to further improve the modeling of ozone and SOA concentrations in Japan. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Regional Scale Air Quality Modelling)
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17 pages, 17495 KiB  
Article
Refinement of Modeled Aqueous-Phase Sulfate Production via the Fe- and Mn-Catalyzed Oxidation Pathway
by Syuichi Itahashi, Kazuyo Yamaji, Satoru Chatani and Hiroshi Hayami
Atmosphere 2018, 9(4), 132; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9040132 - 01 Apr 2018
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 5477
Abstract
We refined the aqueous-phase sulfate (SO42−) production in the state-of-the-art Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model during the Japanese model inter-comparison project, known as Japan’s Study for Reference Air Quality Modeling (J-STREAM). In Japan, SO42− is the major [...] Read more.
We refined the aqueous-phase sulfate (SO42−) production in the state-of-the-art Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model during the Japanese model inter-comparison project, known as Japan’s Study for Reference Air Quality Modeling (J-STREAM). In Japan, SO42− is the major component of PM2.5, and CMAQ reproduces the observed seasonal variation of SO42− with the summer maxima and winter minima. However, CMAQ underestimates the concentration during winter over Japan. Based on a review of the current modeling system, we identified a possible reason as being the inadequate aqueous-phase SO42− production by Fe- and Mn-catalyzed O2 oxidation. This is because these trace metals are not properly included in the Asian emission inventories. Fe and Mn observations over Japan showed that the model concentrations based on the latest Japanese emission inventory were substantially underestimated. Thus, we conducted sensitivity simulations where the modeled Fe and Mn concentrations were adjusted to the observed levels, the Fe and Mn solubilities were increased, and the oxidation rate constant was revised. Adjusting the concentration increased the SO42− concentration during winter, as did increasing the solubilities and revising the rate constant to consider pH dependencies. Statistical analysis showed that these sensitivity simulations improved model performance. The approach adopted in this study can partly improve model performance in terms of the underestimation of SO42− concentration during winter. From our findings, we demonstrated the importance of developing and evaluating trace metal emission inventories in Asia. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Regional Scale Air Quality Modelling)
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17 pages, 5581 KiB  
Article
Development and Evaluation of a Comprehensive Atmospheric Emission Inventory for Air Quality Modeling in the Megacity of Bogotá
by Jorge E. Pachón, Boris Galvis, Oscar Lombana, Luis Gabriel Carmona, Sandra Fajardo, Alexander Rincón, Sandra Meneses, Rafael Chaparro, Robert Nedbor-Gross and Barron Henderson
Atmosphere 2018, 9(2), 49; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9020049 - 03 Feb 2018
Cited by 35 | Viewed by 8808
Abstract
We built an emission inventory (EI) for the megacity of Bogotá, Colombia for 2012, which for the first time augments traditional industrial and mobile sources by including commercial sources, biogenic sources, and resuspended dust. We characterized the methodologies for estimating each source annually, [...] Read more.
We built an emission inventory (EI) for the megacity of Bogotá, Colombia for 2012, which for the first time augments traditional industrial and mobile sources by including commercial sources, biogenic sources, and resuspended dust. We characterized the methodologies for estimating each source annually, and allocated the sources to hourly and 1 km2 spatial resolution for use as inputs for air quality modeling purposes. A resuspended particulate matter (RPM) emission estimate was developed using the first measurements of road dust loadings and silt content for the city. Results show that mobile sources dominate emissions of CO2 (80%), CO (99%), VOC (68%), NOx (95%), and SO2 (85%). However, the newly estimated RPM comprises 90% of total PM10 emissions, which are at least onefold larger than the PM10 emissions from combustion processes. The 2012 EI was implemented in a chemical transport model (CTM) in order to understand the pollutants’ fate and transport. Model evaluation was conducted against observations from the city’s air quality monitoring network in two different periods. Modeling results for O3 concentrations showed a good agreement, with mean fractional bias (MFB) of +11%, and a mean fractional error (MFE) of +35% with observations, but simulated PM10 concentrations were strongly biased high (MFB +57%, MFE +68%), which was likely due to RPM emissions being overestimated. NOx, CO, and SO2 were also biased high by the model, which was probably due to emissions not reflecting current fleet conditions. Future work aims to revise emission factors for mobile sources, which are the main sources of pollutants to the atmosphere. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Regional Scale Air Quality Modelling)
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4310 KiB  
Article
A Quantitatively Operational Judging Method for the Process of Large Regional Heavy Haze Event Based on Satellite Remote Sensing and Numerical Simulations
by Qiao Wang, Qing Li, Zhongting Wang, Hui Chen, Huiqin Mao and Cuihong Chen
Atmosphere 2017, 8(11), 222; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos8110222 - 15 Nov 2017
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3605
Abstract
In recent years, large-area heavy haze pollution cases occur frequently in eastern China, especially evident in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the surrounding regions. In order to operationally monitor the process of larger regional heavy haze events, a type of quantitative method based on satellite remote [...] Read more.
In recent years, large-area heavy haze pollution cases occur frequently in eastern China, especially evident in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the surrounding regions. In order to operationally monitor the process of larger regional heavy haze events, a type of quantitative method based on satellite remote sensing and numerical simulations was first established and applied in multiple heavy haze processes in the research area. First, this study proposed the operational haze aerosol optical depth (HOD) method by combining Terra, Aqua satellite and WRF-NAQPM numerical simulation in haze days. Second, based on the coupled HOD data, we proposed the quantitative method for obtaining the process and severity degree for larger regional heavy haze events. Finally, this study used the method applying it to several typical heavy pollution events which occurred in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its three surrounding provinces in the winter season from 1 November 2015 to 4 January 2016. The validation for HOD retrieval results showed that the couple HOD from this study have good accuracy, the linear correlation coefficient between retrieval HOD and the AERONET Beijing station data reached over 0.8, and the linear correlation coefficient between the retrieval HOD and the regional ground monitoring station PM2.5 data reached over 0.7. The applied results showed that the method in this study is feasible to reflect the whole process of heavy haze events. Analysis of the typical heavy haze pollution events showed that the set of quantitative haze judging method in this study was consistent with the meteorological conditions in haze days also verifying that the method for haze inversion and the process analysis is reliable. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Regional Scale Air Quality Modelling)
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14 pages, 1765 KiB  
Technical Note
Overview of Model Inter-Comparison in Japan’s Study for Reference Air Quality Modeling (J-STREAM)
by Satoru Chatani, Kazuyo Yamaji, Tatsuya Sakurai, Syuichi Itahashi, Hikari Shimadera, Kyo Kitayama and Hiroshi Hayami
Atmosphere 2018, 9(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9010019 - 11 Jan 2018
Cited by 32 | Viewed by 8177
Abstract
The inter-comparison of regional air quality models is an effective way to understand uncertainty in ambient pollutant concentrations simulated using various model configurations, as well as to find ways to improve model performance. Based on the outcomes and experiences of Japanese projects thus [...] Read more.
The inter-comparison of regional air quality models is an effective way to understand uncertainty in ambient pollutant concentrations simulated using various model configurations, as well as to find ways to improve model performance. Based on the outcomes and experiences of Japanese projects thus far, a new model inter-comparison project called Japan’s study for reference air quality modeling (J-STREAM) has begun. The objective of J-STREAM is to establish reference air quality modeling for source apportionment and effective strategy making to suppress secondary air pollutants including PM2.5 and photochemical ozone in Japan through model inter-comparison. The first phase focuses on understanding the ranges and limitations in ambient PM2.5 and ozone concentrations simulated by participants using common input datasets. The second phase focuses on issues revealed in previous studies in simulating secondary inorganic aerosols, as well as on the three-dimensional characteristics of photochemical ozone as a new target. The third phase focuses on comparing source apportionments and sensitivities under heavy air pollution episodes simulated by participating models. Detailed understanding of model performance, uncertainty, and possible improvements to urban-scale air pollution involving secondary pollutants, as well as detailed sector-wise source apportionments over megacities in Japan are expected. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Regional Scale Air Quality Modelling)
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