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Zhao, Chun

Publications and source records attributed to Zhao, Chun.

72 records · Page 4
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DOE OSTI2014

WRF-Chem Simulations of Aerosols and Anthropogenic Aerosol Radiative Forcing in East Asia

This study aims to provide a first comprehensive evaluation of WRF-Chem for modeling aerosols and anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing (RF) over East Asia. Several numerical experiments were conducted from November 2007 to December 2008. Comparison between model results and observations shows that the model can generally reproduce the observed spatial distributions of aerosol concentration, aerosol optical depth (AOD) and single scattering albedo (SSA) from measurements at different sites, including the relatively higher aerosol concentration and AOD over East China and the relatively lower AOD over Southeast Asia, Korean, and Japan. The model also depicts the seasonal variation and transport of pollutions over East Asia. Particulate matter of 10 um or less in the aerodynamic diameter (PM10), black carbon (BC), sulfate (SO42-), nitrate (NO3-) and ammonium (NH4+) concentrations are higher in spring than other seasons in Japan due to the pollutant transport from polluted area of East Asia. AOD is high over Southwest and Central China in winter, spring and autumn and over North China in summer while is low over South China in summer due to monsoon precipitation. SSA is lowest in winter and highest in summer. The model also captures the dust events at the Zhangye site in the semi-arid region of China. Anthropogenic aerosol RF is estimated to range from -5 to -20 W m-2 over land and -20 to -40 W m-2 over ocean at the top of atmosphere (TOA), 5 to 30 W m-2 in the atmosphere (ATM) and -15 to -40 W m-2 at the bottom (BOT). The warming effect of anthropogenic aerosol in ATM results from BC aerosol while the negative aerosol RF at TOA is caused by scattering aerosols such as SO4 2-, NO3 - and NH4+. Positive BC RF at TOA compensates 40~50% of the TOA cooling associated with anthropogenic aerosol.

aerosol↗
DOE OSTI2014

Overexpression of Snail in retinal pigment epithelial triggered epithelial–mesenchymal transition

Highlights: • First reported overexpression of Snail in RPE cells could directly trigger EMT. • Further confirmed the regulator role of Snail in RPE cells EMT in vitro. • Snail may be a potential therapeutic target to prevent the fibrosis of PVR. - Abstract: Snail transcription factor has been implicated as an important regulator in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) during tumourigenesis and fibrogenesis. Our previous work showed that Snail transcription factor was activated in transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) induced EMT in retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells and may contribute to the development of retinal fibrotic disease such as proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). However, whether Snail alone has a direct role on retinal pigment epithelial–mesenchymal transition has not been investigated. Here, we analyzed the capacity of Snail to drive EMT in human RPE cells. A vector encoding Snail gene or an empty vector were transfected into human RPE cell lines ARPE-19 respectively. Snail overexpression in ARPE-19 cells resulted in EMT, which was characterized by the expected phenotypic transition from a typical epithelial morphology to mesenchymal spindle-shaped. The expression of epithelial markers E-cadherin and Zona occludin-1 (ZO-1) were down-regulated, whereas mesenchymal markers a-smooth muscle actin (a-SMA) and fibronectin were up-regulated in Snail expression vector transfected cells. In addition, ectopic expression of Snail significantly enhanced ARPE-19 cell motility and migration. The present data suggest that overexpression of Snail in ARPE-19 cells could directly trigger EMT. These results may provide novel insight into understanding the regulator role of Snail in the development of retinal pigment epithelial–mesenchymal transition.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Toward Verifying Fossil Fuel CO2 Emissions with the CMAQ Model: Motivation, Model Description and Initial Simulation

Motivated by the urgent need for emission verification of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, we have developed regional CO2 simulation with CMAQ over the contiguous U.S. Model sensitivity experiments have been performed using three different sets of inputs for net ecosystem exchange (NEE) and two fossil fuel emission inventories, to understand the roles of fossil fuel emissions, atmosphere-biosphere exchange and transport in regulating the spatial and diurnal variability of CO2 near the surface, and to characterize the well-known ‘signal-to-noise’ problem, i.e. the interference from the biosphere on the interpretation of atmospheric CO2 observations. It is found that differences in the meteorological conditions for different urban areas strongly contribute to the contrast in concentrations. The uncertainty of NEE, as measured by the difference among the three different NEE inputs, has notable impact on regional distribution of CO2 simulated by CMAQ. Larger NEE uncertainty and impact are found over eastern U.S. urban areas than along the western coast. A comparison with tower CO2 measurements at Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) shows that the CMAQ model using hourly varied and high-resolution CO2 emission from the Vulcan inventory and CarbonTracker optimized NEE reasonably reproduce the observed diurnal profile, whereas switching to different NEE inputs significantly degrades the model performance. Spatial distribution of CO2 is found to correlate with NOx, SO2 and CO, due to their similarity in emission sources and transport processes. These initial results from CMAQ demonstrate the power of a state-of-the art CTM in helping interpret CO2 observations and verify fossil fuel emissions. The ability to simulate CO2 in CMAQ will also facilitate investigations of the utility of traditionally regulated pollutants and other species as tracers to CO2 source attribution.

CMAQ↗
DOE OSTI2014

Investigation of Aerosol Indirect Effects using a Cumulus Microphysics Parameterization in a Regional Climate Model

A new Zhang and McFarlane (ZM) cumulus scheme includes a two-moment cloud microphysics parameterization for convective clouds. This allows aerosol effects to be investigated more comprehensively by linking aerosols with microphysical processes in both stratiform clouds that are explicitly resolved and convective clouds that are parameterized in climate models. This new scheme is implemented in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, which is coupled with the physics and aerosol packages from the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5). A test case of July 2008 during the East Asian summer monsoon is selected to evaluate the performance of the new ZM scheme and to investigate aerosol effects on monsoon precipitation. The precipitation and radiative fluxes simulated by the new ZM scheme show a better agreement with observations compared to simulations with the original ZM scheme that does not include convective cloud microphysics and aerosol convective cloud interactions. Detailed analysis suggests that an increase in detrained cloud water and ice mass by the new ZM scheme is responsible for this improvement. To investigate precipitation response to increased anthropogenic aerosols, a sensitivity experiment is performed that mimics a clean environment by reducing the primary aerosols and anthropogenic emissions to 30% of that used in the control simulation of a polluted environment. The simulated surface precipitation is reduced by 9.8% from clean to polluted environment and the reduction is less significant when microphysics processes are excluded from the cumulus clouds. Ensemble experiments with ten members under each condition (i.e., clean and polluted) indicate similar response of the monsoon precipitation to increasing aerosols.

aerosol indirect effects↗
DOE OSTI2013

A Sensitivity Study of Radiative Fluxes at the Top of Atmosphere to Cloud-Microphysics and Aerosol Parameters in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5

In this study, we investigated the sensitivity of net radiative fluxes (FNET) at the top of atmosphere (TOA) to 16 selected uncertain parameters mainly related to the cloud microphysics and aerosol schemes in the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). We adopted a quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) sampling approach to effectively explore the high dimensional parameter space. The output response variables (e.g., FNET) were simulated using CAM5 for each parameter set, and then evaluated using generalized linear model analysis. In response to the perturbations of these 16 parameters, the CAM5-simulated global annual mean FNET ranges from -9.8 to 3.5 W m-2 compared to the CAM5-simulated FNET of 1.9 W m-2 with the default parameter values. Variance-based sensitivity analysis was conducted to show the relative contributions of individual parameter perturbation to the global FNET variance. The results indicate that the changes in the global mean FNET are dominated by those of cloud forcing (CF) within the parameter ranges being investigated. The size threshold parameter related to auto-conversion of cloud ice to snow is confirmed as one of the most influential parameters for FNET in the CAM5 simulation. The strong heterogeneous geographic distribution of FNET variation shows parameters have a clear localized effect over regions where they are acting. However, some parameters also have non-local impacts on FNET variance. Although external factors, such as perturbations of anthropogenic and natural emissions, largely affect FNET variations at the regional scale, their impact is weaker than that of model internal parameters in terms of simulating global mean FNET in this study. The interactions among the 16 selected parameters contribute a relatively small portion of the total FNET variations over most regions of the globe. This study helps us better understand the CAM5 model behavior associated with parameter uncertainties, which will aid the next step of reducing model uncertainty via calibration of uncertain model parameters with the largest sensitivity.

aerosol↗
DOE OSTI2013

Uncertainty in Modeling Dust Mass Balance and Radiative Forcing from Size Parameterization

This study examines the uncertainties in simulating mass balance and radiative forcing of mineral dust due to biases in the aerosol size parameterization. Simulations are conducted quasi-globally (180oW-180oE and 60oS-70oN) using the WRF24 Chem model with three different approaches to represent aerosol size distribution (8-bin, 4-bin, and 3-mode). The biases in the 3-mode or 4-bin approaches against a relatively more accurate 8-bin approach in simulating dust mass balance and radiative forcing are identified. Compared to the 8-bin approach, the 4-bin approach simulates similar but coarser size distributions of dust particles in the atmosphere, while the 3-mode pproach retains more fine dust particles but fewer coarse dust particles due to its prescribed og of each mode. Although the 3-mode approach yields up to 10 days longer dust mass lifetime over the remote oceanic regions than the 8-bin approach, the three size approaches produce similar dust mass lifetime (3.2 days to 3.5 days) on quasi-global average, reflecting that the global dust mass lifetime is mainly determined by the dust mass lifetime near the dust source regions. With the same global dust emission (~6000 Tg yr-1), the 8-bin approach produces a dust mass loading of 39 Tg, while the 4-bin and 3-mode approaches produce 3% (40.2 Tg) and 25% (49.1 Tg) higher dust mass loading, respectively. The difference in dust mass loading between the 8-bin approach and the 4-bin or 3-mode approaches has large spatial variations, with generally smaller relative difference (<10%) near the surface over the dust source regions. The three size approaches also result in significantly different dry and wet deposition fluxes and number concentrations of dust. The difference in dust aerosol optical depth (AOD) (a factor of 3) among the three size approaches is much larger than their difference (25%) in dust mass loading. Compared to the 8-bin approach, the 4-bin approach yields stronger dust absorptivity, while the 3-mode approach yields weaker dust absorptivity. Overall, on quasi-global average, the three size parameterizations result in a significant difference of a factor of 2~3 in dust surface cooling (-1.02~-2.87 W m-2) and atmospheric warming (0.39~0.96 W m-2) and in a tremendous difference of a factor of ~10 in dust TOA cooling (-0.24~-2.20 W m-2). An uncertainty of a factor of 2 is quantified in dust emission estimation due to the different size parameterizations. This study also highlights the uncertainties in modeling dust mass and number loading, deposition fluxes, and radiative forcing resulting from different size parameterizations, and motivates further investigation of the impact of size parameterizations on modeling dust impacts on air quality, climate, and ecosystem.

balance↗
DOE OSTI2013

Estimating the Radiative Forcing of Carbonaceous Aerosols over California based on Satellite and Ground Observations

Carbonaceous aerosols have the potential to impact climate both through directly absorbing incoming solar radiation, and by indirectly affecting the cloud layer. To quantify this impact recent modeling studies have made great efforts to simulate both the spatial and temporal distribution of carbonaceous aerosols and their associated radiative forcing. This study makes the first observationally constrained assessment of the direct radiative forcing of carbonaceous aerosols at a regional scale over California. By exploiting multiple observations (including ground sites and satellites), we constructed the distribution of aerosol optical depths and aerosol absorption optical depths over California for a ten-year period (2000-2010). The total solar absorption was then partitioned into contributions from elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC) and dust aerosols using a newly developed scheme. Aerosol absorption optical depth due to carbonaceous aerosols (EC and OC) at 440 nm is 50%-200% larger than natural dust, with EC contributing the bulk (70%-90%). Observationally constrained EC absorption agrees reasonably well with estimates from regional transport models, but the model underestimates the OC AAOD by at least 50%. We estimate that the TOA warming from carbonaceous aerosols is 0.7 W/m2 and the TOA forcing due to OC is close to zero. The atmospheric heating of carbonaceous aerosols is 2.2-2.9 W/m2, of which EC contributed about 80-90%. The atmospheric heating due to OC is estimated to be 0.1 to 0.4 W/m2, larger than model simulations. The surface brightening due to EC reduction over the last two decades is estimated to be 1.5-3.5 W/m2.

aerosols↗
DOE OSTI2013

Improving Simulations of Fine Dust Surface Concentrations over the Western United States by Optimizing the Particle Size Distribution

To improve estimates of remote contributions of dust to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the western United States, new dust particle size distributions (PSDs) based upon scale-invariant fragmentation theory (Kok_PSD) with constraints from in situ measurements (IMP_PSD) are implemented in a chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem). Compared to initial simulations, this leads to reductions in the mass of emitted dust particles with radii <1.8 mm by 40%-60%. Consequently, the root-mean-square error in simulated fine dust concentrations compared to springtime surface observations in the western United States is reduced by 67%-81%. The ratio of simulated fine to coarse PM mass is also improved, which is not achievable by reductions in total dust emissions. The IMP_PSD best represents the PSD of dust transported from remote sources and reduces modeled PM2.5 concentrations up to 5 mg/m3 over the western United States, which is important when considering sources contributing to nonattainment of air quality standards. Citation: Zhang, L., J. F. Kok, D. K. Henze, Q. Li, and C. Zhao (2013), Improving simulations of fine dust surface concentrations over the western United States by optimizing the particle size distribution, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 3270-3275, doi:10.1002/grl.50591.

distribution↗
DOE OSTI2013

Characterization of Speciated Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing Over California

A fully coupled meteorology-chemistry model (WRF-Chem) with added capability of diagnosing the spatial and seasonal distribution of radiative forcings for individual aerosol species over California is used to characterize the radiative forcing of speciated aerosols in California. Model simulations for the year of 2005 are evaluated with various observations including meteorological data from California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS), aerosol mass concentrations from US EPA Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) and Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE), and aerosol optical depth from AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) and satellites. The model well captures the observed seasonal meteorological conditions over California. Overall, the simulation is able to reproduce the observed spatial and seasonal distribution of mass concentration of total PM2.5 and the relative contribution from individual aerosol species, except the model significantly underestimates the surface concentrations of organic matter (OM) and elemental carbon (EC), potentially due to uncertainty in the anthropogenic emissions of OM and EC and the outdated secondary organic aerosol mechanism used in the model. A sensitivity simulation with anthropogenic EC emission doubled significantly reduces the model low bias of EC. The simulation reveals high anthropogenic aerosol loading over the Central Valley and the Los Angeles metropolitan regions and high natural aerosol (dust) loading over southeastern California. The seasonality of aerosol surface concentration is mainly determined by vertical turbulent mixing, ventilation, and photochemical activity, with distinct characteristics for individual aerosol species and between urban and rural areas. The simulations show that anthropogenic aerosols dominate the aerosol optical depth (AOD). The ratio of AOD to AAOD (aerosol absorption optical depth) shows distinct seasonality with a winter maximum and a summer minimum. Aerosol radiative forcing is presented along with the contribution from individual aerosol species from the simulation with anthropogenic EC emission doubled. On statewide average over California, aerosol reduces the seasonal-average surface radiation fluxes by about 3 W m-2 with a maximum of 10 W m-2 in summer. In the atmosphere, aerosol introduces a warming effect of about 2 W m-2 with a maximum of 10 W m-2 also in summer. EC and dust contribute about 75-95% and 1-10% of the total warming through the seasons, respectively. At the top of atmosphere (TOA), the overall aerosol radiative effect is cooling with a maximum of -3.5 W m-2. EC contributes exclusively to the TOA warming of up to about 0.7 W m-2. The encouraging performance of WRF-Chem in simulating aerosols and their radiative forcing suggests that the model is suitable for further investigation of the impact of emission control on radiative forcing and regional climate over California.

aerosol↗
DOE OSTI2013

Modeling a Typical Winter-time Dust Event over the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea

We used WRF-Chem, a regional meteorological model coupled with an aerosol-chemistry component, to simulate various aspects of the dust phenomena over the Arabian Peninsula and Red Sea during a typical winter-time dust event that occurred in January 2009. The model predicted that the total amount of emitted dust was 18.3 Tg for the entire dust outburst period and that the two maximum daily rates were ~2.4 Tg/day and ~1.5 Tg/day, corresponding to two periods with the highest aerosol optical depth that were well captured by ground- and satellite-based observations. The model predicted that the dust plume was thick, extensive, and mixed in a deep boundary layer at an altitude of 3-4 km. Its spatial distribution was modeled to be consistent with typical spatial patterns of dust emissions. We utilized MODIS-Aqua and Solar Village AERONET measurements of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) to evaluate the radiative impact of aerosols. Our results clearly indicated that the presence of dust particles in the atmosphere caused a significant reduction in the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface during the dust event. We also found that dust aerosols have significant impact on the energy and nutrient balances of the Red Sea. Our results showed that the simulated cooling under the dust plume reached 100 W/m2, which could have profound effects on both the sea surface temperature and circulation. Further analysis of dust generation and its spatial and temporal variability is extremely important for future projections and for better understanding of the climate and ecological history of the Red Sea.

Arabian↗
DOE OSTI2013

Modeling the Transport and Radiative Forcing of Taklimakan Dust over the Tibetan Plateau: A case study in the summer of 2006

The Weather Research and Forecasting model with chemistry (WRF-Chem) is used to investigate an intense dust storm event during 26 to 30 July 2006 that originated over the Taklimakan Desert (TD) and transported to the northern slope of Tibetan Plateau (TP). The dust storm is initiated by the approach of a strong cold frontal system over the TD. In summer, the meridional transport of TD dust to the TP is favored by the thermal effect of the TP and the weakening of the East Asian westerly winds. During this dust storm, the transport of TD dust over the TP is further enhanced by the passage of the cold front. As a result, TD dust breaks through the planetary boundary layer and extends to the upper troposphere over the northern TP. TD dust flux arrived at the TP with a value of 6.6 Gg/day in this 5 day event but decays quickly during the southward migration over the TP due to dry deposition. The simulations show that TD dust cools the atmosphere near the surface and heats the atmosphere above with a maximum heating rate of 0.11 K day-1 at ~7 km over the TP. The event-averaged net radiative forcings of TD dust over the TP are -3.97, 1.61, and -5.58 Wm-2 at the top of the atmosphere (TOA), in the atmosphere, and at the surface, respectively. The promising performance of WRF-Chem in simulating dust and its radiative forcing provides confidence for use in further investigation of climatic impact of TD dust over the TP.

dust↗
DOE OSTI2013

Uncertainty Quantification and Parameter Tuning in the CAM5 Zhang-McFarlane Convection Scheme and Impact of Improved Convection on the Global Circulation and Climate

In this study, we applied an uncertainty quantification (UQ) technique to improve convective precipitation in the global climate model, the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5), in which the convective and stratiform precipitation partitioning is very different from observational estimates. We examined the sensitivity of precipitation and circulation to several key parameters in the Zhang-McFarlane deep convection scheme in CAM5, using a stochastic importance-sampling algorithm that can progressively converge to optimal parameter values. The impact of improved deep convection on the global circulation and climate was subsequently evaluated. Our results show that the simulated convective precipitation is most sensitive to the parameters of the convective available potential energy consumption time scale, parcel fractional mass entrainment rate, and maximum downdraft mass flux fraction. Using the optimal parameters constrained by the observed Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, convective precipitation improves the simulation of convective to stratiform precipitation ratio and rain-rate spectrum remarkably. When convection is suppressed, precipitation tends to be more confined to the regions with strong atmospheric convergence. As the optimal parameters are used, positive impacts on some aspects of the atmospheric circulation and climate, including reduction of the double Intertropical Convergence Zone, improved East Asian monsoon precipitation, and improved annual cycles of the cross-equatorial jets, are found as a result of the vertical and horizontal redistribution of latent heat release from the revised parameterization. Positive impacts of the optimal parameters derived from the 2 simulations are found to transfer to the 1 simulations to some extent.

CAM5↗
DOE OSTI2012

Summertime photochemistry during CAREBeijing-2007: ROx budgets and O3 formation

We analyze summertime photochemistry near the surface in Beijing, China, using a 1-D photochemical model (Regional chEmical and trAnsport Model, REAM-1D) constrained by in situ observations, focusing on the budgets of ROx (OH + HO2 + RO2) radicals and O3 formation. While the modeling analysis focuses on near-surface photochemical budgets, the implications for the budget of O3 in the planetary boundary layer are also discussed. In terms of daytime average, the total ROx primary production rate near the surface in Beijing is 6.6 ppbv per hour (ppbv h{sup 1}, among the highest found in urban atmospheres. The largest primary ROx source in Beijing is photolysis of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs), which produces HO2 and RO2 at 2.5 ppbv h{sup 1}1 and 1.7 ppbv h{sup 1}, respectively. Photolysis of excess HONO from an unknown heterogeneous source is the predominant primary OH source at 2.2 ppbv h{sup 1}, much larger than that of O1D+H2O (0.4 ppbv h{sup 1}). The largest ROx sink is via OH + NO2 reaction (1.6 ppbv h{sup 1}), followed by formation of RO2NO2 (1.0 ppbv h{sup 1}) and RONO2 (0.7 ppbv h{sup 1}). Due to the large aerosol surface area, aerosol uptake of HO2 appears to be another important radical sink, although the estimate of its magnitude is highly variable depending on the uptake coefficient value used. The daytime average O3 production and loss rates near the surface are 32 ppbv h{sup 1} and 6.2 ppbv h{sup 1}, respectively. Assuming NO2 to be the source of excess HONO, the NO2 to HONO transformation leads to considerable O3 loss and reduction of its lifetime. Our observation-constrained modeling analysis suggests that oxidation of VOCs (especially aromatics) and heterogeneous reactions (e.g. HONO formation and aerosol uptake HO2) play potentially critical roles in the primary radical budget and O3 formation in Beijing. One important ramification is that O3 production is neither NOx nor VOC limited, but in a transition regime where reduction of either NOx or VOCs could result in reduction of O3 production. The transition regime implies more flexibility in the O3 control strategies than a binary system of either NOx or VOC limited regime. The co-benefit of concurrent reduction of both NOx and VOCs in reducing column O3 production integrated in the planetary boundary layer is significant. Further research on the spatial extent of the transition regime over the polluted eastern China is critically important for controlling regional O3 pollution.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Impact of the Desert Dust on the Summer Monsoon System over Southwestern North America

The radiative forcing of dust emitted from the Southwest United States (US) deserts and its impact on monsoon circulation and precipitation over the North America monsoon (NAM) region are simulated using a coupled meteorology and aerosol/chemistry model (WRF-Chem) for 15 years (1995-2009). During the monsoon season, dust has a cooling effect (-0.90 W m{sup -2}) at the surface, a warming effect (0.40 W m{sup -2}) in the atmosphere, and a negative top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) forcing (-0.50 W m{sup -2}) over the deserts on 24-h average. Most of the dust emitted from the deserts concentrates below 800 hPa and accumulates over the western slope of the Rocky Mountains and Mexican Plateau. The absorption of shortwave radiation by dust heats the lower atmosphere by up to 0.5 K day{sup -1} over the western slope of the Mountains. Model sensitivity simulations with and without dust for 15 summers (June-July-August) show that dust heating of the lower atmosphere over the deserts strengthens the low-level southerly moisture fluxes on both sides of the Sierra Madre Occidental. It also results in an eastward migration of NAM-driven moisture convergence over the western slope of the Mountains. These monsoonal circulation changes lead to a statistically significant increase of precipitation by up to {approx}40% over the eastern slope of the Mountains (Arizona-New Mexico-Texas regions). This study highlights the interaction between dust and the NAM system and motivates further investigation of possible dust feedback on monsoon precipitation under climate change and the megadrought conditions projected for the future.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2012

Model analysis of the anthropogenic aerosol effect on clouds over East Asia

A coupled meteorology and aerosol/chemistry model WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecast model coupled with Chemistry) was used to conduct a pair of simulations with present-day (PD) and preindustrial (PI) emissions over East Asia to examine the aerosol indirect effect on clouds. As a result of an increase in aerosols in January, the cloud droplet number increased by 650 cm{sup -3} over the ocean and East China, 400 cm{sup -3} over Central and Southwest China, and less than 200 cm{sup -3} over North China. The cloud liquid water path (LWP) increased by 40-60 g m{sup -2} over the ocean and Southeast China and 30 g m{sup -2} over Central China; the LWP increased less than 5 g m{sup -2} or decreased by 5 g m{sup -2} over North China. The effective radius (Re) decreased by more than 4 {mu}m over Southwest, Central, and Southeast China and 2 {mu}m over North China. In July, variations in cloud properties were more uniform; the cloud droplet number increased by approximately 250-400 cm{sup -3}, the LWP increased by approximately 30-50 g m{sup -2}, and Re decreased by approximately 3 {mu}m over most regions of China. In response to cloud property changes from PI to PD, shortwave (SW) cloud radiative forcing strengthened by 30 W m{sup -2} over the ocean and 10 W m{sup -2} over Southeast China, and it weakened slightly by approximately 2-10 W m{sup -2} over Central and Southwest China in January. In July, SW cloud radiative forcing strengthened by 15 W m{sup -2} over Southeast and North China and weakened by 10 W m{sup -2} over Central China. The different responses of SW cloud radiative forcing in different regions was related to cloud feedbacks and natural variability.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

Emission Controls Versus Meteorological Conditions in Determining Aerosol Concentrations in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games

A series of emission control measures were undertaken in Beijing and the adjacent provinces in China during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 8th-24th, 2008. This provides a unique opportunity for investigating the effectiveness of emission controls on air pollution in Beijing. We conducted a series of numerical experiments over East Asia for the period of July to September 2008 using a coupled meteorology-chemistry model (WRF-Chem). Model can generally reproduce the observed variation of aerosol concentrations. Consistent with observations, modeled concentrations of aerosol species (sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, black carbon, organic carbon, total particulate matter) in Beijing were decreased by 30-50% during the Olympic period compared to the other periods in July and August in 2008 and the same period in 2007. Model results indicate that emission controls were effective in reducing the aerosol concentrations by comparing simulations with and without emission controls. However, our analysis suggests that meteorological conditions (e.g., wind direction and precipitation) are at least as important as emission controls in producing the low aerosol concentrations appearing during the Olympic period. Transport from the regions surrounding Beijing determines the temporal variation of aerosol concentrations in Beijing. Based on the budget analysis, we suggest that emission control strategy should focus on the regional scale instead of the local scale to improve the air quality over Beijing.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2011

NOx Emission Reduction and its Effects on Ozone during the 2008 Olympic Games

We applied a daily-assimilated inversion method to estimate NOx (NO+NO2) emissions for June-September 2007 and 2008 on the basis of the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) observations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and model simulations using the Regional chEmistry and trAnsport Model (REAM). Over urban Beijing, rural Beijing, and the Huabei Plain, OMI column NO2 reductions are approximately 45%, 33%, and 14%, respectively, while the corresponding anthropogenic NOx emission reductions are only 28%, 24%, and 6%, during the full emission control period (July 20 – Sep 20, 2008). The emission reduction began in early July and was in full force by July 20, corresponding to the scheduled implementation of emission controls over Beijing. The emissions did not appear to recover after the emission control period. Meteorological change from summer 2007 to 2008 is the main factor contributing to the column NO2 decreases not accounted for by the emission reduction. Model simulations suggest that the effect of emission reduction on ozone concentrations over Beijing is relatively minor using a standard VOC emission inventory in China. With an adjustment of the model emissions to reflect in situ observations of VOCs in Beijing, the model simulation suggests a larger effect of the emission reduction.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗