skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Development of RAMS-CMAQ to Simulate Aerosol Optical Depth and Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing and Its Application to East Asia

Abstract

The air quality modeling system RAMS (Regional Atmospheric Modeling System)-CMAQ (Models-3 Community Multi-scale Air Quality) is developed to simulate the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and aerosol direct forcing (DF). The aerosol-specific extinction, single scattering albedo, and asymmetry factor are parameterized based on Mie theory taking into account the aerosol size distribution, composition, refractive index, and water uptake of solution particles. A two-stream solar radiative model considers all gaseous molecular absorption, Rayleigh scattering, and aerosols and clouds. RAMSCMAQ is applied to simulate all major aerosol concentrations (e.g., sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, organic carbon, black carbon, fine soil, and sea salt) and AOD and DF over East Asia in 2005. To evaluate its performance, the simulated AOD values were compared with ground-based in situ measurements. The comparison shows that RAMSCMAQ performed well in most of the model domain and generally captured the observed variations. High AOD values (0.2-1.0) mainly appear in the Sichuan Basin as well as in central and southeastern China. The geographic distribution of DF generally follows the AOD distribution patterns, and the DF at the top-of-the-atmosphere is less than -25 and -20 W m-2 in clear-sky and all-sky over the Sichuan Basin. Both AOD and DF exhibit seasonal variations withmore » lower values in July and higher ones in January. The DF could obviously be impacted by high cloud fractions.« less

Authors:
; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1019227
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-72294
KP1703020; TRN: US201114%%700
DOE Contract Number:  
AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters,, 2(6):368 - 375
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2; Journal Issue: 6
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; ABSORPTION; AEROSOLS; AIR QUALITY; ALBEDO; ASIA; ASYMMETRY; CARBON; CHINA; CLOUDS; DISTRIBUTION; PERFORMANCE; RAYLEIGH SCATTERING; REFRACTIVE INDEX; SCATTERING; SEAS; SEASONAL VARIATIONS; SIMULATION; WATER; RAMS-CMAQ; Aerosol Optical Depth; Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing; East Asia

Citation Formats

Han, Xiao, Zhang, Meigen, Liu, Xiaohong, Ghan, Steven J, Xin, Jin-Yuan, and Wang, Li-Li. Development of RAMS-CMAQ to Simulate Aerosol Optical Depth and Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing and Its Application to East Asia. United States: N. p., 2009. Web.
Han, Xiao, Zhang, Meigen, Liu, Xiaohong, Ghan, Steven J, Xin, Jin-Yuan, & Wang, Li-Li. Development of RAMS-CMAQ to Simulate Aerosol Optical Depth and Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing and Its Application to East Asia. United States.
Han, Xiao, Zhang, Meigen, Liu, Xiaohong, Ghan, Steven J, Xin, Jin-Yuan, and Wang, Li-Li. 2009. "Development of RAMS-CMAQ to Simulate Aerosol Optical Depth and Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing and Its Application to East Asia". United States.
@article{osti_1019227,
title = {Development of RAMS-CMAQ to Simulate Aerosol Optical Depth and Aerosol Direct Radiative Forcing and Its Application to East Asia},
author = {Han, Xiao and Zhang, Meigen and Liu, Xiaohong and Ghan, Steven J and Xin, Jin-Yuan and Wang, Li-Li},
abstractNote = {The air quality modeling system RAMS (Regional Atmospheric Modeling System)-CMAQ (Models-3 Community Multi-scale Air Quality) is developed to simulate the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and aerosol direct forcing (DF). The aerosol-specific extinction, single scattering albedo, and asymmetry factor are parameterized based on Mie theory taking into account the aerosol size distribution, composition, refractive index, and water uptake of solution particles. A two-stream solar radiative model considers all gaseous molecular absorption, Rayleigh scattering, and aerosols and clouds. RAMSCMAQ is applied to simulate all major aerosol concentrations (e.g., sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, organic carbon, black carbon, fine soil, and sea salt) and AOD and DF over East Asia in 2005. To evaluate its performance, the simulated AOD values were compared with ground-based in situ measurements. The comparison shows that RAMSCMAQ performed well in most of the model domain and generally captured the observed variations. High AOD values (0.2-1.0) mainly appear in the Sichuan Basin as well as in central and southeastern China. The geographic distribution of DF generally follows the AOD distribution patterns, and the DF at the top-of-the-atmosphere is less than -25 and -20 W m-2 in clear-sky and all-sky over the Sichuan Basin. Both AOD and DF exhibit seasonal variations with lower values in July and higher ones in January. The DF could obviously be impacted by high cloud fractions.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1019227}, journal = {Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters,, 2(6):368 - 375},
number = 6,
volume = 2,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Nov 16 00:00:00 EST 2009},
month = {Mon Nov 16 00:00:00 EST 2009}
}