Effects of vertical grid resolution on photochemical grid modeling
Results from a Multiscale Air Quality Simulation Platform (MAQSIP) modeling exercise over a doubly-nested (36, 12, and 4 km) domain centered over Charlotte, North Carolina have indicated that boundary layer pollutant patterns can be affected by the choice of vertical model resolution. In particular, large changes in base case model ozone concentrations were observed when vertical resolution was degraded from sixteen layers to eight. This could potentially impact policy decisions regarding amount of emission control needed to reach attainment. However, there was no evidence that control strategy signals would change as a function of the vertical mesh. Smaller model differences were detected when the surface layer was expanded from 40 to 100 meters. Additionally, increasing the vertical resolution to 26 layers in order to match the structure of the meteorological model providing inputs did not show a major impact. This series of sensitivity tests concluded that, for the North Carolina domain, a 16 layer simulation with 10 to 12 layers within the well-mixed planetary boundary layer provided the best match between run times and satisfactory model results.
- Research Organization:
- North Carolina Supercomputing Center, NC (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20002094
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-990608--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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