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Title: Improved methodologies for Earth system modelling of atmospheric soluble iron and observation comparisons using the Mechanism of Intermediate complexity for Modelling Iron (MIMI v1.0)

Journal Article · · Geoscientific Model Development (Online)

Abstract. Herein, we present a description of the Mechanism of Intermediate complexity for Modelling Iron (MIMI v1.0). This iron processing module was developed for use within Earth system models and has been updated within a modal aerosol framework from the original implementation in a bulk aerosol model. MIMI simulates the emission and atmospheric processing of two main sources of iron in aerosol prior to deposition: mineral dust and combustion processes. Atmospheric dissolution of insoluble to soluble iron is parameterized by an acidic interstitial aerosol reaction and a separatein-cloud aerosol reaction scheme based on observations of enhanced aerosol iron solubility in the presence of oxalate. Updates include a more comprehensive treatment of combustion iron emissions, improvements to the iron dissolution scheme, and an improved physical dust mobilization scheme.An extensive dataset consisting predominantly of cruise-based observations was compiled to compare to the model. The annual mean model led concentration of surface-level total iron compared well with observations but less so in the soluble fraction (iron solubility) for which observations are much more variable in space and time. Comparing model and observational data is sensitive to the definition of the average as well as the temporal and spatial range over which it is calculated. Through statistical analysis and examples, we show that a median or log-normal distribution is preferred when comparing with soluble iron observations. The iron solubility calculated at each model time step versus that calculated based on a ratio of the monthly mean values, which is routinely presented in aerosol studies and used in ocean biogeochemistry models, is on average globally one-third(34 %) higher. We redefined ocean deposition regions based on dominant iron emission sources and found that the daily variability in soluble iron simulated by MIMI was larger than that of previous model simulations. MIMI simulated a general increase in soluble iron deposition to Southern Hemisphere oceans by a factor of 2 to 4 compared with the previous version, which has implications for our understanding of the ocean biogeochemistry of these predominantly iron-limited ocean regions.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23). Earth System Modeling; Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; SC0016362; SC0006791
OSTI ID:
1560230
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1573342; OSTI ID: 1594068
Journal Information:
Geoscientific Model Development (Online), Vol. 12, Issue 9; ISSN 1991-9603
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 37 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Intercomparison and evaluation of global aerosol microphysical properties among AeroCom models of a range of complexity text January 2014
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Evaluation of global simulations of aerosol particle and cloud condensation nuclei number, with implications for cloud droplet formation text January 2019
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Roles of different types of oxalate surface complexes in dissolution process of ferrihydrite aggregates journal February 2018
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Atmospheric transport of iron and its deposition in the ocean journal December 1991
Emission factors for open and domestic biomass burning for use in atmospheric models journal January 2011
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An improved dust emission model – Part 2: Evaluation in the Community Earth System Model, with implications for the use of dust source functions journal January 2014
Response of acid mobilization of iron-containing mineral dust to improvement of air quality projected in the future journal January 2014
Intercomparison and evaluation of global aerosol microphysical properties among AeroCom models of a range of complexity journal January 2014
On the spatio-temporal representativeness of observations journal January 2017
Atmospheric processing of iron in mineral and combustion aerosols: development of an intermediate-complexity mechanism suitable for Earth system models journal January 2018
Organic aerosol and global climate modelling: a review journal January 2004
Reviews and syntheses: the GESAMP atmospheric iron deposition model intercomparison study journal January 2018

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Quantifying the range of the dust direct radiative effect due to source mineralogy uncertainty journal January 2021
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