TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluating inter-continental transport of fine aerosols
T2 - (1) Methodology, global aerosol distribution and optical depth
AU - Liu, Junfeng
AU - Mauzerall, Denise Leonore
AU - Horowitz, Larry W.
AU - Ginoux, Paul
AU - Fiore, Arlene M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Tami Bond for the black and organic carbon emission inventories, Huiyan Yang for sharing her dust code and Peter Hess for providing the MOZART-2 evaluation package. We thank Hajime Akimoto for providing observations from the EANET network, William Cooke for sharing BC and OC observational data, and Natalie Mahowald and Joseph Prospero for providing the dust observation data. We thank the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory for computational resources. We are pleased to acknowledge funding from the Science, Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) program at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University as well as funding from a NASA New Investigator Program grant to D. Mauzerall.
PY - 2009/9
Y1 - 2009/9
N2 - Our objectives are to evaluate inter-continental source-receptor relationships for fine aerosols and to identify the regions whose emissions have dominant influence on receptor continents. We simulate sulfate, black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), and mineral dust aerosols using a global coupled chemistry-aerosol model (MOZART-2) driven with NCEP/NCAR reanalysis meteorology for 1997-2003 and emissions approximately representing year 2000. The concentrations of simulated aerosol species in general agree within a factor of 2 with observations, except that the model tends to overestimate sulfate over Europe in summer, underestimate BC and OC over the western and southeastern (SE) U.S. and Europe, and underestimate dust over the SE U.S. By tagging emissions from ten continental regions, we quantify the contribution of each region's emissions on surface aerosol concentrations (relevant for air quality) and aerosol optical depth (AOD, relevant for visibility and climate) globally. We find that domestic emissions contribute substantially to surface aerosol concentrations (57-95%) over all regions, but are responsible for a smaller fraction of AOD (26-76%). We define "background" aerosols as those aerosols over a region that result from inter-continental transport, DMS oxidation, and emissions from ships or volcanoes. Transport from other continental source regions accounts for a substantial portion of background aerosol concentrations: 36-97% for surface concentrations and 38-89% for AOD. We identify the Region of Primary Influence (RPI) as the source region with the largest contribution to the receptor's background aerosol concentrations (or AOD). We find that for dust Africa is the RPI for both aerosol concentrations and AOD over all other receptor regions. For non-dust aerosols (particularly for sulfate and BC), the RPIs for aerosol concentrations and AOD are identical for most receptor regions. These findings indicate that the reduction of the emission of non-dust aerosols and their precursors from an RPI will simultaneously improve both air quality and visibility over a receptor region.
AB - Our objectives are to evaluate inter-continental source-receptor relationships for fine aerosols and to identify the regions whose emissions have dominant influence on receptor continents. We simulate sulfate, black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), and mineral dust aerosols using a global coupled chemistry-aerosol model (MOZART-2) driven with NCEP/NCAR reanalysis meteorology for 1997-2003 and emissions approximately representing year 2000. The concentrations of simulated aerosol species in general agree within a factor of 2 with observations, except that the model tends to overestimate sulfate over Europe in summer, underestimate BC and OC over the western and southeastern (SE) U.S. and Europe, and underestimate dust over the SE U.S. By tagging emissions from ten continental regions, we quantify the contribution of each region's emissions on surface aerosol concentrations (relevant for air quality) and aerosol optical depth (AOD, relevant for visibility and climate) globally. We find that domestic emissions contribute substantially to surface aerosol concentrations (57-95%) over all regions, but are responsible for a smaller fraction of AOD (26-76%). We define "background" aerosols as those aerosols over a region that result from inter-continental transport, DMS oxidation, and emissions from ships or volcanoes. Transport from other continental source regions accounts for a substantial portion of background aerosol concentrations: 36-97% for surface concentrations and 38-89% for AOD. We identify the Region of Primary Influence (RPI) as the source region with the largest contribution to the receptor's background aerosol concentrations (or AOD). We find that for dust Africa is the RPI for both aerosol concentrations and AOD over all other receptor regions. For non-dust aerosols (particularly for sulfate and BC), the RPIs for aerosol concentrations and AOD are identical for most receptor regions. These findings indicate that the reduction of the emission of non-dust aerosols and their precursors from an RPI will simultaneously improve both air quality and visibility over a receptor region.
KW - Aerosols
KW - Air quality
KW - Inter-continental transport
KW - Optical depth
KW - Source-receptor relationships
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67651045849&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.03.054
DO - 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.03.054
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:67651045849
SN - 1352-2310
VL - 43
SP - 4327
EP - 4338
JO - Atmospheric Environment
JF - Atmospheric Environment
IS - 28
ER -