Evaluating high-resolution forecasts of atmospheric CO and CO<sub>2</sub> from a global prediction system during KORUS-AQ field campaign

oleh: W. Tang, A. F. Arellano, J. P. DiGangi, Y. Choi, Y. Choi, G. S. Diskin, A. Agustí-Panareda, M. Parrington, S. Massart, B. Gaubert, Y. Lee, D. Kim, J. Jung, J. Hong, J.-W. Hong, Y. Kanaya, M. Lee, R. M. Stauffer, R. M. Stauffer, A. M. Thompson, J. H. Flynn, J.-H. Woo

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Copernicus Publications 2018-08-01

Deskripsi

<p>Accurate and consistent monitoring of anthropogenic combustion is imperative because of its significant health and environmental impacts, especially at city-to-regional scale. Here, we assess the performance of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) global prediction system using measurements from aircraft, ground sites, and ships during the Korea-United States Air Quality (KORUS-AQ) field study in May to June 2016. Our evaluation focuses on CAMS CO and CO<sub>2</sub> analyses as well as two higher-resolution forecasts (16 and 9&thinsp;km horizontal resolution) to assess their capability in predicting combustion signatures over east Asia. Our results show a slight overestimation of CAMS CO<sub>2</sub> with a mean bias against airborne CO<sub>2</sub> measurements of 2.2, 0.7, and 0.3&thinsp;ppmv for 16 and 9&thinsp;km CO<sub>2</sub> forecasts, and analyses, respectively. The positive CO<sub>2</sub> mean bias in the 16&thinsp;km forecast appears to be consistent across the vertical profile of the measurements. In contrast, we find a moderate underestimation of CAMS CO with an overall bias against airborne CO measurements of −19.2 (16&thinsp;km), −16.7 (9&thinsp;km), and −20.7&thinsp;ppbv (analysis). This negative CO mean bias is mostly seen below 750&thinsp;hPa for all three forecast/analysis configurations. Despite these biases, CAMS shows a remarkable agreement with observed enhancement ratios of CO with CO<sub>2</sub> over the Seoul metropolitan area and over the West (Yellow) Sea, where east Asian outflows were sampled during the study period. More efficient combustion is observed over Seoul (dCO∕dCO<sub>2</sub> = 9&thinsp;ppbv&thinsp;ppmv<sup>−1</sup>) compared to the West Sea (dCO∕dCO<sub>2</sub> = 28&thinsp;ppbv&thinsp;ppmv<sup>−1</sup>). This <q>combustion signature contrast</q> is consistent with previous studies in these two regions. CAMS captured this difference in enhancement ratios (Seoul: 8–12&thinsp;ppbv&thinsp;ppmv<sup>−1</sup>, the West Sea:  ∼ 30&thinsp;ppbv&thinsp;ppmv<sup>−1</sup>) regardless of forecast/analysis configurations. The correlation of CAMS CO bias with CO<sub>2</sub> bias is relatively high over these two regions (Seoul: 0.64–0.90, the West Sea: ∼ 0.80) suggesting that the contrast captured by CAMS may be dominated by anthropogenic emission ratios used in CAMS. However, CAMS shows poorer performance in terms of capturing local-to-urban CO and CO<sub>2</sub> variability. Along with measurements at ground sites over the Korean Peninsula, CAMS produces too high CO and CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations at the surface with steeper vertical gradients (∼ 0.4&thinsp;ppmv&thinsp;hPa<sup>−1</sup> for CO<sub>2</sub> and 3.5&thinsp;ppbv&thinsp;hPa<sup>−1</sup> for CO) in the morning samples than observed (∼ 0.25&thinsp;ppmv&thinsp;hPa<sup>−1</sup> for CO<sub>2</sub> and 1.7&thinsp;ppbv&thinsp;hPa<sup>−1</sup> for CO), suggesting weaker boundary layer mixing in the model. Lastly, we find that the combination of CO analyses (i.e., improved initial condition) and use of finer resolution (9&thinsp;km vs. 16&thinsp;km) generally produces better forecasts.</p>