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Luo Y, Xu L, Li Z, Zhou X, Zhang X, Wang F, Peng J, Cao C, Chen Z, Yu H. Air pollution in heavy industrial cities along the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang: characteristics, meteorological influence, and sources. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2023; 30:55092-55111. [PMID: 36884176 PMCID: PMC9994416 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-25757-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 02/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The spatiotemporal characteristics, relationship with meteorological factors, and source distribution of air pollutants (January 2017-December 2021) were analyzed to better understand the air pollutants on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountains (NSTM) in Xinjiang, a heavily polluted urban agglomeration of heavy industries. The results showed that the annual mean concentrations of SO2, NO2, CO, O3, PM2.5, and PM10 were 8.61-13.76 μg m-3, 26.53-36.06 μg m-3, 0.79-1.31 mg m-3, 82.24-87.62 μg m-3, 37.98-51.10 μg m-3, and 84.15-97.47 μg m-3. The concentrations of air pollutants (except O3) showed a decreasing trend. The highest concentrations were in winter, and in Wujiaqu, Shihezi, Changji, Urumqi, and Turpan, the concentrations of particulate matter exceeded the NAAQS Grade II during winter. The west wind and the spread of local pollutants both substantially impacted the high concentrations. According to the analysis of the backward trajectory in winter, the air masses were mainly from eastern Kazakhstan and local emission sources, and PM10 in the airflow had a more significant impact on Turpan; the rest of the cities were more affected by PM2.5. Potential sources included Urumqi-Changj-Shihezi, Turpan, the northern Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, and eastern Kazakhstan. Consequently, the emphasis on improving air quality should be on reducing local emissions, strengthening regional cooperation, and researching transboundary transport of air pollutants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yutian Luo
- College of Sciences, Shihezi University, Xinjiang, 832003 China
| | - Liping Xu
- College of Sciences, Shihezi University, Xinjiang, 832003 China
| | - Zhongqin Li
- College of Sciences, Shihezi University, Xinjiang, 832003 China
- State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Tianshan Glaciological Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000 China
- College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070 China
| | - Xi Zhou
- Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000 China
| | - Xin Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Tianshan Glaciological Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000 China
| | - Fanglong Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Tianshan Glaciological Station, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000 China
| | - Jiajia Peng
- College of Sciences, Shihezi University, Xinjiang, 832003 China
| | - Cui Cao
- College of Sciences, Shihezi University, Xinjiang, 832003 China
| | - Zhi Chen
- College of Sciences, Shihezi University, Xinjiang, 832003 China
| | - Heng Yu
- College of Geography and Environmental Science, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 730070 China
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Mathur R, Kang D, Napelenok SL, Xing J, Hogrefe C, Sarwar G, Itahashi S, Henderson BH. How have Divergent Global Emission Trends Influenced Long-range Transported Ozone to North America? JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH. ATMOSPHERES : JGR 2022; 127:0. [PMID: 36275858 PMCID: PMC9580341 DOI: 10.1029/2022jd036926] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2022] [Accepted: 08/07/2022] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Several locations across the United States in non-compliance with the national standard for ground-level ozone (O3) are thought to have sizeable influences from distant extra-regional emission sources or natural stratospheric O3, which complicates design of local emission control measures. To quantify the amount of long-range transported O3 (LRT O3), its origin, and change over time, we conduct and analyze detailed sensitivity calculations characterizing the response of O3 to emissions from different source regions across the Northern Hemisphere in conjunction with multi-decadal simulations of tropospheric O3 distributions and changes. Model calculations show that the amount of O3 at any location attributable to sources outside North America varies both spatially and seasonally. On a seasonal-mean basis, during 1990-2010, LRT O3 attributable to international sources steadily increased by 0.06-0.2 ppb yr-1 at locations across the United States and arose from superposition of unequal and contrasting trends in individual source-region contributions, which help inform attribution of the trend evident in O3 measurements. Contributions of emissions from Europe steadily declined through 2010, while those from Asian emissions increased and remained dominant. Steadily rising NOx emissions from international shipping resulted in increasing contributions to LRT O3, comparable to those from Asian emissions in recent years. Central American emissions contribute a significant fraction of LRT O3 in southwestern United States. In addition to the LRT O3 attributable to emissions outside of North America, background O3 across the continental United States is comprised of a sizeable and spatially variable fraction that is of stratospheric origin (29-78%).
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Affiliation(s)
- Rohit Mathur
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RTP, NC, USA
| | - Daiwen Kang
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RTP, NC, USA
| | - Sergey L. Napelenok
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RTP, NC, USA
| | - Jia Xing
- Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Christian Hogrefe
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RTP, NC, USA
| | - Golam Sarwar
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RTP, NC, USA
| | - Syuichi Itahashi
- Environmental Science Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan
| | - Barron H. Henderson
- Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, RTP, NC, USA
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Wang K, Zhang Y, Yu S, Wong DC, Pleim J, Mathur R, Kelly JT, Bell M. A comparative study of two-way and offline coupled WRF v3.4 and CMAQ v5.0.2 over the contiguous US: performance evaluation and impacts of chemistry-meteorology feedbacks on air quality. GEOSCIENTIFIC MODEL DEVELOPMENT 2021; 14:7189-7221. [PMID: 35237388 DOI: 10.5194/gmd-2020-218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
The two-way coupled Weather Research and Forecasting and Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model has been developed to more realistically represent the atmosphere by accounting for complex chemistry-meteorology feedbacks. In this study, we present a comparative analysis of two-way (with consideration of both aerosol direct and indirect effects) and offline coupled WRF v3.4 and CMAQ v5.0.2 over the contiguous US. Long-term (5 years from 2008 to 2012) simulations using WRF-CMAQ with both offline and two-way coupling modes are carried out with anthropogenic emissions based on multiple years of the U.S. National Emission Inventory and chemical initial and boundary conditions derived from an advanced Earth system model (i.e., a modified version of the Community Earth System Model/Community Atmospheric Model). The comprehensive model evaluations show that both two-way WRF-CMAQ and WRF-only simulations perform well for major meteorological variables such as temperature at 2 m, relative humidity at 2 m, wind speed at 10 m, precipitation (except for against the National Climatic Data Center data), and shortwave and longwave radiation. Both two-way and offline CMAQ also show good performance for ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Due to the consideration of aerosol direct and indirect effects, two-way WRF-CMAQ shows improved performance over offline coupled WRF and CMAQ in terms of spatiotemporal distributions and statistics, especially for radiation, cloud forcing, O3, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, elemental carbon, tropospheric O3 residual, and column nitrogen dioxide (NO2). For example, the mean biases have been reduced by more than 10 W m-2 for shortwave radiation and cloud radiative forcing and by more than 2 ppb for max 8 h O3. However, relatively large biases still exist for cloud predictions, some PM2.5 species, and PM10 that warrant follow-up studies to better understand those issues. The impacts of chemistry-meteorological feedbacks are found to play important roles in affecting regional air quality in the US by reducing domain-average concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), O3, nitrogen oxide (NO x ), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and PM2.5 by 3.1% (up to 27.8%), 4.2% (up to 16.2%), 6.6% (up to 50.9%), 5.8% (up to 46.6%), and 8.6% (up to 49.1%), respectively, mainly due to reduced radiation, temperature, and wind speed. The overall performance of the two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ model achieved in this work is generally good or satisfactory and the improved performance for two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ should be considered along with other factors in developing future model applications to inform policy making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Wang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Shaocai Yu
- Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecological Health, Ministry of Education; Research Center for Air Pollution and Health, College of Environment and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, P.R. China
| | - David C Wong
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Jonathan Pleim
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Rohit Mathur
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - James T Kelly
- Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Michelle Bell
- School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
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Wang K, Zhang Y, Yu S, Wong DC, Pleim J, Mathur R, Kelly JT, Bell M. A comparative study of two-way and offline coupled WRF v3.4 and CMAQ v5.0.2 over the contiguous US: performance evaluation and impacts of chemistry-meteorology feedbacks on air quality. GEOSCIENTIFIC MODEL DEVELOPMENT 2021; 14:7189-7221. [PMID: 35237388 PMCID: PMC8883479 DOI: 10.5194/gmd-14-7189-2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The two-way coupled Weather Research and Forecasting and Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model has been developed to more realistically represent the atmosphere by accounting for complex chemistry-meteorology feedbacks. In this study, we present a comparative analysis of two-way (with consideration of both aerosol direct and indirect effects) and offline coupled WRF v3.4 and CMAQ v5.0.2 over the contiguous US. Long-term (5 years from 2008 to 2012) simulations using WRF-CMAQ with both offline and two-way coupling modes are carried out with anthropogenic emissions based on multiple years of the U.S. National Emission Inventory and chemical initial and boundary conditions derived from an advanced Earth system model (i.e., a modified version of the Community Earth System Model/Community Atmospheric Model). The comprehensive model evaluations show that both two-way WRF-CMAQ and WRF-only simulations perform well for major meteorological variables such as temperature at 2 m, relative humidity at 2 m, wind speed at 10 m, precipitation (except for against the National Climatic Data Center data), and shortwave and longwave radiation. Both two-way and offline CMAQ also show good performance for ozone (O3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Due to the consideration of aerosol direct and indirect effects, two-way WRF-CMAQ shows improved performance over offline coupled WRF and CMAQ in terms of spatiotemporal distributions and statistics, especially for radiation, cloud forcing, O3, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, elemental carbon, tropospheric O3 residual, and column nitrogen dioxide (NO2). For example, the mean biases have been reduced by more than 10 W m-2 for shortwave radiation and cloud radiative forcing and by more than 2 ppb for max 8 h O3. However, relatively large biases still exist for cloud predictions, some PM2.5 species, and PM10 that warrant follow-up studies to better understand those issues. The impacts of chemistry-meteorological feedbacks are found to play important roles in affecting regional air quality in the US by reducing domain-average concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), O3, nitrogen oxide (NO x ), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and PM2.5 by 3.1% (up to 27.8%), 4.2% (up to 16.2%), 6.6% (up to 50.9%), 5.8% (up to 46.6%), and 8.6% (up to 49.1%), respectively, mainly due to reduced radiation, temperature, and wind speed. The overall performance of the two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ model achieved in this work is generally good or satisfactory and the improved performance for two-way coupled WRF-CMAQ should be considered along with other factors in developing future model applications to inform policy making.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Wang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Shaocai Yu
- Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Ecological Health, Ministry of Education; Research Center for Air Pollution and Health, College of Environment and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, P.R. China
| | - David C. Wong
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Jonathan Pleim
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Rohit Mathur
- Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - James T. Kelly
- Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, U.S. EPA, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Michelle Bell
- School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
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Itahashi S, Mathur R, Hogrefe C, Napelenok SL, Zhang Y. Modeling stratospheric intrusion and trans-Pacific transport on tropospheric ozone using hemispheric CMAQ during April 2010 - Part 2: Examination of emission impacts based on the higher-order decoupled direct method. ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 2020; 20:3397-3413. [PMID: 32328090 PMCID: PMC7180064 DOI: 10.5194/acp-20-3397-2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
The state-of-the-science Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system, which has recently been extended for hemispheric-scale modeling applications (referred to as H-CMAQ), is applied to study the trans-Pacific transport, a phenomenon recognized as a potential source of air pollution in the US, during April 2010. The results of this analysis are presented in two parts. In the previous paper (Part 1), model evaluation for tropospheric ozone (O3) was presented and an air mass characterization method was developed. Results from applying this newly established method pointed to the importance of emissions as the factor to enhance the surface O3 mixing ratio over the US. In this subsequent paper (Part 2), emission impacts are examined based on mathematically rigorous sensitivity analysis using the higher-order decoupled direct method (HDDM) implemented in H-CMAQ. The HDDM sensitivity coefficients indicate the presence of a NO x -sensitive regime during April 2010 over most of the Northern Hemisphere. By defining emission source regions over the US and east Asia, impacts from these emission sources are examined. At the surface, during April 2010, the emission impacts of the US and east Asia are comparable over the western US with a magnitude of about 3ppbv impacts on monthly mean O3 all-hour basis, whereas the impact of domestic emissions dominates over the eastern US with a magnitude of about 10ppbv impacts on monthly mean O3. The positive correlation (r = 0.63) between surface O3 mixing ratios and domestic emission impacts is confirmed. In contrast, the relationship between surface O3 mixing ratios and emission impacts from east Asia exhibits a flat slope when considering the entire US. However, this relationship has strong regional differences between the western and eastern US; the western region exhibits a positive correlation (r = 0.36-0.38), whereas the latter exhibits a flat slope (r <0.1). Based on the comprehensive evaluation of H-CMAQ, we extend the sensitivity analysis for O3 aloft. The results reveal the significant impacts of emissions from east Asia on the free troposphere (defined as 750 to 250hPa) over the US (impacts of more than 5ppbv) and the dominance of stratospheric air mass on upper model layer (defined as 250 to 50hPa) over the US (impacts greater than 10ppbv). Finally, we estimate changes of trans-Pacific transport by taking into account recent emission trends from 2010 to 2015 assuming the same meteorological condition. The analysis suggests that the impact of recent emission changes on changes in the contribution of trans-Pacific transport to US O3 levels was insignificant at the surface level and was small (less than 1ppbv) over the free troposphere.
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Affiliation(s)
- Syuichi Itahashi
- Environmental Science Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), 1646 Abiko, Abiko, Chiba 270–1194, Japan
| | - Rohit Mathur
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Computational Exposure Division, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Christian Hogrefe
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Computational Exposure Division, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Sergey L. Napelenok
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Computational Exposure Division, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences (MEAS), North Carolina State University (NCSU), Campus Box 8208, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
- now at: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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Itahashi S, Mathur R, Hogrefe C, Zhang Y. Modeling stratospheric intrusion and trans-Pacific transport on tropospheric ozone using hemispheric CMAQ during April 2010 - Part 1: Model evaluation and air mass characterization for stratosphere-troposphere transport. ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 2020; 20:3373-3396. [PMID: 32328089 PMCID: PMC7180063 DOI: 10.5194/acp-20-3373-2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Stratospheric intrusion and trans-Pacific transport have been recognized as a potential source of tropospheric ozone over the US. The state-of-the-science Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system has recently been extended for hemispheric-scale modeling applications (referred to as H-CMAQ). In this study, H-CMAQ is applied to study the stratospheric intrusion and trans-Pacific transport during April 2010. The results will be presented in two companion papers. In this Part 1 paper, model evaluation for tropospheric ozone (O3) is presented. Observations at the surface, by ozonesondes and airplane, and by satellite across the Northern Hemisphere are used to evaluate the model performance for O3. H-CMAQ is able to capture surface and boundary layer (defined as surface to 750hPa) O3 with a normalized mean bias (NMB) of -10%; however, a systematic underestimation with an NMB up to -30% is found in the free troposphere (defined as 750-250hPa). In addition, a new air mass characterization method is developed to distinguish influences of stratosphere-troposphere transport (STT) from the effects of photochemistry on O3 levels. This method is developed based on the ratio of O3 and an inert tracer indicating stratospheric O3 to examine the importance of photochemistry, and sequential intrusion from upper layer. During April 2010, on a monthly average basis, the relationship between surface O3 mixing ratios and estimated stratospheric air masses in the troposphere show a slight negative slope, indicating that high surface O3 values are primarily affected by other factors (i.e., emissions), whereas this relationship shows a slight positive slope at elevated sites, indicating that STT has a possible impact at elevated sites. STT shows large day-to-day variations, and STT impacts can either originate from the same air mass over the entire US with an eastward movement found during early April, or stem from different air masses at different locations indicated during late April. Based on this newly established air mass characterization technique, this study can contribute to understanding the role of STT and also the implied importance of emissions leading to high surface O3. Further research focused on emissions is discussed in a subsequent paper (Part 2).
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Affiliation(s)
- Syuichi Itahashi
- Environmental Science Research Laboratory, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), 1646 Abiko, Abiko, Chiba 270–1194, Japan
| | - Rohit Mathur
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Computational Exposure Division, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Christian Hogrefe
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Computational Exposure Division, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences (MEAS), North Carolina State University (NCSU), Campus Box 8208, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
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The Effect of Increasing Surface Albedo on Urban Climate and Air Quality: A Detailed Study for Sacramento, Houston, and Chicago. CLIMATE 2018. [DOI: 10.3390/cli6020019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Zhang Y, Wu SY. Understanding of the Fate of Atmospheric Pollutants Using a Process Analysis Tool in a 3-D Regional Air Quality Model at a Fine Grid Scale. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2013. [DOI: 10.4236/acs.2013.31004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Zhang Y, Karamchandani P, Glotfelty T, Streets DG, Grell G, Nenes A, Yu F, Bennartz R. Development and initial application of the global-through-urban weather research and forecasting model with chemistry (GU-WRF/Chem). ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2012. [DOI: 10.1029/2012jd017966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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