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Li J, Wang Y, Zhang R, Smeltzer C, Weinheimer A, Herman J, Boersma KF, Celarier EA, Long RW, Szykman JJ, Delgado R, Thompson AM, Knepp TN, Lamsal LN, Janz SJ, Kowalewski MG, Liu X, Nowlan CR. Comprehensive evaluations of diurnal NO 2 measurements during DISCOVER-AQ 2011: effects of resolution-dependent representation of NO x emissions. ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 2021; 21:11133-11160. [PMID: 35949546 PMCID: PMC9359208 DOI: 10.5194/acp-21-11133-2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Nitrogen oxides (NO x =NO+NO2) play a crucial role in the formation of ozone and secondary inorganic and organic aerosols, thus affecting human health, global radiation budget, and climate. The diurnal and spatial variations in NO2 are functions of emissions, advection, deposition, vertical mixing, and chemistry. Their observations, therefore, provide useful constraints in our understanding of these factors. We employ a Regional chEmical and trAnsport model (REAM) to analyze the observed temporal (diurnal cycles) and spatial distributions of NO2 concentrations and tropospheric vertical column densities (TVCDs) using aircraft in situ measurements and surface EPA Air Quality System (AQS) observations as well as the measurements of TVCDs by satellite instruments (OMI: the Ozone Monitoring Instrument; GOME-2A: Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment - 2A), ground-based Pandora, and the Airborne Compact Atmospheric Mapper (ACAM) instrument in July 2011 during the DISCOVER-AQ campaign over the Baltimore-Washington region. The model simulations at 36 and 4 km resolutions are in reasonably good agreement with the regional mean temporospatial NO2 observations in the daytime. However, we find significant overestimations (underestimations) of model-simulated NO2 (O3) surface concentrations during night-time, which can be mitigated by enhancing nocturnal vertical mixing in the model. Another discrepancy is that Pandora-measured NO2 TVCDs show much less variation in the late afternoon than simulated in the model. The higher-resolution 4 km simulations tend to show larger biases compared to the observations due largely to the larger spatial variations in NO x emissions in the model when the model spatial resolution is increased from 36 to 4 km. OMI, GOME-2A, and the high-resolution aircraft ACAM observations show a more dispersed distribution of NO2 vertical column densities (VCDs) and lower VCDs in urban regions than corresponding 36 and 4 km model simulations, likely reflecting the spatial distribution bias of NO x emissions in the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) 2011.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianfeng Li
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Yuhang Wang
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Ruixiong Zhang
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Charles Smeltzer
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | | | - Jay Herman
- Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of
Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - K. Folkert Boersma
- Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, the
Netherlands
- Meteorology and Air Quality Group, Wageningen University,
Wageningen, the Netherlands
| | - Edward A. Celarier
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
- Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD,
USA
| | - Russell W. Long
- National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research
and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC,
USA
| | - James J. Szykman
- National Exposure Research Laboratory, Office of Research
and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC,
USA
| | - Ruben Delgado
- Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, University of
Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | | | - Travis N. Knepp
- NASA Langley Research Center, Virginia, USA
- Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, VA,
USA
| | - Lok N. Lamsal
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
| | - Scott J. Janz
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
| | | | - Xiong Liu
- Atomic and Molecular Physics Division,
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Caroline R. Nowlan
- Atomic and Molecular Physics Division,
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
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