Evaluation of the size segregation of elemental carbon (EC) emission in Europe: influence on the simulation of EC long-range transportation
Item
Title (Dublin Core)
Evaluation of the size segregation of elemental carbon (EC) emission in Europe: influence on the simulation of EC long-range transportation
Description (Dublin Core)
Elemental Carbon (EC) has a significant impact on human health and climate change. In order to evaluate the size segregation of EC emission in the EUCAARI inventory and investigate its influence on the simulation of EC long-range transportation in Europe, we used the fully coupled online Weather Research and Forecasting/Chemistry model (WRF-Chem) at a resolution of 2 km focusing on a region in Germany, in conjunction with a high-resolution EC emission inventory. The ground meteorology conditions, vertical structure and wind pattern were well reproduced by the model. The simulations of particle number and/or mass size distributions were evaluated with observations at the central European background site Melpitz. The fine mode particle concentration was reasonably well simulated, but the coarse mode was substantially overestimated by the model mainly due to the plume with high EC concentration in coarse mode emitted by a nearby point source. The comparisons between simulated EC and Multi-angle Absorption Photometers (MAAP) measurements at Melpitz, Leipzig-TROPOS and Bösel indicated that the coarse mode EC (ECc) emitted from the nearby point sources might be overestimated by a factor of 2–10. The fraction of ECc was overestimated in the emission inventory by about 10–30 % for Russia and 5–10 % for Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland and Belarus). This incorrect size-dependent EC emission results in a shorter atmospheric life time of EC particles and inhibits the long-range transport of EC. A case study showed that this effect caused an underestimation of 20–40 % in the EC mass concentration in Germany under eastern wind pattern.
Creator (Dublin Core)
Chen, Ying
Cheng, Ya-Fang
Nordmann, Stephan
Birmili, Wolfram
Denier van der Gon, Hugo A. C.
Ma, Nan
Wolke, Ralf
Wehner, Birgit
Sun, Jia
Spindler, Gerald
Mu, Qing
Pöschl, Ulrich
Su, Hang
Wiedensohler, Alfred
Date (Dublin Core)
2018-09-10
Type (Dublin Core)
Text
Format (Dublin Core)
application/pdf
Identifier (Dublin Core)
10.5194/acp-16-1823-2016
https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/16/1823/2016/
Source (Dublin Core)
eISSN: 1680-7324
Language (Dublin Core)
eng
