Objective

1
WRF-Chem simulations of aerosols and
anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing in East
Asia

• Objective
• To provide a first comprehensive evaluation of
  WRF-Chem for modeling aerosols over East Asia
• To estimate the anthropogenic aerosol radiative
  forcing using WRF-Chem
• Approach
• The widely-used meteorology-chemistry model
  (WRF-Chem) was used to simulate the seasonal
  variation and transport of aerosols in East Asia.
• Model simulations were compared with observations
  in East Asia. Anthropogenic aerosol radiative
  forcings (RF) were estimated.
• Impact
• Anthropogenic aerosol RF is estimated to range
  from -5 to -20 W m-2 over land and -20 to -40 W
  m-2 over adjacent oceans at the top of atmosphere
  (compared to CO2 forcing of 1.6 W m-2).
• The actual aerosol RF can be stronger due to
  underestimation of aerosol concentrations

(b)
(a)
(c)
(d)
Comparisons of simulated aerosol concentrations
of (a) SO42-, (b) NO3-, (c) NH4, (d) BC and (e)
OC with observations over mainland China. Model
underestimates SO42 and OC concentrations by a
factor of 2.
(e)
Gao, Y., C. Zhao, X. Liu, M. Zhang, L.-R. Leung,
2014. WRF-Chem simulations of aerosols and
anthropogenic aerosol radiative forcing in East
Asia. Atmospheric Environment 92 250-266.  doi
10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.04.038