Martijn Schaap

Evaluating 4 years of atmospheric ammonia (NH3) over Europe using IASI satellite observations and LOTOS-EUROS model results

Monitoring ammonia (NH3) concentrations on a global to regional scale is a challenge. Due to the limited availability of reliable ground-based measurements, the determination of NH3 distributions generally relies on model calculations. Novel remotely sensed NH3burdens provide valuable insights to complement traditional assessments for clear-sky conditions. This paper presents a first quantitative comparison between Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite observations and LOTOS-EUROS model results over Europe and Western Russia. A methodology to account for the variable retrieval sensitivity of the measurements is described. Four years of data (2008-2011) highlight three main agricultural hot spot areas in Europe: the Po Valley, the continental part of Northwestern Europe, and the Ebro Valley. The spatial comparison reveals a good overall agreement of the NH3 distributions not only in these source regions but also over remote areas and over sea when transport is observed. On average, the measured columns exceed the modeled ones, except for a few cases. Large discrepancies over several industrial areas in Eastern Europe and Russia point to underestimated emissions in the underlying inventories. The temporal analysis over the three hot spot areas reveals that the seasonality is well captured by the model when the lower sensitivity of the satellite measurements in the colder months is taken into account. Comparison of the daily time series indicates possible misrepresentations of the timing and magnitude of the emissions. Finally, specific attention to biomass burning events shows that modeled plumes are less spread out than the observed ones. This is confirmed for the 2010 Russian fires with a comparison using in situ observations. ©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Curriculum vitae of the LOTOS–EUROS (v2.0) chemistry transport model

The development and application of chemistry transport models has a long tradition. Within the Netherlands the LOTOS–EUROS model has been developed by a consortium of institutes, after combining its independently developed predecessors in 2005. Recently, version 2.0 of the model was released as an open-source version. This paper presents the curriculum vitae of the model system, describing the model’s history, model philosophy, basic features and a validation with EMEP stations for the new benchmark year 2012, and presents cases with the model’s most recent and key developments. By setting the model developments in context and providing an outlook for directions for further development, the paper goes beyond the common model description. With an origin in ozone and sulfur modelling for the models LOTOS and EUROS, the application areas were gradually extended with persistent organic pollutants, reactive nitrogen, and primary and secondary particulate matter. After the combination of the models to LOTOS–EUROS in 2005, the model was further developed to include new source parametrizations (e.g. road resuspension, desert dust, wildfires), applied for operational smog forecasts in the Netherlands and Europe, and has been used for emission scenarios, source apportionment, and long-term hindcast and climate change scenarios. LOTOS–EUROS has been a front-runner in data assimilation of ground-based and satellite observations and has participated in many model intercomparison studies. The model is no longer confined to applications over Europe but is also applied to other regions of the world, e.g. China. The increasing interaction with emission experts has also contributed to the improvement of the model’s performance. The philosophy for model development has always been to use knowledge that is state of the art and proven, to keep a good balance in the level of detail of process description and accuracy of input and output, and to keep a good record on the effect of model changes using benchmarking and validation. The performance of v2.0 with respect to EMEP observations is good, with spatial correlations around 0.8 or higher for concentrations and wet deposition. Temporal correlations are around 0.5 or higher. Recent innovative applications include source apportionment and data assimilation, particle number modelling, and energy transition scenarios including corresponding land use changes as well as Saharan dust forecasting. Future developments would enable more flexibility with respect to model horizontal and vertical resolution and further detailing of model input data. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 4146 A. M. M. Manders et al.: Curriculum vitae of the LOTOS–EUROS (v2.0) chemistry transport model This includes the use of different sources of land use characterization (roughness length and vegetation), detailing of emissions in space and time, and efficient coupling to meteorology from different meteorological models.

Interaction between urban heat island and urban pollution island during summer in Berlin

Urban Heat Island (UHI) and Urban Pollution Island (UPI) are two major problems of the urban environment and have become more serious with rapid urbanization. Since UHI and UPI can interact with each other, these two issues should be studied concurrently for a better urban environment. This study investigated the interaction between the UHI and UPI in Berlin, through a combined analysis of in-situ and remote sensing observations of aerosols and meteorological variables in June, July, and August from 2010 to 2017. The atmospheric UHI (AUHI), surface UHI (SUHI), atmospheric UPI (AUPI), and near-surface UPI (NSUPI) were analyzed. The SUHI and AUPI are represented by the remote sensing land surface temperature (LST) and aerosol optical depth (AOD), and the AUHI and NSUPI are represented by the in-situ air temperature and Particulate Matter (PM10) concentrations. The study area shows spatial consistency between SUHI and AUPI, with higher LST and AOD in the urban areas. UHI strengthens the turbulent dispersion of particles in the urban areas, decreasing the NSUPI. The NSUPI intensity shows a negative relationship with the AUHI intensity, especially at night with a correlation coefficient of -0.31. The increased aerosols in urban atmosphere reduce the incoming solar radiation and increase the atmospheric longwave radiation in the urban areas. The response of the surface to the change of absorbed radiation is strong at night and weak during the day. This study estimates that the SUHI intensity is enhanced by around 12% at clear night by the increased absorbed radiation in the urban areas using an attribution method. The goal of this paper is to strengthen the understanding of the interactive influence between UHI and UPI and provide a basis for designing mitigation strategies of UHI and UPI.

An OSSE for aerosols

An observing system simulation experiment using a chemical transport model in support of the instrument specification definition for an UVS candidate instrument on board METEOSAT Third Generation geostationary satellites.