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Regional Air Quality Modeling with WRF-Chem

Ambient air pollution, including elevated concentrations of atmospheric particles (aerosols), is estimated to cause more than 4 million premature deaths worldwide per year, with almost 90% of these deaths occurring in developing countries. Atmospheric particles also play a significant role in changing the Earth’s climate by directly interacting with solar radiation and by changing clouds properties. However processes responsible for dictating their formation in the atmosphere and their climatic impacts are still poorly understood. In this group we investigate major sources of uncertainties in aerosol processes by performing multi-scale simulations of atmospheric and aerosol processes and by combining them with ground-based and remote sensing observations.

By exploiting the latest advances in High Performance Computing we investigate model sensitivity on the spatial resolution applied and on different physical/chemical parameterizations. These investigations allow us to improve our understating of aerosols role in dictating the current and future climate.

Examples of High Resolution Regional Modeling with WRF-Chem

Relevant Publications:

  1. Jin, Q., Crippa, P., and Pryor, S.C. (2020), Spatial characteristics and temporal evolution of the relationship between PM2.5 and aerosol optical depth over the eastern USA during 2003–2017, Atmospheric Environment, 117718, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117718.
  2. Giani P., Anav A., De Marco A., Zhaozhong F. and Crippa, P. (2020): Exploring sources of uncertainty in premature mortality estimates from fine particulate matter: the case of China, Environmental Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7f0f
  3. Crippa, P., Sullivan, R.C., Thota, A., Pryor, S.C. (2019): Sensitivity of simulated aerosol properties over eastern North America to WRF-Chem parameterizations, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029900.
  4. Crippa, P., Sullivan, R.C., Thota, A., Pryor, S.C. (2016), The impact of resolution on meteorological, chemical and aerosol properties in regional simulations with WRF-Chem, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17, 1511-1528, doi:10.5194/acp-2016-453. Link
  5. Crippa, P., Sullivan, R.C., Thota, A., Pryor, S.C. (2016), Evaluating the skill of high-resolution WRFChem simulations in describing drivers of aerosol direct climate forcing on the regional scale, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 16, 397-416, doi:10.5194/acp-16-397-2016. Link