Regional modeling of the land/ocean-atmosphere interaction using WRF-Chem: implementation of high resolution surface emission

RAFAEL PEDRO FERNÁNDEZ; PABLO G. CREMADES; DAVID G. ALLENDE; S. ENRIQUE PULIAFITO; J. RUBÉN SANTOS

Natal

Simposio; 13th Quadrennial ICACGP Symposium & 13th IGAC Science Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC-ICACGP-2014); 2014

International Comission on Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution (ICACGP)

The regional modeling of the atmospheric chemistry is nowadays an important tool for the geoscientific community. Its applications expands over a broad field of studies, ranging from addressing the dispersion of pollutants plumes in the surroundings of urban centers to studying the physicochemical basis of the interaction between chemical species and the production of natural and anthropogenic aerosols. WRF-Chem is a powerful computational tool developed to perform these types of studies, with a strong focus on the climatic feedbacks resulting from the coupling of the meteorology and the chemistry. WRF-Chem efficiency relies on a proper configuration of the specific region to study, the correct selection of the physical and chemical parameterizations for each case, and the implementation of consistent boundary conditions and input databases. As an operative tool, only a few modeling studies using WRF-Chem have been performed in the South American continent, mainly due to the lacking of comprehensive andcooperative geophysical databases with high temporal and geographical resolution.Here we present the guidelines to build highly resolved surface emissions databases suitable for local and regional scale simulations with WRF-Chem with different applications. The article presents, a bottom-up methodology to prepare a high-resolution mobile emissions inventory for the city of Mendoza (Argentina), which has been used for regional air quality modeling studies in a topographically complex region. In addition, we have adapted a satellite based oceanic emissions inventory of very-short lived (VSLs) halocarbons with an increased coast-to-ocean ratio, oriented to the studyof the halogen impact on the oxidation capacity of the marine troposphere and ozone depletion.The methodologies used for the implementation of the current emissions into WRF-Chem are described, and the geographical distributions of the surface fluxes are given. Also, a comprehensive analysis of the most important concepts and module parameterizations to consider when studying the surface-atmosphere interaction is given.