Chemical transport model ozone simulations for spring 2001 over the western Pacific: Comparisons with TRACE‐P lidar, ozonesondes, and Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer columns

Two closely related chemical transport models (CTMs) employing the same high‐resolution meteorological data (∼180 km × ∼180 km × ∼600 m) from the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts are used to simulate the ozone total column and tropospheric distribution over the western Pacific region that was explored by the NASA Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE‐P) measurement campaign in February–April 2001. We make extensive comparisons with ozone measurements from the lidar instrument on the NASA DC‐8, with ozonesondes taken during the period around the Pacific Rim, and with TOMS total column ozone. These demonstrate that within the uncertainties of the meteorological data and the constraints of model resolution, the two CTMs (FRSGC/UCI and Oslo CTM2) can simulate the observed tropospheric ozone and do particularly well when realistic stratospheric ozone photochemistry is included. The greatest differences between the models and observations occur in the polluted boundary layer, where problems related to the simplified chemical mechanism and inadequate horizontal resolution are likely to have caused the net overestimation of about 10 ppb mole fraction. In the upper troposphere, the large variability driven by stratospheric intrusions makes agreement very sensitive to the timing of meteorological features.