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Contribution of Saharan dust in an integrated air quality system and its on‐line assessment
Author(s) -
JiménezGuerrero Pedro,
Pérez Carlos,
Jorba Oriol,
Baldasano José M.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2007gl031580
Subject(s) - cmaq , environmental science , mm5 , meteorology , categorical variable , air quality index , climatology , land cover , forcing (mathematics) , mesoscale meteorology , atmospheric sciences , statistics , geography , mathematics , geology , land use , civil engineering , engineering
Nowadays none of the operational daily forecasts in Europe includes the influence of Saharan dust on a non‐climatic basis. In order to account for this, the BSC‐CNS currently operates daily photochemical forecasts in the Iberian Peninsula with MM5‐EMEP‐CMAQ modelling system and Saharan dust forecasts over Southern Europe with Eta/DREAM. The necessity of coupling both modelling systems is addressed by the study of a long summer episode combining regional re‐circulations and Saharan dust covering from June 19 to July 12, 2006. As a first approach, the natural dust contribution from Eta/DREAM is added on‐line to the anthropogenic output of CMAQ. The performance of the model has been quantitatively evaluated with discrete and categorical (skill scores) statistics by a fully operational on‐line comparison of the first‐layer simulations results of CMAQ and CMAQ+DREAM and the values measured in two different stations located in the Mediterranean part of the domain. The results indicate a remarkable improvement in the discrete and skill‐scores evaluation (accuracy, critical success index and probability of detection) of PM10 exceedances set in regulations when using CMAQ+DREAM compared to CMAQ‐ or DREAM‐alone simulations.