Open AccessA modeling study of tropospheric species during the North Atlantic Regional Experiment (NARE)
Author(s) -
Lin X.,
Trainer M.,
Hsie E.Y.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/98jd00285
Subject(s) - troposphere , stratosphere , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , mixing ratio , climate model , climatology , intrusion , scale (ratio) , meteorology , geology , climate change , physics , oceanography , geochemistry , quantum mechanics
A three‐dimensional regional chemistry model is used to simulate distributions of a number of tropospheric species over eastern North America and the western North Atlantic for August of 1993. The model is tested by comparisons of the results with observations obtained at two ground stations in Nova Scotia, Canada, and on board two aircraft. The modeled mixing ratios of CO and O 3 as well as the ratio of ΔO 3 /ΔCO at the two ground sites are in satisfactory agreement with the observations. More than 90% of the aircraft‐observed O 3 and CO and 75% of NO y can be reproduced by the model with relative differences less than 50 and 100%, respectively. The model‐simulated correlations among O 3 , CO, and NO y are close to the aircraft observations. Most of the model‐calculated vertical distributions of these species have the same pattern as the observations. The calculated profiles coincide with the observations with mean discrepancies of about 25, 30, and 100% for O 3 , CO, and NO y , respectively. The model‐calculated wind speeds are in good agreement with the observations. Continental plumes within the model may be spatially off by a few hundred kilometers or temporally off by several hours. Possible inaccuracy in side boundary conditions and some difficulties in capturing small scale processes like small scale intrusion from the stratosphere and subgrid scale convective mixing are possible explanations for discrepancies between chemical data and model results.