A review of operational, regional-scale, chemical weather forecasting models in Europe

Abstract

Abstract. Numerical models that combine weather forecasting and atmospheric chemistry are here referred to as chemical weather forecasting models. Eighteen operational chemical weather forecasting models on regional and continental scales in Europe are described and compared in this article. Topics discussed in this article include how weather forecasting and atmospheric chemistry models are integrated into chemical weather forecasting systems, how physical processes are incorporated into the models through parameterization schemes, how the model architecture affects the predicted variables, and how air chemistry and aerosol processes are formulated. In addition, we discuss sensitivity analysis and evaluation of the models, user operational requirements, such as model availability and documentation, and output availability and dissemination. In this manner, this article allows for the evaluation of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various modelling systems and modelling approaches. Finally, this article highlights the most prominent gaps of knowledge for chemical weather forecasting models and suggests potential priorities for future research Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. J. Kukkonen et al.: A review of operational, regional-scale, chemical weather forecasting models in Europedirections, for the following selected focus areas: emission inventories, the integration of numerical weather prediction and atmospheric chemical transport models, boundary conditions and nesting of models, data assimilation of the various chemical species, improved understanding and parameterization of physical processes, better evaluation of models against data and the construction of model ensembles.

MACC regional multi-model ensemble simulations of birch pollen dispersion in Europe

“…-SILAM (http://silam.fmi.fi) is a meso-to-global-scale dispersion model (Sofiev et al, 2008; see also the review by Kukkonen et al, 2012). The Eulerian advection-diffusion core used in this study is based on the algorithms of Galperin (2000) and Sofiev (2002).…”

Application of WRF-Chem to forecasting PM<SUB align="right">10 concentration over Poland

“…This reduces inconsistencies in processes that relate to aerosols, chemistry and meteorology (Baklanov et al, 2014). It also enables feedback effects from air pollution (e.g., those due to aerosol) on meteorological processes (Kukkonen et al, 2012;Forkel et al, 2012). A recent review has highlighted a number of important areas to focus on in relation to online modelling (Baklanov et al, 2014).…”

“…Usually, the meteorology for these models is available at a 1 h, 3 h or 6 h resolution. The online integration of numerical weather prediction with atmospheric chemistry, transformation and transport allows all meteorological three-dimensional fields to be used at each time step (Kukkonen et al, 2012), varying from seconds to a few minutes. This reduces inconsistencies in processes that relate to aerosols, chemistry and meteorology (Baklanov et al, 2014).…”

Development towards a global operational aerosol consensus: basic climatological characteristics of the International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction Multi-Model Ensemble (ICAP-MME)

“…Aerosol modeling, once purely the domain of regional air quality and climate models, has seen recent rapid development at traditional numerical weather prediction (NWP) centers (e.g., Tanaka et al, 2003;Morcrette et al, 2009;Westphal et al, 2009;Kukkonen et al, 2012). Applications are numerous, and include corrections for radiance assimilation systems for the NWP modeling systems themselves (Wang and Niu, 2013;Weaver et al, 2007).…”