High-resolution air quality modeling in a medium-sized city in the tropical Andes: Assessment of local and global emissions in understanding ozone and PM10 dynamics

González, C.; Ynoue, Rita Yuri; Vara-Vela, Angel; Rojas, Néstor Y.; Aristizábal, Beatriz Helena

doi:10.1016/j.apr.2018.03.003

Cited by 44 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Another noticeable outcome of this research is that biogenic and biomass burning emissions are ∼6 to 10 times smaller compared to lightning and anthropogenic emissions while other studies suggest that they would be of comparable magnitude in the tropics (Bond et al, 2002;Holland et al, 1999). Since all the emission inventories have been performing well in similar or larger scale studies (Ghude et al, 2013;González et al, 2018;Jiang et al, 2012;Zhong et al, 2016) we can not draw strong conclusions regarding a misrepresentation of the biogenic and biomass burning emissions as they also heavily depend https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2019-781 Preprint. Discussion started: 4 November 2019 c Author(s) 2019.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…In Colombia, where economy is thriving after a period of civil war (Vargas et al, 2015), further industrialization and intensified agriculture have already resulted in-and are expected to further increase-NO x emissions (Ganzeveld et al, 2010). Previously, Grajales and Baquero-Bernal (2014) aimed to assess the air quality of Colombia with a relatively coarse (2.5 • x2.0 • ) 3D global model (GEOS-Chem), whereas other studies focused mostly on air pollution of other compounds in cities using local emission inventories (Zárate et al, 2007;Kumar et al, 2016;González et al, 2018). Currently, there is a lack of understanding of the baseline state of air quality in Colombia on regional scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nowadays, these models can be run for a large range of temporal and spatial scales. Not only the models, but also global emission inventories have considerably improved in spatial resolution during the last decades (González et al, 2018). Even though they may not provide enough spatial detail and heterogeneity for local scale (< 1 km) studies, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this study, rather than using high resolution urban emission inventories (e.g. González et al, 2018), we will demonstrate the importance of boundary layer mixing and advection in the comparison of simulated and observed in situ measurements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The model outcomes will be compared to in situ measurements and satellite retrievals to address the performance of the model both at the surface and integrated over the troposphere. This evaluation of surface and total column -using a highly resolving coupled meteorology-air quality model including the identification of different NO x sources-seeks to fill the gaps between local scale (González et al, 2018;Zárate et al, 2007;Kumar et al, 2016) and larger scale studies (Grajales and Baquero-Bernal, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation of nitrogen oxides sources and sinks and ozone production in Colombia and surrounding areas

Barten¹,

Ganzeveld²,

Visser³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. In Colombia, industrialization and a shift towards intensified agriculture have led to increased emissions of air pollutants. However, the baseline state of air quality in Colombia is relatively unknown. In this study we aim to assess the baseline state of air quality in Colombia with a focus on the spatial and temporal variability in emissions and atmospheric burden of nitrogen oxides (NOx&#8201;=&#8201;NO&#8201;+&#8201;NO2) and evaluate surface NOx, ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratios. We quantify the magnitude and spatial distribution of the four major NOx sources (lightning, anthropogenic activities, soil biogenic emissions and biomass burning), by integrating global NOx emission inventories into the mesoscale meteorology and atmospheric chemistry model WRF-Chem. The comparison with in situ measurements is bound to urban areas whereas the use of remote sensing data allows to also evaluate air quality in remote regions. WRF-Chem was set up for a domain centered over Colombia with a similar resolution as OMI observed NO2 vertical columns as well as the EDGAR anthropogenic emission inventory, both providing information on a ~20&#8201;km resolution. However, this apparently poses a challenge regarding comparison with these urban observations. Air mass factors were recalculated based on the vertical distribution of NO2 within WRF-Chem, with respect to the coarse (1&#176;&#8201;x&#8201;1&#176;) a priori profiles. The main reason for recalculation is a more consistent satellite-model comparison but it also reduced the mean bias. WRF-Chem was, on average, able to provide good estimates for tropospheric NO2 columns with an averaged difference of 0.02&#8201;x&#8201;1015&#8201;molecules&#8201;cm-2, which is <&#8201;5&#8201;% of the mean column. However, the simulated NO2 columns are overestimated in regions with abundant modeled lightning emissions and underestimated in regions where biomass burning emissions dominate in the model. This result reflects the high contribution by lightning emissions (1258&#8201;Gg&#8201;N&#8201;yr-1) and the low contribution by biomass burning emissions (104&#8201;Gg&#8201;N&#8201;yr-1) to total NOx emissions within the WRF-Chem domain. WRF-Chem was unable to capture NOx and CO urban pollutant mixing ratios, both in timing and magnitude. Yet, WRF-Chem was able to simulate the urban diurnal cycle of O3 satisfactory but with a systematic overestimation of 10&#8201;ppb due to the equally large underestimation of NO mixing ratios and, consequently, titration. This indicates that these city environments are in the NOx saturated regime with frequent O3 titration. We also applied an online meteorology-chemistry single column model (SCM) to evaluate how enhanced emissions and different representation of advection and mixing conditions could explain an improved representation of the observed O3 and NOx diurnal cycles. The SCM appears to indeed better represent the observed diurnal cycle of urban pollutant mixing ratios. But, interestingly, this result did not require an enhancement in the emissions, indicating that the role of boundary layer dynamics and advection should be considered besides the use of high-resolution models and emissions inventories to realistically simulate urban air quality. Results obtained in this study provide insight in the magnitude, distribution and temporal evolution of different sources of pollution in Colombia and its surrounding territories. This study not only identifies different source regions, but also shows the interannual variability of these sources during the last one and a half decade using satellite data. Furthermore, this study shows that relatively coarse anthropogenic emission inventories can give reasonable results regarding the diurnal cycle of urban pollutant mixing ratios with a careful consideration of advection and mixing conditions. It serves as a base to assess scenarios of future air quality in Colombia, or similar regions with distinct contrasting emission regimes and a limited air quality monitoring network, as a function of further industrialization and land use changes.

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