Simulation of fine organic aerosols in the western Mediterranean
area during the ChArMEx 2013 summer campaign

Cholakian, Arineh; Beekmann, Matthias; Colette, Augustin; Coll, Isabelle; Siour, Guillaume; Sciare, Jean; Marchand, Nicolas; Couvidat, Florian; Pey, Jorge; Gros, Valérie; Sauvage, S.; Michoud, Vincent; Sellegri, Karine; Colomb, A.; Sartelet, Karine; DeWitt, H. Langley; Elser, Miriam; Prévôt, A. S. H.; Szidat, Sönke; Dulac, François

doi:10.5194/acp-2017-697

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…The model performances presented above compare well to other studies (Kim et al, 2013;Cholakian et al, 2017). In this study, for ECMWF and WRF-Lon-Lat during the summers of 2012 and 2013, RMSE ranges between 1.5 K and 3.2 K for for wind speed, and between 58…”

supporting

confidence: 86%

“…Over the Mediterranean region, uncertainties due to meteorology and transport may strongly impact pollutant concentrations, because the basin is influenced by pollution transported from different regions, 25 such as dust from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco as well as both biogenic and anthropogenic species from Europe Denjean et al, 2016). Chrit et al (2017) and Cholakian et al (2017) showed that although organic aerosol concentrations at a remote marine site of the western Mediterranean are mostly of biogenic origin, they are strongly influenced by air-masses transported from the continent and by maritime shipping emissions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At Ersa, for the summer 2013 (not exacly the same period), Cholakian et al (2017) found RMSE between 1.5 K and 2.3 K for temperature, for wind speed, and between 92…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

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Aerosol sources in the western Mediterranean during summertime: A model-based approach

Chrit¹,

Sartelet²,

Sciare³

et al. 2018

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Abstract.In the framework of ChArMEx (the Chemistry-Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment), the air-quality model Polyphemus is used to understand the sources of inorganic and organic particles in the western Mediterranean and to evaluate the uncertainties linked to the model parameters (meteorological fields, anthropogenic and sea-salt emissions, hypotheses related to the model representation of condensation/evaporation). The model is evaluated by comparisons to in-situ aerosol measurements 5 performed during three consecutive summers (2012, 2013 and 2014). The model-to-measurement comparisons concern the concentrations of PM 10 , PM 1 , Organic Matter in PM 1 (OM P M1 ) and inorganic aerosol concentrations monitored at a remote site (Ersa) in Corsica Island, as well as during airborne measurements performed above the western Mediterranean Sea. Organic particles are mostly from biogenic origin. The model parameterization of sea-salt emissions has shown to strongly influence the concentrations of all particulate species (PM 10 , PM 1 , OM P M1 and inorganic concentrations). Although the emission of 10 organic matter by the sea has shown to be low, organic concentrations are influenced by sea-salt emissions, because they provide a mass onto which gaseous hydrophilic organic compound can condense. PM 10 , PM 1 , OM P M1 are also very sensitive to meteorology, because it affects not only the transport of pollutants, but also natural emissions (biogenic and sea salt). To avoid large and unrealistic sea-salt concentrations, a parameterization with an adequate wind-speed power law is chosen. Sulfate is shown to be strongly influenced by anthropogenic (ship) emissions. PM 10 , PM 1 , OM 1 and sulfate concentrations are better 15 described using the emission inventory with the best spatial description of ships emissions (EDGAR-HTAP). However, this is not true for nitrate, ammonium and chloride concentrations, which are very dependent on the hypotheses used in the model for condensation/evaporation. Model simulations show that sea-salt aerosols above the sea are not mixed with background transported aerosols. Taking into account the mixing state of particles with a dynamic approach of condensation/evaporation may be necessary to accurately represent inorganic aerosol concentrations.

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supporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aerosol sources in the western Mediterranean during summertime: A model-based approach

Chrit¹,

Sartelet²,

Sciare³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…The central coordinates of this cell at which concentrations are computed are 42 • 52 N, 9 • 22 30 E, which is very close to the station and with a similar altitude above sea level (494 m). Cholakian et al (2017) studied the difficulty to correctly represent in a model the orography of Ersa site, which is a cape at the northern edge of Corsica. They concluded that the representativeness error is about 10 % for organic aerosols.…”

Section: Measured Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both the mechanistic and empirical approaches are scientifically valid and complementary; as shown by Kim et al (2011a), the most important aspect of an SOA model is its comprehensiveness in terms of the precursors and processes being treated (completeness of the precursor VOC list, importance of low-NO x vs. high-NO x regimes, treatment of hydrophilic properties of the surrogates) rather than its fundamental design. Cholakian et al (2017) study how the VBS approach can be used to represent the formation of SOA over the western Mediterranean and point out the importance of taking into account fragmentation and formation of nonvolatile SOA in this framework.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling organic aerosol concentrations and properties during ChArMEx summer campaigns of 2012 and 2013 in the western Mediterranean region

et al. 2017

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Abstract. In the framework of the Chemistry-Aerosol Mediterranean Experiment, a measurement site was set up at a remote site (Ersa) on Corsica Island in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Measurement campaigns performed during the summers of 2012 and 2013 showed high organic aerosol concentrations, mostly from biogenic origin. This work aims to represent the organic aerosol concentrations and properties (oxidation state and hydrophilicity) using the air-quality model Polyphemus with a surrogate approach for secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. Biogenic precursors are isoprene, monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. In this work, the following model oxidation products of monoterpenes are added: (i) a carboxylic acid (MBTCA) to represent multi-generation oxidation products in the low-NO x regime, (ii) organic nitrate chemistry and (iii) extremely low-volatility organic compounds (ELVOCs) formed by ozonolysis. The model shows good agreement of measurements of organic concentrations for both 2012 and 2013 summer campaigns. The modelled oxidation property and hydrophilic organic carbon properties of the organic aerosols also agree reasonably well with the measurements. The influence of the different chemical processes added to the model on the oxidation level of organics is studied. Measured and simulated water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) concentrations show that even at a remote site next to the sea, about 64 % of the organic carbon is soluble. The concentrations of WSOC vary with the origins of the air masses and the composition of organic aerosols. The marine organic emissions only contribute to a few percent of the organic mass in PM 1 , with maxima above the sea.

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Modeling organic aerosol concentrations and properties during winter 2014 in the northwestern Mediterranean region

Chrit¹,

Sartelet²,

Sciare³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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are slightly under-estimated with most parameterizations, but they are slightly over-estimated when the ageing of NTVOC is taken into account. The volatility distribution at emissions influences more strongly the concentrations than the choice of the parameterization that may be used for ageing (single-step oxidation vs multi-step oxidation), stressing the importance of an accurate characterization of emissions. Assuming the volatility distribution of sectors other than residential heating to be the same as residential heating may lead to a strong under-estimation of organic concentrations. The observed organic oxidation 15 and oxygenation states are strongly under-estimated in all simulations, even when a recently developed parameterization for modeling the ageing of I/S-VOC from residential heating is used. This suggests that uncertainties in the ageing of I/S-VOC emissions remain to be elucidated, with a potential role of organic nitrate from anthropogenic precursors and highly oxygenated organic molecules.

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Simulation of fine organic aerosols in the western Mediterranean area during the ChArMEx 2013 summer campaign

Cited by 4 publications

References 51 publications

Aerosol sources in the western Mediterranean during summertime: A model-based approach

Aerosol sources in the western Mediterranean during summertime: A model-based approach

Modelling organic aerosol concentrations and properties during ChArMEx summer campaigns of 2012 and 2013 in the western Mediterranean region

Modeling organic aerosol concentrations and properties during winter 2014 in the northwestern Mediterranean region

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