Evaluation of a newly developed below-cloud scavenging scheme of regional aerosol simulations: its implication for aerosol budget over East Asia

Wet scavenging is the most important process for the aerosol removal. It is divided into in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging processes. Although the below-cloud scavenging is less efficient than the in-cloud scavenging, it is important for the removal of coarse and very fine particles from the polluted boundary layer. Important factors determining the efficiency of below-cloud scavenging process by rain droplets are collision efficiency, terminal velocity of a raindrop, raindrop size distributions, and particle size distributions. Complex 3-D models of atmospheric aerosols, however, in general neglect those factors and use a simple parameterization for the below-cloud scavenging in the form of either constant or first-order equations. For example, a Model Inter-Comparison Study for Asia (MICS-Asia) II showed a large range of simulated wet deposition fluxes depending on wet deposition parameterizations of participating models despite of the use of similar meteorological fields. A mechanistic scheme incorporating important factors above to be easily implemented in existing 3-D models is necessary for a better below-cloud scavenging simulation. In this study we test and evaluate a new scheme of the below-cloud scavenging process with Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, accounting for the relationship between the raindrop size distribution and rain intensity along with realistic consideration of other important factors. We conducted regional simulations of CMAQ with the new scheme in East Asia and compared results with other models in MICS-Asia II. We also evaluate the improved CMAQ model by comparing with observations from the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE-P) and the Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-Asia) aircraft campaigns in spring 2001. Improved wet deposition simulations of aerosols result in a better understanding on aerosol budget and its climatic implication over East Asia.