Diurnal variability of aerosols seen from emission inventory, model simulation, and ground-based observations

We estimate the diurnal variability of emissions of atmospheric aerosols and their related precursors in North America during the summer time. The anthropogenic emission inventories are from the hourly WRF-Chem database which is based on the EPA NEI 2005 inventory and CMAQ database which is based on the Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE) modeling system results. The biomass burning inventory is based on hourly NOAA GOES biomass burning emission product (GBBEP). We then use the regional and global CTMs to establish the relation between emissions and particulate matter (PM2.5) surface concentration, and estimate the magnitude of diurnal cycle of aerosols and compare them with EPA ground observations at both urban and rural sites. We calculate the correlation of diurnal cycle between AERONET column AOT (aerosol optical thickness) and co-located EPA PM2.5 surface mixing ratio observations, as well as correlation between model simulated AOT and surface mixing ratio. Those analyses will help to estimate the surface aerosol variability we can possibly derive from the high temporal resolution geostationary column aerosol observations.