Evaluation of the modal aerosol model GMXe in the chemistry-climate model GEM-AC

We evaluate a modal aerosol model, GMXe, implemented in the atmospheric chemistry-climate model GEM-AC, against global ground-based observations of optical depths and speciated aerosol concentrations. The Global Environmental Multiscale Atmospheric Chemistry model (GEM-AC) is a global, tropospheric-stratospheric chemistry, general circulation model based on the GEM model developed by the Meteorological Service of Canada for operational weather forecasting. Gas-phase chemistry consists in detailed reactions of Ox, NOx, HOx, CO, CH4, NMVOCs, ClOx and BrOx. Tracers are advected using the semi-Lagrangian scheme native to GEM. The vertical transport includes parameterized subgrid scale turbulence and deep convection. Dry deposition is implemented as a flux boundary condition in the vertical diffusion equation. Wet removal comprises both in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging. The Global Modal-aerosol eXtension (GMXe) handles aerosol microphysics and gas-aerosol partitioning. The aerosol size distribution is described by the superposition of 4 hydrophilic and 3 hydrophobic interacting lognormal modes (nucleation, Aitken, accumulation and coarse). Aerosol dynamics includes nucleation, coagulation, and condensation/evaporation. Gas-aerosol partitioning is calculated by the thermodynamic equilibrium model ISORROPIA. The model was run for one year on a 1.5°×1.5° global grid with 73 hybrid levels from the surface to 0.15 hPa. We used aerosol emissions for year 2000 from AeroCom I. The output is compared with aerosol optical depth observations from AERONET, and with measured surface concentrations of sulfate, nitrate and ammonium from CASTNET, EMEP and EANET.