Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model Intercomparison and Evaluation Utilizing Measurements from Controlled Tracer Release Experiments
Abstract
The accuracy of greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes estimated using inverse methods is highly dependent on the fidelity of the atmospheric transport model employed. Lagrangian particle dispersion models (LPDMs) driven by customized meteorological output from mesoscale models have emerged as a powerful tool in inverse GHG estimates at policy-relevant regional and urban scales, for several reasons: 1) Mesoscale meteorology can be available at higher resolution than in most global models, and therefore has the potential to be more realistic, 2) the Lagrangian approach minimizes numerical diffusion present in Eulerian models and is thus better able to represent transport in the near-field of measurement locations, and 3) the Lagrangian approach offers an efficient way to compute the grid-scale adjoint of the transport model ("footprints") by running transport backwards in time. Motivated by these considerations, we intercompare three widely used LPDMs (HYSPLIT, STILT, and FLEXPART) driven by identical meteorological input from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model against measurements from the controlled tracer release experiments (ready-testbed.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT_datem.php). Our analysis includes statistical assessments of each LPDM in terms of its ability to simulate the observed tracer concentrations, reversibility, and sensitivity to the WRF configuration, particularly with regard to the simulation of the planetary boundary layer.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.A53A0130H
- Keywords:
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- 0368 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry