Modeling the impact of bay breeze circulations on nitrogen deposition

Atmospheric gases and aerosols are deposited into watersheds and estuarine waters contributing to water quality degradation and affecting estuarine and coastal biogeochemical processes. Pollution that is deposited onto land can be transported into storm drains, groundwater, streams, and rivers where it is eventually transported into near-shore waters. Air quality models, which simulate the chemical transformation, atmospheric transport, and deposition of pollutants onto land and surface waters, can play an integral role in forecasting water quality, preparing water quality regulations and providing information on the sources of nutrients and pollutants for advanced estuarine biogeochemical models. Previous studies have found that Chesapeake Bay breezes cause localized areas of high air pollution concentrations and that model simulations with horizontal resolutions coarser than about 5 km are not able to capture bay breeze circulations. Here, we investigate the importance of capturing bay breeze circulations with high resolution model simulations (horizontal resolution of 1.33 km) to accurately simulate the spatial and temporal variability of nitrogen deposition into the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Nitrogen deposition into the watershed from air quality model simulations are compared with observed wet deposition and estimated dry deposition rates from the National Acid Deposition Program (NADP) and the Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNET), respectively. The model simulation is conducted for the months of June and July 2011. Two concurrent air and water quality field campaigns, DISCOVER-AQ (Deriving Information on Surface Conditions from Column and Vertically Resolved Observations Relevant to Air Quality) and GeoCAPE-CBODAQ (Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events-Chesapeake Bay Oceanographic Campaign with DISCOVER-AQ), were conducted in July 2011, and data obtained from these field experiments are used to evaluate the model simulations.