Sensitivity of the of WRF-Chem physics in the simulation of biomass burning smoke over the South Atlantic Ocean
Abstract
Biomass burning (BB) emits several trace gases and particles to the atmosphere each year. Those particles interacts with the solar radiation affecting the energy balance of the Earth. In addition, aerosol particles can act as cloud condensation nuclei and affect the precipitation processes. Southern Africa BB activity produces the 37% of the global carbon emissions and their impacts can be extrapolated to the regional and global scales. In this study, we used the WRF-Chem model (with its default physics) and the WRF-Chem with CAM5 physics scheme to simulate the fire emissions and smoke over Southern Africa and the South Atlantic Ocean during August and September 2017. The simulations were assessed using satellite data of aerosol optical depth, AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) in-situ measurements and airborne data of trace gases and aerosols from the ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) campaign. Preliminary results show that the CAM5 physics scheme reproduces the transport of the BB emissions better than the default WRF-Chem physics.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFM.A11C1905F
- Keywords:
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- 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 3311 Clouds and aerosols;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3355 Regional modeling;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3360 Remote sensing;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES