Regional Air Quality Model Simulations over the Hindu Kush Himalaya Region: Methods and Validation

An Applied Sciences Team, funded by the joint NASA-USAID SERVIR program, has developed a regional air quality model with assimilation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite retrievals into the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem). The assimilation of multi-sensor aerosol optical depth retrievals has shown to improve the model performance in providing operational air quality forecasts to decision makers in the data sparse Hindu Kush Himalaya region where hazardous levels of particulate pollutant concentrations frequently impact major population centers. The final operational model configuration will also include the assimilation of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) retrievals from LEO and GEO satellites. The area of interest covers the SERVIR focus countries of Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Surface air quality monitor data from the OpenAQ platform throughout the SERVIR focus countries along with India have been used to validate the model performance during the highly polluted spring months from March to May 2022. This poster will briefly introduce the operational model, provide descriptions of air pollution episodes during the spring season, and discuss the validation approach and statistics to highlight the overall model performance.