the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Parameterization of Size of Organic and Secondary Inorganic Aerosol for Efficient Representation of Global Aerosol Optical Properties
Abstract. Accurate representation of aerosol optical properties is essential for modeling and remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols. Although aerosol optical properties are strongly dependent upon the aerosol size distribution, use of detailed aerosol microphysics schemes in global atmospheric models is inhibited by associated computational demands. Computationally efficient parameterizations for aerosol size are needed. In this study, airborne measurements over the United States (DISCOVER-AQ) and South Korea (KORUS-AQ) are interpreted with a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) to investigate the variation in aerosol size when organic matter (OM) and sulfate-nitrate-ammonium (SNA) are the dominant aerosol components. The airborne measurements exhibit a strong correlation (r = 0.83) between dry aerosol size and the sum of OM and SNA mass concentration (MSNAOM). A global microphysical simulation (GEOS-Chem-TOMAS) indicates that MSNAOM, and the ratio between the two components are the major indicators for SNA and OM dry aerosol size. A parameterization of dry effective radius (Reff) for SNA and OM aerosol is proposed, which well represents the airborne measurements (R2 = 0.74, slope = 1.00) and the GEOS-Chem-TOMAS simulation (R2 = 0.72, slope = 0.81). When applied in the GEOS-Chem high-performance model, this parameterization improves the agreement between the simulated aerosol optical depth (AOD) and the ground-measured AOD from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET; R2 from 0.68 to 0.73, slope from 0.75 to 0.96). Thus, this parameterization offers a computationally efficient method to represent aerosol size dynamically.
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Notice on discussion status
The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.
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Preprint
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The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.
- Preprint
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Journal article(s) based on this preprint
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1292', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Jan 2023
The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2022/egusphere-2022-1292/egusphere-2022-1292-RC1-supplement.pdf
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1292', Anonymous Referee #2, 01 Mar 2023
Here the authors present work on the use of observations and global size-resolved model output to parameterize and improve representation of particle dry effective radius in bulk aerosol simulations. Data from two airborne campaigns is used to fit Reff to two chosen predictive covariates: total mass of SNA and OM particulates, and OM/SNA ratio. On the whole I find this work to be an interesting, well-composed, and valuable contribution to the aerosol modeling literature, and have only a few concerns and questions for the authors before publication.
- While the bulk modeling is done on a relatively high resolution cubed-sphere grid, much of the parameterization relies on output from a much coarser 4x5 TOMAS simulation. While I recognize the computational time limitations inherent to high resolution global simulations, I'm a little concerned that important features may be completely washed out in such coarse output. It would be helpful to see a comparison between key metrics for the 4x5 run and a higher resolution alternative, even if just for a selected month or two.
- I don't see any mention of spinup time preceding analyzed model output. Please include this modeling detail in section 2.2.
- One part of the parameterization process selects for locations dominated by Msnaom. However, if I understand Figure 3 correctly, this subset excludes a very large fraction of the surface from the calculation, and I'm unclear on the intent and consequences of this when the resulting parameterizations are applied over areas that were excluded from fitting. Is the resulting parameterization only subsequently applied to the SNA+OM fraction of particulate mass? How is this combined with other aerosol species in terms of radiative properties in the bulk simulation? The description of this process in 3.3 does not adequately cover some of these details.
- I have some concerns over the presentation of Figure 4. First, the chosen color scheme strikes me as somewhat odd, as it uses a diverging bar centered in very light hues at around 110 nm. This creates some (potentially unintended?) artifacts in the perception of differences between values near the center vs differences at the extremes of the displayed size range. Unless there is a compelling reason to use a diverging scheme centered at 110, I would recommend a more balanced sequential scheme. Based on the text description, it also appears that the colorbar is saturated fairly aggressively, potentially washing out model differences at the extremes. This presentation choice should be more clearly described, and the behavior outside of the saturated bounds should be discussed as needed.
- Finally, while I recognize this parameterization as a potentially valuable addition over current defaults used in bulk aerosol schemes, I couldn't help but wonder about how the chosen parameter covariates relate to the overall mass distribution, rather than just the resulting Reff. While a full examination of this may be unnecessary and out of scope, it would be helpful to have some context regarding the size distributions shifts surrounding the Reff differences associated with SNA+OM and OM/SNA. Are the changes in Reff mostly driven by shifts in the heavy tail? Are the mean changes more proportionally seen across the size distribution? A little bit more info here would be very interesting, and also suggestive of possibilities for future work stemming from this manuscript.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1292-RC2 - AC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1292', Haihui Zhu, 27 Mar 2023
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
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RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1292', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Jan 2023
The comment was uploaded in the form of a supplement: https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2022/egusphere-2022-1292/egusphere-2022-1292-RC1-supplement.pdf
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1292', Anonymous Referee #2, 01 Mar 2023
Here the authors present work on the use of observations and global size-resolved model output to parameterize and improve representation of particle dry effective radius in bulk aerosol simulations. Data from two airborne campaigns is used to fit Reff to two chosen predictive covariates: total mass of SNA and OM particulates, and OM/SNA ratio. On the whole I find this work to be an interesting, well-composed, and valuable contribution to the aerosol modeling literature, and have only a few concerns and questions for the authors before publication.
- While the bulk modeling is done on a relatively high resolution cubed-sphere grid, much of the parameterization relies on output from a much coarser 4x5 TOMAS simulation. While I recognize the computational time limitations inherent to high resolution global simulations, I'm a little concerned that important features may be completely washed out in such coarse output. It would be helpful to see a comparison between key metrics for the 4x5 run and a higher resolution alternative, even if just for a selected month or two.
- I don't see any mention of spinup time preceding analyzed model output. Please include this modeling detail in section 2.2.
- One part of the parameterization process selects for locations dominated by Msnaom. However, if I understand Figure 3 correctly, this subset excludes a very large fraction of the surface from the calculation, and I'm unclear on the intent and consequences of this when the resulting parameterizations are applied over areas that were excluded from fitting. Is the resulting parameterization only subsequently applied to the SNA+OM fraction of particulate mass? How is this combined with other aerosol species in terms of radiative properties in the bulk simulation? The description of this process in 3.3 does not adequately cover some of these details.
- I have some concerns over the presentation of Figure 4. First, the chosen color scheme strikes me as somewhat odd, as it uses a diverging bar centered in very light hues at around 110 nm. This creates some (potentially unintended?) artifacts in the perception of differences between values near the center vs differences at the extremes of the displayed size range. Unless there is a compelling reason to use a diverging scheme centered at 110, I would recommend a more balanced sequential scheme. Based on the text description, it also appears that the colorbar is saturated fairly aggressively, potentially washing out model differences at the extremes. This presentation choice should be more clearly described, and the behavior outside of the saturated bounds should be discussed as needed.
- Finally, while I recognize this parameterization as a potentially valuable addition over current defaults used in bulk aerosol schemes, I couldn't help but wonder about how the chosen parameter covariates relate to the overall mass distribution, rather than just the resulting Reff. While a full examination of this may be unnecessary and out of scope, it would be helpful to have some context regarding the size distributions shifts surrounding the Reff differences associated with SNA+OM and OM/SNA. Are the changes in Reff mostly driven by shifts in the heavy tail? Are the mean changes more proportionally seen across the size distribution? A little bit more info here would be very interesting, and also suggestive of possibilities for future work stemming from this manuscript.
Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1292-RC2 - AC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2022-1292', Haihui Zhu, 27 Mar 2023
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Haihui Zhu
Randall Martin
Betty Croft
Shixian Zhai
Liam Bindle
Jeffrey Pierce
Rachel Chang
Bruce Anderson
Luke Ziemba
Johnathan Hair
Richard Ferrare
Chris Hostetler
Inderjeet Singh
Deepangsu Chatterjee
Jose Jimenez
Pedro Campuzano-Jost
Benjamin Nault
Jack Dibb
Joshua Schwarz
Andrew Weinheimer
The requested preprint has a corresponding peer-reviewed final revised paper. You are encouraged to refer to the final revised version.
- Preprint
(3427 KB) - Metadata XML