Identification

Title

Comparison of aerosol chemistry transport model simulations with lidar and Sun photometer observations at a site near Paris

Abstract

The ability of the aerosol chemistry transport model CHIMERE to simulate the vertical aerosol concentration profiles at a site near the city of Paris is evaluated using routine elastic backscatter lidar and Sun photometer measurements. The comparisons of model aerosols with measurements are carried out over a full year time period between October 2002 and September 2003. The methodology we propose here is new: From the model concentration outputs ( optical properties varying with chemical composition and mass vertical distribution) we simulate the lidar backscattering profiles and compare them with the observed ones. The comparisons demonstrate the ability of the model to reproduce correctly the aerosol vertical distributions and their temporal variability. However, the aerosol load within the boundary layer is generally underestimated by the model, in particular during the afternoon hours and the summertime period. Several sensitivity tests indicate that this underestimation may have two origins: the lack of secondary organic and, to a lesser extent, mineral aerosols inside the model. The second deficiency is due to the absence of erosion/resuspension of soil material in the primary aerosol sources considered here; the first deficiency is probably due to incomplete knowledge about the formation of organic species in a photochemically active atmosphere. The results also show that the particles ranging from 0.08 to 1.25 mum in radius represent more than 89% of the volume backscattering at 532 nm, while the coarse particles are not efficient in terms of optical properties. The missing aerosol mass must therefore be found within the accumulation mode.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d72f7p4z

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2004-12-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact