Identification

Title

Evaluation of CMIP6 model simulations of PM 2.5 and its components over China

Abstract

Earth system models (ESMs) participating in the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) simulate various components of fine particulate matter ( PM2.5 ) as major climate forcers. Yet the model performance for PM2.5 components remains little evaluated due in part to a lack of observational data. Here, we evaluate near-surface concentrations of PM2.5 and its five main components over China as simulated by 14 CMIP6 models, including organic carbon (OC; available in 14 models), black carbon (BC; 14 models), sulfate (14 models), nitrate (4 models), and ammonium (5 models). For this purpose, we collect observational data between 2000 and 2014 from a satellite-based dataset for total PM2.5 and from 2469 measurement records in the literature for PM2.5 components. Seven models output total PM2.5 concentrations, and they all underestimate the observed total PM2.5 over eastern China, with GFDL-ESM4 ( - 1.5 %) and MPI-ESM-1-2-HAM ( - 1.1 %) exhibiting the smallest biases averaged over the whole country. The other seven models, for which we recalculate total PM2.5 from the available component output, underestimate the total PM2.5 concentrations partly because of the missing model representations of nitrate and ammonium. Concentrations of the five individual components are underestimated in almost all models, except that sulfate is overestimated in MPI-ESM-1-2-HAM by 12.6 % and in MRI-ESM2-0 by 24.5 %. The underestimation is the largest for OC (by - 71.2 % to - 37.8 % across the 14 models) and the smallest for BC ( - 47.9 % to - 12.1 %). The multi-model mean (MMM) reproduces the observed spatial pattern for OC ( R = 0.51), sulfate ( R = 0.57), nitrate ( R = 0.70) and ammonium ( R = 0.74) fairly well, yet the agreement is poorer for BC ( R = 0.39). The varying performances of ESMs on total PM2.5 and its components have important implications for the modeled magnitude and spatial pattern of aerosol radiative forcing.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7ht2tmt

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

2024-06-20T00:00:00Z

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