AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Simulation of Air Pollution and Its Meteorological Feedbacks in Africa
PENGFEI WANG, Hao Guo, Yuan Wang, Peng Wang, Qi Ying, Hongliang Zhang, Louisiana State University
Abstract Number: 113 Working Group: Aerosols, Clouds and Climate
Abstract In recent years, air pollution problems happened globally, especially where has a large population and rapid economic development resulting in large anthropogenic emission. Africa is now under this circumstance yet studies on air pollution are limited particularly of the whole continent. In this study, simulation of air pollutants like particulate matter and ozone over the whole continent of Africa at 36-km grid resolution was conducted for dry and rainy season in the year of 2015 by using Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF/chem). Model performance will be validated by comparing meteorological observations and air pollutants. By comparing the prediction results generated by WRF/chem model with the observation results from the NASA earth science data such as Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Aerosol Robotic Net- work (AERONET) aerosol optical depth (AOD) products, the performance of WRF/chem model will be validated. The seasonal and spatial variation in concentrations of pollutants including particulate matter and ozone will be analyzed and associated with meteorological changes like temperature, wind, precipitation, mixing layer height, and relative humanity. The impact of the direct effect of aerosol particles on radiation and the indirect aerosol effect on meteorological variables and subsequent distributions of particulate matter and ozone will also be investigated. The differences between meteorological feedbacks during dry and rainy seasons will be compared. This study would provide information for evaluating WRF/chem model performance and meteorological feedbacks for Africa and the basis for future source apportionment and health-related studies.