Abstract: Coupled Impact of Changing Emissions and Meteorology on Air Quality Inferred from Remote Sensing Observations and Model Simulations (2014 AGU Fall Meeting)

Coupled Impact of Changing Emissions and Meteorology on Air Quality Inferred from Remote Sensing Observations and Model Simulations

Xueling Liu¹, Lukas C Valin^1,2, Sally Pusede^1,3 and Ronald C Cohen⁴, (1)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, (2)Lamont -Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, United States, (3)University of Virginia, Environmental Sciences, Charlottesville, VA, United States, (4)University of California, Berkeley, Department of Chemistry, Berkeley, United States

Abstract:

Urban air quality strongly depends on local emissions and meteorological variables. Observations usually are unable to separately quantify the effects of these two processes. We describe a case study of Denver Colorado. We present a method to infer the sensitivity of OH to water vapor mixing ratio using the summertime NO₂ column observations combined with the nonlinear relationship between NO₂ molecules and OH radicals. A doubling in the water vapor leads to an increase in average OH concentration and a decrease of NO₂ lifetime in low winds. The WRF-Chem model has been used to simulate summertime atmospheric composition and deduce the mechanisms of the variation observed from space based instruments.

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