Simulated Transport and Mixing of Anthropogenic and Biogenic Aerosol and Their Entrainment into Clouds during the Goamazon Campaign

Abstract:

Several recent studies have suggested that anthropogenic emissions enhance the production of biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Because Manaus, Brazil is an isolated large city within the Amazon rainforest, measurements collected within and outside of the downwind urban plume during the 2014 Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon) campaign (supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation and Measurement program) will provide valuable information needed by regional and global models to evaluate parameterizations of SOA. The isolated urban plume should also provide distinct patterns of mixing with biogenic emissions and eliminate complications of multiple anthropogenic sources found in most other regions of the world. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of preliminary simulations of the transport, mixing, and chemical evolution of the Manaus urban plume from the chemistry version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-Chem) using the available surface and aircraft measurements collected during the first intensive observation period (IOP) of GoAmazon. Simulations are performed using both a 10 km or 2 km grid spacing as well as a newly developed treatment that couples a sectional aerosol model and its parameterization of SOA using a volatility basis set approach with resolved clouds and a sub-grid scale cloud parameterization. Since the first IOP of GoAmazon was conducted during the wet season, shallow and deep convection were observed on most days and likely impacts the transport and vertical mixing of the Manaus plume. Therefore, we are using the available field campaign cloud measurements to evaluate the impact of sub-grid scale clouds on the horizontal and vertical distribution of aerosols. Satellite data is also used to assess the regional variability in simulated clouds and precipitation. Analyses of the simulations during the first IOP will be presented. Simulations with and without anthropogenic emissions will be compared with each other and with measurements to assess how well the current model treatment of SOA represents the observed evolution of organic aerosol within the mixed anthropogenic-biogenic plume downwind of Manaus and biogenic SOA over the pristine environment.