Extending ICON-ART - Comparison of Simulations with Aircraft Data in the Tropical and Extra-Tropical UTLS

Abstract:

We have extended the global ICON (ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic) modelling framework by introducing ICON-ART (Aerosols and Reactive Trace gases).
ICON (Zängl et al., 2014, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc) is jointly developed by the German Weather Service (DWD) and Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), and is used for numerical weather prediction as well as for future climate predictions.

ICON-ART (Rieger et al., 2015, Geosci. Model Dev.) is developed at the KIT with the goal to simulate interactions between trace substances and the state of the atmosphere.

For the dynamics (transport and diffusion) of gaseous tracers, the original ICON tracer framework is used. For the model physics, numerical time integration follows a process splitting approach separating physical processes. Each process is called independently via an interface module. Currently, the processes of emission, dry and wet deposition, sedimentation, and first order chemical reactions are included.

The new gas-phase chemical module within ICON-ART uses the kpp formalism (Sandu and Sander, 2006, Atmos. Chem. Phys.) and the photolysis module is based on Cloud-J 7.3 (Prather, 2015, Geosci. Model Dev.), which provides online calculation of actinic flux for a wavelength region down to 170nm, depending on the actual state of ozone, temperature, pressure, relative humidity and liquid water path, resulting in photolysis rates which are usable for the simulation of tropospheric as well as stratospheric trace gas distributions.

In this study we are presenting the comparison of photolysis rates with TORERO (Tropical Ocean tRoposphere Exchange of Reactive halogen species and Oxygenated VOC) campaign data. The TORERO flight campaign was conducted in the region of Costa Rica and Chile at the beginning of 2012.
In addition to that we are comparing results of the simulation of chemical trace gases like ozone with campaign data as well.