Martini, Matus and Dale Allen, University of
Maryland, College Park, MD, Kenneth Pickering, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, Amanda
Hansen, SAIC, Barry Baker, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Global chemistry climate
models include the coupling of ozone with radiation. In this study, we
investigate the chemistry-radiation feedback of ozone on a regional scale by
allowing two-way interaction between chemistry transport and radiation. This study
employs the following new approaches: 1. WRF-Chem simulations are driven by
NASAÕs MERRA reanalysis. 2. Initial and boundary conditions for chemical
species are taken from NASAÕs global chemical transport model GMI with combined
stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry (two separate simulations of GMI, also
driven by MERRA, with and without lightning-NO emissions). 3. We use the most
recent segment altitude distributions of VHF sources from the Northern Alabama
Lightning Mapping Array to best represent the vertical distribution of
lightning-NO. 4. We use a look up table that utilizes convective precipitation
and mixed phase depth to estimate total flash rates over the continental United
States (CONUS). 5. We include interactive ozone in longwave and shortwave
radiation schemes. We conduct four sensitivity simulations over the CONUS, two
with lightning-NO and two without, each two with interactive and
non-interactive ozone. The WRF-Chem simulations are compared to ozonesonde,
satellite (OMI, TES) and ground-based observations (CASTNET, AQS). The goal of
the simulations is to determine whether adding lightning-NO emissions requires
coupling of ozone with radiation in WRF-Chem.