04/01/2014

Integrated Meteorology and Chemistry Modeling Workshop Summary

Summary

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) researchers, including scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, participated in a 2012 Workshop on Integrated Meteorology and Chemistry Modeling. A summary describing the workshop events and outcomes has been published. The workshop was organized by the U.S. Envi­ronmental Protection Agency, with support from DOE and the European Framework for Online Integrated Air Quality and Meteorology Modeling. The workshop brought together 40 key scientists from North America and Europe involved in the development and evaluation of regional-scale coupled meteorology and chemistry models. They identified improved modeling tech­niques for cloud-aerosol-radiation processes and interactions across all scales as a key gap in need of further research. Other important discussion topics included cloud-resolving models that explicitly integrate cloud dynamics, cloud and aerosol microphysics, and chemical process studies that advance the understanding and development of improved parameterizations. Modeled water vapor biases were identified as an old, but persistent issue that may be improved by better surface flux and planetary boundary layer modeling techniques. Improvements in model representation of scavenging and wet removal of gases and aerosols also were identified as an important modeling gap. A recent book, “Integrated Systems of Meso-Meteorological and Chemical Transport Models,” also was published that describes issues associated with the workshop’s motivation, as well as DOE’s contributions to integrated meteorology and chemistry modeling.

References

Pleim, J., R. Mathur, S. T. Rao, J. D. Fast, and A. Baklanov. 2014. “Integrated Meteorology and Chemistry Modeling: Evaluation and Research Needs,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 95, ES81-ES84. DOI: 10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00107.1.