Articles | Volume 15, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10581-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10581-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article |
|
25 Sep 2015
Use of North American and European air quality networks to evaluate global chemistry–climate modeling of surface ozone
J. L. Schnell ,
M. J. Prather,
B. Josse,
V. Naik,
L. W. Horowitz,
P. Cameron-Smith,
D. Bergmann,
G. Zeng,
D. A. Plummer,
K. Sudo,
T. Nagashima,
D. T. Shindell,
G. Faluvegi, and
S. A. Strode
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
GAME/CNRM, Météo-France, CNRS – Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques, Toulouse, France
UCAR/NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Princeton, NJ, USA
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Princeton, NJ, USA
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Lauder, New Zealand
Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling and Analysis, Environment Canada, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
Department of Environmental Geochemical Cycle Research, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama, Japan
Center for Regional Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan
Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Columbia Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD, USA
Abstract. We test the current generation of global chemistry–climate models in their ability to simulate observed, present-day surface ozone. Models are evaluated against hourly surface ozone from 4217 stations in North America and Europe that are averaged over 1° ×ばつ 1° grid cells, allowing commensurate model–measurement comparison. Models are generally biased high during all hours of the day and in all regions. Most models simulate the shape of regional summertime diurnal and annual cycles well, correctly matching the timing of hourly (~ 15:00 local time (LT)) and monthly (mid-June) peak surface ozone abundance. The amplitude of these cycles is less successfully matched. The observed summertime diurnal range (~ 25 ppb) is underestimated in all regions by about 7 ppb, and the observed seasonal range (~ 21 ppb) is underestimated by about 5 ppb except in the most polluted regions, where it is overestimated by about 5 ppb. The models generally match the pattern of the observed summertime ozone enhancement, but they overestimate its magnitude in most regions. Most models capture the observed distribution of extreme episode sizes, correctly showing that about 80 % of individual extreme events occur in large-scale, multi-day episodes of more than 100 grid cells. The models also match the observed linear relationship between episode size and a measure of episode intensity, which shows increases in ozone abundance by up to 6 ppb for larger-sized episodes. We conclude that the skill of the models evaluated here provides confidence in their projections of future surface ozone.
How to cite. Schnell, J. L., Prather, M. J., Josse, B., Naik, V., Horowitz, L. W., Cameron-Smith, P., Bergmann, D., Zeng, G., Plummer, D. A., Sudo, K., Nagashima, T., Shindell, D. T., Faluvegi, G., and Strode, S. A.: Use of North American and European air quality networks to evaluate global chemistry–climate modeling of surface ozone, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 10581–10596, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10581-2015, 2015.
Received: 16 Feb 2015 – Discussion started: 16 Apr 2015 – Revised: 09 Sep 2015 – Accepted: 09 Sep 2015 – Published: 25 Sep 2015