Comment on “Simulation of Surface Ozone Pollution in the Central Gulf Coast Region Using WRF/Chem Model: Sensitivity to PBL and Land Surface Physics”

Jonathan E Pleim

doi:10.1155/2011/464753

Abstract

A recently published meteorology and air quality modeling study has several serious deficiencies deserving comment. The study uses the weather research and forecasting/chemistry (WRF/Chem) model to compare and evaluate boundary layer and land surface modeling options. The most serious of the study's deficiencies is reporting WRF/Chem results for both meteorological and chemical quantities using the asymmetric convective model version 2 (ACM2). While the ACM2 is a valid model option for WRF, it has not yet been implemented for the chemical portion of the WRF/Chem model. Hence, the reported air quality modeling results using ACM2 are invalid. Furthermore, publication of these results gives the erroneous impression that the ACM2 model is not well suited for air quality applications when, in fact, it is the default boundary layer model in the community multiscale air quality (CMAQ) model.

Highlights

Yerramilli et al [1] describe a modeling study using the weather research and forecasting/chemistry (WRF/Chem) model to study the sensitivity of meteorology and air quality modeling results to various combinations of planetary boundary layer (PBL) and land surface models (LSMs)
One of the PBL options used for their WRF/Chem model simulations was the asymmetric convective model version 2 (ACM2) [2, 3] which has not been implemented for use with the chemical part of the WRF/Chem model
WRF/Chem results using the ACM2 were compared to model simulations using the Yonsei University PBL model (YSU) [4] and the Mellor-Yamada-Janjic TKE model (MYJ) [5]

Summary

Introduction

Yerramilli et al [1] describe a modeling study using the weather research and forecasting/chemistry (WRF/Chem) model to study the sensitivity of meteorology and air quality modeling results to various combinations of planetary boundary layer (PBL) and land surface models (LSMs). The results shown for modeled O3 and NO2 concentrations using the ACM2 PBL scheme are invalid. WRF/Chem results using the ACM2 were compared to model simulations using the Yonsei University PBL model (YSU) [4] and the Mellor-Yamada-Janjic TKE model (MYJ) [5].

Results

Conclusion