Effect of Global Atmospheric Datasets in Modeling Meteorology and Air Quality in the Andean Region of Ecuador

Abstract

Several components such as initial (IC) and boundary conditions (BC), generated from global atmospheric datasets for studies at the regional and mesoscale levels, play a role in numerical modeling. The analysis datasets include operationally available observations during the time of global meteorology forecast whereas reanalysis products, though available later, include more observations. Thus, it is expected that the IC and BC generated by reanalysis will be of higher quality, thereby improving the modeling results. To generate the IC and BC of a domain with a high spatial resolution (1 km) that covers the city of Cuenca, an urban area located in the Andean region of Ecuador, we employed two analysis (GFS, FNL) and three reanalysis (NCEPR2, ERA-Interim, ERA5) products. We used the Eulerian Weather Research & Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-ChemV3.2) to simulate meteorological and air quality variables. FNL and GFS were best fit for modeling both meteorological and air quality variables. Likewise, it also suggests their use in generating the IC and BC for modeling purposes in the Andean region of Ecuador. Currently, a few observations from the equatorial Andean region are incorporated into global atmospheric datasets. Furthermore, the atmospheric processes in this region are particularly complex and have been less studied. These limitations, which appear to be more prevalent for reanalysis products, have an impact on the generation, and thus the quality of the information stored by the atmospheric datasets for the equatorial Andean zone. Reanalysis products are not always the best choice for modeling in this area.