Abstract
The present study evaluates the aerosol optical property computing performance of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM4) which is interactively coupled with anthropogenic-desert dust schemes, in South Africa. The validation was carried out by comparing RegCM4 estimated: aerosol extinction coefficient profile, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), and Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) with AERONET, LIDAR, and MISR observations. The results showed that the magnitudes of simulated AOD at the Skukuza station (24°S, 31°E) are within the standard deviation of AERONET and ±25% of MISR observations. Within the latitudinal range of 26.5°S to 24.5°S, simulated AOD and SSA values are within the standard deviation of MISR retrievals. However, within the latitude range of 33.5°S to 27°S, the model exhibited enhanced AOD and SSA values when compared with MISR observations. This is primarily associated with the dry bias in simulated precipitation that leads to the overestimation of dust emission and underestimation of aerosol wet deposition. With respect to LIDAR, the model performed well in capturing the major aerosol extinction profiles. Overall, the results showed that RegCM4 has a good ability in reproducing the major observational features of aerosol optical fields over the area of interest.
Highlights
Atmospheric aerosols which originate from different natural events and human activities such as combustion of biomass and fossil fuels, as well as various industrial processes are ubiquitous in the Earth’s atmosphere [1]
We present the RegCM4-aerosol model’s estimated aerosol optical field evaluation results, over South Africa
One of the important factors that propagate a bias in simulated aerosol concentration in model predicted aerosol optical fields is the model’s insufficiency in simulating meteorological fields
Summary
Atmospheric aerosols which originate from different natural events (e.g., wind-blown dust and sea salt particles) and human activities such as combustion of biomass and fossil fuels, as well as various industrial processes (e.g., sulfates, nitrates, ammonium, and carbonaceous aerosols) are ubiquitous in the Earth’s atmosphere [1]. Relative to the well mixed and long-lived greenhouse gases, one of the main typical properties of atmospheric aerosols is their immense diversity, with respect to their physicochemical and optical properties, and with regards to their spatial and temporal distributions (e.g., [2]). This is attributed to their diverse local source mechanisms, rapid aging, and chemical transformation processes, as well as short lifetime [3].
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